DIRECTORY OF BEAUTIFUL WORDS
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LOGOPHILE | WORDS | WRITER | GRAMMAR
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The Logophile Lexicon - Words About Words
Lexicon and guide to the language and words of logophiles, readers, writers and language enthusiasts. The book explores the beauty of creating, using and defining words.
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Lexicon and guide to the language and words of logophiles, readers, writers and language enthusiasts. The book explores the beauty of creating, using and defining words.
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www.logophilelexicon.com
Search the Logophile Lexicon from here!
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THE LOQUACIOUS LITERARY LOGOPHILE: defining logophile and more in this collection of linguistic, literary & writing words.
From the Logophile Lexicon.
WORDS ABOUT WORDS: study of words. Includes word formation, classifications, form, usage, and literary, poetic and rhetorical devices.
THE WRITER’S CRAFT: the celebration of language as demonstrated in storytelling and the poetic expressions of the writer’s craft.
THE GRAMMAR PRIMER: Flashbacks of English class! This primer offers a reboot of the rules and structure of formal writing.
THE REFERENCE CORNER: Library of articles defining words and meaning including formation, classification, etymology, writing fiction and composing poetry.
From the Logophile Lexicon.
WORDS ABOUT WORDS: study of words. Includes word formation, classifications, form, usage, and literary, poetic and rhetorical devices.
THE WRITER’S CRAFT: the celebration of language as demonstrated in storytelling and the poetic expressions of the writer’s craft.
THE GRAMMAR PRIMER: Flashbacks of English class! This primer offers a reboot of the rules and structure of formal writing.
THE REFERENCE CORNER: Library of articles defining words and meaning including formation, classification, etymology, writing fiction and composing poetry.
VIEW MAIN INDEX OF WORD LISTS
Word lists with an assortment of fun, obscure and beautiful words you can use in your writing.
WHAT IS THAT?
Is That Gibberish a Real Word?
You may not be able to pronounce them but they have such meaningful definitions that I bet you would love to use them. Google Translate only goes so far. But you won’t be able to if you don’t try! Enjoy the German ones. They are head shakers for anyone who’s only experience with the language is gesundheit. Or maybe Volkswagen?
AGATHOKAKOLOGOCAL - Composed of both good and evil. (Greek)
ANACAMPSEROTE - Something that can bring back a lost love.
AYURNAMAT - The philosophy that there is no point in worrying about events that cannot be changed. (Inuit)
BACKPFEIFENGESICHT - A face that’s badly in need of a fist.The word Backpfeife means “punch/slap” (on the cheek/face) and Gesicht means “face”. The word Backpfeifengesicht therefore means something along the lines of “a face that’s begging to be slapped” – or punched. Or hurt. (German)
BÙGĀNJÌMÒ - To be unwilling to be lonely or overlooked; to seek to move forward from loneliness. (Chinese)
CACOETHES - It’s an urge to do something inadvisable
CACOETHES SCRIBENDI - The insatiable desire to write. Cacoēthes (“bad habit”, or medically, “malignant disease”) comes from the Greek kakóēthes. This phrase is derived from a line in the Satires of Juvenal: Tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes, or “the incurable desire (or itch) for writing affects many”. Cacoethes scribendi is a mania for writing, or writing regarded as an ingrained bad habit. (Latin)
CONSANGUINEOUS - Of the same blood or origin; specifically : descended from the same ancestor
DEIPNOPHOBIA - A morbid fear of dinner parties
DEXTROSINISTRAL - A left-handed person trained to use the right hand; from the Latin dexter, meaning right, and sinister, meaning left
ECDYSIAST - A striptease performer
EIGENGRAU - Translated as “intrinsic gray” / “own grey”), also called Eigenlicht (“intrinsic light”), dark light, or brain gray, eigengrau is a term for the uniform dark gray background that many people report seeing in the absence of light. It is the dark grey color seen by the eyes in perfect darkness, as a result of signals from the optic nerves.
EINFÜHLUNGSVERMÖGEN - Capacity for understanding; empathy
EMBOURGEOISEMENT - A shift to bourgeois values and practices. Embourgeoisement almost always refers to a shift by the working class, not the upper class.
FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION - The act of deciding if something is useless.
