# Ever meet a word whose definition surprises you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 13, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868 "2005-08-13T15:49:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2005, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/41 "2005-08-14T20:46:53Z")
I was all kinds of thrilled when I was ten, and found out the real meaning of defenestrate. I used to think it had something to do with trees, then I found out it actually means [this](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=defenestrate). My childish mind was filled with glee at a handy new word to threaten people with! ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/42 "2005-08-16T05:27:16Z")
**Petard** , as in “hoist on his own.” My grandmother used to use this phrase a lot and I didn’t get around to looking it up for years and years. I pictured it as being some kind of pole-arm, though this modified a bit when I got a bit older and, ahem, dirty-minded. Boy, was I completely off base. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/43 "2005-08-16T05:46:10Z")
I like “petard” because, like “petcock,” the root comes from the latin for “fart.” So when I hear “hoist by his own petard,” although I know what it literally means, I tend to think of someone being brought low by a thunderous fart at the wrong time. ---
**Author:** ![Giant\_Spongess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@Giant\_Spongess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giant_Spongess)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/44 "2005-08-16T05:54:33Z")
I have a hard time remembering that chartreuse is green, not red, and that vermillion is red, not green. It doesn’t help that I’m synaesthetic, and can’t help _seeing_ them the wrong way. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/45 "2005-08-16T06:01:34Z")
> [@bluecanary](#): > > Does any other Britisher see the word “surfeit” and think immediately of [lampreys](http://cunnan.sca.org.au/wiki/Henry_I)? Not British, but the two words always go together for me, mainly because of Ngaio Marsh’s book. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/46 "2005-08-16T06:24:34Z")
> [@Giant\_Spongess](#): > > I have a hard time remembering that chartreuse is green, not red … I always have difficulty with chartreuse and puce. Puce should be the colour of vomit, I think. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/47 "2005-08-16T08:15:16Z")
> [@Spatial Rift 47](#): > > Callipygiate. I read it in a sentence about someone moving across a room, so I thought it meant a really cool way to move across the room. However, the context, now that I read over it again, supports the real definition, which basically is “to ass one’s way from point A to point B”. > Context sentence: “The phone rang and Miss Irish Ass of 1919 [the novel is set in the 1930s] callipygiated across the room and answered it.” From William Kennedy’s novel _Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game_. Looks like a nonce word meaning “to move in such a way as to show off one’s amazing ass.” ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/48 "2005-08-16T19:51:55Z")
[Pundit](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=pundit&x=12&y=14) for years, I thought it meant a joker or political cartoonist. **silenus** , could you link me a definition for Callipygiate? I can’t find it in my hard dictionary, or the one I use on line. I know, my fallibility is showing, but I can’t know everything. 😃 **Giant\_Spongess** , vermillion just sounds green, like [viridian](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=viridian&x=0&y=0). ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/49 "2005-08-16T20:10:56Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > [Pundit](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=pundit&x=12&y=14) for years, I thought it meant a joker or political cartoonist. > > **silenus** , could you link me a definition for Callipygiate? I can’t find it in my hard dictionary, or the one I use on line. I know, my fallibility is showing, but I can’t know everything. 😃 > > **Giant\_Spongess** , vermillion just sounds green, like [viridian](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=viridian&x=0&y=0). The closest I could come to is callipygian. See [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=callipygian](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=callipygian) ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/50 "2005-08-16T20:44:20Z")
Ooh! I remembered one: The first time I encountered “bibulous,” (in Dickens, I think?) I assumed that it referred to someone who put a lot of stock in the Bible. That led to a bit of confusion until I looked it up. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/51 "2005-08-16T20:56:10Z")
**sanction.** Does it mean “allow” or does it mean “punish”? (I wondered, based on how it was used.) So I looked it up. Both… ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868/52 "2005-08-16T23:42:30Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I see your **peruse** , and raise you: > > **cleave** - which means to either 1) separate, or 2) adhere. > > 😕 But when meaning “to adhere”, the past tenses are regular (cleaved) while the other meaning is irregular (cleave, cleft, cleft (or cloven)). _Garrulous_ surprises me. I sounds like it should mean something akin to “grouchy”, but, IIRC, simply means chatty or talkative. _Caustic_ humor. This sounds like it should mean cruel humor at the expense of the unfortunate, but I often hear the word used to describe Groucho Marx. Sure he tilted at many sacred cows, just as Chaplin did, but AFAIK the jokes were usually delivered in good fun. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-meet-a-word-whose-definition-surprises-you/316868.md?page=2)