Parsimonious

Excessively sparing or frugal.

Privation

(1a) Lack of the basic necessities or comforts of life.
(1b) The condition resulting from such lack.
(2) An act, condition, or result of deprivation or loss.

Limn

limned, limn·ing,
(1) To describe.
(2) To depict by painting or drawing. See Synonyms at represent.

"Let a painter carelessly limn out a million of faces, and you shall find them all different."

Hoi Polloi

The common people; the masses.

Usage Note: Hoi polloi is a borrowing of the Greek phrase hoi polloi, consisting of hoi, meaning “the” and used before a plural, and polloi, the plural of polus, “many.” In Greek hoi polloi had a special sense, “the greater number, the people, the commonalty, the masses.” This phrase has generally expressed this meaning in English since its first recorded instance, in an 1837 work by James Fenimore Cooper. Hoi polloi is sometimes incorrectly used to mean “the elite,” possibly because it is reminiscent of high and mighty or because it sounds like hoity-toity.

Plenary

(1) Complete in all respects; unlimited or full: a diplomat with plenary powers.
(2) Fully attended by all qualified members: a plenary session of the council.

Moiety

(1) A half.
(2) A part, portion, or share.
(3) Anthropology. Either of two kinship groups based on unilateral descent that together make up a tribe or society.

Terpsichorean

adj. Of or relating to dancing.

n. A dancer.

Mephitic

Of, relating to, or resembling mephitis; poisonous or foul-smelling.

Donnybrook

(1) An uproar; a free-for-all. See Synonyms at brawl.

Peccadillos

A small sin or fault. also: peccadilloes.

Platitude

(1) A trite or banal remark or statement, especially one expressed as if it were original or significant. See Synonyms at cliché.
(2) Lack of originality; triteness.

Meretricious

(1a) Attracting attention in a vulgar manner: meretricious ornamentation.
(1b) Plausible but false or insincere; specious: a meretricious argument.
(2) Of or relating to prostitutes or prostitution: meretricious relationships.

Longueur

A tedious passage in a work of literature or performing art: “longueurs and passages of meretricious vulgarity."

Epistolary

(1) Of or associated with letters or the writing of letters.
(2) Being in the form of a letter: epistolary exchanges.
(3) Carried on by or composed of letters: an epistolary friendship.

Pillory

(1) A wooden framework on a post, with holes for the head and hands, in which offenders were formerly locked to be exposed to public scorn as punishment.
(2a) To expose to public ridicule and abuse.
(2b) To put in a pillory as punishment.

Clochard

A tramp; a vagrant.

Slatternly

(1) Characteristic of or befitting a slattern (An untidy, dirty woman).
(2) Slovenly; untidy.

Prosaic

(1a) Consisting or characteristic of prose.
(1b) Matter-of-fact; straightforward.
(2) Lacking in imagination and spirit; dull.

Epicene

(1) Belonging to or having the characteristics of both the male and the female: an epicene statue.
(2) Effeminate; unmanly.
(3) Sexless; neuter.
(4) Linguistics. Having only one form of the noun for both the male and the female.

Scintilla

(1) A minute amount; an iota or trace.
(2) A spark; a flash.

Interlocutor

(1) Someone who takes part in a conversation, often formally or officially.
(2) The performer in a minstrel show who is placed midway between the end men and engages in banter with them.

Elision

(1a) Omission of a final or initial sound in pronunciation.
(1b) Omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable, as in scanning a verse.
(2) The act or an instance of omitting something.

Epigone

A second-rate imitator or follower, especially of an artist or a philosopher.

Palaver

(1) Idle chatter.
(2) Talk intended to charm or beguile.
(3) Obsolete. A parley between European explorers and representatives of local populations, especially in Africa.

Ribald

Characterized by or indulging in vulgar, lewd humor.