FUNZORIKAERU - To lean back comfortably with your feet up. (Japanese)
GARGALESTHESIA - A term given to the sensation caused by being tickled
HABSELIGKEITEN - A few simple belongings that have no value but mean a lot to someone for personal reasons (German)
HIPPOPOTOMONSTROSESQUIPPEDALIOPHOBIA - This is one of the longest words in the dictionary — and, in an ironic twist, is the name for a fear of long words. ... The fear or anxiety is disproportionate to the social situation. the fear or anxiety is persistent and the social situation is excessively avoided.
JIJIVISHA - This means the intense desire to live and to continue living to the fullest in the highest sense of being.
IKTSUARPOK - An Inuit word for that feeling of anticipation while waiting for someone to arrive at one’s house and meanwhile intermittently going outside to check for them and see if they’re there yet.
KAAPSHLJMURSLIS - A person who is cramped while riding public transportation. If you’ve ever been on a bus or subway during rush hour, then you know the feeling. (Latvian)
KAKORRHAPHIOPHOBIA - The fear of failure
KALVERLIEFDE - The temporary affection and infatuation of two young people in love (Dutch)
KAUKOKAIPUU -?It is a strong crave or long to travel to distant places, the yearning to be far away from where one is at the moment. (“kauko”=faraway; “kaipuu”=yearning). (Finnish)
LIBROCUBICULATIST - A person who reads in bed.
MAMIHLAPINATAPAI - Derived from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, this word is listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the “most succinct word”, and is considered one of the hardest words to translate. It means a silent yet meaningful look shared by two people who both want to initiate something but are both reluctant to do so.
MAMMOTHREPT - In the sixteenth century a mammothrept was a spoiled child.
MATUTOLYPEA - The sadness or irritation felt by some people when getting up in the morning; “getting up on the wrong side of the bed”
MONDSÜCHTIG - Is a person that is addicted to the night and especially looking at the moon. (German)
MYÖTÄHÄPEÄ - Refers to the shame experienced on behalf of another person, even though that person may not experience shame (often someone so ignorant to what they have done that they don’t know that they should be embarrassed for themselves). Regarded to as “vicarious embarrassment”, this is the embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation. (Finnish)
NAKAKAPANGHINAYANG - A feeling of regret for not having used something or not having take advantage of a situation; the feeling of encountering something you ought to preserve or keep but are afraid to take the risk of doing so, in fear of the regret you may experience later; “what a waste” (Filipino)
NUDIUSTERTIAN - Have you ever wished that you had a word for the day before yesterday? Now you do.
NYCHTHEMERON - A twenty-four-hour period
OMPHALOSKEPSIS - Contemplation of one's navel as an aid to meditation; also: lack of will to move, exert, or change: inertia.
PANAHIYABHADRA - A person whose excessive politeness leads him to be taken advantage of;
PAUCILOQUENT - It refers to someone who doesn’t say much or who, when giving a speech, gives a very short one.
POCHEMUCHKA - A person, often a child, who asks a lot of questions. This Russian word comes from “pochemu (почему)”, meaning “why.” A pochemuchka is a person who is asking “why?” all the time.
POLYPHILOPROGENITIVE - Extremely prolific; tending to produce offspring, or characterized by love of offspring
PULCHRITUDINOUS - Physically beautiful. It doesn’t sound beautiful does it?
QIANG JINGTOU - A fight by a cameraman / photographer for a vantage point or better position to take a picture; lit. “stealing the show” (Chinese)
QUOMODOCUNQUIZING - Refers to making money in any way that you can
RASTROPHILIOPUSTROCITY - A barrage of creative random thoughts, images, and ideas that spontaneously overwhelms the right brain - a creative spark - which is followed up by action by the left brain to create a eureka moment.
RAZLJUBÍT - The sentimental feeling you have for someone you once loved but no longer do. (Russian)
SEHNSUCHT. The inconsolable longing in the human heart for we know not what”; a high degree of intense, recurring, and often painful desire for something, particularly if there’s no hope to attain the desired or when its attainment is uncertain, still faraway; a yearning for a far, familiar, non-earthly land one can identify as one’s home. ”longing”, “yearning”, or “craving”, or in a wider sense a type of “intensely missing.”
SIGURISTA - Someone who makes sure everything goes to plan (Filipino)
TERGIVERSATION - Evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement, an equivocation
TRICHOTILLOMANIA - An abnormal desire to pull out one's hair
ULOTRICHOUS - This refers to people with curly hair.
