Anybody know any words with unusual meanings? I know a few myself, to start off; for example:
defenestrate–to throw out a window
coprozoic–shit eating
illutate–to take a mud bath
I know more, but nothing seems to come to mind at the moment. Just curious to see what other words you all know.
Well, the meaning is kind of mundane, but I love this interesting word:
flaucinaucinihilipilificate - to make fun of; dis
Cessandra
My Homepage
The RHPS: Website For Virgins
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Actually, it’s spelled “floccinaucinihilipipificate”.
Good lord, is there no hope for me?
The word I had heard for … solid waste eating … was coprophagy. I would think coprozoic would mean “dung animal”, but I couldn’t find it in Merriam-Webster.
Here are some other weird words:
kedge - to propel a ship by dropping an anchor out in front of it in and hauling the anchor in. (There are a ton of weird nautical words.)
cwm - a circular depression in the ground. The only word I know which uses “w” as a vowel.
homologous - deriving from the same evolutionary source (the wings of a flighted bird and the flippers of a penguin; this word is not to be used around Creation Scientists).
That reminds me of one of my faves: oxymoron
As in jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, Creation Scientist.
TennHippie, you are incorrigible.
Boris is right about coprophagia.
Extirpate: to pull out by the roots.
Also, “crwth” is a word that uses “w” as a vowel. “W” is a common vowel in Welsh, from which both “crwth” and “cwm” originate.
Woohoo, as an amateur Welsh speaker I am happy to hear these words. Llyfrgll is perhaps my favorite welsh word. It means library. The “ll” is an aspirate “l” sound made by placing the “l” in your mouth then blowing air out the sides instead.
“People’s Poet don’t die, we’ll kill ourselves if you do, but first we’ll take off all our clothes.” The Young Ones
As a medical transcriptionist, I hear a lot of unusual medical terms. Here are a few that I run across pretty much on a regular basis:
Dysdiadochokinesia - An inability to perform rapidly alternating movements, such as rhythmically tapping the fingers on the knee.
Xanthochromia - A pale yellow or straw-colored discoloration of the cerebrospinal fluid.
Sternocleidomastoid - A muscle of the neck that is attached to the mastoid process of the temporal bone and superior nuchal line and by separate heads to the sternum and clavicle.
Shadowfox
“I had plastic surgery last week. I cut up my credit cards.”
OK, slightly off-topic (call me a troll…)
I had never heard the word ‘hubby’ until I arrived at this MB. I’ve gathered, from context, that it’s an affectionate abbreviation for husband. A few questions:
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
Coldfire,
I am a native speaker of English and I find the word “hubby” to be silly. AFAIK, there is no direct equivilent for a woman, such as “wifey”.
“I think it would be a great idea” Mohandas Ghandi’s answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization
*Lucky: I am a native speaker of English and I find the word “hubby” to be silly. AFAIK, there is no direct equivilent for a woman, such as “wifey”. *
A friend and I playfully refer to our spouses as “wifey-poo”. The “-poo” might have come from the kids show “H.R. Pufnstuf”'s character Witchiepoo.
Lucky,
I HAVE seen “wifey” in print, used approximately the same way as “hubby”
The instance that comes immediately to mind is in Winsor McCay’s comic strip DREAMS OF THE RAREBIT FIEND, circa 1905, printed in a New York paper…“Run on home to your wifey and tell her about the tar-and-feather initiation.”
McCay was well up on hep-cat lingo of 1905.
Uke
uh…let’s see…
sesamoid: shaped like a sesame seed.
pyx: short for pyxos box, the box that’s used to carry the eucharist
palimpsest: a parchment for writing things over and over again (I just like the word. sounds funny)
fug (fugging): stuffy, smelly. (I just like to say the word. I’ll tell kids in my gym class to stop "fugging up the place)
I’m sure you all know this one, but it’s still a great word: caliphygian. (sp.?)
BTW, does anyone have a better (read: more obscure) word for having nice breasts? Only thing I can think of is buxom.
I don’t know who first said “everyone’s a critic,” but I think it’s a really stupid saying.
oh, I forgot one of my favorites:
Anserine: resembling a goose.
It’s a great esoteric insult.
I don’t know who first said “everyone’s a critic,” but I think it’s a really stupid saying.
Buxom - my thesaurus lists “bazoomy” as a synonym. Sorry that’s the best I can do on short notice.
Acnestis: the area(s) of the back that you can’t reach to scratch.
Saponification: The process of making soap.
– Sylence
“The problem with reality is the lack of background music.” – Anon
Everyone probably already knows this one, but I’m partial to “Schadenfreude”, which means to take joy in others misfortune. I also like “brobdingnagian” meaning very large after the giants in “Gullivar’s Travels”.
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” Albert Einstein
Wether: a castrated sheep or goat.
Barrow: a castrated pig.
Gilt: a young female pig
Shoat: a pig weighing approximately 180 to 220 pounds.
Farrowing: giving birth to pigs (I presume restricted to mama pigs).
Gyp: a young female dog.
Kindling: the birthing of rabbits.
Gib: a castrated cat.
Pizzel eye: root of the penis (I swear to God!).
The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. - Henry Van Dyke