goldfish lists

Awesome Arcane Words Part 2

A while ago, I gave you a vocabulary list of English words that haven’t been used in a long time. Well, it’s time we go rummaging around in the lexicon cellar for some more words that have gone extinct that really shouldn’t have. Some of them don’t even have exact synonyms.

Airgonaut

(ayr-go-nawt)

Noun

  1. One who journeys through the air.
    Charles Lindberg was the first airgonaut to fly from New York to Paris.

Synonyms: pilot.

Albedineity

(Al-beh-dahyn-eh-tee)

Noun

  1. Extreme whiteness.
    Phillip pulled over to the side of the road because he couldn’t take the albedineity of a Canadian winter anymore.

Synonyms: sort of like snow blind, but not quite.

Amorevolous

(ah-mor-ay-voh-lus)

Adjective

  1. Loving; kind; charitable.
    Rarasaur is amorevolous.

Synonyms: humanitarian, altruistic, benevolent, munificent.

Avaunt

(uh–vahnt)

Verb

  1. Go away; leave with haste.
    “Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone!” William Shakespeare, King John.

Synonyms: Frame off, bugger off, go.

Ballow

(bal-low)

Adjective

  1. Round; pot-bellied.
    What an adorable ballow pig.

Synonyms: bulbous, spherical, rotund.

Noun

  1. Cudgel, club.
    “Nay, come not near th’ old man or try whether your costard or my ballow be the harder.” William Shakespeare, King Lear.

Synonyms: truncheon, bludgeon, baton, blackjack, nightstick.

Bootless

(boot-lis)

Adjective

  1. (of a task or undertaking) ineffectual; useless.
    Organizing these files by date is bootless since the company is closing anyway.

Synonyms: pointless, futile, fruitless.

Collogue

(kuh–lohg)

Intransitive verb

  1. Talk confidentially or conspiratorially.
    He pulled her away from the dinner party to collogue.

Synonyms: conspire, plot, scheme, collude.

Constellate

(kon-stuh-leyt)

Verb

  1. To gather together in a cluster or group.
    Before he died, he constellated his closest relatives.

Synonyms: gather, assemble, collect.

Crassulent

(kras–yuh-luhnt)

Adjective

  1. Very fat, grossly overweight, obscenely obese.
    He was so crassulent that they couldn’t get him out of the house.

Synonyms: similar to corpulent and obese, but even fatter. More like morbidly obese.

Criticaster

(krit-ik-as-ter)

Noun

  1. A minor or incompetent critic.
    He paid no mind to her objections as she was a criticaster.

Synonyms: none.

Dandiprat

(dan-dee-prat)

Noun: a portmanteau of dandy and prat.

  1. a person of small or childish mind; a silly, finicky, or puerile person.
    My office is full of ultracrepidarian dandiprats.
  2. A diminutive person; a dwarf, pygmy, or midget.
    Even for a child, he’s a dandiprat.

Synonyms: Too many to list. Read this post.

Disport

(dih-spawrt)

Verb

  1. To enjoy oneself unrestrainedly; frolic.
    The dandiprats disported while the boss was out of the office.

Noun

  1. Diversion from work or serious matters; recreation or amusement.
    The dandiprats met in the breakroom for disport whenever they could.

Synonyms: misbehave, gambol, cavort. Antonym: comport

Fainéant

(fay-nee-ahn)

Noun; French, from Middle French fait-nient, literally, does nothing

  1. An irresponsible idler; an idle or ineffective person.
    My office is full of fainéants.

Synonyms: loafer, idler.

Fizgig

(fiz-gig)

Noun

  1. A silly or flirtatious young woman.
    Pop culture is nothing but fizgigs these days.
  2. A firework of damp powder that fizzes or hisses.
    The display was a fizgig.

Synonyms: none.

Gallimaufry

(gal-uh–maw-free)

Noun

  1. A jumble or confused medley of things.
    Fish of Gold is a gallimaufry of posts.

Synonyms: jumble, hodgepodge, mishmash.

Levant

(li-vant)

Verb

  1. To run away from a debt.
    That rapscallion levanted in the middle of the night.
 Synonyms: none.

Pelf

(pelf)

Noun

  1. Money, especially when gained dishonestly.
    The political pelf should get the road built.

Synonyms: bribe, loot, kickback, payoff.

Poltroon

(pol-troon)

Noun

  1. A spiritless coward.
    Those poltroons in government get nothing done.

Synonyms: defeatist, pushover, chicken, sissy, craven, pusillanimous pussy.

Quidnunc

(kwid-nuhngk)

Noun

  1.  An inquisitive, gossipy person; a person who seeks to know all the latest news or gossip.
    The quidnunc kept pestering me for information.

Synonyms: gossip, busybody.

Sanguinary

(sang-gwuh-ner-ee)

Adjective

  1. Involving or causing much bloodshed.
    The Iraq war was sanguinary for no reason.

Synonyms: bloody, barbaric, brutal, savage.

Sciolist

(sahy–uh-lizt)

Noun

  1. A person who opines on subjects of which one has only superficial knowledge.
    That sciolist doesn’t know a thing about brain surgery.

Synonyms: similar to one definition of ultracrepidarian.

Slugabed

(sluhg–uh-bed)

Noun

  1.  A lazy person who stays in bed late.
    That slugabed slept in until noon.

Synonyms: none.

Snudge

(snuhdj)

Noun

  1. A miser, a mean avaricious person.
    My boss refused to give me a raise because he’s a snudge.

Synonyms: scrooge, miser, skinflint.

Verb

  1.  To stride about with purpose, when in fact, you are doing nothing.
    Whenever the boss came in, my coworkers immediately started snudging.

Synonyms: none.

Zounds

(zoundz)

Exclamation

  1. An expression of surprise or indignation.
    He shouted “Zounds!” when he was stabbed.

Synonyms: Zoinks! Egads!

More exciting words:

Part 3