VERSCHLIMMBESSERN - To make something worse with the well intentioned goal of making better. (German)
VORFREUDE - An emotion characterized by the expectation of a future positive event. Roughly translated to English as ’anticipation’, it is the joyful, intense anticipation that comes from imagining future pleasures. From ‘vor’ (similar to the English prefix pre) and 'Freude’ (joy, pleasure).
WALDEINSAMKEIT - A German word, literally translated as “woodland solitude”, and refers to the feeling of being alone in the woods - can be described as something wonderful, poetic, peaceful, calm, relaxed, and at one with nature
WISSENSDURST - The feeling one gets in craving an answer to a burning question or displaying curiosity, inquisitiveness or a unique desire to learn. This German word comes from “wissen” (knowledge) and “durst” (thirst).
YUÁNFÈN - The binding force which brings two people together in love. (Chinese)
YUIMARU - Means reciprocity or a warm-hearted, friendly and cooperative effort in sharing and helping each other (an Okinawan concept that is rooted in old work-sharing practices where all villagers cooperated to help each other planting or harvesting crops). (Japanese)
AGATHOKAKOLOGOCAL - Composed of both good and evil. (Greek)
ANACAMPSEROTE - Something that can bring back a lost love.
AYURNAMAT - The philosophy that there is no point in worrying about events that cannot be changed. (Inuit)
BACKPFEIFENGESICHT - A face that’s badly in need of a fist.The word Backpfeife means “punch/slap” (on the cheek/face) and Gesicht means “face”. The word Backpfeifengesicht therefore means something along the lines of “a face that’s begging to be slapped” – or punched. Or hurt. (German)
BÙGĀNJÌMÒ - To be unwilling to be lonely or overlooked; to seek to move forward from loneliness. (Chinese)
CACOETHES - It’s an urge to do something inadvisable
CACOETHES SCRIBENDI - The insatiable desire to write. Cacoēthes (“bad habit”, or medically, “malignant disease”) comes from the Greek kakóēthes. This phrase is derived from a line in the Satires of Juvenal: Tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes, or “the incurable desire (or itch) for writing affects many”. Cacoethes scribendi is a mania for writing, or writing regarded as an ingrained bad habit. (Latin)
CONSANGUINEOUS - Of the same blood or origin; specifically : descended from the same ancestor
DEIPNOPHOBIA - A morbid fear of dinner parties
DEXTROSINISTRAL - A left-handed person trained to use the right hand; from the Latin dexter, meaning right, and sinister, meaning left
ECDYSIAST - A striptease performer
EIGENGRAU - Translated as “intrinsic gray” / “own grey”), also called Eigenlicht (“intrinsic light”), dark light, or brain gray, eigengrau is a term for the uniform dark gray background that many people report seeing in the absence of light. It is the dark grey color seen by the eyes in perfect darkness, as a result of signals from the optic nerves.
EINFÜHLUNGSVERMÖGEN - Capacity for understanding; empathy
EMBOURGEOISEMENT - A shift to bourgeois values and practices. Embourgeoisement almost always refers to a shift by the working class, not the upper class.
FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION - The act of deciding if something is useless.
FUNZORIKAERU - To lean back comfortably with your feet up. (Japanese)
GARGALESTHESIA - A term given to the sensation caused by being tickled
HABSELIGKEITEN - A few simple belongings that have no value but mean a lot to someone for personal reasons (German)
HIPPOPOTOMONSTROSESQUIPPEDALIOPHOBIA - This is one of the longest words in the dictionary — and, in an ironic twist, is the name for a fear of long words. ... The fear or anxiety is disproportionate to the social situation. the fear or anxiety is persistent and the social situation is excessively avoided.
JIJIVISHA - This means the intense desire to live and to continue living to the fullest in the highest sense of being.
IKTSUARPOK - An Inuit word for that feeling of anticipation while waiting for someone to arrive at one’s house and meanwhile intermittently going outside to check for them and see if they’re there yet.
KAAPSHLJMURSLIS - A person who is cramped while riding public transportation. If you’ve ever been on a bus or subway during rush hour, then you know the feeling. (Latvian)
KAKORRHAPHIOPHOBIA - The fear of failure
KALVERLIEFDE - The temporary affection and infatuation of two young people in love (Dutch)
KAUKOKAIPUU -?It is a strong crave or long to travel to distant places, the yearning to be far away from where one is at the moment. (“kauko”=faraway; “kaipuu”=yearning). (Finnish)
LIBROCUBICULATIST - A person who reads in bed.
