Hard to believe these Weird Word columns are now well past their 40th installment — with no end in sight from the seemingly endless supply of oddball terms in English.
Here’s a dozen to get your week going:
Bosky (BOSS-kee, adj.) – A bosk is a small thicket, especially one with bushes. (That is actually where the word comes from.) So bosky means: “filled with shrubs or small trees” — and also, in an obviously related sense, “shady.”
Clochard (KLO-shurd, noun) – Tramp, vagrant or beggar. One of countless French words that have officially entered our language, it has a Gallic etymology rooted in clocher, meaning “to limp” — perhaps from the shuffling gait of some indigent and homeless folks?
Manky (MANG-kee, adj.) – From Dictionary.com: “worthless, rotten, or in bad taste; dirty, filthy, or bad.” Closely related to the better-known manque (“lacking, unsuccessful, frustrated”), manky has a long etymology reaching back to the Latin man-, meaning “hand” (as in manual, manuscript, manipulate and, believe it or not, manure). The word originally meant “maimed in in the hand.”
Megrims (MEE-grimz, noun) – According to Collins, this somewhat well-known term indicates “a fit of depression”: “Leave me alone, I’ve got a case of the megrims.” It’s related to migraine.
While it is rarely used in that sense without the S, the rarer megrim is also a type of fish.
Muzzy (MUZZ-ee, adj.) – According to Merriam-Webster, this word bears a variety of similar meanings: dim, dull, gloomy, unclear, muddled, confused, naïve.
Piccalilli (PIK-uh-lih-lee, noun) – Strong Indian relish made with vegetables, mustard, vinegar and hot spices. Another somewhat familiar word — but still, fun to say!
Poikilotherm (poy-KEE-luh-therm, noun) – Wikipedia tells us that this denotes an animal whose internal temperature varies considerably as it adapts to its environment. Much rarer than the heat-stable homeotherm (which comprises most mammals and birds), poikilotherms include some fish, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates, along with a few rare mammals — such as sloths and naked mole rats.
Pullulate (PUHL-yuh-late, verb) – Again from Dictionary.com: “to sprout, bud, germinate; to breed, produce, or create rapidly.” It is actually related to pullet and poultry — in the sense of nests and chicks.
Swot (SWOT, verb) – British slang for cram — or studying intensely, as if for an exam; often followed by up: “She was swotting up for the calculus test.”
Tergiversation (TUR-jiv-er-say-shun, noun) – Merriam-Webster: “Evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement; equivocation.” Can also mean “deserting a cause.” Its etymology includes the common Latin base ver(s)-, meaning “to turn” — as in reverse, conversion, extrovert and even versus.
Threap (THREEP, verb & noun) – There is some disagreement as to the precise meaning of this word. Most sources have “chide or scold,” while Dictionary.com says it’s a noun meaning “argument, dispute or quarrel.” But I guess those senses aren’t too far apart — so let’s not start a threep (yes — it can be spelled that way, too).
Tintinnabulation (tin-tin-ab-you-LAY-shun, noun) – The sound of ringing bells. The usually reliable Dictionary.com has this as coined by Edgar Allan Poe in his 1949 poem “The Bells.” That is surely its most famous occurrence; but most sources suggest that the word much older than that. According to Online Etymology Dictionary, it is nonetheless imitative of the sound. And that, of course, makes it onomatopoeic — which will certainly have to be an entire column sometime in the future.
See you here next week, when we’ll acknowledge the approach of Tax Day with words related to money.
