December 2008
76 posts
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
noun • a hypothetical, invented disease of the lungs, caused by inhaling mineral or metallic dust, such as silicon and quartzite, over a long period of time.
Notes: This is the longest word ever to appear in a major English dictionary.
Lesser known Latin phrases →
dolorifuge
noun • something to drive away pain
lugubrious
adjective • gloomy, mournful or dismal, especially to an exaggerated degree
From the Latin lugubris (mournful)
The New York Times Buzzwords of 2008 →
“Malus”—the opposite of a bonus—is this Word Journaler’s favorite.
omphaloskepsis
noun • the contemplation of one’s navel as an aid to meditation; navel-gazing.
nescience
noun • 1) lack of knowledge or awareness; ignorance. 2) agnosticism.
Edit: The agnostic sense of the term stems from a specialized use of the adjective nescient in philosophy, so aside from that particular context, nescience just means ignorance.
anhedonia
noun • loss of the capacity to experience pleasure; the inability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences.
wittol
noun • a man who knows of, and tolerates, his wife’s infidelity
mammatocumulus
noun • a cumulus or cumulostratus storm cloud having breast-shaped protuberances below.
Images: here and here.
misopaedia
noun • hatred of children, especially one’s own.
birl
verb • to cause (a floating log) to spin rapidly by rotating with the feet.
wetware
noun • the human brain or a human being considered especially with respect to human logical and computational capabilities.
Derived analogically from hardware and software.
tittle
noun • 1) a small diacritic mark, such as an accent, vowel mark, or dot over an “i”. 2) a very small amount; an iota.
The American Heritage Dictionary Usage Notes Index →
Fascinating: “A majority of the Panelists also rejects the verb man when used to refer to an activity performed by women. Fifty-six percent of the Panel (61 percent of the women and 54 percent of the men) disapprove of the sentence Members of the League of Women Voters will be manning the registration desk.”
amuse-bouche
noun • any small bite of food or appetizer-sized portion, often served before a meal.
Notes: A literal translation of the French word is “mouth-amuser”. An amuse-bouche is also called an “amuse-gueule”. Though “gueule” is slang for “mouth”, it literally refers to an animal-mouth: “animal-mouth-amuser”.
List of English Reduplicatives →
Reduplication is a morphological process by which the root or stem of a word, or part of it, is repeated. Examples of reduplication: hoity-toity, Joe Schmoe, hip-hop, chit-chat, and no-no. This list sorts them into the following types: Type I are rhyming pairs, Type II are ablaut pairs (the vowel changes and consonants remain unchanged), and Type III are total reduplications.
de novo
adverb • anew, afresh, again, from the beginning.
anodyne
adjective • a) serving to relieve pain, soothing. b) not likely to offend, bland, innocuous.
keelhaul
verb • a) to haul under the keel of a ship (a severe form of maritime corporal punishment). b) to rebuke sharply.
Wikipedia: List of English words of Yiddish origin →
videlicet
adverb • that is; namely; to wit.
Notes: Used to introduce examples, lists, or items. Abbreviated “viz”. Derives from vidēre licet (“it may be seen, evidently, clearly”).
moppet
noun • a young child
opsimath
noun • one who begins or continues to learn later in life
shittah
noun • the tree that yielded the shittimwood of the bible, probably a species of acacia
chawbacon
noun • bumpkin, hick
hebetude
noun • lethargy, dullness
bifurcate
verb • to divide or cause to divide into two branches or parts.
druthers
noun • a choice or preference
Derives from the phrase “(I)’d rather”.
phlyarologist
noun • a person who talks nonsense
Merriam-Webster's 10 Words of the Year 2008 →
redamancy
noun • the act of loving in return
chleuasmos
noun • a sarcastic reply that mocks an opponent and renders him unable to answer.
solecism
noun • a) a grammatical mistake in speech or writing. b) a breach of good manners; a piece of incorrect behavior.
alienist
noun • a) (obsolete) a doctor specializing in the treatment of mental illness; a psychiatrist. b) an expert witness in a sanity trial.
logomachy
noun • a) a dispute about or concerning words. b) a dispute carried on in words only; a battle of words.
haplology
noun • the elimination of a syllable in a pair of adjacent identical or similar syllables.
For example, probably is often reduced to “probly”, and idolatry is derived from Latin idololatria. A joke in linguistics is to refer to the phenomenon as “haplogy” (thus subjecting haplology to haplology).
dactylonomy
noun • the art of numbering or counting by the fingers
fucivorous
adjective • eating, or subsisting on, seaweed.
sibylline
adjective • a) of or pertaining to a sibyl or female oracle, especially the Cumaean Sibyl and the Sibylline Books. b) (by extension) having oracle-like predicting powers, clairvoyant.
korinthenkacker
noun • someone overly concerned with trivial details; a rules freak. (from German, literally “raisin crapper.”)
pejorist
noun • one who believes the world is becoming worse
ameliorate
verb • to make better, to improve; to heal; to solve a problem.
From Latin melior (“better”)
repullulescent
adjective • reviving, springing up afresh
tranche
noun • a portion of something, esp. money
lexiphanic
adjective • using pretentious words
uxorious
adjective • having or showing an excessive or submissive fondness for one’s wife.
quotidian
adjective • a) daily; occurring or recurring every day. b) common, ordinary, trivial.
c) an intermittent fever or ague which returns every day. e.g. malaria (medical). d) in art criticism, art works which reference mundane aspects of everyday life, or something that is a very temporary phenomenon that will date the work.
From Latin quotīdiānus (“everyday”)
feague
verb • to stick a piece of raw ginger (or a live eel) into a horse’s rectum so as to make it seem more lively when it is being sold.
brachycephalic
adjective • having a relatively broad, short skull (usually with the breadth at least 80 percent of the length).