goldfish Prompts For The Promptless

Awesome Arcane Words

This week’s Prompt For The Promptless is about logomania:

Logomania is defined as an obsessive interest in words or, alternatively, excessive and often incoherent talking.

I’m not really a logomaniac, but I do have a fascination with language. I relate much more to the first part of the definition than the excessive, incoherent talking part. I’m more of a lexicon fan than a logomaniac. I think every writer is to a certain extent.

I love the English language. It is so old that there are words that haven’t been uttered in centuries. It’s really impossible to know the entire language, which is what makes it fun. One of my favorite things to do is dig out random words that no one has heard since your grandpappy was a pup and start using them again for the hell of it.

I’ve already discussed weird phrases and what they mean, obscure insults, and I’ve even made up some of my own words, but today, we’re going to talk about some words that have gone AWOL from English, when they shouldn’t have. Some of them don’t even have synonyms. These are words that are so rad that they really should come back into style.

Accismus

[Ah-KIZ-muss]

Noun

  1. A form of irony where a person feigns disinterest in something while actually desiring it.
    Stanley used accismus to hide the fact that he was in love with Sylvia.

Synonyms: none.

Bloviate

Verb

  1. To speak or discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner.
    Stanley ignored the fact that Sylvia was looking for a polite way to change the conversation and went on bloviating.

Synonyms: bluster, boast, crow, exult, gasconade, gloat, grandstand, prate, puff, rodomontade, showboat, shuck, swagger, vaunt.

Derivatives: verb bloviates, bloviated, bloviating, noun bloviation

Cattywampus

Adjective

  1. In disarray or disorder; askew.
    Stanley’s shirt was cattywampus when he came back from the bathroom.
  2. Not directly across from nor adjacent to ; located diagonally across from something
    The bathroom was cattywampus from the kitchen.
  3. Disorganized; poorly done; chaotic.
    Sylvia thought this whole night was turning out cattywampus.

Synonyms: 1. Askew, awry, crooked, off-kilter. 2. skewampus, catercorner, catty-corner, kitty-corner. 3. haphazard, jumbled, mixed up.

Alternate forms: catawamptious, catawampous, cattywampous, caliwampus, caliwampous, cankywampus, kittywampus, gittywampus.

Derivatives: comparative more cattywampus, superlative most cattywampus

Chank

Verb

  1. To eat noisily or greedily.
    Sylvia could not stand the way Stanley chanked his food as if he hadn’t eaten in years.

Noun chanking

plural chankings

  1. Food that is spit out, like pits or seeds.
    Sylvia could not stand the pile of chankings at Stanley’s feet after he ate watermelon.

Synonyms: Verb: chomp, devour, cram, stuff, wolf, hoover, gulf, guzzle. Noun: none.

Derivatives: chanks, chanking, chanked

Crapulous

Adjective

  1. intemperate; debauched; excessive indulgence.
    Stanley’s crapulence got him kicked out of more than one bar.
  2. Hungover; Sick or indisposed due to excessive eating or drinking.
    Stanley was so crapulous that he slept all the next day.

Synonyms (adjective): drunk, pissed, hammered, debauched, intemperate, soused, pants-on-head.

Alternate forms: crapulent

Derivatives: comparative more crapulous, superlative most crapulous, noun crapulence, plural crapulences

Cumberground

Noun

Plural cumbergrounds

  1. Totally worthless object or person; something that is just in the way.
    Sylvia was beginning to think that Stanley was just a cumberground.

Synonyms: millstone, albatross, cross to bear, encumbrance, burden, hindrance, geritard.

Defenestration

Noun

plural defenestrations

  1. The act of throwing something, or someone, out of a window.
    If Stanley didn’t stop bloviating, Sylvia was going to defenestrate him.
  2. High profile removal of a person from an organization.

Synonyms: none.

Derivatives: verb defenestrate, defenestrated, defenestrating

Druxy

Adjective

  1. Something which looks good on the outside, but is actually rotten inside.
    If Sylvia had only known how druxy Stanley was, she wouldn’t be stuck there now.
  2. (of timber, archaic) Having decayed spots or streaks of a whitish color.
    The trees looked good until they milled them and found out they were druxy.

Synonyms: fool’s gold, false dawn.

Alternate forms: druxey.

Derivatives: comparative druxier, superlative druxiest

Eyeservice

Noun

  1. work or service done only when the employer is watching.
    Stanley quickly picked up the phone as eyeservice when he heard his boss coming.

Synonyms: busywork.

