As these Weird Word columns seem to strike chord with Webb readers, some of you may wonder just where I find all this oddball vocabulary.
Of course there are numerous books listing weird words; but I try to avoid simply ransacking these — and in the same way, I don’t make a habit of grabbing every single “word of the day” off dictionary.com. (Though sometimes, when I’m looking up something else, one of these is just too good to resist.)
Most of my “weird words” simply come from regular reading in a wide array of genres; older books — plus those written or set in other countries — often yield multiple new entries for my running list, which now stands at 2,386.
As the owner of an embarrassingly large collection of dictionaries (60 and counting), I’ve also been known to thumb through these from time to time — though you can get a reputation if you sit around reading the dictionary all day! (Plus, these books give me a headache with the way their plot keeps changing all the time.)
Here are some of my most recent finds — in this case, all nouns:
Bleb (BLEB) – A blister or bubble; likely related to blob and blubber.
Clepsydra (KLEP-si-druh) – From my beloved American Heritage Dictionary: “An ancient device that measured time by marking the regulated flow of water through a small opening.” This is also called a “water clock” — though dictionary.com indicates that mercury can be used as well.
Believe it or not, the word is etymologically related to the better-known kleptomaniac: The Greek base klep- (meaning “steal”) has been added to hydra (meaning “water” — but with the H dropped out). Translation: “water-thief.”
You can look up more info on how these devices work, but I will add that their use apparently dates back to at least 1500 B.C.
Euphuism (YOO-fyoo-iz-um) – An ornate, affected writing style — especially one imitating 16th-century British author John Lyly, whose sentences are long, carefully constructed and laced with alliteration and similes drawn from classical literature.
I assumed this word was built from the Greek eu-, meaning “good” — as in euphoria, eulogy, euphemism and even euthanasia (literally, “good death”; Marvel fans will be interested to know that the Greek than- means death).
But euphuism actually comes from Lyly’s two books called Euphues, named for the skilled student who is his main character.
Od (ODD, ODE) – From dictionary.com: “a hypothetical force formerly held to pervade all nature and to manifest itself in magnetism, mesmerism, chemical action, etc.” Coined by the German scientist Karl von Reichenbach around 1845.
Ombrellino (ahm-bruh-LEE-no) – As it happens, eu- also shows up in the Catholic term eucharist, combining with the similarly common charis (meaning “love” or “favor”) to indicate the Christian sacrament that is also known as communion and the Lord’s Supper.
In Catholic churches, an ombrellino is a white silk canopy used to cover the elements of bread and wine when moving them from one place to another.
I came upon this word when looking up ombre, which my wife recently complained about in her daily Wordle. She understandably assumed this was Spanish and therefore should have been off limits; but she was thinking of hombre, which has one letter too many for that very addicting online game.
The H-less ombre, by contrast, has to do with shades of color. It comes from a French word-group meaning “shadow” — which also gave us the pigment umber (yes, as in Crayola’s famed “burnt umber”), the noun penumbra and of course, umbrella.
Fans of novelist Patricia Highsmith may also recall this in the name of Tom Ripley’s French estate, Belle Ombre — literally, “beautiful shadow.” That two-word phrase was in turn the very fitting title of the first major Highsmith bio.
Sorry, I guess that’s TMI. Let’s finish with two briefer entries:
Pipsissewa (pip-SISS-uh-wuh) – A small, flowering evergreen of the Northern Hemisphere whose leaves are used for various medicinal purposes. It is, coincidentally, a member of the umbellate plant-type — so named for its resemblance to spines on an umbrella.
Trug (TRUG or TROOG) – A shallow wooden milk pan; or more commonly, a wood-slatted basket.
If you have any favorite oddball terms, feel free to send me suggestions for future columns: robbwhitefan@gmail.com.
