Tatterdemalion

Where would you expect to read such words as tatterdemalion, amanuensis and gymnosophist? I expect you’ll say in some great modern literary work. If so, I expect you’ll be wrong because such words were in the first story in the anthology Hard-Boiled Detective:s 23 Great Stories from Dime Detective Magazine. The story, Hell’s Paycheck by Frederick Nebel contains all three words. And, if you’re not quite up on these highfalutin words, here are the definitions from the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Tatterdemalion: a person dressed in ragged clothing

Amanuensis: one employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript

Gymnosophist: any of a sect of ascetics in ancient India who went naked and practiced meditation

Who said the pulp mysteries of the 1920s through 1940s were poorly written? So learn a few esoteric words–read pulp mysteries.