Words Of The Week

A Collection Of Vocabulary Words Discovered By Marilyn Perry

Some of the many words that Marilyn Perry discovers from time to time.

A Collection Of Vocabulary Words Discovered By Marilyn Perry
Photo Credit

Maria Eklin

In the list below are some unusual words collected and curated from time to time upon discovering these fresh vocabulary additions. Sometimes these often curious vocabulary additions are discoveries made while reading a journal article, or while reading a scholarly article or book.

At other times, unusually idiosyncratic words make themselves known in various colloquial contexts. For example, among the more humorous of some of the relatively recent vocabulary additions has been the Chinese slang word Baizuo. The word Baizuo is a Chinese neologism that Chinese people use to insult people from Western culture who espouse social values with which the Chinese user of the word Baizuo disagrees.

Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary Of The English Language, for Vocabulary Aficionados
Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary

Given that the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language contains approximately 476,000 words, there is, for all practical purposes, a nearly infinite universe of fresh vocabulary words in the English language waiting each day to be discovered.

Quite a while ago, the print version of the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary came with a software version of the dictionary on a DVD disc. The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary software application for Windows was written during the 32-bit Windows era. However, after some fiddling with the compatibility settings in the current, 64-bit native integer word size, version of Windows it has been possible to install and run the unabridged dictionary software program. Having a searchable version of the over 476,000 words in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary is a near miracle. Ready to go forth boldly where few people seem to want to explore, across a galaxy sized glossary of wonderful words. Warp speed Mr. Sulu! Engage!

Thank you for visiting this website, my personal website, and hopefully your enjoyment the information and content shared here publicly at www.marilynperry.com. Marilyn Perry | Monday, February 5, 2024

Vocabulary Words Of The Week Presented Accordion Style With Pronunciation Audio Snippets
cruft

cruft - The word cruft describes redundant, poorly written, or unwanted, content or code in computer source-code or other digital documents. The word cruft was likely invented in 1958 by a group of MIT students. Apparently the word cruft may also be a derogatory sneer at the Harvard Cruft Laboratory, which was the Harvard Physics Department's radar lab during World War II. Uttering the phrase "removing the cruft" in sotto voce is a frequent verbal pastime when editing software

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borborygmi

borborygmi - The word borborygmi arose the other day while discussing gastric sounds with someone. Although an odd sounding word, borborygmi is simply a medical term for the rumbling and gurgling sounds that emanate from the stomach and small intestines as food passes through them. The word borborygmi is derived from ancient Greek word for rumbling. There are also various adjective forms for the word borborygmi, as well as its plural: borborygmic, borborygmatic, borborygmus, and borborygmies.

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anisotropy

anisotropy - The word anisotropy appeared during a web search, looking for images of nuclear reactors glowing.  The word anisotropy means that a material's property vary depending on angle of measurement. The distinctive anisotropic blue glow emitted from water cooled nuclear reactors is called Cherenkov radiation, an anisotropic property.

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polyphasic

polyphasic - The word polyphasic in its most abstract connotations describes processes that have more than two phases. The word polyphasic appeared in response to web searches about cat sleeping behavior.  The catnap phenomenon is real. Across a variety of cat species, cats exhibit, often quite endearing, polyphasic sleep behaviors.

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jejunosity

jejunosity - The word jejunosity is a wonderful way to insult someone without that person knowing they've been insulted. The word jejunosity means someone who is vapid and/or naïve. The word jejunosity, and related words such as jejunity and jejunous, are derived from the Latin word jejunous which literally means empty.

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galbanum

galbanum - The word galbanum was an ironic discovery, stumbled upon almost randomly while writing about the software version of the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary. The unfamiliar word galbanum was in sequential proximity with the word galaxy. Galbanum is an herb that is native to the Mediterranean and Arabian regions. Galbanum's botanical name is ferula gummosa. Historically, as far back in history as Egyptian antiquity, cultures used galbanum for a variety of purposes, including medicinal and ceremonial. Galbanum, in contemporary culture, is a fragrance ingredient.

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sedulous

Sedulous - Sedulous means someone who demonstrations dedication, devotion, and diligence, to a task or a vocation. The word sedulous is a style of word that doesn't sound or look at all like its meaning.

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lucubrate

Lucubrate - Learning, studying, writing, producing possibly scholarly material, especially at night.

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commensal

commensal - The word commensal is a wonderful word for describing quality relationships between people. From Latin, the word commensal translates literally as "community at the table". In modern usage a fundamental aspect of commensal relationships is that the parties don't harm each other and aren't parasitic. A person's commensal social group is the people that person eats with.

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proctalgia

proctalgia - Proctalgia is pain caused by pelvic floor muscle spasms, anal sphincter muscle spasms, or by rectal muscle spasms. Proctalgia results in knife life stabbing pain in a person's rectum. 

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magniloquence

magniloquence - discovering the word magniloquence was a laugh out loud experience. The word magniloquence aptly describes some of the adjective laced ornamentation that pervades some of the writing on this website. Unfortunately, the word magniloquence isn't often used as a writing style compliment.

