Today's words, with a twisted one

couloir \kool-WAHR\ - a steep mountainside gorge

A new word for me. Funny: "French for 'cold, narrow place to die.'" Am pretty sure I'll never ski one of these.

lanuginous \la-NEW-gi-nus, -NYEW-\ - covered with down or fine, soft hair

I might have heard this word from today's Dictionary Devil puzzle before.

excrescent \ex-CREH-suhnt\ - 1. forming an abnormal, excessive, or useless outgrowth  2. of, relating to, or constituting epenthesis

Perhaps this one, too, also from the DD puzzle, which nonetheless drove me to look up the final word in its second definition.

epenthesis \ih-PEN(T)-thuh-suhs, eh-\ (plural -ses, as expected) - the insertion or development of a sound or letter in the body of a word (as \uh\ in \ATH-uh-leet\ athlete)

I know I've heard this one before, as I recognize it from its definition, but I can never recognize it when I see it outside of context or recall it on those rare occasions when I have cause to refer to it.

Finally, today's familiar WOTD (musket, for future reference without clicking through) has an interesting etymology of which I was unaware. For me, it also carries with it the almost nostalgic echo of the crude slang usage of which my (eventual) stepfather was fond. That sense of nostalgia is part of the twisted legacy that sexual abuse leaves. I loved him, dammit. The difference he made in my life was huge, and I miss the relationship I thought I had with him before that first weekend trip, with that first night at the Y in NYC, even though I now understand that it was about the abuse for him long before his explicitly abusive actions started. It's a powerful indication of my emotional dependence on him that I was willing to pay such a steep price for his continued attention.