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.
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”.
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
Pagophagia: compulsive chewing on ice, etc.
(Not to be confused with Pogophilia which is a fixation on a classic comic strip.)
Not new, but new to me: ultracrepidarian, “One who gives opinions on something beyond his or her knowledge.”
And when called on it, an ultracrepidarian could become a mumpsimus: one who insists they are right despite clear evidence to the contrary.
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
Well I just learned Pemmican!
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.
Just a few minutes ago I was reading this WaPo article and ended up looking up the word “histrionics.” (“exaggerated dramatic behavior designed to attract attention”) As in:
Great word, much better than “kabuki theatre” IMHO. (I hate that phrase, I think it’s unfair to actual Kabuki)
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. 
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.
wild applause
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:
A Bulwer-Lytton winner if there ever was one. I think they’re going to have to come up with a new category, though.
Someone who is latitudinarian is tolerant of others, particularly when it comes to religion.
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.
Discombobulated- confused and uncertain.
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…
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.)