# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**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, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/41 "2019-01-18T09:05:55Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > 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.) No offence- it was on a cat site (of all things) that I visited last night. I wil work it into conversation over the dinner table tonight. I will sign in from hospital. ---
**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, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/42 "2019-01-18T09:24:31Z")
That would be “will”. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/43 "2019-01-22T14:31:39Z")
It’s Finnish, not English, but it’s cool, so I had to share. [Pilkunnussija:](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-olME5Tg7v1E/XEakV_h5cOI/AAAAAAABcRU/tsPRGWNudUUdVTj1oXwCRx47BpZCzOF5QCL0BGAYYCw/h750/2019-01-21.png) A person who believes it’s their destiny to stamp out all spelling and punctuation errors. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/44 "2019-01-22T16:21:51Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Discombobulated- confused and uncertain. In the Milwaukee airport, right after you get past the security screening, there’s an area that’s officially labeled as the “[recombobulation area](https://onmilwaukee.com/visitors/articles/recombobulationsigns.htmll)”. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/45 "2019-01-22T18:01:37Z")
_Internecine_. I encountered it yesterday in Greil Marcus’ book “When That Rough God Goes Riding” about Van Morrison. Never heard it before, but Marcus is usually very verbose and I always learn new adjectives when reading him. Before looking it up, I thought that it sounds like a portmanteau of “internet” and “magazine”, but in review it would be an unfortunate name for a tech mag. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/46 "2019-01-22T20:11:29Z")
Callipygian From an old column by the Master: [https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/758/what-does-callipygian-mean/](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/758/what-does-callipygian-mean/) ---
**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 22, 2019, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/47 "2019-01-22T21:20:00Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > _Internecine_. I encountered it yesterday in Greil Marcus’ book “When That Rough God Goes Riding” about Van Morrison. Never heard it before, but Marcus is usually very verbose and I always learn new adjectives when reading him. Before looking it up, I thought that it sounds like a portmanteau of “internet” and “magazine”, but in review it would be an unfortunate name for a tech mag. There is a book (and movie) called The Internecine Project. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/48 "2019-01-22T23:31:23Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Callipygian > > From an old column by the Master: > > [https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/758/what-does-callipygian-mean/](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/758/what-does-callipygian-mean/) There is also steatopygian. There should also be osteopygian, but I don’t think there is. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2019, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/49 "2019-01-25T21:20:56Z")
I just learned “auscultation” - “the action of listening to sounds from the heart, lungs, or other organs, typically with a stethoscope, as a part of medical diagnosis.” ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2019, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/50 "2019-01-25T22:30:08Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > My father was reading a book the other day on Greek mythology, and he called me over to try to figure out what “autochthonous” meant. I thought it could be about burying yourself, or maybe digging yourself up. > > Turns out it just means “indigenous”. Normally I’m all for expanding one’s vocabulary, but I think the writer was just being pretentious here. It’s also used in geology, to describe a rock mass that has not been transported from where it was formed. The opposite, and my contribution to this thread, is _allochthonous_: a rock mass that has been moved from its bedrock (carried downstream by a river, or moved by a glacier, for example). ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/51 "2019-01-25T22:42:21Z")
My new (very old as it turns out) is Yclept- /iˈklept/ and loosely means “also known as” . "I am swampspruce, yclept “easily catches fire”. [World Wide Words: Yclept](http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-ycl1.htm) more info here. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/52 "2019-02-03T01:32:05Z")
boustrophedon- turning like oxen in plowing (or mowing a lawn in contraflow adjacent rows); designating or of an ancient form of writing in which the lines run alternately from right to left and left to right. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/53 "2019-02-03T18:34:00Z")
“inspissate” – to make thicker “caoutchouc” – natural rubber ---
**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:** [February 3, 2019, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/54 "2019-02-03T20:58:28Z")
Palimpsest - a manuscript page which has had the original text erased and which has been reused. Weird aside - where I learned the word: from a comment about the meaning of the song The Bewlay Brothers, by David Bowie: > **[The Bewlay Brothers | Background](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bewlay_Brothers#Background)** > > Bowie himself is said to have told producer Ken Scott that it was a track for the American market, because "the Americans always like to read things into things", even though the lyrics "make absolutely no sense". j ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2019, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722/55 "2019-02-03T23:44:55Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > It’s also used in geology, to describe a rock mass that has not been transported from where it was formed. > > The opposite, and my contribution to this thread, is _allochthonous_: a rock mass that has been moved from its bedrock (carried downstream by a river, or moved by a glacier, for example). Also used in fantasy / graphic novels, a rock creature / Gollum. In the original Greek, that could have been a fantasy wood/water/fire creature, but in fantasy I’ve only seen it used for rock people. To me, in English autochthonous (Greek) implies “originating where found”; indigenous (Latin) implies “first”. As “the indigenous people of Europe were the autochthonous people of Africa” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-new-words-youve-learned/827722.md?page=2)