It’s always a conundrum trying to vary these Weird Word columns from week to week. I don’t want to just keep cranking out simple sets of oddball words randomly chosen from my massive running list.

Last week, we focused on a few recent books that had shown me unknown terms. So now let’s take that one step further: I’ve pulled down a dozen of my favorite dictionaries, flipping through them one at a time for a different weird word from each:

Kreutzer (KROIT-sur, noun) A copper coin formerly common in Germany and Austria, worth about half a cent. The word derives from German for cross, since the coin’s face bore one. —Winston Encyclopedic Dictionary (1945)

Barrator (BARE-uh-tur, noun) A person who commits barratry, which covers a variety of crimes including ship-cargo fraud, stirring up quarrels and the purchase of “ecclesiastical preferments.” —Random House College Dictionary (1975)

Muslin (MUZZ-lin, noun) This popular cotton fabric is not exactly an unusual term; but I nabbed it from the 1995 New American Webster Handy College Dictionary—which, despite its modest size, is one of my best sources for cool or unexpected word origins. In this case, I learn that muslin is named for Iraq’s Mosul, from which it originated. Who knew?

Zymurgy (ZYE-mur-gee, noun) Branch of chemistry dealing with fermentation (for brewing, distilling, yeast, etc.). Helpfully included on the second spine of a two-volume colossus, zymurgy is the very last word in The New Century Dictionary. I get a bang out of that title—because it was put together in the 1920s. (Not exactly the “new century” anymore!)

Smellfeast (SMELL-feest, noun) “A parasite; one who haunts good tables.” From 1755’s Dictionary of the English Language, the earliest definitive English lexicon; it was compiled single-handedly by the legendary Samuel Johnson—in a period of just seven years.

Zidovudine (zih-DAHV-yuh-deen, noun) An antiviral drug used to treat AIDS, zidovudine slows the HIV infection “but is not curative.” —Concise Oxford American Dictionary (2006)

Rugose (ROO-gose [second syllable like dose], adj.) A biological term often describing plants, rugose means “full of wrinkles; corrugated; ridged.” —Webster’s New World College Dictionary (1997)

Gnathonic (nuh-THON-ik, adj.) A recent “word-of-the-day” from Dictionary.com, this is defined therein by two other lesser-known synonyms: sycophantic and fawning. That same online source has fawning thus: “seeking favor by flattery or a servile way of behaving.”

Titfer (TIT-fuh, noun) British slang for a hat; shortened from tit for tat—a jocular Cockney synonym for headgear. From the idiosyncratic and very British Collins English Dictionary (2018).

Procercoid (PRO-sur-koid, adj.) “The solid first parasitic larva of some tapeworms that develops usu. in the body of a copepod” (the latter is a small freshwater crustacean). —Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed., 2003)

Nevus (NEE-vus, noun) “A congenital growth or mark on the skin, such as a mole or birthmark.” Plural: nevi. —American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed., 2000)

Those last two sources constitute first, the most authoritative (Merriam-Webster) and finally, my very favorite: the profusely illustrated and gorgeously laid out AHD; but if you’re counting, you may note we’re at only 11 terms so far.

I wanted to finish with another beloved reference work: Roget’s International Thesaurus (4th edition, 1977). Unlike most thesauri, this work is organized topically—so that, for instance, all synonyms for bad are found under the single entry headed “evil.” So let’s wind up where we started with Roget’s list of other words meaning the same as conundrum: riddle, charade, rebus, logogriph, anagram, riddle of the Sphinx.

That doesn’t solve the puzzle of why Smith needs so many dictionaries; to be honest, I could probably live with just the AHD on a desert island. But why you’d even need one in such a place … well—I guess that’s another conundrum.