DIRECTORY OF BEAUTIFUL WORDS
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About Site | What’s New? | Feedback | Help
My Writing Portfolio at www.bykairos.com MAIN DIRECTORY
- Word Lists Home | Featured Word Lists
- Word and Literary Reference Corner language and writing referencePage resources
- The Beauty of Language and Words - the words we discover and find through reading
- Weaving Meaning in a Web of Words - the words we use for communicating & storytelling
- The Rare and Unusual of Obscurity - bring back the archaic, old fashioned & obsolete
- The Universe and World We Live In - the words in exotic languages new to us
- People, Places and Things - the words we use to understand ourselves & the world around us
- The Colors of Our Creativity - the words we use to create and innovate
- The Dark Side of the Moon - the words of a darker nature
- My Books: Series of Beautiful Words.
- @kairosoflife on Twitter - hashtag #BeautifulWords and Pinterest Boards
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DIRECTORY OF OBSCURITY
The Old, Rare & Unusual
OBSCURE | WEIRD | OBSOLETE
Obscurity WordMap
WORD LISTS SPECIAL FEATURES WORDS FROM OTHER CATEGORIES ARTICLES FROM THE REFERENCE CENTER:
WEIRD AND WACKY WORDS
strange and bizarre old and rare words
OBSCURITY OF THE NORM
obscure words for the ordinary & normal
THE GREAT RESURRECTION
bringing the best obsolete words back
LEARN ABOUT OBSCURE WORDS
The Word Reference Corner
PARADING A RAGING
Rendition of the Roaring Rarities
ACCISMUS - If someone reluctantly offers you some of their food because they saw you eyeing it, that's a classic example of accismus. It's the irony in which someone pretends to be disinterested in something they actually want.
ACCUBATION - We're sure you were told multiple times not to do this while you were growing up. In British English, accubation is the act of eating or drinking while lying down.
ADSUM - directly from Latin and means to indicate one's presence, for instance during a roll call. Usually, of course, the answer is simply 'here'.
BOONDOGGLING - We've all been guilty of boondoggling—probably more than we'd like to admit. It's the act of doing work that has little to no value just for the sake of looking busy. And trust us, your boss knows.
CAPTIOUS - an adjective, and it means to find petty objections to something, or to nit-pick. It's from Middle English, and it's yet another word English stole from French - 'caprieux'.
CHIEVE - from Middle English, originally derived from old French, and means to reach a successful end point, or to thrive.
CUGGERMUGGER - means whispered gossiping.
DANDIPRAT - a sixteenth century word meaning somebody who is young or insignificant. I quite like it - there seems all kinds of opportunity for some outrageous Shakespearean insults with it. 'Thou impudent dandiprat!'
DREADDOUR - is from Middle English and means 'terror' or 'horror'.
EGGCORN - Have you ever said "biting my time" instead of "biding my time"? That's an eggcorn, which is when you mistakenly use a word or phrase because it sounds similar to the one you meant to use.
FIRK - is from Middle English and means to move quickly, or to be fidgety
GRIFFONAGE - Make sure you take it slow when you jot down your grocery list. Because if you don't, your griffonage, or illegible handwriting, could lead to you buying ice cream and cake when you really needed cheese and milk.
JENTACULAR - Pancakes, corn flakes, coffee, orange juice—they are all jentacular which pertains to breakfast.
JUNKETTACEOUS means worthless
LUDIBRIOUS - means absolutely ridiculous
NUDIUSTERTIAN - When it's Thursday and you're trying to remind someone of something that happened on Tuesday, you usually go with the clunky phrase "the day before yesterday." Now you know the one-word way of saying that. It’s called nudiustertian. Of course, given the time it will take you to explain to your friends what the word means, it might be easier just to say "the day before yesterday."
OSTROBOGULOUS – Bizarre, unusual or interesting
PANDICULATION - is the act of stretching out those stiffened muscles, usually when you're tired or first waking up.
PARESTHESIA - A similarly annoying occurrence is the tingling you feel when your leg falls asleep. This is called paresthesia, i.e. the "pins and needles" feeling that can occur in any part of the body.
POLTOPHAGY - thorough chewing of food until it becomes like porridge
QUALTAGH - When you walk out of the house and run into your neighbor, feel free to call them a "qualtagh." It might sound like an insult, but it actually just refers to the first person you see after leaving your house. Alternately, it can refer to the first person who enters your home after New Year's.
RETARDATAIRE – Behind the times (used mainly about artistic styles).
SCIAPODOUS - means someone who has big feet. You could say ‘Bigfoot is sciapodous.
