Ironically, vocabulary can make a person of few words a person of fewer words. Especially when you stop fumbling for “that one word” that best describes a nuanced feeling, situation or a thing? I have felt tongue-tied and on other occasions plain curious if there was a word for it setting me up for some random browsing. What I found, was a bunch of words that were fairly descriptive and interesting. I began categorizing 100 words; from being prohibitive & amusing, almost like a secret language, on one hand to conversational & slang on another. From a usability perspective, I am inclined to remember words that are both easier to use and easily understood; there is no pride in not being understood.The rest are at best trivia, to complicate your world!
Warming-up with the simpler words:
1. Aglet: that little plastic bit on the end of your shoelace or drawstrings.
2. Aphthong: alphabets used in spelling a word but not in pronouncing it, essentially silent alphabets in a word: Example: Knife | Knew | Knight | Wednesday; Yes, people ‘d’ is silent J
3. Akimbo: love standing with your ‘hands on your hips and elbows outwards’? The position is called Akimbo.
4. Barm: the foam on your beer is barm. Cheers!
5. Beblubber: the swollen eyes and face due to crying. She looked beblubbered-for crying out loud!
6. Box-tent: That plastic tripod that comes in your pizza box is a box tent. Not only does it have a name it has a patent too.
7. Brannock Device: Useless trivia but did you know that the instrument used to measure your feet at the shoe store had a name?
8. Claptrap: pretentious empty language or writing. Use of big words which mean nothing, are insincere. If you do end up familiarizing yourself with these words you will surely fall into this trap.
9. Clinophile: a person who loves beds. Need I say more? Need to go back to my reclining, clinophile position.
10. Contranym: a word that can be its own antonym. Stumped? So was I. Let me come to your rescue with some examples
a. Cleave: to sever | to cling
b. Off: Activated (alarm went off)| Deactivated (turn it off)
11. Cut a finger: Now this one is a favorite and oh so helpful. Should you have been exposed to farting and body odor, in set ups you can barely do much about but make a graceful exit, I have just the phrase for you-Cut a finger meaning “to cause a disagreeable odor.”
12. Diacritics: extra marks added to a letter that changes the sound of the letter, or add an additional sound or meaning to the word. Examples: accent marks, tildes, and umlauts.
13. Digamist: someone who marries for the second time – easy one
14. Dringle: does not exist in any dictionary. It is the water mark left behind by condensation, from a glass, on your furniture.
15. Dysania: difficulty in getting out of bed in the morning. Mondays and everyday.
16. Ergophile: Don’t call them workaholics, near mad people who are itching to be productive, all the time, are ‘ergophiles’.
17. Feat: a dangling piece of curly hair. I would call it sexy! Exception being the 1950’s plastered feat.
18. Fudgel “Pretending to work when you’re not actually doing anything at all.”
19. Furfur: flakes of dandruff.
20. Glabella: The space on your forehead between your eyebrows.
21. Googleganger: a person with your name on google search results. Go, ego search.
22. Grawlix: The string of typographical symbols used to indicate profanity (“$%@!”) is called a grawlix.
23. Griffonage: illegible handwriting. A dedication to kids growing up on touchscreens and keyboards.
24. Groke: Hungry or greedy, admit it, you have been guilty of ‘looking at somebody while they’re eating in the hope that they’ll give you some of their food.’
25. Jayus: a joke that is so unfunny and told so poorly that one cannot help but laugh
26. Intestate: ‘One who dies without a will’ and causes a havoc may I add.
27. Kummerspeck (German): Excess weight gained from emotional overeating. All emotions count. Ask me.
28. Lethonomia: the inability to recall someone’s name. These descriptions are why I love this list.
29. Lirp: snapping your fingers.
30. Jamais vu: Opposite of Déjà vu. Been there, seen it but seems like it’s totally new
31. Mondegreen: misheard lyrics. Happens to me all the time!
32. Monepic: a one-word sentence. Next time when someone replies with ‘great’, ‘cool’, ‘thanks’, ‘welcome’ they are replying in monepics not monsyllables.
33. Mopsicle: Having a dopey, blank expression on one’s face.
34. Morton’s Toe: When your second toe is bigger than your big toe.
35. Palindromes: words that read the same forward and backwards: Examples: Mom, Dad
36. Paraph: a little squiggle at the end of someone’s signature.
37. Paresthesia: is that tingling sensation when your foot falls asleep.
38. Montivagant: Wandering over hills and mountains.
39. Phosphene: The lights or stars you see when you close your eyes and press your hands to them.
40. Philistine: one who does not care about art, literature and the works.
41. Psephology: study of election trends. A word you can flaunt in the current scenario of Indian general elections.
42. Polyglot: Someone who knows many languages.
43. Postscript: PS: the note you write after signing off, it is a postscript.
44. Punt: indent under the wine bottle
45. Rasher: A single slice of bacon.
46. Recto: right hand page of a book
47. Regicide: murder of a king.
48. Riposte: a quick clever reply to an insult or criticism. Is there a word when you inevitably think of a smart come-back later?
