I'm reading 10 lb. Penalty, a horse-racing novel by Dick Francis. I just encountered the word PREECLAMPSIA. The narrator is explaining his own birth and his mother's death.
Preeclampsia is a complication of pregnancy. With preeclampsia, you might have high blood pressure, high levels of protein in urine that indicate kidney damage (proteinuria), or other signs of organ damage.
Left untreated, preeclampsia can lead to serious — even fatal — complications for both the mother and baby.
Francis's narrator just mentioned QUADRATIC EQUATIONS. A quadratic equation is a second-degree polynomial equation in one variable, typically written as ax² + bx + c = 0, with at most two solutions.
Believe it or not, Francis used the word CATAMITE. It's a boy kept for homosexual practices.
Francis called someone POLYMORPHOUS. Its meaning: occurring in several different forms or stages: "She is polymorphous in thought and flexible in action."
Next, he had someone mention a HARRIDAN, a strict, bossy, or belligerent old woman: "a bullying old harridan."
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