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Browsing on the web today I came across an interested website that lists hundreds of weird words from the English language. Here are some that caught my attention:
Alexipharmic – Having the quality or nature of an antidote to poison.
Astrobleme – An eroded meteor impact crater.
Bloviate – To speak pompously.
Bromopnea – Bad breath.
Ceraunograph – A lightning recorder.
Contumely – Insolent or insulting language or treatment.
Droogish – Relating to the nature or attitudes of a member of a street gang.
Engastrimyth – A ventriloquist.
Florilegium – A collection of writings; a portfolio of flower pictures.
Fustilugs – A grossly fat or slovenly woman.
Ginglyform – Hinge-shaped.
Lipogrammatist – A writer of lipograms.
Mongo – An object retrieved from rubbish; a scavenger.
Pogonotrophy – Cultivation of a beard; beard-growing.
You might need a good dictionary to find those. My Firefox extension is not recognizing them, for instance.
What about you, got any weird words to share?
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I have a couple of wonderful books full of weird words. One is “I Always Look Up the Word Egregious,” and the other is “The Grand Pajundrum.” Lots of great weird words in those books!
Ooooo, weird words! Love it. In fact, I showcase a batch of wonky words each Friday on my blog in a little segment I call Word Porn. A few recent winners:
Fugacious: lasting a short time
Eupeptic: cheerful or optimistic
Cunctation: a delay
Is Droogish not just a word Burgess made up for “A Clockwork Orange”? Does it strictly count?
@Kudzu, good point about Droogish. I could not find it on any of my dictionaries, so could be just an invention (or a neologism that didn’t catch…).
I discovered the word ‘floccinaucinihilipilification’ recently.
It is the action or habit of estimating something as worthless.
(Imagine. . . if you were to have to “buy a vowel”. . . )
The book I got my e-mail name from – Weird Words by Berent & Evans. agroof – flat on one’s face. Love the weird world of words!
I mash up my own words. Common ones are like fantabulous and all that. One of my faves is Uglify. To make something less attractive.
@m – I find myself doing that too!
I love making up names for animals that kind of seem to better describe them. For instance a Jack Russel, can become a Velocorussel, or a Jack Raptor due to their inherent vicious streak….
my daughter says Jynourmous,which would be pretty big.
I go with Dr. Seuss and think these words are all wonderous
kewl did u no
Nudiustertian means the day be fore yesterday
say it in pulic and u’ll be called a nerd
I know to really awesome words,
Defenestrate – which means to throw someone out of a window
and
Megalomaniac – a control freak
those words are all really cool…we have
word of the week wednesday” at my school…i got some pretty good ones from this website!!!
ZYZZYVAS is the last word that is accepted in SCRABBLE… how bout that???
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: a man-made word meaning the fear of long words
Disestablishmentarianism- which is a person who favors the separation of church and state
extemporaneously – random
Here’s another weird word -
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The act or habit of describing something as worthless.
flibbertigibbet – a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
floccinaucinihilipilification – estimation that something is valueless.
bombilation – A droning or buzzing; a loud sound.
pronk – a weak or foolish person
=D
I am in the fith grade and I am doing a project on wierd words I like it is enteresting to do this project
I like this list but the words are to hard and to easy!
awesome