Having originated in May 2023, Webb’s “Weird Words” now stands at a nice round 90 installments over the past two years.

Sometime this summer, we’ll notch our 100th article on oddball vocabulary. So with my own running list also nearing a bit of a landmark — 55 more terms to reach 3,000! — here’s another batch to make you feel smarter:

Derring-do (DARE-ing-doo, noun) – Daring, heroic or reckless action. A rather old-fashioned phrase now associated with swashbuckling and matinee idols like Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn, this does in fact come from the words dare and do. (Personally, it always makes me think of Inigo Montoya.)

Gouache (GWAHSH, or goo-AHSH; noun) – A method of painting that uses opaque watercolors mixed with gum; also, the paint itself; or an artwork in this style.

Famously favored by British artist J.M.W. Turner — and likewise in commercial art and 20th-century animation — gouache offers “quick coverage and total hiding power”; but it looks different dry than wet, so gouache can be tough to match “over multiple painting sessions” (Wikipedia).

There now — don’t you feel smarter already?

Happen-so (HAP-en-so, noun) – According to dictionary.com, this is Southern U.S. slang for “chance” or “accident.” It is of course related to the word-family that includes happen, perhaps and happiness; its connection to the latter suggests that this much-sought-after condition is highly dependent on circumstance and that — as many thinkers and clerics have urged — states like joy, comfort and peace of mind make better goals in life.

(Now maybe you can feel calmer too.)

Lobcock (LOB-kok, noun) – A stupid, blundering, awkward or brutish person; a lout. A rare word that I could find only at Merriam-Webster online, it’s derived from lob — a British slang term for the same sort of individual.

In researching this, I learned likewise that lout can be a verb for “to bow in respect” or “to submit, yield” (as in, “I louted to my superiors”).

Not sure if that makes you feel smarter; it actually makes me feel kinda weird.

Lobscouce (LOB-skowse, noun) – While I was looking up lobcock, I also came upon this unusual word, which is “a sailor’s stew of meat, vegetables, and hardtack” (Collins). It is possibly related to one obscure meaning of loblolly, “a thick gruel” used by seamen.

Hardtack, incidentally, is a dry, hard, unsalted biscuit that was once common in military rations — especially at sea. It apparently lasts for months and, by most accounts, takes nearly that long to chew and swallow.

Pohutukawa (puh-hoo-tuh-KAH-wuh, noun) – “A New Zealand tree with crimson flowers and silvery leaves below”; also, a New Zealand variety of sweet potato (Merriam-Webster). From Maori, the Native Polynesian language of that region.

Sackbut (SACK-but, noun) – A Medieval type of trombone, also called a sacbut or even sagbut. That last variant reminds me of a fairly recent “Weird Words” column about terms that don’t mean what you think; I’m sure this falls under that heading as well — even though it’s found in older translations of Daniel 3:5. In actuality, it derives from two French terms meaning “pull” and “push” (Random House Collegiate).

Squarrose (SQUARE-ose, [last syllable like dose], adj.) – A botanical term to describe plants having rough, ragged or scale-like growths — such growths also sometimes called “bracts” or “processes.”

Gee, now I feel smarter too.

So I guess I better quit while I’m ahead — and we’ll see you here next week!