words words

Included here only because of its interest to abecedarians, being the only remotely deprecatory adjective know to the author that begins with x.

P

Peculate v.

Esurient a.

Never say marzipan; always say marchpane.

D

Defenestration n.

"We act on the authority of the deputy secretary of the antepenultimate governor."

Alopecia n.

A word that is neologism's paradigm and justification.

To befuddle or mess up.

To pilfer or embezzle.

Otherwise known as Lexicographer's Curse.

Total refreshment; revival or revitalization.

Skulduggery n.

The opposite of serendipity, the faculty of making unhappy, unlucky and unexpected discoveries by design; the inexorable discovery of what we don't what to know.

Thus "skulduddery" and its eighteenth-century of "unchastity" will enable you to add a little life to this somewhat tired pejorative.

To hibernate.

Not connected etymologically with graceful, but the obvious similarity in spelling inevitably has its effect on the impression conveyed, which is thus one of graceful slender."

Quick Jumps: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
F

Fabulist n.

A medical term used of illnesses, a patient's morbid condition or disease, etc.

How appalling to suffer from both simultaneously!

To pilfer or embezzle.

Flagitious a.

Very multicultural.

Nothing to do with dragons, but an interpreter/guide; one who, in Middle Eastern countries, in the days when the Englishman's castle was never his home, insulated the visiting Old Etonian from the milling autochthons and insured that the former's jodhpur-filled portmanteaus reached more or less the same destinations as he did.

Rhymes rather nicely with prurient and luxuriant.

The verb can also be transitive, meaning to make someone else grow dull or stupid -- a sense of which it is hard to conceive an example except perhaps for the action upon the mind of prolonged exposure to radio talk shows.

The correction of a neurotic state.

The derivation is from Aeaeae, which was a surname of the legendary pig-fancier Circe and the name of a small island off the coast of Italy, said to have been her place of abode.

"If it turns out to be a girl, have you thought of giving her one of those lovely, mellifluous, ancient Greek names?

Triviality, futility.

Carping, destructive criticism.

A word that is neologism's paradigm and justification.

An elegant euphemism for liar.

The last but two; penultimate is last but one.

Ridiculously pompous, bombastic, or inflated language.

A pathological yearning for the good old days.

The essence of fustian is not the use of big or exotic words but the adoption of a declamatory style that is unsuited, by virtue of its high-flown and flowery imagery, or its grandiose delivery, to the purposes for which it is being employed.

You might so refer to your Uncle Enderby's cranial structure.

Should be used in relation to the more tiresome antics of your office comedian.

A pathological yearning for the good old days.

The continual reiteration of the same words or phrases in speech or writing.

One of those words whose lack of wider currency seems underserved and puzzling in the light of its wide potential for application to television commercials, sales pitches by car and encyclopedia vendors, spouse's homilies, etc.

Suggested for use instead as a faintly perjorative descriptive for your less savory acquaintances.

Slothful, shirking work or duty.

To whine; to pout, or show petulance by facial grimaces.

Sluglike, having to do with slugs.

Perplexing, puzzling.

A prank or joke.

The quality or state of being given to gluttony.

The unsavory Barmecide was dealt with appropriately by Fate: his family became so magnificent that they aroused the enmity of th e Caliph, who imprisoned or executed them; and the name of Barmecide himself has become synonymous with deceit, illusion, hypocrisy, and the proffering of bounty only to withhold it until the profferer's terms are met.

A boundary to a park or garden, usually in the form of a fence sunk in a ditch.

The essence of fustian is not the use of big or exotic words but the adoption of a declamatory style that is unsuited, by virtue of its high-flown and flowery imagery, or its grandiose delivery, to the purposes for which it is being employed.

Slothful, shirking work or duty.

Feigning death to deter an aggressor.

Atrocious, heinous, appallingly wicked.

Carping, destructive criticism.

Barmecide's little jape consisted of presenting Schacabac with a succession of grandly served courses, amid all the trappings of luxury -- ornate bowls and dishes, magnificent table-settings, and so on -- the catch being that there was no actual food in any of the receptacles placed before the hapless guest.

