The Eyes of the Overworld (1966), Chapter 1

cupola (small dome) – “…an eccentric structure of steep gables, balconies, sky-walks, cupolas…”

droll (amusing) – “…long inquisitive nose and droll mouth…”

erb [word created by Vance – guardian beast] “…I must shorten the chain of the captive erb which roams the premises during the night.”

gibbet (gallows) – “…occupies the site of the old gibbet, and has absorbed unlucky essences.”

homunculus (artificially made dwarf) – “…a bottle containing a pickled homunculus.”

libram [word created by Vance] “…a particular red libram, the casebook of Dibarcas Maior…”

manse (house, dwelling) – “…Iucounu the Laughing Magician had built a manse to his private taste…”

munificent (very generous) – “I have refused munificent offers…”

periapt (charm worn on a necklace) – “…four periapts, at prices barely above the cost of the lead itself…”

pertinacious (resolute, stubborn) – “…with a disposition at once flexible and pertinacious.”

puissance [archaic] (power) – “…charms, puissances, and elixirs.”

purgative (laxative) – “…which was used throughout Grand Motholam as a purgative.”

terces [word created by Vance] – “My price is a modest twelve thousand terces.”

thaumaturgical (magical) – “…a vast collection of thaumaturgical artifacts…”

vicissitude (change of fortune) – “He had known many vicissitudes gaining therefrom a suppleness…”

volute (spiral shape) – “…scarlet sunlight engaging itself in the volutes.”