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dysgenics

dysgenics - The word dysgenics describes social and population control practices, horrifying in itself, that would promote the reproduction and survival of people deemed undesirable. The term dysgenics is closely related to the equally heinous notion eugenics.

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parastatal

parastatal - The term parastatal came up recently on social media when Elon Musk began labelling media such as the BBC as government run "state" media.

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fratority

fratority - A fratority is a college / university social organization that accepts both women and men. It is neologism that combines the words fraternity and sorority into one.

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censoriousness

censoriousness - A censorious person demonstrates censoriousness by being hyper-critical of other people, by expressing blame, condemnation, and fault-finding, being negatively judgmental, especially when the blame or criticism is inappropriate or inaccurate.

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carabiner

carabiner - Carabiners are actually quite familiar items. However, it seems as though many people aren't using these handy tools nearly enough. 

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askance

Askance - This word, askance, is actually one that some people use in everyday verbal discourse. It has arrived here in this list simply because I thought to use it some writing, and decided that words like this ought to be included in this ongoing catalog of interesting vocabulary.

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quidnunc

quidnunc  - A quidnunc is someone who is an inquisitive and gossipy person. This curious word, quidnunc, appeared on the twitter feed of a rather erudite university classmate of mine on Friday April 13, 2020. This is the sort of word one uses when one wants to adroitly belittle and disparage a disrespectful person, at the same communicating to that person, who might know this word, who might not be a student of vocabulary, that they are clearly the lesser person, as a matter of character, culture, intellect, as well as education. 

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disconcertion

disconcertion - This wonderful word, disconcertion, describes a very specific form of social discomfiture when one experiences a sense of inadequacy. Often, disconcertion is an experience that occurs before anything tangible or concrete has ever occurred. Disconcertion can have a chilling effect on a person, causing that person to refrain from some action or activity for which that person has concluded they might not have the skilled, or the standing or stature, to engage in.

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disconcertion

disconcertion - This wonderful word, disconcertion, describes a very specific form of social discomfiture when one experiences a sense of inadequacy. Often, disconcertion is an experience that occurs before anything tangible or concrete has ever occurred. Disconcertion can have a chilling effect on a person, causing that person to refrain from some action or activity for which that person has concluded they might not have the skilled, or the standing or stature, to engage in.

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cambrian explosion

cambrian explosion - The phrase Cambrian Explosion appeared recently in an online technology article. However, it was used metaphorically to refer to the sudden and widespread appearance of a technological phenomenon, and not in the context of its original archeological connotation, referencing to the historical juncture during which complex animals began to proliferate, and whose abundant quantities of fossilized skeletal remains provide evidence of their proliferation. 

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chad

chad - This apparent slang term appeared in an online post or news article the other day. It turns out that the term chad is a derogatory pronoun depicting, young (20s to early 30s), urban, single, European American men. Merely reading about this neologism via web search results yields a host of other hilarious neologisms as well, such as manosphere, incel, inceldom, crotchbulge, and more. 

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anodyne

anodyne - The word anodyne is one of many words that has appeared recently while reading online news articles. This word anodyne is an unusual word that doesn't at all sound like its meaning. The word anodyne means: inoffensive, unlikely to incite dissent, not distressing. 

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allosteric

allosteric - The word allosteric is a rather obscure technical term related to biochemistry and the regulation of enzymes. This adjective is most often part of the phrase allosteric regulation, which controls the way enzymes bind to proteins. 

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frolic

frolic - No, the word frolic isn't a fancy or complex word. However, the very sound of the world frolic is superbly inventive. The inspiration for thinking about this wonderful word was seeing videos of bear cubs frolicking around, learning how to be bears. Bears are amazing. The English word frolic is a social descendant of the Dutch word vrolyc, which means to be happy. That original Dutch word was itself apparently a concatenation of the words vro, meaning "merry", and the word lyc, meaning "like". The English word frolic is merely an Anglicization from Dutch. 

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spruiking

spruiking - The verb spruiking is a truly obscure synonym for public speaking. There is a noun version of spruiking, spruik, to describe someone who is a public speaker, a showman or salesperson.

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philopatric

philopatric - The word philopatric means to have a tendency to stay in a particular geographical area, for example, in the case of animals like salmon, to return to their birthplace to spawn.

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irredentism

irredentism - Irredentism is a word that probably qualifies for nomination to the list of all time amazing words of the week. I can't remember where I saw this, but it surely arose in the midst of America's current near cold civil war of culture between the political "left" and "right". Irredentism is the advocation of restoring a country's lot political structure, or geographical boundaries.

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hubris

hubris - Although the word hubris is quite familiar, it's such an appropriate word at the moment, during which conceit, arrogance, egotism, and pomposity, are on display through the world's media and government.

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hallow

hallow - When the word hallow is used as an adjective, in a past tense form, hallowed, the word hallow is quite familiar. However, seeing the word hallow in verb form is unusual. As a verb, the word hallow means to consecrate something or someone, to honor, revere, and so on. This usage inspires ways to use the word hallow without religious inference.

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