Thursday, March 15, 2007

Words

Part and parcel with my love of books, I also enjoy words, especially unusual words.

Last year I purchased a book directly from
Bloomsbury Publishing. In the process of doing this I signed up for two of their newsletters, one of which is “Word of the Day”. Below is a selection of unusual words recently coming to my inbox, courtesy of Bloomsbury:

Gugusse – a young effeminate man who trysts with priests
Lallation – baby talk
Titubation – a disorder in bodily equilibrium causing unsteady gait and trembling
Philology – love of and devotion to women
Eschatology – the study of the Last Four Things
Gongoozler – one who stares for hours at anything out of the ordinary
Nacket – a tennis ball boy
Nummamorous – money loving
Metagnostic – beyond human understanding

If you too would like a word of the day from Bloomsbury, you have to register on the site and select which newsletters you would like to receive.

Another great word site is
The Word Spy which is devoted to neologisms, eg:

Lexpionage - the sleuthing of new words and phrases.

Frankenfood - food derived from genetically modified (GM) plants and animals
Furkid - A pet treated as though it were one's child
Celebutard - A celebrity who is or is perceived to be unintelligent
Bonkbuster - A bestselling novel that features numerous sex scenes

2 comments:

Kay Cooke said...

I did know lallation from my early childhood studies - gongoozzler has got to be my favourite from that wonderful list!!!

Anne S said...

I am astounded that there is a word to describe effeminate young men trysting with priests.