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portiere --"a curtain or piece of drapery hung across a doorway."

"The table covers, curtains, and portieres were of blue jean worked in outline embroidery...."

from Polly Oliver's Problem: A Story For Girls by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Monegasque -- "A native or inhabitant of Monaco."

"But on that consciousness, in the place where at six o'clock there had been, together with the impossibility of forming any idea of the manager, the Grand Hotel or its staff, a vague and timorous anticipation of the moment at which I should reach my destination, were to be found now the pustules excised from the face of the cosmopolitan manager (he was, in fact, a naturalised Monegasque, although -- as he himself put it, for he was always using expressions which he thought distinguished without noticing that they were incorrect -- "of Rumanian originality"), his action in ringing for the lift, the lift-boy himself, a whole frieze of puppet-show characters issuing from that Pandora's box which was the Grand Hotel, undeniable, irremovable, and, like everthing that is realised, jejune."
-- Marcel Proust, Within A Budding Grove

sinople -- "A color of some shade of red. A kind of red earth used as a pigment (originally one brought to Greece from Sinope in Paphlagonia)."

" . . . vast territories in the North, powerful cities in the South, assembled there to group themselves in Guermantes, and, losing their material quality, to inscribe allegorically their sinople keep or castle triple-towered argent upon its azure field."
-- Marcel Proust, The Guermantes Way

anfractuosity -- "Sinuosity, circuitousness; usually concretely in plural winding or tortuous crevices, channels, passages."

"Within the boundaries of their domain, however, the radiant daughters of the sea were constantly turning round to smile up at the bearded tritons who clung to the anfractuosities of the cliff, or towards some aquatic demi-god whose skull was a polished stone on to which the tide had washed a smooth covering of seaweed, and his gaze a disc of rock crystal."
-- Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain

aigrette -- "A tuft of feathers such as that borne by the Egret and some other birds; a spray of gems, or similar ornament, worn on the head."

"Instead of the wonderful downy plumage which descended from the crown of the Princess's head to her throat, instead of her net of shells and pearls, the Duchess wore in her hair only a simple aigrette which, surmounting her arched nose and prominent eyes, reminded one of the crest on the head of a bird."
-- Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain

stertorous - characterized by a harsh snoring or gasping sound

"I shouted again, despairingly, but he was inert, his chin resting on my shoulder, his breathing stertorous in my ear." All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

agape -- "A 'love-feast' held by the early Christians in connection with the Lord's Supper."

"Hence, if he never left the train without saying to me: "When is our next little reunion?", it was not only with the avidity of a parasite but with the relish of a scholar, and because he regarded our Balbec agapes as an opportunity for talking about subjects which were precious to him and of which he was never able to talk to anyone else, and in that sense analogous to those dinners at which the Society of Bibliophiles assembles on certain specified dates round the particularly succulent board of the Union Club."
-- Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain

morganatic -- "The distinctive epithet of that kind of marriage by which a man of exalted rank takes to wife a woman of lower station, with the provision that she remains in her former rank, and that the issue of the marriage have no claim to succeed to the possessions or dignities of their father; also, occasionally, used to designate the marriage, under similar conditions, of a woman of exalted rank to a man of inferior station."

"Like a private secretary conveying his minister's apologies, like a morganatic wife expressing the Prince's regret that he is unwell (as Mme de Clinchamp used to do on behalf of the Duc d'Aumale), Morel said in the airiest of tones: "The Baron can't come.""
-- Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain

chignon -- "A large coil or hump of hair, usually folded round a pad, which has, at various times (e.g., c. 1780, c. 1870), been worn by women on the nape of the neck or back of the head."

"Just before we reached Douville, Albertine, taking out her mirror for the last time, would sometimes deem it necessary to change her gloves or take off her hat for a moment, and, with the tortoiseshell comb which I had given her and which she wore in her hair, to smooth out the knots, to fluff up the curls, and if necessary, over the waves which descended in regular valleys to the nape of her neck, to push up her chignon."
-- Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain

cartulary -- "A place where papers or records are kept; whence the whole collection of records (belonging to a monastery, etc.); or the book in which they are entered; a register."

""You would find it prouder still," Brichot replied, "if, instead of its French or even its Low Latin form, as we find it in the Cartulary of the Bishop of Bayeux, Marcouvilla superba, you were to take the older form, more akin to the Norman, Marculphivilla superba, the village, the domain of Merculph.""
-- Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain

purdah

1. A curtain or screen, used mainly in India to keep women separate from men or strangers.
2. The Hindu or Muslim system of sex segregation, practiced especially by keeping women in seclusion.
3. Social seclusion.

"A single word, a phrase, a sentence or two could have such extraordinary power; could end a world, break a heart or, as in this case, consign another moral purdah."