MAMIHLAPINATAPAI - Derived from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, this word is listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the “most succinct word”, and is considered one of the hardest words to translate. It means a silent yet meaningful look shared by two people who both want to initiate something but are both reluctant to do so.
MAMMOTHREPT - In the sixteenth century a mammothrept was a spoiled child.
MATUTOLYPEA - The sadness or irritation felt by some people when getting up in the morning; “getting up on the wrong side of the bed”
MONDSÜCHTIG - Is a person that is addicted to the night and especially looking at the moon. (German)
MYÖTÄHÄPEÄ - Refers to the shame experienced on behalf of another person, even though that person may not experience shame (often someone so ignorant to what they have done that they don’t know that they should be embarrassed for themselves). Regarded to as “vicarious embarrassment”, this is the embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation. (Finnish)
NAKAKAPANGHINAYANG - A feeling of regret for not having used something or not having take advantage of a situation; the feeling of encountering something you ought to preserve or keep but are afraid to take the risk of doing so, in fear of the regret you may experience later; “what a waste” (Filipino)
NUDIUSTERTIAN - Have you ever wished that you had a word for the day before yesterday? Now you do.
NYCHTHEMERON - A twenty-four-hour period
OMPHALOSKEPSIS - Contemplation of one's navel as an aid to meditation; also: lack of will to move, exert, or change: inertia.
PANAHIYABHADRA - A person whose excessive politeness leads him to be taken advantage of;
PAUCILOQUENT - It refers to someone who doesn’t say much or who, when giving a speech, gives a very short one.
POCHEMUCHKA - A person, often a child, who asks a lot of questions. This Russian word comes from “pochemu (почему)”, meaning “why.” A pochemuchka is a person who is asking “why?” all the time.
POLYPHILOPROGENITIVE - Extremely prolific; tending to produce offspring, or characterized by love of offspring
PULCHRITUDINOUS - Physically beautiful. It doesn’t sound beautiful does it?
QIANG JINGTOU - A fight by a cameraman / photographer for a vantage point or better position to take a picture; lit. “stealing the show” (Chinese)
QUOMODOCUNQUIZING - Refers to making money in any way that you can
RASTROPHILIOPUSTROCITY - A barrage of creative random thoughts, images, and ideas that spontaneously overwhelms the right brain - a creative spark - which is followed up by action by the left brain to create a eureka moment.
RAZLJUBÍT - The sentimental feeling you have for someone you once loved but no longer do. (Russian)
SEHNSUCHT. The inconsolable longing in the human heart for we know not what”; a high degree of intense, recurring, and often painful desire for something, particularly if there’s no hope to attain the desired or when its attainment is uncertain, still faraway; a yearning for a far, familiar, non-earthly land one can identify as one’s home. ”longing”, “yearning”, or “craving”, or in a wider sense a type of “intensely missing.”
SIGURISTA - Someone who makes sure everything goes to plan (Filipino)
TERGIVERSATION - Evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement, an equivocation
TRICHOTILLOMANIA - An abnormal desire to pull out one's hair
ULOTRICHOUS - This refers to people with curly hair.
VERSCHLIMMBESSERN - To make something worse with the well intentioned goal of making better. (German)
VORFREUDE - An emotion characterized by the expectation of a future positive event. Roughly translated to English as ’anticipation’, it is the joyful, intense anticipation that comes from imagining future pleasures. From ‘vor’ (similar to the English prefix pre) and 'Freude’ (joy, pleasure).
WALDEINSAMKEIT - A German word, literally translated as “woodland solitude”, and refers to the feeling of being alone in the woods - can be described as something wonderful, poetic, peaceful, calm, relaxed, and at one with nature
WISSENSDURST - The feeling one gets in craving an answer to a burning question or displaying curiosity, inquisitiveness or a unique desire to learn. This German word comes from “wissen” (knowledge) and “durst” (thirst).
YUÁNFÈN - The binding force which brings two people together in love. (Chinese)
YUIMARU - Means reciprocity or a warm-hearted, friendly and cooperative effort in sharing and helping each other (an Okinawan concept that is rooted in old work-sharing practices where all villagers cooperated to help each other planting or harvesting crops). (Japanese)
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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
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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
