Harking back to Tuesday’s strange list, the next set of unfamiliar words is the French section: follets, lutins, and magots. According to my French-English/English-French dictionary, follet is just an adjective meaning “playful,” but an esprit follet is a sprite or elf. A lutin is also a sprite or elf. A magot is a grotesque Chinese figure, an ugly person, or a Barbary ape. I’m not sure which of the three meanings was intended for magot, since none of them seem particularly mythical or supernatural. Perhaps the author was referring to something so ugly as to be monstrous.
That’s three more words that are at least partially understood, and another book that has proven its worth.