What interesting and obscure words can you contribute?

wilkie2006

For anyone who loves words, I think that you'll agree that any "Word of the Day"-type facilities consistently disappoint. Instead of presenting unusual and evocative terminology, these programmes tend to email you everyday words like: benevolent, fusion, typical, manipulate... etc.

As an antidote to this banality, let's share the unusual and evocative words we've encountered.

There are a few rules:
- Words should be English.
- Avoid really archaic words. Although I'm not suggesting that terms should always be practical, it's good to learn something one can use.
- Words shouldn't be too everyday. It's already easy to find these elsewhere.
- Let's not be too pedantic: Just write the word, whether it's a verb etc and its meaning.

Okay, I'll start:

Elucubration (noun): Studying or writing by candlelight

Antilles

Defenestration (noun): to throw somebody out a window

mathepac

Discombobulate - to confuse or shake one's self-assurance

wilkie2006

Antilles wrote: »

Defenestration (noun): to throw somebody out a window

I've come across that before. It's a good one!

Spanghew (verb): To cause a frog or toad to fly into the air, usually in a violent manner, such as from the end of a stick.

LordSutch

Serendipity.

"happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful, without looking for it.

BO-JANGLES

Capricious

Adjective: Given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior.


Synonyms: whimsical - wayward - fickle - freakish - crotchety

P. Breathnach

Heading towards obscurity, but worth saving: please.

paddyandy

Obfuscation it's like a plague these days ...and it's obliquely ubiquitous in all enterprises . I destroyed some leisure batteries recently because of obfuscated instructions ...exactly what the manufacturer wanted me to do .....no justice either .

MathsManiac

wilkie2006 wrote: »

...
There are a few rules:

... Although I'm not suggesting that terms should always be practical, it's good to learn something one can use.
ght

wilkie2006 wrote: »

Spanghew (verb): To cause a frog or toad to fly into the air, usually in a violent manner, such as from the end of a stick.

Great word. When next you get to use it in everyday speech or writing, please come back and tell us all about it!

This would be a great word for "Criminal Minds": I can imagine the BAU crowd asking the unsub's mammy: "When he was a child, did you ever see him spanghewing?"

Bannasidhe

ok - so they are a bit archiac but still great words:

Sootikin : A small, mouse-shaped deposit formed in the vaginal cleft, usually of poorer women who did not wear undergarments - common until the nineteenth century. A sootikin built up over several weeks, even months, of not washing. It was composed of particles of soot, dirt, sweat, smegma (qv) and vaginal and menstrual discharge. When it reached a certain size and weight, it tended to work loose and drop from under the woman's skirt.

Dandypratt: According to the Urban dictionary this means 'A little person; dwarf; midget; elf; etc.' But this isn't actually correct. A dandypratt was really someone suffering from 'small man syndrome'. A man of short stature who is full of his own self-importance. The word comes from a coin of the same name issued during the reign of Henry VIII which was very small, very ornate and worth feck all. The words 'dandy' and 'prat' both have their origins here.

wilkie2006

MathsManiac wrote: »

Great word. When next you get to use it in everyday speech or writing, please come back and tell us all about it!

This would be a great word for "Criminal Minds": I can imagine the BAU crowd asking the unsub's mammy: "When he was a child, did you ever see him spanghewing?"

Well, I probably should have added that it's only usually a frog:

Mirriam-Webster dictionary:
Spanghew : to throw violently into the air; esp : to throw (a frog) into the air from the end of a stick

When I posted the word I was thinking more along the lines of a schoolchild using a ruler to propel a rubber or something. Anyway, thanks for the pedantic post.

To get things back on track:

Minimifidian (noun): A person who has the bare minimum of faith (in something)

mathepac

Verismilitude - the appearance or semblance of truth

pickarooney

Bannasidhe wrote: »

ok - so they are a bit archiac but still great words:

Sootikin : A small, mouse-shaped deposit formed in the vaginal cleft, usually of poorer women who did not wear undergarments - common until the nineteenth century. A sootikin built up over several weeks, even months, of not washing. It was composed of particles of soot, dirt, sweat, smegma (qv) and vaginal and menstrual discharge. When it reached a certain size and weight, it tended to work loose and drop from under the woman's skirt.

