Welcome to our growing collection of obscure, yet useful, words of the day!
Commit these to memory to become the life of the party, while others gather around, swooning with delight at your witty, erudite banter.
Or perhaps use them to craft creative insults for your geeky friends… (It’s ok; this is a safe place!)
Word of the Day: Epizuexis
This is both a Word of the Day and a figure of speech. (Double word score?) Definition: Repeating a word (or phrase) for emphasis. (Usually 3 times.) For example, if you asked me what I [...]
Word of the Day: Cimicine
Definition: Smelling like bugs. (Or, the actual noun for bug secretions…) Cimicine is one of those wonderfully specific descriptive words that lends itself well to erudite-sounding insults. The pie was cold, and the salad was [...]
Nebulous, pluvial, precipitation—some words of the day
My eyeballs twitched, and all I could think of was electricity and words associated with rain. Nebulous. Pluvial. Precipitation.
Word(s) of the Day: Ascorbic acid
Definition: A vitamin found in citrus fruits and green vegetables. Ascorbic acid is essential for healthy connective tissue. A severe deficiency results in scurvy. Scurvy causes lethargy, bruising, bleeding gums, swollen legs and (if untreated) [...]
Word of the Day: Sabbatical
Definition: A period of paid leave granted to a university teacher for study or travel, traditionally 1 year for every 7 years worked. Of or pertaining to the Sabbath (archaic). So we’ve been pretty quiet lately. It’s because [...]
Word of the Day: Filibuster
Definition: Act obstructively in a legislative assembly (Parliament), especially by speaking at inordinate length. Stuff I find interesting (even if no one else does): Australian parliamentary rules mean that a filibuster is difficult to pull off [...]
Word of the Day: Dysania
Dave called in sick. 'I have a raging case of dysania', he said.'
Word of the Day: Sangfroid
Definition: Composure or coolness shown in danger or under trying circumstances. Sometimes spelled ‘sang-froid’. In French, it literally means ‘cold blood’—English borrowed the word in the 18th century. I think I first read this word [...]