Lexicon-o-rama

Ever since high school, I’ve kept a list of my favorite words.  Some sound musically whimsical, some are bafflingly arcane, others are surprisingly utilitarian (did you know there’s a word just for throwing something out a window?). 

At first, it was a slip of scrap paper in the top drawer of a desk to which I added new words in different color inks every now and then.  Later, it became a page in my journal, with later entries scrunched up at the bottom of the small space I had foolishly allotted to something that clearly deserved better.

Now, it’s on my blog.  Presenting my 45 favorite words, often with links to dictionary.com or, preferably, the invaluable Wordsmith web site (if you don’t get their “word a day” email, you’re depriving yourself of a prime reason to get out of bed in the morning).  Onward, logophiles!

1. persnickety
2. discombobulate–“to confuse,” though I’ve also hear it used simply to mean “to disassemble”
3. onomatopoeia
4. schadenfreude–“pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.”  Shocking–shocking!–that German has a word for this
5. facetious
6. subterfuge
7. coquettish
8. extrapolate
9. solipsism
10. supercilious
11. pontificate
12. loquacious
13. weltschmerz–a German version of the French ennui?
14. potentate
15. exacerbate
16. oxymoron
17. punctilious
18. zeitgeist
19. lackadaisical
20. ululate–used in Lord of the Flies
21. vociferous
22. circumambulate–used in Moby Dick
23. polyglot–first came across this one while reading commentaries on Finnegans Wake
24. cachinnate–“to laugh raucously”
25. obfuscation–as in “eschew obfuscation”
26. abecedary
27. besmirched
28. cackleberry
29. haberdashery–“a place that sells men’s clothes”
30. sacerdotal
31. skulduggery
32. hobbledehoy–useful insult for a teacher to know
33. expectorate
34. defenestration–“throwing something out of a window”
35. somnolent
36. plenipotentiary
37. whomp
38. sniffy
39. swivet
40. fartlek–“a method of physical training that alternates intense activity with periods of low effort”
41. penultimate–when I first heard this word, I thought it might mean something like “super ultimate.”  I was disappointed to find that it means “next to last”
42. bifurcated–you know, like the devil’s tail!  :)
43. canoodling
44. twitterpated–from Bambi
45. kerfuffle–I can’t believe I never heard this word until 2005’s Danish Muhammad cartoon kerfuffle

Bonus Simpsons Quote!  “Disingenuous mountebanks with their subliminal chicanery!  A pox on them!”  -Homer (no, really!), “Bart’s Friend Falls In Love,” Season 3