Has there ever been a word in any language whose sound and meaning are so diametrically opposed?

slowburner

Bannasidhe wrote: »

ok - so they are a bit archiac but still great words:

Sootikin : A small, mouse-shaped deposit formed in the vaginal cleft, usually of poorer women who did not wear undergarments - common until the nineteenth century. A sootikin built up over several weeks, even months, of not washing. It was composed of particles of soot, dirt, sweat, smegma (qv) and vaginal and menstrual discharge. When it reached a certain size and weight, it tended to work loose and drop from under the woman's skirt.

Dandypratt: According to the Urban dictionary this means 'A little person; dwarf; midget; elf; etc.' But this isn't actually correct. A dandypratt was really someone suffering from 'small man syndrome'. A man of short stature who is full of his own self-importance. The word comes from a coin of the same name issued during the reign of Henry VIII which was very small, very ornate and worth feck all. The words 'dandy' and 'prat' both have their origins here.

I came across this in Vol 2 of the big book from Oxford;
Sooterkin. Now rare 1530. 1. Sweetheart, mistress.
2. An imaginary kind of afterbirth formerly attributed to Dutch women 1658.

The definition goes on with this example;
2. There goes a Report of the Holland Women, that together with their Children,
they are delivered of a sooterkin, not unlike to a Rat,
which some imagine to be the Off-spring of the Stoves 1658
c. Fruits of dull Heat, and Sooterkins of Wit. Pope

slowburner

Thwaite (n)
A piece of ground cleared from a forest or wasteland.
It survives in the names many English towns, hinting at their origins.

Archaic and obscure but probably quite useful.

Bannasidhe

slowburner wrote: »

I came across this in Vol 2 of the big book from Oxford;
Sooterkin. Now rare 1530. 1. Sweetheart, mistress.
2. An imaginary kind of afterbirth formerly attributed to Dutch women 1658.

The definition goes on with this example;
2. There goes a Report of the Holland Women, that together with their Children,
they are delivered of a sooterkin, not unlike to a Rat,
which some imagine to be the Off-spring of the Stoves 1658
c. Fruits of dull Heat, and Sooterkins of Wit. Pope

I first encountered it in letter written by a late Stuart period wag (before that word had any connection to people who have intimate relationships with people who kick a ball for a living ) describing an encounter with Queen Ann - he claimed when she arose from the throne she did leave a sootikin upon the floor of majestic size (I love the stuff you can find in the British Library:D). It could well have been an import from Dutch - the time period fits - whose meaning was 'adapted'. This would account for the slight change in spelling from sooterkin to sootikin.

Dandypratt, for example, I found in a letter written by John Perrot (Lord Deputy of Ireland at the time) where he was ranting about Richard Bingham (slowburner has encountered Bingham before, but for others he was the Elizabethan President of Connacht) where he described him as, among other things, a dandypratt.

It's a bit like us calling someone a 'plank' or a 'donkey' - dictionaries will tend to give the literal definition but are slow to include colloquial usages. Plus meanings change. When wag first began to be used to mean 'WAGs (or Wags) is an acronym, used particularly by the British tabloid press, to describe the wives and girlfriends of high-profile footballers, originally the England national football team' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAGs I was very confused as I thought it meant

wag noun
1
: wit, joker
2
obsolete : a young man : chap
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wag?show=2&t=1327756913

who liked to:

Definition of WAG

intransitive verb

3
: to move in chatter or gossip <scandal caused tongues to wag>

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wag

I, not being a tabloid or glossy magazine reader, was completely at a loss as to what the hell people were talking about - my 72 year old mother explained it to me :rolleyes:.

slowburner

That's how I would think of a wag: a person with a foppish, pithy, droll sort of wit.
But I am not quite 72.

....when she arose from the throne she did leave a sootikin upon the floor of majestic size
How regal.

franc 91

A halberdier - a soldier armed with a halberd (don't laugh - the Swiss Guards still use them to defend the Pope)

slowburner

and I'll raise you a bombardier.

Dobbs: I]Over the radio[/I Help him! Help him!
Yossarian: Help who?
Dobbs: Help the bombardier!
Yossarian: I'm the bombardier, I'm all right.
Dobbs: Then help HIM, help HIM!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065528/quotes

P. Breathnach

I'll see that with a grenadier.

slowburner

Cards on the table,
Halberdier, Bombardier, Grenadier and Fusilier - 2 pairs?

