While Webb’s Weird Words has been looking at pronunciation for the past several weeks, we now return to our regular bailiwick: oddball terms and funny-sounding vocab.

Since this column dropped the ball on Webb’s recent LLWS theme (if you’ll pardon the pun), we’ll make a slight connection here in this column: Our now-childless household enjoyed Little-League-loving guests last week — a family of nine, making things a bit more lively than usual in this Loyalsock empty nest. So, I asked two of the kids — Cora and Alanna, ages 8 and 9 — to make a selection from my sprawling word-list for the next two columns.

Here’s the first half of what they chose:

Arvo (AR-vo, noun) – Australian slang for afternoon.

As we saw in our pronunciation studies, the F and V sounds are almost identical, being formed with upper teeth against lower lip — but the F is “unvoiced.”

But how the R got into this Aussie term remains a little unclear to me.

Cholla (CHOLE-uh, noun) – Originally a Spanish word — which is not too surprising, given the number of terms in that language which end with -lla (tortilla, quesadilla, mantilla, etc.) And so of course, cholla can also be pronounced CHAW-ya.

According to dictionary.com, this is a tree-like cactus of Mexico and the American Southwest, “with knobby outgrowths and yellow spines.”

Epexegesis (ep-ek-suh-JEE-sis, noun) – For folks like me who love theology and Bible study, exegesis is a fairly familiar word; it has to do with explaining and unpacking a verse or passage for clarity and application (e.g., “an exegesis of 1 Corinthians 13”). Ep(i)- is a common Greek prefix with a variety of meanings: over, upon, near, before, after, etc.; it is found in such words as epigram, epidermis, epitaph, epistle and epitome.

Here, the prefix and base-word combine for this meaning: an added word, phrase or sentence that explains the meaning of a previous word, phrase or sentence.

According to rhetoric.byu.edu, it is often preceded by “that is to say.” And the same site offers this cool example: “I’m afraid we’ve run up against the bamboo curtain — that is to say, an economic and political barrier in the East as real as the iron curtain has been in the West.”

I love that sample sentence because I’d never even heard the term “bamboo curtain.” But now, thanks to this handy epexegesis, we all know what it means!

Fribbling (FRIB-ling, verb) – Acting in a foolish or silly manner; fiddling around (base verb fribble, of course). While this word appears to be invented, it may be related to frivolous. Once again picking up from our pronunciation studies: Note that the letters V and B are both made with the lips, and thus sometimes interchangeable. (See, for example, how our word beverage is related to the Spanish beber — and to our own imbibe.)

Geum (JEE-um, noun) – Herbaceous plant found in many parts of the world; also called avens.

Groat (GROTE, noun) – Folks fond of old British novels might recognize this as a monetary unit in England; used from the 13th to the 17th century, it had a value of four British pennies — and thus, it was thus sometimes used disparagingly: “Not worth a groat.”

We’ll do the rest of Alanna and Cora’s list next week!