As Webb’s World of Weird Words enters its fifth week, your local lexicographer still finds himself looking for themes around which to organize these weekly lists of oddball vocabulary. Since the previous pair covered super-long words (June 6) and then super-short ones (June 13), our next two lists bounce back to broader terms: a selection
Last week, Webb’s Weird Words wandered into the wonky world of sesquipedalian terms — meaning “long” or “polysyllabic” (literally: “one and a half feet”). Today by contrast, we’ll look at the other end of the spectrum — with a selection of diminutive, Lilliputian or teeny-weeny words. (Sorry, there aren’t too many comical synonyms for “short.”)
While perusing my Brobdingnagian list of oddball vocabulary for this week’s selection, I noted that very early on, I’d included “sesquipedalian.” The wonderful American Heritage Dictionary defines this as “long and ponderous,” “polysyllabic” or “given to using long words.” Perfect, I thought; let’s focus this list on words of unusual length. So in keeping with
Last week in this space, we launched a new weekly feature for Webb — the aptly named “World of Weird Words,” selected from hundreds of oddball terms on a list I’ve been amassing since 2005. With my lengthy intro to the series, I had room for only seven entries in that first piece; herewith, I
Snollygoster. Numpty. Absquatulate. Gonk. Yes, those all are actual words. They’re taken from a list I started years ago, when I was teaching English at Loyalsock High School. Inspired by three students who compiled an oddball vocab list for fun, I instantly began amassing my own; eventually, I turned it into one of our weekly
