Last week, our headline in this space was “Happy About Grumpy” — and I suppose for folks who aren’t dopey or sleepy, that might conjure up Snow White’s seven pals.

But there’s nothing dwarfish about our inspiration: a terrific used-book store in Liverpool, PA.

Nearly all of my readers have seen Grumpy’s Books — a large and well-marked yellow building on the right as you head down the Susquehanna toward Harrisburg on Route 15. It’s about 70 minutes from Williamsport, and well worth the trip.

On a recent visit, after waiting while an Amish or Mennonite family carted off more than $300 worth of books, I came away with four great picks — including Bryan Garner’s Dictionary of Modern American Usage, published in 1998.

I know that doesn’t exactly sound like awesome leisure reading; but it’s meat and potatoes for us here at “Weird Words,” where we major in the kind of nuts-and-bolts issues Garner handles: grammar, spelling, pronunciation and of course, the proper use of oft-confused words like flaunt and flout.

As it happens, Garner also covers a slew of oddball vocab; so in honor of my favorite PA place for used books, here are some from this latest acquisition:

Chitterlings (CHIT-linz, noun) – Pig intestines — especially when cooked as food. If you check the pronunciation, you’ll see this is the formal spelling of what’s better known as chitlins.

As food, it often involves the casing rather than the contents; but in the words of Wikipedia, even that process “necessitates rigorous washing” — as you can well imagine.

Corrigendum (kawr-uh-JEN-dum, noun) – An error to be corrected — like the somewhat better-known erratum (plural: errata). Corrigendum is related, as you may have guessed, to correct and right, containing pieces of both words.

In fact, a huge set of English words uses the Latin base rig. Meaning “straight, right, to rule,” it can also be spelled reg or rec(t) — generating such terms as rigid, rectangle, rectify, rigorous, regimen, erect, regulate, regent and of course incorrigible.

Defalcate (duh-FAL-kate [second syllable like pal], verb) – An archaic and now rare term meaning “deduct” or “curtail” (Merriam-Webster); but Garner focuses on its narrow and still-common legal sense: to embezzle or misappropriate funds. Can be a noun referring to the mishandled sum itself.

Garner also includes peculate, which means the same thing.

Eristic (i-RISS-tik, adj.) – “Given to or characterized by disputatious, often specious argument” (American Heritage). Specious, for the record, means lacking merit, or merely superficial in appeal.

Since this definition didn’t really do it for me — and because other sources don’t give quite the same meaning — I googled sample sentences for the word and got this: “His eristic approach to team meetings always turned simple project updates into heated, unproductive arguments.”

Oppugn (uh-PYOON, verb) – To question the validity or truth of something; to attack, criticize or dispute. Similar to impugn, with both words containing yet another Latin base: pug(n), meaning “fist, fight” — as in pugnacious, pugilist and even repugnant.

Whilom (WHY-lum, adj. and adv.) – Synonym for former — or formerly. As you may have guessed, it is related to while — as in erstwhile, which means the same thing. Whilom is now considered archaic, and you will likely encounter it only in older writings …

… like books you’d find at Grumpy’s!

Check their hours before planning a visit — and stop by here again next week for more weird words from Garner.