A few new to me words this week:

mattock, n A tool for loosening the soil, digging up and cutting roots: it is like a pickax but has a flat, adz-shaped blade on one or both sides
page 62, Light from Heaven by Jan Karon
“She had grabbed her sack and mattock and fled, bareheaded and barefoot, down the embankment.”

alb, n A loose, sleeved, full-length, gown-light linen vestment secured at the waist by a cincture and worn with other vestments as by the celebrant of Mass
page 68, Light from Heaven by Jan Karon
“He was babbling like a brook, his vestment bag still held aloft so his alb and chasuble wouldn’t drag the floor.”

chasuble, n A sleeveless outer vestment worn over the alb by priests at Mass
page 68, Light from Heaven by Jan Karon
“He was babbling like a brook, his vestment bag still held aloft so his alb and chasuble wouldn’t drag the floor.”

dotage, n Feeble and childish state due to old age, senility; a doting, foolish or excessive affection
page 95, Light from Heaven by Jan Karon
“’So, what are you up to in your dotage?’”

nostrum, n A medicine prepared by the person selling it; a patent medicine of a kind with exaggerated claims, quack medicine; a pet scheme for solving some social or political problem, panacea
page 100, Light from Heaven by Jan Karon
“’I must confess the use of yet another nostrum.’”

alluvial, adj Of, found in, or made up of sand, clay, etc., gradually deposited by moving water, as along a river bed or the shore of a lake
page 155, Light from Heaven by Jan Karon
“Besides, he wanted to watch the lambs grow up, and eat okra and tomatoes from the alluvial soil of a valley garden.”

tuits, pl n Circular objects giving owners the ability to get done everything that would have otherwise been put off to a later date
page 287, Light from Heaven by Jan Karon
“And Frank was fond of giving out round tuits; I believe I still have mine.”

thurible, n Censer, an ornamented container in which incense is burned
page 352, Light from Heaven by Jan Karon
“Indeed, the old stove would be their thurible.”

cincture, n The act of encircling or girding; anything that encircles, as a belt or girdle
page 356, Light from Heaven by Jan Karon
“Smiling, she tied his cincture, smoothed his tousled hair with her hands, and gave him an approving blast of her sapphire eyes.”

Earlier installments of this feature (more great words!).

Reviews of books cited here:
Light from Heaven by Jan Karon

What new words have you found lately?