Last week, Webb’s Weird Words paid homage to the current bestseller Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese. When all was said and done, I wound up adding nearly 40 new words from Verghese’s novel to the ongoing list of oddball vocab I use for these columns. Most were Indian or medical words, since the novel
As your friendly neighborhood lexicographer approaches another collection of weird words for Webb, Abraham Verghese’s novel “The Covenant of Water” stands at #5 on the New York Times bestseller list. Sales have been aided by the sterling success of Verghese’s earlier “Cutting for Stone,” which spent more than two years on the NYT roster —
As promised in last week’s Weird Words round-up, here comes another baker’s dozen from the sprawling list of oddball vocab I keep for these columns. Our theme for this pair of articles has been hyphenated terms — or shall I say “two-tiered”? Or maybe “double-barreled” — if that doesn’t seem too heavy-handed … or hoity-toity.
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