49. Sapiosexual: I know most of us would like to believe we are sapiosexual; find intelligence sexually attractive, when we are being plain ol’ school sexual.
50. Scripturient: Possessing a violent desire to write. I am so totally conversant with that feeling.
51. Scroop: swooshing sound made by ball gowns and dresses, essentially silk
52. Seigneur-terraces (French): Coffee shop dwellers who sit at tables a long time but spend little money.
53. Semantic Satiation: Ever look at a familiar word for so long that it starts to look and sound completely strange? That feeling is called Semantic Satiation.
54. Sinecure: well-paid but no work! Some of us want to be there, not me. Want to be well-paid and with lots of work!
55. Tarantism: A disorder characterized by an uncontrollable urge to dance. The number of times am overwhelmed with this feeling! Car, office, bedroom. Only I don’t think it is a disorder. It brings order to my life.
56. Tartle (Scots): that panicky hesitation just before you have to introduce someone whose name you can’t quite remember.
57. Tittle: The dot over an ‘i’ or ‘j.’
58. Wamble: the sound of a stomach growling.
59. Wheeple: a poor attempt to whistle loudly. Joke of a whistle.
60. Wings: Those back flaps on a bra are called wings.
61. Zarf: cardboard sleeve wrapped around your take-away coffee cup.
Use these at your ow peril.
62. Acersecomic: Did you know Rapunzel was potentially an “acersecomic”! ‘A person whose hair has never been cut.’ So much for her tresses! Only it is used more often to refer to an unkempt look.
63. Anandipsia ‘an incredible desire to drink any liquid’. Use this word and you can hope in hell you’d get a drop to drink!
64. Bakku-shan (Japanese): We all have checked out a woman cross us only to be thoroughly disappointed when she turned around. Here is a slang for the woman- Bakku (back)-Shan (beautiful).
65. Biblioclasm: The practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media. Now I can think of all those aching hearts ceremoniously destroying pictures of their ex. Does the Jab we met scene fit the bill here?
66. Caruncula: The small, triangular pink bump on the inside corner of each eye is called the caruncula. Eww am not using this word for sure.
67. Crurophilous: Liking for legs. Really, it sounds terrible. More like someone was possessed, but then that’s what it’s meant to convey- possessed by legs.
68. Deipnophobia: a long day at work followed by a social life can sometimes cause you to suffer from Deipnophobia- “a morbid fear of dinner parties.”
69. Discalceate: take off one’s shoes or barefeet.
70. Eschatology: The part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.
71. Ferrule: The metal part on a pencil.
72. Finifugal: If you’re finifugal you’re afraid of finishing anything and… Oh God… I can’t… I can’t.
73. Frenulum: the stringy little muscle under your tongue. Show it off – Cluck! Cluck!!
74. Hamartia: The character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall. Achilles heels.
75. Hirci: Under arm hair. Who wants a word for it?
76. Hypermimia: waving the hands about excessively while talking. Guilty.
77. Icker: corn still on the cob.
78. Infandous: Unspeakable or too odious to be expressed or mentioned.
79. Karoshi (Japanese): Death from being overworked. I know there are many takers for this sentiment. They should not be so proud is all I can say.
80. Leptosome: A person with a slender, thin, or frail body.
81. Lethologica: mental block for certain words
82. Lunule: The white, crescent shaped part at the top of a nail.
83. Noegenesis: Production of knowledge.
84. Nudiustertian: The day before yesterday. Can we just stick to day before yesterday?
85. Pelinti (Buli, Ghana): ‘to move hot food around in your mouth.’ Patience!
86. Pentheraphobia: fear of mother-in-law!
87. Perlicue: the skin between the thumb and index finger.
88. Petrichor: the smell after rain
89. Philtrum: the bit between your nose and your mouth.
90. Pogonotrophy: The act of cultivating, or growing and grooming, a mustache, beard, sideburns or other facial hair. Men, experiment.
91. Recumbentibus: A knockout punch, either verbal or physical.
92. Sesquipedalian: Given to using long words, words with a lot of syllables. Ironical, we would have such a long sinuous word.
93. Shemomedjamo (Georgian): Gluttony and greed making you relentless chomp into more than what you can stomach. That’s the feeling that the Georgians are helping you describe, “I accidentally ate the whole thing.”
94. Skeuomorph: “A design feature copied from a similar artifact in another material, even when not functionally necessary.” For example, rivets on jeans, copper color on pennies and the shutter sound on a digital camera.
95. Tragus: the hard bump between face and ear
96. Ultracrepidarian: A person who gives opinions and advice on matters outside of one’s knowledge. Stop counting the names and rolling your eyes.
97. Welter: A confused mass; a jumble; turmoil or confusion.
98. Xenization: The act of traveling as a stranger. A dream!
99. Yonderly: Mentally or emotionally distant; absent-minded.
100. Zugzwang: A position in which any decision or move will result in problems.
Wonder ‘what’s that one word for…’ moment called. Hmmm. Until then suggestions, feedback, comments?
Curio-Cities by Dilpreeta Vasudeva 