noblesse oblige

SHYSTER [n.]
a person, especially a lawyer, who uses unscrupulous, fraudulent, or deceptive methods in business.

e.g. "an ambulance-chasing shyster"

Etym: mid 19th century: said to be from Scheuster, the name of a lawyer whose behavior provoked accusations of ‘scheuster’ practices, perhaps reinforced by German Scheisser ‘worthless person’

Think Shylock!

MAMIHLAPINATAPAI [n.]
the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.

e.g. the look two lovers shared before a first kiss, or the look two roomates give each other about a full trash bin

Etym: consists of the reflexive/passive prefix ma- (mam- before a vowel), the root ihlapi (pronounced [iɬapi]), which means "to be at a loss as what to do next"

Note: not an english word, derived from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego

CATHOLIC /ˈkaTH(ə)lik/
[adj.]
comprehensive, universal, including a wide variety of things

e.g. His playlist on shuffle skipped from genre to genre, indeed, his taste in music was quite catholic.

Etym: from Greek katholikos universal, general

PHARISAIC /far-uh-sey-ik/
[adj.]
1. practicing or advocating strict observance of external forms and ceremonies of religion or conduct without regard to the spirit. Self-righteous; holier-than-thou; hypocritical.

eg: He lived once in the heaven of reverence, faith, and love; he has gone from it into the hell of Pharisaic scorn and contempt.

Etym: Of or pertaining to the Pharisees.

ABLAQUEATION /aˌblakwɪˈeɪʃn/
[n.]
the laying bare of the roots of a tree through the loosening or removing of soil

eg: despite the efforts of epiphytic ablaqueation, the soil remained conquered and accrescent in an inverse bloom betaken to an allusion of a rainless and avalent plume

Etym: Latin's ablaqueātiō which means loosening soil from roots

FARRAGO /fəˈräɡō,fəˈrāɡō/
[n.]
a confused mixture.

eg: "This is a rich farrago of truth, misdirection, and hand-waving."

Etym: mid 17th century: from Latin, literally ‘mixed fodder,’ from far ‘corn.’

EPIPHYTE /ˈɛpɪfʌɪt/
[n.]
a plant that grows on another plant, especially one that is not parasitic, such as the numerous ferns, bromeliads, air plants, and orchids growing on tree trunks in tropical rainforests.

eg: do you feel like an epiphyte, said the Oak, wryly to its little inhabitant

Etym: Greek's epi and phyte, meaning in addition and plant, respectively

SATURNINE /ˈsadərˌnīn/
[adj.]
(of a person or their manner) slow and gloomy.

"With Mr Heathcliff, grim and saturnine, on the one hand, and Hareton, absolutely dumb, on the other, I made a somewhat cheerless meal, and bid adieu early."

Etym: late Middle English (as a term in astrology): from Old French saturnin, from medieval Latin Saturninus ‘of Saturn’ (identified with lead by the alchemists and associated with slowness and gloom by astrologers).

QUAGMIRE ˈ/kwaɡˌmī(ə)r/
[n.]
1. a soft boggy area of land that gives way underfoot.
2. an awkward, complex, or hazardous situation, a predicament

"A novel is like a mirror going along a main road. Sometimes it reflects into your eyes the azure of the sky, sometimes the mud of the quagmires on the road."

Etym: late 16th century: from quag + mire.