If 30,000 used books sounds to you like a little bit of heaven, you might want to stop at Grumpy’s Used Bookstore next time you head toward Harrisburg on Route 15.

That’s the large yellow building on the right as you pass through Liverpool — about 70 minutes south of us, and well worth a visit.

Here at “Weird Words,” we’ve been sort of camped out at Grumpy’s — unpacking a linguistic treasure-trove from my most recent bibliophilic expedition to the store: Bryan Garner’s Dictionary of Modern American Usage.

I know, I know — that’s just another way to say, “I’m a nerd.”

And this column will be further proof (as if my readers needed any more at this point). Herewith, a second batch of oddball vocabulary garnered from Garner — who covers not only grammar and mechanics but also terms like these:

Choate (KOE-ate, adj.) – While this looks like the name of a Connecticut boarding school, a glance at its pronunciation will show that it’s related to the better-known inchoate. While the latter means “not complete, certain, specific or perfect,” the shorter word is used only in law — as a superior or “complete” type of lien.

Choate, incidentally, was created through an etymological process called “back formation.” While English generally moves from shorter words to suffixed forms (e.g., nation to national, or write to rewrite), a handful of terms were formed by clipping a suffix or prefix off a longer word that actually existed first. Examples include laze, enthuse, burgle, televise and surveil.

Chrestomathy (kres-TAH-meh-thee, noun) – Says Garner: “An anthology of literary passages (especially those from one author).” Can also designate a selection of passages used to help learn a language (Merriam-Webster).

Congee (kon-JEE, noun) – Rice porridge. Garner has this because it can also be spelled conge, and thus it is sometimes confused with that rare noun meaning “permission to depart” — or similarly, “a formal bow signaling goodbye.”

Honorand (ON-er-and, noun) – A person who receives an honor — especially an honorary degree; synonym of honoree.

Pretermit (pree-tur-MIT, verb) – “To overlook or ignore purposely,” says Garner — though both Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com also have “to leave undone” and “to suspend or interrupt.”

Garner includes pretermit because some writers wrongly use it to mean “prevent.” (As its title suggests, his book is big on correct usage — and on distinctions between commonly confused words like affect/effect and can/may.)

For true vocab nerds: pretermit uses the Latin base mit, meaning “to send, let go.” Also spelled miss-, this little root takes numerous prefixes and thus gives us dozens of words: admit, commit, demit, dismiss, emission, intermittent, omit, permit, remit, submit, transmit — not to mention all the affixed forms of those words (readmission, noncommittal, etc.).

Rumbustious (rum-BUS-chus, adj.) – Chiefly British synonym of rambunctious, which has a number of other cool synonyms: rowdy, raffish, ruffianly, boisterous, hell-raising — and more! We actually covered this term very early in “Weird Words” — installment No. 13, back in 2023.

Tmesis (tuh-MEE-sis, noun) – “The practice of separating parts of a compound word by inserting another word between those parts.” By far the most common instance is the oft-heard “a whole nother,” though I’ve been known to say “fan-freaking-tastic” — probably more often than I should.

Now to conclude our look at Garner’s oddball terminology, he has a fascinating entry called “government words.” As the author puts it: “The English language abounds in words denoting almost every conceivable form of government, usually ending in either -cracy or -archy.”

Of course, most of us are familiar with such examples as monarchy, theocracy, patriarchy and even bureaucracy (“government by administrative bureaus,” ack). But there are many I’d never even heard of:

Androcracy (by men — contrast gynecocracy); dyarchy (by two); ergatocracy (by workers); gerontocracy (the elderly); hagiocracy (saints — not sure how that works, TBH); juvenocracy (youth); kakistocracy (the worst citizens); meritocracy (those most worthy); ochlocracy (the mob); pantisocracy (all people); stratocracy (the military); and technocracy (technicians).

I think I’ll stick with democracy — thanks.