5 ms·

Unusual and amusing English words

32 points by jergosh 16y ago

JoeAltmaier 16y ago
My favorite: callipygean
- jafl5272 16y ago
  Related: bathykolpian
- whimsy 16y ago
  >callipygean It's spelled wrong here. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/callipygian http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/callipygian
dctoedt 16y ago
Next time I need a put-down for someone's argument, I think I might call it "jumentous," which according to this page means "[s]melling like horse urine."
tptacek 16y ago
Here's another cool list, very similar; the standard on this list is, "words so interesting that David Foster Wallace circled them in his dictionary": http://www.slate.com/id/2250784 http://www.slate.com/id/2250784 (Teaser: conchoidal, corvee, demulcent, exergue, gramnvirous, etc etc etc).
- ErrantX 16y ago
  That's actually a much more interesting list! Thanks.
  - tptacek 16y ago
    This list is a clear illustration of why it's better to read Infinite Jest on the iPad book reader, where dictionary definitions are a tap away, than in dead-tree format. Because I'm only 2/3 through and I can't guarantee that he hasn't found a way to use the word "exergue" in a non-coin-related sentence. Probably in a footnote. Which, by the way, is hyperlinked in the iBooks version.
SlyShy 16y ago
Beware, some definitions here are incorrect. For example, Witzelsucht, which is correctly defined at Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witzelsucht http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witzelsucht For people interested, Phonistry maintains some much nicer (longer, etc.) lists. http://phrontistery.info/w.html http://phrontistery.info/w.html
char 16y ago
This reminds me of that board game (I forget the name) in which some silly definition is read and the players have to make up words and convince their opponents (who are guessing which word matches the definition) that their word is correct. With some of these words, I feel like I'm playing that game and someone is trying to trick me. I mean, zenzizenzizenzic is a number raised to the eighth power? Seriously? But it exists! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenzizenzizenzic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenzizenzizenzic
- mshafrir 16y ago
  Balderdash
tetsuo13 16y ago
Unrelated: What is the point in publishing an interesting list such as this and then restricting my ability to highlight so I can copy and paste? (Chrome 4.1 on Windows)
- istjohn 16y ago
  CTRL-A
- rradu 16y ago
  It's an underground movement to get you back to using Firefox
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  What's the point in choosing a tool which doesn't give you the power to do what you want, then coming on the internet bitching about it? Your browser is doing the restricting. If you can't override that then it's not working in your interest, it's working against you on the web publisher's behalf. Dump it.
jafl5272 16y ago
They missed "discombobulate"
pg 16y ago
Alas these are mostly neologisms created by combining roots from classical languages. That's a recipe for creating new "obscure" words pretty much on demand. The best sort of obscure words are ones that are obscure because they're old or highly specialized, not because someone made them up and they never really became part of the spoken language.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- gruseom 16y ago
  Extraordinarily, the Slavic languages are chock full of calques that originated in just this way. Educated Slavs in the 17th-18th centuries deliberately modernized their own languages by taking Western words, translating the morphemes individually, and grafting them back together. Modern Czech in particular, if I remember correctly, was largely constructed in this way. The classic example is German Zeitschrift (magazine) being translated zeit → čas (time) and schrift → pis (writing) to produce časopis, "timewriting". Russian has tons of words like this from French (traduire, to translate, went tra → пере (across) and duire → водить (lead) to become переводить, "to crosslead"). Normally such concocted species (like the neologisms in the OP) fail to take root and soon wither. The difference here is that these words were badly needed in daily life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
parbo 16y ago
I didn't find my favourite in this list: wayzgoose.
ZeroGravitas 16y ago
Reminded me of Douglas Adams and John Lloyd (creator of QI)'s The Meaning of Liff: http://folk.uio.no/alied/TMoL.html http://folk.uio.no/alied/TMoL.html
elblanco 16y ago
No schadenfreude?
rradu 16y ago
"Let's get capernoited" is the new "Let's get wasted" Yeah, that was a witzelsucht