P. Breathnach

I'd call it four of a straight: you're looking for a petardier.

slowburner

Fold.

Bannasidhe

I raise you all a dragoon.

P. Breathnach

My lancer will see off your dragoon. And I'll raise by a fencible.

Bannasidhe

P. Breathnach wrote: »

My lancer will see off your dragoon. And I'll raise by a fencible.

My mangonel has trumped your fencible.

P. Breathnach

Upping the stakes, eh?

I'll play a balestra.

Don Booker

Fop - As in guy who fancies himself.
Think Hugh Grant.

Bannasidhe

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Upping the stakes, eh?

I'll play a balestra.

I'll see your balestra and raise you a destrier.

P. Breathnach

my trebuchet knocks out your destrier.

Bannasidhe

P. Breathnach wrote: »

my trebuchet knocks out your destrier.

Your trebuchet got stuck in the postern rendering it useless.

P. Breathnach

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Your trebuchet got stuck in the postern rendering it useless.

I'm forever getting it snagged in the portcullis.

OwaynOTT

That snagging can be seen through the machicolations of the parapet.

Bannasidhe

OwaynOTT wrote: »

That snagging can be seen through the machicolations of the parapet.

There is quite a good view from the Bartizan as well - that trebuchet is stuck fast.

riffmongous

Pusillanimous - showing a lack of courage

(heard it in the simpsons!)

P. Breathnach

riffmongous wrote: »

Pusillanimous - showing a lack of courage...

There has been no lack of courage in this thread, and to suggest that there has been is temerarious.

OwaynOTT

Bannasidhe wrote: »

There is quite a good view from the Bartizan as well - that trebuchet is stuck fast.

The crenels offer a good place to view the trebuchet's current predicament.

MyKeyG

- Avoid really archaic words. Although I'm not suggesting that terms should always be practical, it's good to learn something one can use.

Good to know everyone is following the rules:rolleyes:

OwaynOTT

MyKeyG wrote: »

Good to know everyone is following the rules:rolleyes:

Ah now your being all persnickety.

Cavehill Red

To Scomber: to narrowly avoid stepping in ****, usually that of a fox. Etym. from scomb, meaning fox excrement, which may be cognate with our modern scum.

This was a good thing to do, since if you stepped in fox****, that could put the hounds off the chase during the hunt.

A few pals of mine use this word extensively in the wider sense of avoiding ending up in the (metaphorical) ****.

Edit: Oh, ffs! The puritan server is trying to censor the word s-h-i-t.

Bannasidhe

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Ah now your being all persnickety.

In fairness, it was perspicacious of him to notice.

slowburner

While I'm in the 'A' section of the big, big book (Vol.I), here are two relatively silly ones:

Argle - to dispute or bandy words about.
P.Breathnach had an argle with Bannasidhe (or vice versa), for example.
This is the root word of the misrepresented 'argie-bargie'. It should actually be 'argle-bargle'.

And who would have thought this correct?

Argufy - To prove something by argument.
'I argufied the point and I won.'

Oops, reading the definition more carefully, I notice that it is attributed to the illiterate :eek:.
But this reminds me of someone I once heard in the south-east who wrote: 'I asked him to "rightify" the situation'.
This probably needs no translation.

franc 91

rectifier

OwaynOTT

Masticate- to chew

tac foley

Runcible spoon - a large serving spoon with holes to allow liquid to drain from it.

tac

Bannasidhe

tac foley wrote: »

Runcible spoon - a large serving spoon with holes to allow liquid to drain from it.

tac

I have one of those but never knew it's name. I shall enjoy saying 'pass the runcible spoon please.'

OwaynOTT

diphthong - an unsegmentable, gliding speech sound, held to be a single sound and identified by its apparent beginning and ending sound, as the oi sound of toy or boil.

Make sure to diphthongize spoon to it full effect.

paddyandy

Bertification .It's not a lie but it is'nt the truth either .

tac foley

Plinth.

It just sounds so odd, as though it is a word spoken by an unfortunate person with two different forms of speech difficulty.

'Plinth of Waleth'.....

tac

franc 91

That reminds me of an Eng. Lit. lesson we had at school, when we had to define - empathy - someone immediately came up with the answer - it's a thigarette, Bro.

slowburner

.......or the two Oxford freshmen making small talk about which courses they were going to do.
'Ethics?'
'No, Suthex, actually.'