Last week in this space, we launched a new weekly feature for Webb — the aptly named “World of Weird Words,” selected from hundreds of oddball terms on a list I’ve been amassing since 2005.
With my lengthy intro to the series, I had room for only seven entries in that first piece; herewith, I offer ten more to help you bloviate, bamboozle, or — if you are a writer like me — confusticate your editor.
All are culled from my own reading and chitchat — or should I say, “palaver;” they’re verifiable at the trustworthy dictionary.com, though I occasionally resort to my own weighty collection of 55 different English dictionaries. (Yep, I’m officially a nerd.)
This week’s list:
Absquatulate (ab-SKWATCH-oo-late; verb) To run off and hide — as in, “He absquatulated with my Pop-Tart!” What a great word! Despite its familiar prefix and suffix, it’s actually invented slang with no official etymology — otherwise known as “pseudo-Latin” or “mock Latin.”
Defenestration (dee-fen-uh-STRAY-shun; noun) The act of jumping out the window; for instance, “There’s been too much defenestration around here lately.” Francophiles may recognize its relation to “fenetre,” French for “window.”
Dik-dik (DIK-dik; noun) A small African antelope, reaching only 14 inches in height. It’s all but impossible to compose a serious-sounding sentence with this word.
Gleet (gleet; noun) Thin, disgusting ooze, as from a wound; also, a type of gonorrhea. One of my dictionaries classifies this as a “mucopurulent discharge”; gross!
Keister (KEE-ster; noun) I know, I know — a pretty familiar word. Thanks especially to the gangster-movie clip in “Home Alone,” most of us know it means “rear end.” (Sample: “Get your ugly, yellow, no-good keister off my property!”) But the word — another slang term of unknown derivation — originally meant “suitcase,” which leads to some awkward uses (“Those TSA guys kept asking to look inside my keister”).
Pogonip (POG-uh-nip; noun) Dense fog of ice particles, most often found in mountain valleys. Americanized from a tough-to-say Shoshone word.
Pung (pung; noun) A large, boxy sleigh, usually pulled by one horse. Chiefly used in eastern Canada and New England, it is contracted from the native Algonquian “tom-pung” (or “tow-pung”) — and thus, bizarrely enough, related to “toboggan.”
Ranunculaceous (ruh-nung-kyoo-LAY-shuss; adjective) Belonging to the “ranunculus,” or buttercup, family of flowers. In Latin, it literally means “little frog.” (Don’t ask me.)
Skink (skink; noun) No, that’s not a typo for the striped mammal or the smell it makes. A “skink” is a shiny, scaly lizard with short legs; lots of photos available online. In Scotland, the term can also mean “to serve a beverage” — as in “Skink me a cold one there, laddie.”
Twee (twee; adjective) A British term meaning “affectedly dainty or quaint” — for instance, “Ugh — that nursery song is a trifle twee for me.” This is a fairly recent term and, as I understand, quite common too — though I had never heard it until a year or two ago. It is supposedly derived from a childish pronunciation of “sweet.”
Zaddik (ZAD-ik; noun) Also spelled “tzaddik,” it’s a Jewish term meaning someone of exceptional virtue and piety. But even though I aspire to those qualities, I’m not sure I’d want somebody calling me this. Plural form, “zaddikim.”
Now go ahead and use these, just to show you’re not a gowk — or a flibbertigibbet.