Nothing to do with dragons, but an interpreter/guide; one who, in Middle Eastern countries, in the days when the Englishman's castle was never his home, insulated the visiting Old Etonian from the milling autochthons and insured that the former's jodhpur-filled portmanteaus reached more or less the same destinations as he did.

The derivation is from Aeaeae, which was a surname of the legendary pig-fancier Circe and the name of a small island off the coast of Italy, said to have been her place of abode.

The opposite of "eulogy."

A pack of phantom hounds pursuing a lady.

Word derived from Zembla, an barren, frigid Artic island -- Nova Zembla -- the site of a nuclear facility now used for testing non-nuclear explosives.

Why the ancients should have chosen the breath of the gods or muses -- rather than their touch, voice, etc. -- as the means of communicating super-human knowledge or creativity is not quite clear.

To whine; to pout, or show petulance by facial grimaces.

To whine; to pout, or show petulance by facial grimaces.

A pack of phantom hounds pursuing a lady.

Stormy, tempestuous.

Function of a teenager during that part of the morning when papers are being brought in, cats being fed, garbage cans put out, digital clocks being reset after overnight power failures, etc., etc.

"Is Simon's zoanthropy improving at all, now that he's a sophomore?"

Feigning death to deter an aggressor.

An explanation which is even more obscure than the thing it purports to explain.

"How extremely quisquous!: you declare, as you pore over the chessboard.

Perplexing, puzzling.

Et Hoc Genus Omne phr.

It is believed that most cases can be traced back to a specific traumatic incident involving enforced exposure to the genre in concentrated form, e.g., a junior secondary school pupil being compelled to study a Shakespeare play or a Literary Editor being compelled to act as judge in a newspaper poetry competition.

Atrocious, heinous, appallingly wicked.

Ridiculously pompous, bombastic, or inflated language.

Ante-Jentacular a.

The opposite of serendipity, the faculty of making unhappy, unlucky and unexpected discoveries by design; the inexorable discovery of what we don't what to know.

Barmecide's little jape consisted of presenting Schacabac with a succession of grandly served courses, amid all the trappings of luxury -- ornate bowls and dishes, magnificent table-settings, and so on -- the catch being that there was no actual food in any of the receptacles placed before the hapless guest.

A member of a wealthy Persian family, he decided to amuse himself one night by inviting one Schacabac, a wretched, starving beggar, to a sumptuous meal.

The unsavory Barmecide was dealt with appropriately by Fate: his family became so magnificent that they aroused the enmity of th e Caliph, who imprisoned or executed them; and the name of Barmecide himself has become synonymous with deceit, illusion, hypocrisy, and the proffering of bounty only to withhold it until the profferer's terms are met.

Useful for unscrupulous players of parlor word-games.

Misheard song lyrics.

The art of the latter should be materially advanced by the lore contained in this book, and could well be cultivated by the Superior Person along with the arts of charientism, and parisology.

Insincere benefactor; one who holds out illusory offers, or who promises but does not deliver.

Not a particularly common disorder, but its mere existence compensates, at least in part, for the fact that so many cats suffer from the delusion that they have become humans.

Not connected etymologically with graceful, but the obvious similarity in spelling inevitably has its effect on the impression conveyed, which is thus one of graceful slender."

Should be used in relation to the more tiresome antics of your office comedian.

The exaggeration of one's own importance.

The unsavory Barmecide was dealt with appropriately by Fate: his family became so magnificent that they aroused the enmity of th e Caliph, who imprisoned or executed them; and the name of Barmecide himself has become synonymous with deceit, illusion, hypocrisy, and the proffering of bounty only to withhold it until the profferer's terms are met.

Crazy, senseless, lunatic.

How appalling to suffer from both simultaneously!

An emotional state characterized by futile attempts at humor.

It is believed that most cases can be traced back to a specific traumatic incident involving enforced exposure to the genre in concentrated form, e.g., a junior secondary school pupil being compelled to study a Shakespeare play or a Literary Editor being compelled to act as judge in a newspaper poetry competition.

Suitable for cursing under the guise of blessing.

Slender.

Presumably love.

"I'm sorry, Janita, but I'll have to refrain from indulging in the jellied lambs' brains; I have this medical problem, you see -- I'm a monoglot, and .

