In his new book on the Vikings, Neil Price uses some words that I didn't know. Some old, some new.
"Haptic" — relating to the sense of touch. A "byre" is farmhouse in which humans live in contact with livestock. A "volute" is a spiral or scroll-like ornament. An "allodium" is land held absolutely and not subject to feudal duties or burdens. A "skald" is a Norse poet. "Theophoric" refers to words, often place names, that embed the name of a god or goddess. "Futhark" is an early or older form of the runic alphabet. A "quern" is a simple mill for grinding grain and consists of two stones, one on top of the other. A "dirham" is an Ottoman coin; the word derives from the Greek drachma. "Tephra" is fragmental material produced by volcanic eruption. A "sigil" is a symbol used in ritual magic. "Lamellar" is the adjectival form of "lamella," which is a thin flat overlapping scale, in this case used to describe a kind of leather armor. A "hydrarchy" refers to the rule of a piece of land from shipboard, and also to "a pseudogovernmental system of law between pirates at sea." "Emic," a fire-new word, describes the analysis of a culture from the perspective of a member of that culture. And my favorite (how could I not have encountered this word before?) — an "ogonek" is a diacritical hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel.
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