SPERMOLOGER - a trivia fan, keeps up with current news, and is a gossip monger.
TYROTOXISM - means poisoning somebody with cheese. Really.
WAMBLING - That rumbling feeling in your stomach when you're hungry? That's wambling, and it means you need to take your lunch break ASAP.
ACCUBATION - We're sure you were told multiple times not to do this while you were growing up. In British English, accubation is the act of eating or drinking while lying down.
ADSUM - directly from Latin and means to indicate one's presence, for instance during a roll call. Usually, of course, the answer is simply 'here'.
BOONDOGGLING - We've all been guilty of boondoggling—probably more than we'd like to admit. It's the act of doing work that has little to no value just for the sake of looking busy. And trust us, your boss knows.
CAPTIOUS - an adjective, and it means to find petty objections to something, or to nit-pick. It's from Middle English, and it's yet another word English stole from French - 'caprieux'.
CHIEVE - from Middle English, originally derived from old French, and means to reach a successful end point, or to thrive.
CUGGERMUGGER - means whispered gossiping.
DANDIPRAT - a sixteenth century word meaning somebody who is young or insignificant. I quite like it - there seems all kinds of opportunity for some outrageous Shakespearean insults with it. 'Thou impudent dandiprat!'
DREADDOUR - is from Middle English and means 'terror' or 'horror'.
EGGCORN - Have you ever said "biting my time" instead of "biding my time"? That's an eggcorn, which is when you mistakenly use a word or phrase because it sounds similar to the one you meant to use.
FIRK - is from Middle English and means to move quickly, or to be fidgety
GRIFFONAGE - Make sure you take it slow when you jot down your grocery list. Because if you don't, your griffonage, or illegible handwriting, could lead to you buying ice cream and cake when you really needed cheese and milk.
JENTACULAR - Pancakes, corn flakes, coffee, orange juice—they are all jentacular which pertains to breakfast.
JUNKETTACEOUS means worthless
LUDIBRIOUS - means absolutely ridiculous
NUDIUSTERTIAN - When it's Thursday and you're trying to remind someone of something that happened on Tuesday, you usually go with the clunky phrase "the day before yesterday." Now you know the one-word way of saying that. It’s called nudiustertian. Of course, given the time it will take you to explain to your friends what the word means, it might be easier just to say "the day before yesterday."
OSTROBOGULOUS – Bizarre, unusual or interesting
PANDICULATION - is the act of stretching out those stiffened muscles, usually when you're tired or first waking up.
PARESTHESIA - A similarly annoying occurrence is the tingling you feel when your leg falls asleep. This is called paresthesia, i.e. the "pins and needles" feeling that can occur in any part of the body.
POLTOPHAGY - thorough chewing of food until it becomes like porridge
QUALTAGH - When you walk out of the house and run into your neighbor, feel free to call them a "qualtagh." It might sound like an insult, but it actually just refers to the first person you see after leaving your house. Alternately, it can refer to the first person who enters your home after New Year's.
RETARDATAIRE – Behind the times (used mainly about artistic styles).
SCIAPODOUS - means someone who has big feet. You could say ‘Bigfoot is sciapodous.
SPERMOLOGER - a trivia fan, keeps up with current news, and is a gossip monger.
TYROTOXISM - means poisoning somebody with cheese. Really.
WAMBLING - That rumbling feeling in your stomach when you're hungry? That's wambling, and it means you need to take your lunch break ASAP.
The Old, Rare & Unusual
OBSCURE | WEIRD | OBSOLETE
Obscurity WordMap
A BEAUTIFUL WORD ... a vocabulary site for logophiles, writers and word lovers that is part of
A SERIES OF BEAUTIFUL WORDS
Collection of Vocabulary Books, Sites and Resources
Series Homepage | View Sites | Download Books
Words are also posted on twitter under the hashtags #beautifulwords and #wordoftheday and shared visually on pinterest bulletin boards
ABOUT SITE | SITEMAPS | SEARCH | FEEDBACK
Content by Kairos ~ @kairosoflife
Homepage | Portfolio | Contact
Original content © 2021 Copyright, Kairos
A SERIES OF BEAUTIFUL WORDS
Collection of Vocabulary Books, Sites and Resources
Series Homepage | View Sites | Download Books
Words are also posted on twitter under the hashtags #beautifulwords and #wordoftheday and shared visually on pinterest bulletin boards
ABOUT SITE | SITEMAPS | SEARCH | FEEDBACK
Content by Kairos ~ @kairosoflife
Homepage | Portfolio | Contact
Original content © 2021 Copyright, Kairos
