An interesting article coming up. In the meantime.......

Here are a few extracts from the Superior Person's Book of Weird & Wondrous Words, with a few suggestion on how they might be used.

Ailurophile: Someone who is abnormally fond of cats.

Bezonian: A rascal or scoundrel. (Heavens, I don't know what the school would do without you; you are a true bezonian.)

Cambist: One who is skilled in the science of financial exchange.

Derodidymus: A two-headed monster.

Enchiridon: Handbook.

Forficula: Small shears or scissors.

Gerontocomium: An institution for the care of the aged.

Hygeiolatry: Fanaticism about health.

Ingeminate: To repeat.

Jaculiferous: Possessing spines like darts.

Kakorrhaphiophobia: Morbid fear of failure.

Lumbricoid: Like an earthworm.

Mendaciloquent: Speaking lies.

Nucivorous: Nut eating.

Opsigamy: Marriage late in life.

Pisiform: Pea shaped.

Quidnunc: A gossipmonger.

Rhonchisonant: Snoring.

Struthious: Like an ostrich.

Torpillage: Electric shock therapy.

Unasinous: Being equally stupid.

Verecund: Modest, shy.

Wayzgoose: Printer's annual holiday.

Xenium: A present given to a guest.

Yaul: To deviate.

Zeitgeist: The intellectual, moral and cultural level of an era.

Written by Peter Bowler.

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