# Cool new words you've learned **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 14, 2019, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722 "2019-01-14T08:38:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/21 "2019-01-16T04:38:58Z")
I love ‘defenestrate’ - I always thought it was some gross mutilation, e.g. ‘disembowel’, then for some reason looked it up and was like, seriously? And learned it was a fashionably rebellious thing to do for a time. At least in Prague. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/22 "2019-01-16T10:04:38Z")
A long-time far-too-often-used source of feeble puns (which seems mercifully to have tailed off somewhat in recent years) – the “Czech / cheque” thing: which I usually find annoying. I do, however, rather like one instance of it – “The Defenestration of Prague: the first bouncing Czech”. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/23 "2019-01-16T17:46:56Z")
Reading an article in French a little while ago I came across the word _hecatombe_. Straight to google translate, and that gives you, in English, _hecatomb_. On the one hand, not useful; on the other hand, every time I have to translate a French word and I don’t even understand the English translation, I do feel that the process of relearning French is making progress. Hecatomb: an extensive loss of life for a particular cause. (In ancient Greece or Rome: a great public sacrifice, originally of a hundred oxen). j ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/24 "2019-01-16T20:44:37Z")
[Pagophagia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagophagia): compulsive chewing on ice, etc. (Not to be confused with Pogophilia which is a fixation on a classic comic strip.) ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/25 "2019-01-17T14:26:50Z")
Not new, but new to me: [ultracrepidarian](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ultracrepidarian), “One who gives opinions on something beyond his or her knowledge.” ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/26 "2019-01-17T17:25:40Z")
And when called on it, an ultracrepidarian could become a [mumpsimus](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mumpsimus): one who insists they are right despite clear evidence to the contrary. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/27 "2019-01-17T17:38:46Z")
My brother and I, who share a house, are both words-fans; we pretty well always have a game of Scrabble going. We’re essentially laid-back about rules of play – searching of dictionary (“dead-tree” or online) is permitted, to find out whether what hopefully might be a real word, indeed is one. In this respect, I’m conservative, and prefer the dead-tree option – the two-volume New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. I find it wonderful, what a great abundance of crazily obscure and unheard-of words (not proper nouns, so Scrabble-worthy) there are in the English language, per the “Oxford” – keep stumbling over them by chance in the book, while thumbing-through to find alphabetic location of latest “perhaps word”. A few choice ones, lately happened-upon thus – drabbler: (nautical) – an additional length of canvas laced to the foot of a bonnet to give an even greater area of sail jocoserious: blending humorous and serious matters rubbaboo: (North American, historical – originally from the Algonquian language) – a kind of soup or broth made from pemmican ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/28 "2019-01-17T19:08:39Z")
Well I just learned Pemmican! ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/29 "2019-01-17T19:16:14Z")
> [@Capn\_Carl](#): > > Crepuscular. Animals that are most active at dawn and dusk are not diurnal or nocturnal, they are crepuscular. And the word more generally refers to twilight. Which is why the “sun rays” you sometimes see radiating away from the Sun when the Sun is low in the sky & behind a cloud are called [crepuscular rays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepuscular_rays). ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/30 "2019-01-17T19:21:14Z")
Just a few minutes ago I was reading [this WaPo article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/17/no-state-union-that-would-be-wonderful/?utm_term=.a54320ce276a) and ended up looking up the word “histrionics.” (“exaggerated dramatic behavior designed to attract attention”) As in: > [@](#): > > And that is not to mention the histrionics, such as shouting “You lie!” or bringing Ted Nugent as your guest. Great word, much better than “kabuki theatre” IMHO. (I hate that phrase, I think it’s unfair to actual Kabuki) ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/31 "2019-01-17T20:01:50Z")
OK, who is up for a challenge, before this thread gets longer? Write a sentence or a paragraph using all the cool new words so far listed. The winner gets a free slice of pie and our undying adulation. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/32 "2019-01-17T22:33:47Z")
