Gates - The Word Im Thinking Of: A Devilish Dictionary of Difficult Words

For my family

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I love words. Its strange the byways of memory that stumbling across a certain word or phrase will take you down, especially if its one youre discovering and finding the meaning of for the first time. This book records some of the reveries that unusual words have elicited in me.

From an early age, Ive been an avid reader of literature and interested in expanding my vocabulary. In high school, I received a score of over 700 on my SAT verbal test, and so decided I should pursue a career that somehow involved working with words. In my work as a professional copyeditor, thats what I do, though I rarely encounter words as unusual as those collected here. So Ive set out to enhance my vocabulary on my own. Its an ongoing, lifelong project.

Most of the words youll find here were originally defined and commented on in my spare-time avocation as a blogger (at michaelgates.blogspot.com). Ive been collecting rare words for more than ten years now and only recently thought of collecting them in book form. I hope youll find them as fascinating and thought-provoking as I do.

Where did I find these curious and difficult words, you may well ask. Sometimes it was by stumbling across them while reading. Often though, I deliberately sought them out online. A Google search for weird or unusual (or even useless) words will reveal many websites devoted to collecting rare lexemes.

For each word highlighted here, Ive included a quotation to show how the word can be used in context. These quotations sometimes come from my own reading, but more often from searching Google Books or some other online source for a (public domain) literary quotation containing the word. All of these quotes are attributed to the original authors when that can be determined. Quotations and commentaries that arent attributed to someone else are attributable to me!

I havent included many etymologies in this book, as that information can be fairly easily found in more conventional dictionaries and online. My hope is that this book will help to revive interest in some of these words. Please do try to use them in your daily conversations. Think of it as a humorous social-science experiment to see what kinds of reactions you receive. For example, you might say That was a very interesting flumadiddle you raised at the meeting today. Or: I like that flumadiddle youre wearing! Where did you get it? And please report back to me any blank look, inquiry as to your meaning, or sincere thank you you record. Im easy to find online.

Michael Gates

Jersey City, New Jersey

April 2013

A

aboulomania [ay-BOO-lo-MAY-nee-a] (noun)

Pathological indecisiveness

Chocolate or strawberry? Cursing his aboulomania, Sylvester continued to stare at the ice-cream parlors menu.

absquatulate [ab-SQOTCH-uh-layt] (verb)

To leave in a hurry; vamoose

Time to absquatulate, Hiram whispered to himself as the drapes went up in flames.

I was playing with a three-legged cat one night at a friends house. I offered kitty a catnip toy, but it seemed to startle him. He absquatulated. I was a little miffed, but then he came back and sniffed it. Nice kitty. Its amazing how fast a three-legged cat can move.

abstemious [ab-STEE-mee-us] (adjective)

Restraint in consuming food or alcohol

Im pretty abstemious myself, Ralph explained. Partly because there have been some family issues with alcoholbut Ive been known to take a drink after a hard day in the salt mine.

abulia [uh-BOO-lee-uh] (noun)

A symptom of a mental disorder involving inability to make decisions or a loss of volition

When abulia increases with herin consequence of fatigue, for instanceinsomnia increases also at the very time when she should know how to sleep.

Pierre Janet, The Mental State of Hystericals (1901)

I cant decide what I want to say about abulia. Actually, I can: I think its a pretty common affliction. I know I dither over, for example, whether to buy raspberry or blackberry jam at the supermarket. First-world problems!

I recall that I was once watching an excellent production of Hamlet on PBS, a play that is all aboutabulia (To be or not to be...), and couldnt decide whether to switch channels to watch the premiere of a new TV series called Happy Town. I cant decide if I should tell you what I decidedwhich probably tells you something.

accismus [ak-SISS-muss] (noun)

Pretending not to be interested in something while secretly being interested in it

Accismus is sometimes considered as a virtue, sometimes as a vice, which Augustus and Tiberius practiced with great success. Cromwells refusal of the crown of England may be brought as an instance of an accismus.

The New and Complete American Encyclopedia (1805)

This is what is called being coy. Julius Caesar refuses the crown, even though he desires it, knowing that the people will insist all the harder that he accept it. The fox pretends he really doesnt like grapes.

If youre interested in somethingor someonebut try to hide it, for whatever reason, youre engaging in accismus. Just pretend youve never heard of this word.

acephalia [ace-uh-FAYL-ya] (noun) acephalic (adjective)

The absence of a head or the absence of a brain

Comparative anatomy, and acephalic monstrosities among the mammalia and man, furnish incontrovertible proofs of the brain not being the origin of the nervous system at large.

Johann Gaspar Spurzheim, The Anatomy of the Brain (1826)

Yoko Ono once said, Consider if it is such a catastrophe to live without your head. She added that it might make it easier to move around, since ones body would be so much lighter. Zen humor aside, I cant imagine what it would be like to live in a state of acephalia. I often live in my headthe curse or blessing of the introvert, depending on how you look at it. I do have a rich interior life that would be hard to give up.

I wouldnt mind getting rid of the nattering jukebox of stuck records that is sometimes set to forte in my head, though.

ackamarackus [AK-uh-muh-RAK-uss] (noun)

Nonsense, especially if pretentious; something deceptive; humbug Aunt Betty was quite an amusing conversationalist and enjoyed sending us witty postcards filled with charming non-sequiturs, ackamarackus, and bon mots.

Of course, I would never engage in such balderdash except when I have to conduct personal business that involves writing to some bureaucratic entitythen I turn on the ackamarackus faucet. I start my email with a salutation like Dear [blank] Officer (no matter how lowly the recipient) and then compose my request or inquiry using the diction and sentence structure of a honey-tongued aristocrat: may I inquire, would it be acceptable, could I be so bold as to, naturally you may wonder, perhaps you would consider, etc. They seem to lap it up.

adoxography [ad-ox-OG-ruh-fee] (noun)

Skilled writing on a trivial subject

He discards the tricks of the school, adoxography, epigram, and, as a rule, paradox. Simplicity is his charm.