Lexicon: Darksteel Edition

The goal of The Lexicon is to teach players the meanings of some of the more obscure words we use in card names. While many of the offbeat names (like "Groffskithur") are simply made up, we often dig around dictionaries for real little-used and archaic words for inspiration. Check out these Lexicon entries drawn from Darksteel cards.

chi·mer·ic
variant of chi·mer·i·cal
adjective

1. Created by or as if by a wildly fanciful imagination; highly improbable.
2. Given to unrealistic fantasies; fanciful.

Over time, in Magic, "chimeric" has come to mean "an artifact that can become a creature"; compare to Chimeric Idol, Chimeric Sphere, Chimeric Staff.

glaive
noun, archaic

1. A weapon formerly used, consisting of a large blade fixed on the end of a pole, whose edge was on the outside curve; also, a light lance with a long sharp-pointed head.
2. A sword; -- used poetically and loosely.

re·buke
transitive verb

1. To criticize or reprove sharply; reprimand.
2. To check or repress.

root·hold
noun

1. Support or stabilization of a plant in the soil through the spreading of its roots.

shi·ka·ri
noun

1. A big-game hunter.
2. A guide for big-game hunting.

shunt
transitive verb

1. To turn or move aside or onto another course: shunting traffic around an accident.
2. To evade by putting aside or ignoring: urgent problems that society can no longer shunt aside.
3. To switch (a train or car) from one track to another.
4. Electricity. To provide or divert (current) by means of a shunt.
5. Medicine. To divert or permit flow of (a body fluid) from one pathway or region to another by surgical means.

Source: dictionary.com