That would be correct. I've usually seen it as something like "Dunned relentlessly by his creditors, he skipped town and joined the Foreign Legion."
The thing I was reading was from 1999. I googled the word and it seems to be pretty common within the context of debt collection.
latten /ˈlat(ə)n/ noun HISTORICAL an alloy of copper and zinc resembling brass, hammered into thin sheets and used to make monumental brasses and church ornaments. Courtesy of Glen Cook's Garrett PI series.
Presently reading a book which requires a dictionary for me to help understand quite a few words...blatherskites... circumlocution...they were from one paragraph alone.
Hmm, "circumlocution" is a professional term for me. It's used in the sense of finding a different way to explain a word you don't know. "Blatherskites" on the other hand.... <runs and grabs a dictionary> <then a mirror> Dammit!
bowdlerized - adjective (of a text or account) having had material considered improper or offensive removed. Not sure where I came across this...
Nemophilist (pronounced ne-'mo-fe-list) It means someone with a love or fondness for forests, woods, or woodland scenery, or someone who often visits them – a 'haunter' of woods
Influencer, as in social media influencer. Museum director called to say two influencers were going to be visiting and wanted a tour. What's an influencer, beyond the obvious dictionary definition? I asked. Explanation ensued. Huh. Who'd a thunk it?
Avoid Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future then. I hated it with the fire of a thousand almost-dead Bic lighters.
It can be, but this one wasn't. Paolo Bacigalupi writes some really good biopunk/cli-fi stuff. The Windup Girl won the Hugo (back when that award had some cred).
It's set during and about climate disasters. MFtF started off with an extreme heat event in India where survival became impossible for humans on the surface. Temporary heat wave, but it killed 20million people in one area IIRC. Then it went on to the creation of a UN level climate control board, its efforts to be taken seriously, the issues of displaced persons migrating to avoid weather extremes, NGO and terrorist actions to fight climate change, etc. Climate is the driving background issue the way the Civil War was the driving background issue of Gone with the Wind, for example.
any subject for a novel can be good but I think I'd rather read about starships and alien civilizations
Huh, weird. I guess J G Ballard was doing cli-fi in the 60's then with his series comprised of The Burning World, The Drowned World, The Crystal World, and The Wind From Nowhere. Doubtless a few more of his would fit in too.
Palaver noun HISTORICAL an improvised conference between two groups, typically those without a shared language or culture.
Murmuration refers to the phenomenon that results when hundreds, sometimes thousands, of starlings fly in swooping, intricately coordinated patterns through the sky. Personally I think they're the three-dimensional shadows cast by four-dimensional elder gods striding the spheres.
Hanger noun The hanger is a short sword issued to infantrymen in the 17th and 18th centuries. With a blade measuring approximately 25 inches, the hanger was intended to serve as a secondary weapon to the infantryman's musket. I have a feeling, however, that it also found use in more mundane roles such as clearing brush and cutting meat for the cook pot. Definition/Description taken from the following blog: http://abitofhisory.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-english-hanger.html