32 points by jergosh 16y ago

JoeAltmaier 16y ago

My favorite: callipygean

jafl5272 16y ago
Related: bathykolpian
whimsy 16y ago
>callipygean It's spelled wrong here. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/callipygian http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/callipygian

dctoedt 16y ago

Next time I need a put-down for someone's argument, I think I might call it "jumentous," which according to this page means "[s]melling like horse urine."

tptacek 16y ago

Here's another cool list, very similar; the standard on this list is, "words so interesting that David Foster Wallace circled them in his dictionary": http://www.slate.com/id/2250784 http://www.slate.com/id/2250784 (Teaser: conchoidal, corvee, demulcent, exergue, gramnvirous, etc etc etc).

ErrantX 16y ago
That's actually a much more interesting list! Thanks.
- tptacek 16y ago
  This list is a clear illustration of why it's better to read Infinite Jest on the iPad book reader, where dictionary definitions are a tap away, than in dead-tree format. Because I'm only 2/3 through and I can't guarantee that he hasn't found a way to use the word "exergue" in a non-coin-related sentence. Probably in a footnote. Which, by the way, is hyperlinked in the iBooks version.

SlyShy 16y ago

Beware, some definitions here are incorrect. For example, Witzelsucht, which is correctly defined at Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witzelsucht http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witzelsucht For people interested, Phonistry maintains some much nicer (longer, etc.) lists. http://phrontistery.info/w.html http://phrontistery.info/w.html

char 16y ago

This reminds me of that board game (I forget the name) in which some silly definition is read and the players have to make up words and convince their opponents (who are guessing which word matches the definition) that their word is correct. With some of these words, I feel like I'm playing that game and someone is trying to trick me. I mean, zenzizenzizenzic is a number raised to the eighth power? Seriously? But it exists! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenzizenzizenzic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenzizenzizenzic

mshafrir 16y ago
Balderdash

tetsuo13 16y ago

Unrelated: What is the point in publishing an interesting list such as this and then restricting my ability to highlight so I can copy and paste? (Chrome 4.1 on Windows)

istjohn 16y ago
CTRL-A
rradu 16y ago
It's an underground movement to get you back to using Firefox
jodrellblank 16y ago
What's the point in choosing a tool which doesn't give you the power to do what you want, then coming on the internet bitching about it? Your browser is doing the restricting. If you can't override that then it's not working in your interest, it's working against you on the web publisher's behalf. Dump it.

jafl5272 16y ago

They missed "discombobulate"

pg 16y ago

Alas these are mostly neologisms created by combining roots from classical languages. That's a recipe for creating new "obscure" words pretty much on demand. The best sort of obscure words are ones that are obscure because they're old or highly specialized, not because someone made them up and they never really became part of the spoken language.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
gruseom 16y ago
Extraordinarily, the Slavic languages are chock full of calques that originated in just this way. Educated Slavs in the 17th-18th centuries deliberately modernized their own languages by taking Western words, translating the morphemes individually, and grafting them back together. Modern Czech in particular, if I remember correctly, was largely constructed in this way. The classic example is German Zeitschrift (magazine) being translated zeit → čas (time) and schrift → pis (writing) to produce časopis, "timewriting". Russian has tons of words like this from French (traduire, to translate, went tra → пере (across) and duire → водить (lead) to become переводить, "to crosslead"). Normally such concocted species (like the neologisms in the OP) fail to take root and soon wither. The difference here is that these words were badly needed in daily life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

parbo 16y ago

I didn't find my favourite in this list: wayzgoose.

ZeroGravitas 16y ago

Reminded me of Douglas Adams and John Lloyd (creator of QI)'s The Meaning of Liff: http://folk.uio.no/alied/TMoL.html http://folk.uio.no/alied/TMoL.html

elblanco 16y ago

No schadenfreude?

rradu 16y ago

"Let's get capernoited" is the new "Let's get wasted" Yeah, that was a witzelsucht