Why this word is great
ESSOINER — [Noun] A legal functionary in medieval English courts whose sole duty was to formally excuse the absence of a litigant or vassal from a proceeding. From Anglo-Norman essoigniour, from Old French essoignier ("to excuse, to allege an essoin"), from essoin ("excuse, exemption") + the agent suffix -er. Unlike an attorney, empowered to act broadly on a client’s behalf, or a proxy, serving as a general substitute, the essoiner was a specialist in the single, ritualistic art of legitimate absence. He is the rustle of a vellum excuse in a chilly hall, the precise Latin formula spoken to a bored bailiff, and the single, formal word “essoined” entered onto a parchment roll—a profession that carved its entire purpose from absence, rendering non-appearance into a kind of perverse, punctilious presence.