Monday, November 26, 2007

Another Vocabulary Toy

For those of you in constant search for just the right word, I offer the Grandiloquent Dictionary. The site offers an Adobe Acrobat file of 2,700 rare or obscure words with an alphabetical index on-site if you’d rather just browse.

I ended up here because of the word defenestrate, which always reminds me of a cross between disembowel and castrate. You can defenestrate someone. The word means “to throw something out of a window” so it could be as violent as it sounds. Then again, I often defenestrate my cooled coffee onto the shrubs below.

While meandering there, I discovered the word vauntie. While it may not have been created as a cross between vain and auntie, that’s what came to mind. The word actually means “proud or in high spirits”. I’ve been trying to work it into conversation all day, but mostly people have been such guttersnipes today that I don’t want to waste it.

I found one last word to share today: lethologica. As any writer can understand, this word describes the inability to recall the precise word for something. I’m relieved to know the diagnosis, but disappointed that they offer no treatment. I am afflicted with lethologica on a regular basis.


2 comments:








BipolarLawyerCook

said...

I hate lethologica, it drives me (searching for word, here!) nuts!





Anonymous

said...

adhocracy? surely that's a made up / joke word... that reminds me typographically with multi word phrases where the slash is used what is the best format to use?