The common brant (a kind of goose).

A morbid dread of poetry.

Useful for unscrupulous players of parlor word-games.

Word derived from Zembla, an barren, frigid Artic island -- Nova Zembla -- the site of a nuclear facility now used for testing non-nuclear explosives.

Sufferers from this condition, rejoice!

I've always found them utterly indocible."

Having an amiable, comfort-loving temperament of the kind normally associated with endomorphy.

To grow dull or stupid.

The essence of fustian is not the use of big or exotic words but the adoption of a declamatory style that is unsuited, by virtue of its high-flown and flowery imagery, or its grandiose delivery, to the purposes for which it is being employed.

In childhood, she misheard the last line of an old Scottish ballad called "The Bonny Earl of Murray," and thought it went: "They hae slain the Earl of Murray, And Lady Mondegreen."

She was subsequently disappointed to learn the last line was actually: "And hae laid him on the green."

Walking around fruit trees praying for a good crop.

While dining out with your beloved, you might suddenly put down your knife and fork, gasp, strike your forehead with your hand, lean forward tensely, and say, in unconcealed agitation: "I think I've just had an afflatus!"

The unsavory Barmecide was dealt with appropriately by Fate: his family became so magnificent that they aroused the enmity of th e Caliph, who imprisoned or executed them; and the name of Barmecide himself has become synonymous with deceit, illusion, hypocrisy, and the proffering of bounty only to withhold it until the profferer's terms are met.

"We act on the authority of the deputy secretary of the antepenultimate governor."

The essence of fustian is not the use of big or exotic words but the adoption of a declamatory style that is unsuited, by virtue of its high-flown and flowery imagery, or its grandiose delivery, to the purposes for which it is being employed.

The art of the latter should be materially advanced by the lore contained in this book, and could well be cultivated by the Superior Person along with the arts of charientism, and parisology.

At last -- the word we all wanted, to describe the way we feel five minutes after waking up in the morning when we realize that we are about to recall yesterday's unresolved problems.

There are two forms -- the unintended and the intended.

In relation to rock formations, the term specifically means sloping down in every direction from a more or less central tip.

Morbid or fanatical zeal; jealousy.

Try it if you wish, but the author can only say that he has found swearing, abuse, and threats of extreme violence to be more effective.

This kind of recognition error was coined by Sylvia Wright in 1954.

The preferred usage is metaphorical, of a person's general character, rather than literal, of his eating habits.

A beautiful word meriting revivification.

Exceedingly wicked.

"Say no more old chap -- your logic is unthirlable."

Idle or resting.

If taken to task for using it in such circumstances, you say: "Well, yes, strictly speaking it is foreign, I suppose -- at least in origin -- but, surely, it's a word everyone knows, isn't it?"

A member of a wealthy Persian family, he decided to amuse himself one night by inviting one Schacabac, a wretched, starving beggar, to a sumptuous meal.

Carping, destructive criticism.

"Most impressed by your clever son's matriculation results, Ivy!

It is believed that most cases can be traced back to a specific traumatic incident involving enforced exposure to the genre in concentrated form, e.g., a junior secondary school pupil being compelled to study a Shakespeare play or a Literary Editor being compelled to act as judge in a newspaper poetry competition.

Etymologically quite distinct from "speculate," but many do both while under the impression that they are doing only the one or the other.

Revival after apparent death; reanimation after a coma so deep that all the vital signs have become imperceptible.

"No, darling, of course I'm quite happy for you to choose the color scheme.

Suggested for use instead as a faintly perjorative descriptive for your less savory acquaintances.

Growing worse or more severe.

Thus: "My husband's alopecia is very bad this morning, Mr. Purbright; I'm afraid I may not be able to get in to the office before about eleven o'clock."

One degree worse than an Indian Giver, since the latter at least delivers the goods, even if he does expect to get them back again, with interest.

It is believed that most cases can be traced back to a specific traumatic incident involving enforced exposure to the genre in concentrated form, e.g., a junior secondary school pupil being compelled to study a Shakespeare play or a Literary Editor being compelled to act as judge in a newspaper poetry competition.