35 Strange English Words You Probably Won’t Get To Use, Ever
We all know by now that English, the most widely spoken language on Earth, is a crazy language.
It has the most inconsistent rules of any language, which effectively makes it the most confusing tongue of all. It also happens to have the widest vocabulary, some two million words to be exact, since, among other things, it happily takes words from just about any other language and makes those its own. Coining words from out of nowhere is also quite common; just check out these slang words for more intimate body parts of the female anatomy.
The result? A dictionary that contains some of the most obscure terms that we would never think of using in the real world, except when playing Scrabble or trying to impress academic snobs who probably don't have any idea what they mean in the first place. Here are 35 of them.
1. abacinate
To blind by holding a red-hot metal plate before someone’s eyes
2. borborygmus
The rumbling/growling sound produced by the movement of gas through the intestines of humans and animals
3. butyraceous
Resembling butter in appearance, consistency, or chemical properties
4. callipygian
Having shapely buttocks
5. cockalorum
A self-important little man
6. defenestrate
To throw someone out of a window
7. depone
To testify under oath
8. erinaceous
Like a hedgehog
9. famulus
A private secretary or attendant, especially used to describe an assistant to a magician or scholar
10. finnimbrun
A trinket or knick-knack
11. flibbertigibbet
A silly, scatterbrained, or garrulous person
12. floccinaucinihilipilification
An act or instance of judging something to be worthless or trivial
13. inaniloquent
Given to talking inanely
14. interrobang
A nonstandard English-language punctuation mark which is a combination of an exclamation and question mark
15. lamprophony
loudness and clarity of enunciation
16. limerence
An attempt at a scientific study into the nature of romantic love
17. liripipe
The long tail of a graduate’s hood
18. mesonoxian
Of or related to midnight
19. mumpsimus
A view stubbornly held even when proven to be wrong
20. nudiustertian
The day before yesterday
21. omphaloskepsis
Navel-gazing, mostly as an aid to meditation
22. phenakism
Deception or trickery
23. pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
A lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust causing inflammation in the lungs; the longest word ever to appear in an English language dictionary
24. pronk
A weak or foolish person
25. pulveratricious
Covered with dust
26. rastaquouere
A social upstart, especially from a Mediterranean or Latin American country
27. scopperloit
rough or rude play
28. selcouth
Rarely known; unusual; strange
29. syzygy
Astrological term pertaining to an event where 3 or more heavenly bodies line up
30. tintinnabulate
To ring or to tinkle a bell
31. tyrotoxism
Poisoning by cheese or any milk product
32. ultracrepidate
To criticize beyond one’s sphere of knowledge
33. widdiful
One who deserves hanging
34. zabernism
The misuse or abuse of military power or authority
35. zyzzyva
a type of tropical American weevil often found in association with palms
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