Dear Colleagues,
please choose one of the weirdest words in the list below and let us know. One of the responses of the most popular word will receive a prize. Seriously.
Shams Hoque
Associate Professor in English
DIU
Have fun with some of the weirdest words in English:
Bibble
v. – to drink often; to eat and/or drink noisily
Cabotage
n. – coastal navigation; the exclusive right of a country to control the air traffic within its borders
NOT: v. – to sabotage with cabbage and/or Vermont Cabot Cheese
Doodle sack
n. – old English word for bagpipe
Gabelle
n. – a tax on salt
Halfpace
n. – a platform of a staircase where the stair turns back in exactly the reverse direction of the lower flight
Impignorate
v. – to pawn or mortgage something
NOT: v. – to impregnate a pig
Jentacular
adj. – pertaining to breakfast
Kakorrhaphiophobia
n. – fear of failure
This is the last word that someone with kakorrhaphiophobia would want to encounter in a spelling bee.
Nudiustertian
n. – the day before yesterday
NOT: n. – a martian nudist
Oxter
n. – outdated word meaning “armpit”
NOT: n. – a creature that is half ox, half otter
Pauciloquent
adj. – uttering few words; brief in speech
If you had to figure out how to use this word in context, you probably wouldn’t say much either.
Quire
n. – two dozen sheets of paper
Salopettes
n. – high-waisted skiing pants with shoulder straps
Tittynope
n. – a small quantity of something left over
Undoubtedly the biggest eyebrow-raiser on this list!
Ulotrichous
adj. – having wooly or crispy hair
First time you’ve heard this word? It’s probably a good indication that you don’t have wooly or crispy hair. Or that you do, and nobody uses this word anymore.
Valetudinarian
n. – a sickly or weak person, especially one who is constantly and morbidly concerned with his or her health
Think – “the valedictorian of hypochondriacs”