I’ll beg off from “Brexit wounds” – am British, and wish ardently never to have to hear again that B-word, or anything connected with the whole business. Otherwise – At the crepuscular hour, the declining day’s apricity was agreeable, as pettifogging and sesquipedalian-inclined Captain Treppenwitz – indulging his pagophagia in the intervals of finishing off a bowl of rubbaboo (featuring the autochthonous North Americans’ pemmican) – engaged in histrionics in his chewing-out of Ordinary Seaman Snowthx in jocoserious tattoo-fashion, for his unwarranted yedasentience: “Lobcock ! You’ve made a right mess of that drabbler, you ultracrepidarian mumpsimus: you deserve at best, defenestration – at worst, being a hecatomb victim – no demisexual would even bother to put you in the friendzone…” when night fell fully, and apocolosyntosis overtook them both. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/33 "2019-01-17T22:42:28Z")
_wild applause_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/34 "2019-01-17T22:45:12Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Which is why the “sun rays” you sometimes see radiating away from the Sun when the Sun is low in the sky & behind a cloud are called [crepuscular rays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepuscular_rays). I had been told somewhere along the way that such “rays” were also called “glories,” but a quick look around a couple of online dictionaries suggests that “glory” only refers to halo-shaped light … thingies. I’m miffed, because I really thought I would have one to add to the thread. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/35 "2019-01-17T22:57:55Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > I’ll beg off from “Brexit wounds” – am British, and wish ardently never to have to hear again that B-word, or anything connected with the whole business. Otherwise – > > At the crepuscular hour, the declining day’s apricity was agreeable, as pettifogging and sesquipedalian-inclined Captain Treppenwitz – indulging his pagophagia in the intervals of finishing off a bowl of rubbaboo (featuring the autochthonous North Americans’ pemmican) – engaged in histrionics in his chewing-out of Ordinary Seaman Snowthx in jocoserious tattoo-fashion, for his unwarranted yedasentience: “Lobcock ! You’ve made a right mess of that drabbler, you ultracrepidarian mumpsimus: you deserve at best, defenestration – at worst, being a hecatomb victim – no demisexual would even bother to put you in the friendzone…” when night fell fully, and apocolosyntosis overtook them both. A Bulwer-Lytton winner if there ever was one. I think they’re going to have to come up with a new category, though. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/36 "2019-01-17T23:04:16Z")
Someone who is [latitudinarian](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/latitudinarian) is tolerant of others, particularly when it comes to religion. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/37 "2019-01-17T23:06:27Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > I’ll beg off from “Brexit wounds” – am British, and wish ardently never to have to hear again that B-word, or anything connected with the whole business. Otherwise – > > At the crepuscular hour, the declining day’s apricity was agreeable, as pettifogging and sesquipedalian-inclined Captain Treppenwitz – indulging his pagophagia in the intervals of finishing off a bowl of rubbaboo (featuring the autochthonous North Americans’ pemmican) – engaged in histrionics in his chewing-out of Ordinary Seaman Snowthx in jocoserious tattoo-fashion, for his unwarranted yedasentience: “Lobcock ! You’ve made a right mess of that drabbler, you ultracrepidarian mumpsimus: you deserve at best, defenestration – at worst, being a hecatomb victim – no demisexual would even bother to put you in the friendzone…” when night fell fully, and apocolosyntosis overtook them both. I am laughing out loud - well done! Post of the week! Altho, I am not sure why I am laughing - I need to reference the posts above to remember the meanings of those words. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/38 "2019-01-18T06:44:19Z")
Discombobulated- confused and uncertain. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/39 "2019-01-18T08:50:50Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > A Bulwer-Lytton winner if there ever was one. I think they’re going to have to come up with a new category, though. With this and other comments – I’ll have to beware of getting swollen-headed, and starting to see myself as the Anti-Patrick O’Brian… ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/40 "2019-01-18T08:53:35Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Discombobulated- confused and uncertain. I’ve long known this one; and to be honest, it’s one of those words which I hate, finding them highly twee. (Not “dissing” you personally – my prejudice against the word is individual and illogical, and you have as much right to like it, as I have to dislike it.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722.md?page=3)