Scobberlotch

A most satisfying word to roll around on the tongue. A verb meaning "to loaf around, doing nothing in particular", from Language Change: Progress or Decay? by Jean Aitchison (1981). I found this word thanks to a visit to my other blog, Nodamblog by author Karen Harrington's blog

Squabble

What people do when they disagree about allowable words in Scrabble.

Tingo

From "Toujours Tingo" by Adam Jacot de Boinod, tingo is a short, easily-remembered Easter Island word, and it means borrowing items one by one from a friend's house, until there are none left.

A "tingoing" friend is probably best avoided.

Snickleway

A Yorkshire word which means an alleyway. Wonderful, or what?

A snickleway

Photo courtesy of www.york360.co.uk

There was a picture of a Snickleway here, but it seems to have vanished, and despite putting in the code several times, it has remained vanished. Maybe Blogger is having a hissy fit, or something. :-(

Proletariat

The lowest social order, a rather horrid word in meaning, in my opinion, but quite pleasing to roll around in the mouth. :-)

Dopameme

A word invented by Diane Jacobs, which she has very kindly loaned to this blog. Thanks, Diane, I like it. :-)

Dopameme

Combination of the name of a neurotransmitter in the brain involved in feeling pleasure, "dopamine", and the term "meme" as coined by Richard Dawkins meaning a thought virus.

A "Dopameme" is a feel-good idea which:

1. forms part of a belief system (like "new age" notions or pseudo/antiscience)

2. keeps people from learning to see the world rationally

3. stubbornly persists through generations, because the emotional comfort or pleasure it provides the person who harbours it ensures it will be replicated frequently in that individual's brain and easily passed on to others via social and conversational contact

4. gets recycled endlessly through books sold at spiritual and self-help bookstores, thus helping support the economy, thus further ensuring its continued survival

wimperklimpernd

This is a delicious word that I found on Netty's German blog here: http://sternenhimmel.wordpress.com/.

Not understanding more than four words of German, of which wimperklimpernd is not one, I had to use translation tools to find the meaning. While Google Translate helpfully gave me the English translation as "wimperklimpernd", Reverso's delightful suggestion was "lash-tinkling". What a wonderful expression. :-)

Coincidence

Joe May of Big Rapids, Michigan, suggests this word for two reasons:

"1) It is how I found this blog.

2) When I was an English teacher, I took delight in any young reader who made an attempt to verbalize a word they had only seen in print. Naïve is one such commonly mispronounced word by novices. For me personally, it was the word coincidence. When I spoke the word for the first time in fourth grade, I said the word “coin” at the beginning. I now remember that incorrect articulation every time I see the word."



My word was "moustache", which for several years I pronounced as "moustake", and had no idea what it meant. :-)

Anybody else have some good ones?

Goomah

If ever there was a good reason for not becoming a mafioso's girlfriend, mistress or moll, this horribly ugly word is it.

Contumely

It's a misleading kind of word, because the -ly ending gives it the appearance of an adverb or adjective, when it is a noun, and means insolence, rudeness, or contempt.

To make it into an adverb or adjective, you cannot add -ly to the existing -ly, otherwise you'd end up with contumelyly, which looks odd and sounds silly.

Contumely's adjective is contumelious, and it's adverb is contumeliously.

Don't confuse it with contumacious, which is a different word entirely.

Jologs

Suggested by Lotus Flower: A Filipino colloquial word meaning "non-uppity types". Jologs may also mean "uncouth". Many thanks to Lotus Flower.

Further explanations from Urban Dictionary here.

Tchotchke

Sounds like a cross between a sneeze and a hiccup.

From the Yiddish, meaning a bauble or trinket.

A very long German word (80 letters)

DONAUDAMPFSCHIFFAHRTSELEKTRIZITAETEN-
HAUPTBETRIEBSWERKBAUUNTERBEAMTENGESELLSCHAFT

The word above means: "the club for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services" (name of a pre-war club in Vienna).

Please keep it in a safe place. I can only let you have the one copy. There should not be a hyphen, but without one I cannot fit the damn thing on the page.

Thanks to http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words11.html
which is the link to follow if you are after very, very long words.

Crap

I think most of us know what this one means.

Quixotic

As defined by the Merriam-Webster: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/quixotic

From Don Quixote -- Marked by rash, lofty, romantic ideals, or extravagantly chivalrous action, and also meaning capricious and unpredictable

Fludge

This is the first word that I have invented, so I am rather excited about it.

A fludge is the thick wodge of dog hair that accumulates under the door, and has to be poked out with a ruler or a piece of cardboard called a defludger.

The door was jammed with a black and white fludge; tutting, Annabelle made a defludger from a piece of cereal packet, and pushed the fludge free, before dropping it into the bin.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fludge&defid=0

Hidalgo

This word, meaning a minor Spanish noble, always conjures up for me a swashbuckling figure with a long bony nose, crow-black curly hair and bejewelled fingers, dressed in tight breeches and thigh-length boots, astride a prancing horse.

Plenipotentiary

I chose this grandiose word today because I like saying it. Not a word that can be fed into conversation too often, but very satisfying on the right occasion. From the Latin plenus, full and potens, power, it is both an adjective meaning something conferring full power, and a noun referring to a person who wields that full power.

Oligopoly

This is a most satisfying word to pronounce, and is much used by turkeys when conversing amongst themselves.

