By Joseph W. Smith III
This week, my running list of oddball vocabulary — now reaching back nearly two decades — notched exactly 2,422 terms, adding such outliers as cabochon, dendroglyph, haku, quaestor and marrowfat.
While I do sometimes simply take a stroll through one of my many hard-copy dictionaries, most of that list comes out of my own regular reading — with an occasional grab off of Jeopardy!, and sometimes even a “word of the day” from the estimable Dictionary.com (which, incidentally, provided most of the definitions below).
As Webb’s “Weird Words” nears its one-year anniversary, here are 12 more recent additions to my list:
Bouleversement (BOO-luh-verse-mahn, noun) – As reflected in its exotic pronunciation, this term is adopted directly from French. It means an overturning, convulsion, or turmoil.
Clapperclaw (KLAP-ur-claw, verb) – I encountered this in A Tangled Web, a solid but lesser-known novel from one of my go-to writers: the great Lucy Maud Montgomery. I felt certain it was regional dialect from LMM’s native Prince Edward Island, but it’s actually British slang. As for meaning: The term can refer to literal clawing & scratching, or more figuratively to scolding and reviling.
Cubeb (KYOO-beb, noun) – From Merriam-Webster: “the dried unripe berry of a tropical shrub (Piper cubeba) of the pepper family that is used as a spice.”
Diapsid (die-APP-sid, noun) – Many reptiles and birds (over 17,000, to be more precise) have two holes in each side of the skull — right behind the eyes. These animals are called diapsids — though the word can also be an adjective.
Etymologically, it draws on the common Latin base di, meaning “two” (dialog, dilemma, dioxide, etc.) and a Greek word-family involving apsis (a type of orbit) and apse — both of which, like the holes, have a somewhat circular shape.
Djellaba (jeh-LAH-buh, noun) – Also spelled gallabea, this is a “long, loose-fitting unisex outer robe or dress with full sleeves that is worn in the Maghreb region of North Africa.” That definition is from Wikipedia, which also offers pictures of both this and the diapsid.
Doddle (DODD-ul, noun) – Another instance of British slang, a doddle is any job or task that’s easily accomplished: “Man, that geography test sure turned out to be a doddle!”
Mycorrhiza (my-kuh-RIE-zuh, noun) – Also spelled with only one R, this word has one of those irritating definitions that leaves you feeling like you actually know less than before you looked it up: “a symbiotic association of the mycelium of a fungus, especially a basidiomycete, with the roots of certain plants, in which the hyphae form a closely woven mass around the rootlets or penetrate the cells of the root.” So, yeah: a mass of fungus around the root of a plant — or something.
And basidiomycete, which has an even more convoluted definition, just got added to my master list.
Pesewa (pay-SAY-wah, noun) – A bronze coin and monetary unit in the African nation of Ghana.
Proventriculus (pro-ven-TRIK-yuh-luss, noun) – The section of a bird’s stomach where food is partly digested before passing to the gizzard — the latter more formally called a ventriculus. I picked up this word during a recent bird-watching talk at James V. Brown Library. Not that it’s going to help me spot anything!
Pugree (PUG-ree, noun) – A light Indian turban. Also, a scarf (usually colored) which is wrapped around the hat and falls down the back, used as protection from the sun.
Selcouth (SELL-kooth, adj.) – This is an “archaic” or “obsolete” term — meaning we don’t really use it anymore. But you can if you want. Fittingly, it means “strange” or “uncommon,” and is related to the words seldom and uncouth.
OK — so maybe you don’t want to use this one.
Shandygaff (SHAN-dee-gaff, noun) – A “chiefly British” drink mixing beer and ginger beer. To which I say: Bottom’s up!
Next week, “Weird Words” plans to focus on numbers — in honor of this column’s one-year anniversary.
