Here at Webb’s Weird Words, oddball vocab is our stock-in-trade.
Articles on these usually come from my sprawling list of terms encountered in my nonstop reading.
But lately, we haven’t done many of these randomly chosen selections; this is due in part to busyness, but also to thematic groupings — like “sailing words,” in honor of summer 2025.
So getting back to regular business (not “busy-ness”), here’s a handful from my collection:
Aardwolf (ARD-wolf, noun) – “A striped, hyenalike mammal of southern and eastern Africa that feeds chiefly on insects.” Yes, this is related to both “aardvark” and “wolf,” with the aard root being a Dutch term for “earth.” (Dictionary.com)
Bullroarer (BULL-rore-ur, noun) – I know, I know, it sounds like another creature — maybe a noisy frog … or a Hobbit (it’s the name of an older one in Lord of the Rings). But actually, the bull-roarer is a musical instrument! Dating from the Paleolithic period, it’s “a piece of wood attached to a string, which when swung in a large circle produces a roaring vibration sound.”
That definition is from Wikipedia, which offers several photos of this handy device — plus a video, with sound!
Coontie (KOON-tee, noun) – One of several evergreen species found in Florida, Mexico and the West Indies, this tree “yields a starch resembling arrowroot.” Taken from the Florida Creek indigenous language, the coontie is also called “Florida arrowroot” or “Seminole bread.” (American Heritage)
Cosh (pronounced like “gosh”; noun) – British term for a blackjack or bludgeon; as a verb, it means to hit someone over the head with this.
Ouchie.
Exophthalmia (eck-soff-THAL-mee-yuh, noun) – Abnormal protrusion of the eyeball due to disease (Winston Dictionary). Also called exophthalmos.
Gmelina (GMELL-uh-nuh, noun) – “A small genus of Australasian trees and shrubs with simple leaves and panicled tubular flowers.” I was hoping for some guidance in how to pronounce “gm” as one syllable, but I’m not getting much help from my dictionaries.
And as for “panicled” — another word that was new to me — well, a panicle is “a pyramidal loosely branched flower cluster.”
These definitions are from Merriam-Webster, which also gives “panicle” as: “a compound racemose inflorescence.”
Um, yeah — you’re on your own with that one.
Katabatic (cat-uh-BAT-ick, adj.) – From katabasis, meaning “downward march,” this adjective describes “a wind or air current moving down a slope” (Random House Collegiate).
I first encountered this term when reading about the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident, in which several experienced Russian hikers were found dead in a remote icy region — in temperatures nearing 50 below. Some were virtually naked, and some showed evidence of blunt-force trauma; it was later discovered that they had cut their way out of their own tent. Trust me — this is flat-out one of the most baffling unsolved mysteries ever. See Donnie Eichar’s book Dead Mountain.
Overmorrow (OH-vur-more-oh, noun) – The day after tomorrow.
Pommy (PAH-mee, noun) – Sometimes capitalized, this is a generally disparaging or offensive term for an Englishman — esp. one who has immigrated into Australia or New Zealand (it’s a slang term native to those regions). It can be shortened to just pom.
As for its origin, that is just too good to resist: It’s short for “pomegranate,” a whimsical alteration of “Jimmy Grant,” which is in turn rhyming slang for “immigrant.” Talk about “weird”!
Slumgullion (SLUM-gull-yun, noun) – Inexpensive hash or stew. The exhaustive Collins adds that it can also designate offal (esp. refuse from whale blubber) or reddish mud from mines. I don’t know about you, but those secondary meanings don’t make me eager to try the cheap hash. Blech.