Listen to any group of turkeys, and you will hear them muttering "Oligopoly, oligopoly, oligopoly."

Meaning a market that is dominated by a very small number of sellers, the word comes from the Latin oligos, few, and polein, sell.


Anonymous says:

Oligo + Poly

Little + A lot

And it's completely Greek. It's used even today.

Thanks, Anonymous, for the correction.

Vespiary

A vespiary is another name for a nest of wasps or hornets. It comes from the Latin, vespa, meaning a wasp.

Puzzle

A bewildering or perplexing question (something with which I am currently struggling).

From the Middle English word opposal.

Kualanapuhi

A Hawaiian word, which describes an officer who keeps flies off a sleeping king by waving a feather brush.

Pangram

A sentence or phrase in which every letter of the alphabet appears. From the Greek pan, every and gramma, letter

Pangrams do not usually make much sense: A very bad quack might jinx zippy fowls.

More pangrams here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram

spendthrift

One who spends money foolishly, or extravagantly. From the Old English word "spenden".

A truly excellent example of a vowel-impoverished word, with only two out of eleven letters. Also notable for having five consonants together. I like it!

Onomatopoeia

A word which sounds like the action it is describing, like the hiss of a snake.

Twelve letters, and only 4 consonants!!

Comes from the Greek onoma meaning a name, and poiein, to make.

Diphthong

Another excellent nine letter word containing only two vowels. Meaning a union of two vowel sounds pronounced as one. From the Greek dis, meaning twice, and phthongos meaning sound.

Once

The thing that intrigues me about this word is why, if it is pronounced wunce, it is spelled once? Think how confusing it must be for foreigners.

Stere

A stere is a French unit of measurement of firewood equivalent to one cubic metre. From the Greek stereos, meaning solid.

Conjobble

Another lovable word - conjobble means to discuss, to arrange, or to settle. It's origins seem rather elusive, but never mind.

Bonnyclabber

What a beautiful word! Bonnyclabber, from the Irish bainne, meaning milk and clabar meaning mire.

Bonnyclabbar is milk that has turned sour, or a bizarre mixture made from beer and buttermilk.

Egregious

Egregious is a word which I particularly dislike. I dislike it because it looks ugly; it sounds ugly, and I always forget its diverse meanings, making it even more unlikeable. Meanings include: remarkable, prominent, distinguished, notable, absurd. From the Latin e, meaning out, and grex meaning a flock.

Fludge

A fludge is that wodge of dog hairs that collects beneath a door and has to be poked out with a ruler, or a stiff piece of card known as a defludger.

Kittyblog

A pointless and boring weblog, possibly about the owner's cat. From www.journalism.co.uk

Churnalism

Bad journalism; journalists that churn out rewrites of press releases. From the website of www.journalism.co.uk

Lede

Rhyming with "seed", lede is a word used in journalism, and refers to the first lines of an article. More on this unusual word here: Words@Random

Merry Christmas

Murgle

This is a word that I wanted to invent; unfortunately it had already been done. Learn about murgles and murgling at Leighton Cooke's blog and The Urban Dictionary

Pettitoes

This word, of unknown origin, means "the feet of a young pig".

Aunt Pettitoes was an elderly pig in Beatrix Potter's Tale of Pigling Bland.

Frust

The small line of debris that refuses to be swept onto the dust pan and keeps backing a person across the room until he finally decides to give up and sweep it under the rug.

Borrowed from: 20 Words That Should Exist

Ptochocracy

I love this word, and what it means: a government by beggars. From the Greek word ptochos, a beggar, and kratos, power.

Pleasing to pronounce, too. Tow-kok-ra-see

Fustanelle

Today I'm only selecting "F" words.

A fustanelle is the little white skirt that is a part of the Greek and Albanian national costume worn by the men. The word comes from the Italian fustagno, which means fustian

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Funambulate

To walk on a tightrope, from the Latin funis, a rope, and ambulare, to walk.


One who practises this art is called a funambulist

Flippertigibbet

Defined in the Collins English Dictionary 1972 edition as "a gossip; a flighty person; an imp." An invented word. But by whom was it invented???

Fleep

A contraction of "flying jeep", designed during Word War II. It never really took off.

Fledgling

I love this word for a baby bird! Nine letters, and only two vowels, yet easily pronounceable. It comes from the unpronounceable Old English word flycge, which means feathered.

Flagitious

Not easy to pronounce, especially if you have had a few drinks, this word of Latin origin means "shamefully criminal". Have a look at Worldwidewords weirdwords for a detailed explanation of this word.

Salaam aleikum, wa aleikum salaam

Salaam aleikum means ‘peace be upon you’. The reply is "wa aleikum salaam", meaning ‘peace be upon you too’.

I love this Arabic expression for its meaning and for the gently guttural pronunication.

There are many different ways that it is spelled in the Roman alphabet.

Pediculus

A grandiose word, on the same page as peccadillo, in the Collins English Dictionary 1972 edition. A pediculus is the Latin name for the unpleasant little creature more commonly called the body louse.

Peccadillo

A pleasantly satisfying word to say. From the Latin "peccare" meaning to sin, and the Spanish "pecado" meaning a sin. A peccadillo is a small sin.

Maridadi

Another Swahili word, derived from Arabic. Maridadi is an adjective which can be translated as fancy, pretty, attractive, elegant, beautiful.