HPL Dictionary Corner: Dunwich special!

A bumper crop of Lovecraftian erudition in 'The Dunwich Horror':


Where something is "teratoligically" impossible, 'teratological' means "abnormal in growth or structure" (which certainly fits the Whateley offspring).


If something (Wilbur Whateley's skin for example) is "cilated" this means it's covered in microscopic projections which look like hairs.


"Acherontic" fear is meant to evoke something "as dark and dismal as the river Acheron", the 'river of fear', in Hades (akin to the river Styx).


And last but by no means least:
"eldritch"!
One of those words which HPL uses frequently, and very famously, though I only really know it through usage and context. Sure enough, it simply means "weird and sinister or ghostly".


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