Ten random things: July 28

Ten more words, phrases, or names used by A.S. Byatt in Possession that I had to look up the definition of (third in a series):

1. ambages (winding ways or indirect proceedings)
2. telluric (of or relating to Earth)
3. de haut en bas (of or with condescension; lit. "from top to bottom")
4. Cixous (Helene Cixous, an Algerian feminist literary scholar)
5. oolite (a rock consisting of small round grains usually of calcium carbonate cemented together)
6. araignée (a spinous spider crab)
7. fosse (a ditch or moat)
8. susurration (a whispering sound)
9. Ankou (a ghost that guards cemetries)
10. hypostasisation (the attribution of real identity to a concept)

Previous entries in this series: April 5, May 30