esculent

Pronunciation: es-kyuh-luhnt (listen to it on m-w.com)

Adjective: edible; Noun: something that is edible

Etymology: 17th century. From the Latin esculentus (edible)

Usage: For example, esculent roots or mushrooms.

Taste, defined by the early-nineteenth-century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin as that sense "by means of which we approve the sapidity [tastiness] and esculence [edibility] of things," is in fact physiologically bound up with smell and with touch.

From The hungry soul: eating and the perfecting of our nature.

defenestration

Pronunciation: dee-fen-uh-strey-shuhn (listen to it on m-w.com)

Noun The act of throwing a person or thing out of a window; immediate dismissal or expulson (as from a public office).

Etymology: 17th century. From the Latin de (away from; off), fenestra (window). This word has a funny little tale of origin. It was invented for the "Defenestration of Prague," three men were thrown out of a castle window into the moat by Protestant radicals, marking the start of the Thirty Years War (read more about its origins on dictionary.com).

Usage: Here is a poem that makes good and frequent use of the word defenestration called Transcendental Sonnet #519 Defenestration Then and Now.

hubris

Pronunciation: hyoo-bris (listen to it on m-w.com)

Noun: excessive pride or extreme self confidence; arrogance

Etymology: Late 19th century; From Greek hybris (insolence). In Greek mythology, Hybris was the goddess of insolence, violence, wantonness, reckless pride, arrogance and outrageous behavior in general.

Usage: Funnily, there are a lot of a) political, b) self help, c) religious, and d) financial books in Google Book search results.

lint licker

This commercial makes hilarious use of words:

lugubrious

Pronunciation: loo-goo-bree-uhs (listen to it on m-w.com)

Adjective: mournful, gloomy, especially affected in an exaggerated manner; dismal.

Etymology: Late 16th century. From the Latin lugere (mourn; lament)

Usage: Lots of results for it in Google Books search, including this lovely example from The Alhambra by Washington Irving.

hincty

Pronunciation: hingk-tee (listen to it on dictionary.com)

Adjective: conceited, stuck-up.

Etymology: early 1920s; of unknown origin.

Usage: Slang term. Here's a great example of usage from a book of poems from Harlem.

abstemious

Pronunciation: \ab-ˈstē-mē-əs\ (listen to it on m-w.com)

Adjective: Marked by restraint; abstinence. Sparing. Especially in regards to food and alcohol consumption.

Etymology: Early 17th century. From Latin abstemius; temetum (strong wine; intoxicating liquor)

Usage: Lots of great usage examples in Google Books search results.

pusillanimous

Pronunciation: pyoo-suh-lan-uh-muhs (listen on m-w.com)

Adjective: lacking courage or resolution; cowardly, faint-hearted; marked by contemptible timidity

Etymology: 16th century. From Latin pusillus very small + animus spirit

Usage: Common GRE study word. Couple of good quotes from Devils by Dostoyevsky and Dante's Inferno.

priapus

Pronunciation: \prī-ˈā-pəs\ (listen to it on m-w.com)

Noun: a Greek and Roman god of gardens and male generative power; phallus; phallic in shape; something lewd or obscene (definition on dictionary.com)

Etymology: 14th century; Latin, Greek.

Usage: Lots of Google books results. Here's a quote from On the Road (Penguin 20th Century Classics):

He wrote of Dean as a "child of the rainbow" who bore his torment in his agonized priapus. (pp 47-48)

taciturn

Pronunciation: \ˈta-sə-ˌtərn\ (listen to it on m-w.com)

Adjective: temperamentally disinclined to speak; silent in expression and manner. (definition at dictionary.com)

Etymology: 18th century; French or Latin. French taciturne (close, taciturn) Latin tacitus (silent, secret).

Usage: Seems to be more often used in descriptions of men, but is not gender specific. Here's a typical usage example of "taciturn" in a snippet from the New Yorker, Volume 79.

jakes

Pronunciation: \ˈjāks\ (listen to it on m-w.com)

Noun plural (but singular or plural in construction): toilet; outhouse (see definition at dictionary.com)

Etymology: mid 1500s; possibly from the French name Jacques

Usage: It's generally considered a slang term. You could say: I lost my lunch in the jakes. Or She messed herself before she could get to a jakes. Hard to find any Google Book references since doing a search on "jakes" results mostly in books authored by Jakes or with Jakes as a character's name, but here's an interesting one: Google Books: Dictionary of obsolete and provincial English‎ (use the "next" link to see highlighted terms).

Note: Not to be confused with jake which means something else.

concupiscence

Pronounciation: kän-ˈkyü-pə-sən(t)s (listen to it on m-w.com)

Noun: strong desire, esp. sexual desire. (see definition at m-w.com)

Etymology: 14th century, from the latin: com (together; with) + cupere (wish/long for; desire/want/covet)

Here's a great quote from Wolf Hall: A Novel:

"A glance at Alice frees me from stain of concupiscence."

Ahh...conjugal bliss and husbandly fealty.

In other books: Thomas Aquinas seemed to like to use this word, and there are lots of other interesting religious texts in Google Books results for concupiscence.