Today's words

condottiere /ˌkän-də-ˈtyer-ē , ˌkän-ˌdä-tē-ˈer-/ - 1. a leader of a band of mercenaries common in Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries; also : a member of such a band  2. a mercenary soldier

I encountered this one in the Note associated with the etymology of bomb, and I think it's a great addition to my vocabulary. I presume that the plural form is pronounced identically (in English).

The remainder of these are from the write-up for today's word of the day:

absquatulate /abzˈkwächəˌlāt , abˈsk-/ - 1. slang : decamp a frontiersman preparing to absquatulate and head for the wilderness  2. slang : abscond the cashier absquatulated with the funds

sockdolager (or sockdologer) /säk-ˈdä-li-jər/ - 1. something that settles a matter : a decisive blow or answer : finisher 2. something outstanding or exceptional

callithump /ˈka-lə-ˌthəmp/ - a noisy boisterous band or parade

slumgullion /ˈsləm-ˌgəl-yən , ˌsləm-ˈgəl-/ - a meat stew

These four words seem to share at least three things: 1) they're mentioned in today's writeup 2) because of their mysterious origins from similar geographical and historical roots, and 3) the mistaken sense that I had blogged on each of them previously. I'd definitely thought I'd written about all of them except asquatulate.