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
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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autoclave

autoclave - An autoclave is a type of oven used for curing (hardening) some type of materials such as plastics and carbon fiber composites. Autoclaves, smaller specialized versions,  are also for sterilizing medical instruments.

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apostasy

apostasy - The word apostasy means revolt or defection from, abandonment of, or renunciation of, a religion. 

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decrepit

decrepit - A decrepit person is someone who is elderly, frail, feeble, and infirm.

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derisory

derisory - The word derisory describes something absurdly small or abstractly inadequate. The word derisory can also be used as an adverb to deride or demean someone.

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obloquy

obloquy - Regarding the word obloquy, while reading some information on a legal topic, the wonderfully specific term obloquy appeared in the text of an appellate court opinion. The term obloquy certainly isn't used in general contemporary written or verbal discourse, but it does appear to have become a legal term of art. In legal writing, the word obloquy is used to describe unjust public abuse and scorn arising from libel. Synonyms for  the word obloquy, such as ignominy, opprobrium, vituperation, and vilification, seem to be as entertaining as the curious word obloquy itself.

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agliophobia

agliophobia  - Regarding the word agliophobia, while searching the internet for background information about words such as: Hades, Succubus, and Abject, the footnotes in the definition for the word abject in one online dictionary included a list of phobias. One of the phobias was agliophobia, meaning an abnormal fear of pain. The very existence of such a word is a curiosity, since the absence of a fear of pain seems like it would be quite abnormal.

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acquisitive

acquisitive – The word acquisitive is neither new nor used much by the mass media. However, the word acquisitive precisely describes western society's pathological obsession with the acquisition of material things. In other words, it isn't enough to describe western society as materialistic. It is necessary to focus more specifically on western society's insatiable acquisition fever. For much of western society, and specifically the U.S., what passes for “success” is often measured purely by a person’s material wealth, or artificial social status (i.e. Kardashianism), no matter how culturally devoid and vapid the person, within the devolution of a "having the most toys" society.

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hagiography

hagiography - Regarding the word hagiography, the mass media has a way of either deifying or vilifying people, often in a way that defies the balanced reality of the subject being discussed. For example, often when someone is the victim of a serious crime, in the media, their families' tend to remember them only in saintly terms. That is hagiography. Recently there was an article in the mass media in which journalist Glenn Greenwald called the NBC news anchor Brian Williams its "top hagiographer". In modern usage, hagiography is the practice of describing someone in unrealistically glowing terms, eliminating all negatives from the chronicle of the subject's life. Historically, hagiography began as the literal means by which the lives of canonized people were written about in purely saintly terms.

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caliphate

caliphate - the word caliphate has been relevant due to news about the uprising of radical Islamic terrorism in Iraq by a violent group called ISIS.  The word caliphate has appeared in articles about the radical ISIS Islamists, about the burgeoning Middle East civil war. A caliphate describes a form of fundamentalist Islamic theocracy that is controlled by a Muslim religious leader called a caliph. This despotic fundamentalist form of Muslim government is ruled by dictatorship and brutal Sharia Law.

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ingluvies

ingluvies - The word ingluvies was used in the second round of the 2012 national spelling bee. It is the crop, or widened part of the esophagus in many insects, mollusks, and birds, that accumulates, stores, and sometimes begins chemically processing, food. In flies, butterflies, and other insects that use liquid food, the ingluvies is a sac mounted on a stalk. In bees the fermentative processing of flower nectar into honey takes place in the ingluvies. The expanded portions of the esophagus in annelid worms, nematodes, and nemerteans are also called ingluvies (from an open source, online dictionary).

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refactoring

refactoring - The word refactoring is a newfangled, although probably appropriate, term of art, for modern, often automated, code optimization processes, often used with pseudo-code compiled, and JIT compiled, software language systems. A notable software engineer, Martin Fowler, has written a book about refactoring, and has assembled a web site devoted to the topic,  www.refactoring.com. The website provides detailed information on the subject of refactoring, as do other internet resources.

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sozzled

sozzled - The word sozzled is a rather fun way of describing someone who is either drunk, or acting as though they were intoxicated, even if they aren't. Apparently, the word sozzled has a slang origin, evolved from various forms of British dialect.

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cursorily

cursorily - The word cursorily is a variation on the word's more common version - cursory - which arose during recent general verbal usage, and seemed as though it would be a nice addition here. Many definitions of the word cursorily attribute a pejorative connotation to cursory activity. However, sometimes a cursory, overview oriented, review of something can be appropriate, sometimes due to time constraints, or as a preface to a second, in depth coverage of something, after a breadth first perusal cursorily evaluates something.

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flibbertigibbet

flibbertigibbet - The word flibbertigibbet originated in Middle English. The word flibbertigibbet describes loquacious, chatty, impish, silly, people. The word flibbertigibbet also appears in Shakespeare's fiction as the name of one of his characters.

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corium

corium - The word corium  is the name of congealed lava that is a mixture of uranium, fission by-product heavy metals, and sand, that forms after a graphite core nuclear reactor meltdown in nuclear reactor that has sand filled secondary containment vessel. This uranium and sand mixture, especially in its congealed form, has also been dubbed Chernobylite.

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felicitous

Felicitous - Often used to describe writing that is polite and intended put the writing's reader at ease.

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