
Unusual and amusing English words - jergosh
http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/unuwords.htm
======
pg
Alas these are mostly neologisms created by combining roots from classical
languages. That's a recipe for creating new "obscure" words pretty much on
demand. The best sort of obscure words are ones that are obscure because
they're old or highly specialized, not because someone made them up and they
never really became part of the spoken language.

~~~
gruseom
Extraordinarily, the Slavic languages are chock full of calques that
originated in just this way. Educated Slavs in the 17th-18th centuries
deliberately modernized their own languages by taking Western words,
translating the morphemes individually, and grafting them back together.
Modern Czech in particular, if I remember correctly, was largely constructed
in this way. The classic example is German _Zeitschrift_ (magazine) being
translated _zeit_ → _čas_ (time) and _schrift_ → _pis_ (writing) to produce
_časopis_ , "timewriting". Russian has tons of words like this from French (
_traduire_ , to translate, went _tra_ → _пере_ (across) and _duire_ → _водить_
(lead) to become _переводить_ , "to crosslead").

Normally such concocted species (like the neologisms in the OP) fail to take
root and soon wither. The difference here is that these words were badly
needed in daily life.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque>

------
tptacek
Here's another cool list, very similar; the standard on this list is, "words
so interesting that David Foster Wallace circled them in his dictionary":

<http://www.slate.com/id/2250784>

(Teaser: conchoidal, corvee, demulcent, exergue, gramnvirous, etc etc etc).

~~~
ErrantX
That's actually a much more interesting list! Thanks.

~~~
tptacek
This list is a clear illustration of why it's better to read Infinite Jest on
the iPad book reader, where dictionary definitions are a tap away, than in
dead-tree format. Because I'm only 2/3 through and I can't guarantee that he
hasn't found a way to use the word "exergue" in a non-coin-related sentence.
Probably in a footnote. Which, by the way, is hyperlinked in the iBooks
version.

------
SlyShy
Beware, some definitions here are incorrect.

For example, Witzelsucht, which is correctly defined at Wikipedia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witzelsucht>

For people interested, Phonistry maintains some much nicer (longer, etc.)
lists. <http://phrontistery.info/w.html>

------
tetsuo13
Unrelated: What is the point in publishing an interesting list such as this
and then restricting my ability to highlight so I can copy and paste? (Chrome
4.1 on Windows)

~~~
jodrellblank
What's the point in choosing a tool which doesn't give you the power to do
what you want, then coming on the internet bitching about it?

Your browser is doing the restricting. If you can't override that then it's
not working in your interest, it's working against you on the web publisher's
behalf. Dump it.

------
char
This reminds me of that board game (I forget the name) in which some silly
definition is read and the players have to make up words and convince their
opponents (who are guessing which word matches the definition) that their word
is correct. With some of these words, I feel like I'm playing that game and
someone is trying to trick me. I mean, zenzizenzizenzic is a number raised to
the eighth power? Seriously? But it exists!
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenzizenzizenzic>

~~~
mshafrir
Balderdash

------
dctoedt
Next time I need a put-down for someone's argument, I think I might call it
"jumentous," which according to this page means "[s]melling like horse urine."

------
JoeAltmaier
My favorite: callipygean

~~~
whimsy
>callipygean

It's spelled wrong here.

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/callipygian>

------
ZeroGravitas
Reminded me of Douglas Adams and John Lloyd (creator of QI)'s _The Meaning of
Liff_ :

<http://folk.uio.no/alied/TMoL.html>

------
rradu
"Let's get capernoited" is the new "Let's get wasted"

Yeah, that was a witzelsucht

------
parbo
I didn't find my favourite in this list: wayzgoose.

------
elblanco
No schadenfreude?

------
jafl5272
They missed "discombobulate"