~from McCall Smith's The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds

Reading the translation of Descartes' Letter to Father Dinet by Haldane and Ross in The Philosophical Works Of Descartes Volume II, I came across this sentence: "It may be asked whether this mode of philosophising which is in the habit of reducing everything to one active principle, i.e. the substantial form, is not merely worthy of being rated as that of a Choraebus." There is a footnote to the effect "A foolish man who tries to count the waves."
I have been unable to find choraebus in any of my dictionaries. Even Google draws a blank.

ptisan -- "A palatable decoction of nourishing and slightly medicinal quality; originally a drink made of barley, barley-water (simple or with admixture of other ingredients); now often applied more widely."
hydromel -- "A liquor consisting of a mixture of honey and water, which when fermented is called vinous hydromel or mead."

"For, if one names the juice of ptisan, and such and such a wine, and hydromel, the vulgar fancy that he prescribes exactly the same things as the physicians do, both the good and the bad, but in these matters there is a great difference between them."
-- Hippocrates, On Regimen in Acute Diseases from The Genuine Works of Hippocrates translated by Francis Adams

funicular --"pertaining to or operated by a cord, as, a funicular railway, a cable railway on a mountain."

"The town has built a funicular railway up the steep slope, with a grand opening last week."

--from "Funicular Fare," by Rayne Hall

lantern jaw --"(from resemblance to the early lantern with long sides of thin, concave horn) long thin jaws, with sunken cheeks, that give the face a lean, gaunt appearance."

"Snag Driscoll was a beefy lantern-jawed specimen, fortyish, with squinted eyes set under a heavy ledge of brows."

--from Avenging Angels: Sinners' Gold, by A.W. Hart

kommation -- "A lament in Greek tragedy sung in parts alternating between chief actor and chorus."

epirrhema -- "An address usually about public affairs spoken by the coryphaeus after the parabasis in old Greek comedy."

In Aristophanes: The Birds these are terms Fitts uses in marginal notes to characterize passages in the play's first parabasis.

indurate --"to make hard, harden."

"There was a wide margin of grass along here, and Gabriel's footsteps were deadened by its softness, even at this indurating period of the year."

--from Far From the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy

collodion --"A solution of pyroxylin in ether and alcohol, used to make a protective coating over a wound or a photographic film."

"The great furrows which the cat's claws had ploughed up in his face he had filled with collodion, and a rag hid the wound in his throat."

--from "The Repairer of Reputations," by Robert W. Chambers

voluntary --"A musical prelude, esp. an organ solo."

"There was a little scraping and rustling while the congregation seated itself again; the preacher mounted the pulpit stairs, and the organ voluntary ceased."

--from "In the Court of the Dragon," by Robert W. Chambers

mash --(slang), noun, "The condition of being enamored;" verb, "to cause to become enamored; to flirt."

"I made a mash."

--from "The Yellow Sign," by Robert W. Chambers

metensomatosis -- Re-embodiment of the soul.
habitacle -- A dwelling-place, habitation.

"Firstly, there is the entry -- metensomatosis -- of a soul present in body by change from one (wholly material) frame to another, or the entry -- not known as metensomatosis, since the nature of the early habitacle is not certainly definable -- of a soul leaving an aerial or fiery body for one of earth."
-- Plotinus, The Enneads trans. Stephen MacKenna

pompadour --"A style of dressing a woman's hair by drawing it straight back from the front and elevating it with a roll."

"A brown pompadour ten feet away had been using her eyes and ears."

--from "The Trimmed Lamp," by O. Henry

umbrageous --"Shady, shaded."

"By night a brief excursion to the nearby roofs is in order; but during the torrid day one remains in the umbrageous fastnesses of the Lotus as a trout hangs poised in the pellucid sanctuaries of his favorite pool."

--from "Transients in Arcadia," by O. Henry

emprize --"Adventure, enterprise, adventurousness."

enchase --To inlay or encase in a setting, as a gem; to embellish with chased work."

won --To dwell, abide (in Old and Middle English)."

"My ardours for emprize nigh lost
Since Life has bared its bones to me,
I shrink to seek a modern coast
Whose riper times have yet to be....

For, wonning in these ancient lands,
Enchased and lettered as a tomb...

I trace the lives such scenes enshrine,
Give past exemplars present room.
And their experience count as mine."

--from "On an Invitation to the United States," by Thomas Hardy

tonneau --"The rounded rear section of some automobiles." (That's from a dictionary published in 1947, so the automobiles envisioned would be older types.)

"Pepper Junior was driving, and Leo hailed me from the tonneau."

--from The Case of the Late Pig, by Margery Allingham.

Werner wrote: "tonneau --"The rounded rear section of some automobiles." (That's from a dictionary published in 1947, so the automobiles envisioned would be older types.)

"Pepper Junior was driving, and Leo hail..."

Werner, that must be where the term for a truck part called "tonneau cover" comes from. My husband bought one just a few years back for his pick-up, and I always wondered why it was called 'tonneau' instead of something else.

Glad I could clear up that mystery, Laura!