Derivatives: noun eyeservant, eyeserver

Farctate

Adjective

  1. The state of having overeaten.
    Stanley ate so much watermelon that he was farctate and unable to move.
  2. (Botany) Stuffed; filled solid; as, a farctate leaf, stem, or pericarp; — opposed to tubular or hollow.

Synonyms: overfull, stuffed.

Derivatives: comparative more farctate, superlative most farctate

Fubsy

Adjective:

  1. short and fat; low and wide
    Stanley was much fubsier than Sylvia remembered.

Synonyms: stout, I’m a little teapot.

Derivatives: comparative fubsier, superlative fubsiest

Groak

Verb

  1. To look at someone with a watchful or suspicious eye.
  2. To look longingly at something, especially of a child or dog begging for food.
  3. To come thoroughly awake after a sleep by focusing the eyes on surrounding objects.
    Stanley groaked at Sylvia as she at the last piece of watermelon.

Synonyms: look at, view, consider, focus, eyeball.

Alternate forms: grook, grouk, groke, groach.

Derivatives: verb groaks, groaking, groaked.

Honeyfuggle

Verb

  1. To wheedle or swindle.
    Sylvia honeyfuggled Stanley out of the last piece of watermelon.

Synonyms: cheat, swindle, cozen, dupe, trick, gull.

Alternate form: honeyfugle.

Derivatives: verb honeyfuggles, honeyfuggling, honeyfuggled

Impignorate

[Im-pig-nor-rate]

Verb

  1. To pledge or pawn.
    Stanley impignorated his love to Sylvia forever.

Synonyms: pledge, pawn, guaranty, security, surety, token, collateral.

Derivatives: verb impignorates, impignorating, impignorated

Namby-pamby

Adjective

  1. weak, indecisive
  2. lacking in character or substance : insipid
    Sylvia was so tired of dealing with namby-pamby Stanley.

Noun

plural namby-pambies

  1. Of a person, weak, indecisive.
    Stanley is a namby-pamby.
 Synonyms: Adjective: pussified, wishy-washy, milquetoast, pusillanimous, mollycoddled. Noun: pussy, sissy, mama’s boy, mollycoddle, pansy.
Derivatives: comparative namby-pambier, superlative namby-pambiest

Oppugn

[Oh-peun]

Verb

  1. To oppose.
    Did Stanley really want to oppugn Sylvia?

Adjective: oppugnant

[Oh-pug-nent]

  1. Adjective: opposing, antagonistic, contrary.
    Stanley got more oppugnant with every drink.

Noun: oppugnant

plural oppugnants

  1. Noun: One who oppugns ; an opponent.
    Stanley was taking on a serious oppugnant in Sylvia.

Synonyms: 1. oppose, antagonize, confront, contradict, controvert. 2. combative, hostile, inimical, unfriendly. 3. opponent, adversary, challenger, competitor, enemy, rival.

Derivatives: comparative more oppugnant, superlative most oppugnant, verb oppugns, oppugning, oppugned.

Peenge

Verb

  1. To complain in a whiny voice.
    Stanley peenged at Sylvia for taking the last of the watermelon.

Synonyms:  bellyache, bemoan, bewail, fuss, grouse, lament, moan, snivel, whimper, whine.

Derivatives: verb peenges, peenging, peenged

Pronk

Verb

  1. A behavior of quadrupeds, particularly gazelles, in which all four legs are used to push off the ground at once.

    A springbok pronking. Image from wikipedia.
    A springbok pronking. Image from wikipedia.
  2. To jump straight up.
    Sylvia pronked when Stanley honked her behind.

Synonyms: slotting, pronging.

Derivatives: verb pronks, pronking, pronked

Quagswag

Verb

  1. To shake back and forth.
    Sylvia took Stanley by the lapels and quagswagged him.

Synonyms: none.

Derivatives: verb quagswags, quagswagging, quagswagged

Tarantism

Noun

  1. A mania characterized by an uncontrollable impulse to dance, especially as prevalent in southern Italy from the 15th to the 17th century, falsely attributed to the bite of the tarantula.
  2. The uncontrollable urge to dance.
    Sylvia let go of Stanley’s lapels, and overcome with tarantism, decided they must tango.

Synonyms: none.

Derivatives: noun tarantist

Ultracrepidarian

adjective

  1. Noting or pertaining to a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside the area of his or her expertise.
    Stanley was being ultracrepidarian when he was bloviating on mountain climbing.

Synonyms: none.

More awesome words:

Part 2