The Dunciad Glossary

Jove

proper n. Jupiter, Roman god

curst

adj. cursed

dunce

n. an idiot, a fool

ere

preposition. before

dotage

n. senility, weakness due to old age

laborious

adj. hard-working

Bœotia

proper n. region in Ancient Greece

elegiac

adj. sad, mourning, sorrowful

sepulchral

adj. dark, gloomy, cheerless

motley

adj. spotted, mixed, diverse

hoary

adj. white or grey (because of age), though also very old, ancient

tinsel'd

adj. decorated

coxcomb

n. a dandy, a snobbish fool

periwig

n. old word for 'wig'

Stationer

n. member of the Stationer's Company, the guild which came to be the governing body that oversaw almost all printing and bookselling in early modern England; also printers and booksellers more broadly

dabchick

n. a small grebe, or freshwater diving bird

cate

n. a choice food or delicacy

ambrosia

n. the food of the gods; something very pleasant to taste or smell

effluvia

n. an unpleasant or harmful odor, secretion, or discharge

welkin

n. the sky or heaven

mien

n. a person's look or manner, especially one of a particular kind indicating their character or mood

nutation

n. a periodic variation in the inclination of the axis of a rotating object

slipshod

adj. (typically of a person or method of work) characterized by a lack of care, thought, or organization

sable

n. a marten (a genus of small mammals) with a short tail and dark brown fur, native to Japan and Siberia and valued for its fur; also, the fur of a marten

sarsenet

n. a fine, soft silk fabric, used as a lining material and in dressmaking

chromatic

adj.

1. 1.
   MUSIC
   relating to or using notes not belonging to the diatonic scale of the key in which a passage is written.
   • (of a scale) ascending or descending by semitones.
   • (of an instrument) able to play all the notes of the chromatic scale.

     "the master of the chromatic harmonica"
2. 2.
   relating to or produced by color.

Saturnian

1. relating to the planet Saturn.
2. another term for saturnine, or (of a person or their manner) slow and gloomy, dark in coloring and moody or mysterious

ductile

adj.

(of a metal) able to be drawn out into a thin wire. In extended usage, something able to be deformed without losing toughness; pliable, not brittle.

hecatomb

n. (in ancient Greece or Rome) a great public sacrifice, originally of a hundred oxen

an extensive loss of life for some cause.

clime

n. a region considered with reference to its climate

jake

n. an outhouse