As Mary Poppins Taught Us,
Words Can Be Fun!
Remember Mary Poppins’ supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? That’s definitely a fun and fancy word. And, don’t forget about King Lear’s flibbertigibbet. There’s also the magical incantation abracadabra. They may not be words we use every day, but maybe we should start. Because they sure are a lot of fun to say.
Here’s Our Latest Fun & Fancy Word:
Being finifugal means you’re averse to endings, so you try to avoid or delay the final moment of… well, anything. That’s pretty concise, but I just can’t bring myself to conclude this definition. And by that, I mean the semantic statement of the meaning of the term finifugal. Because definition can also mean the level of detail in a digital image or recording. But that’s not what it means in this instance. Defining something can also mean clarifying the details of a particular project. And then there’s… (insert play-off music here). Read more…
Have A Gander At This
Caboodle Of Fun & Fancy Words!
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| Abecedarian | What do you call a bunch of pre-schoolers who are learning the alphabet? Abecedarians, of course. |
| Abibliophobia | It means the fear of running out of things to read, and given your obvious interest in books, you may suffer from this frightful word. If so, alleviate your fear by availing yourself of the resources for free banned books on the bottom of our home page. |
| Accubation | Picture yourself stretched out on the couch, ready to binge the next season of your favorite series on Netflix, Hulu, or Apple TV. You’re prepared for the duration, stocked with pizza, soft drinks, and snacks of every variety. You’re an accubation, someone who eats or drinks while they’re lying down – rather like guests at a Roman feast back in the day. |
| Aibohphobia | The word aibohphobia means an irrational fear of palindromes. You know, words and phrases that read the same forwards and backwards. Like Hannah, madam, and racecar. Maybe fear of them stems from never knowing whether you’re coming or going. But the most humorous thing about the word aibohphobia? It is itself a palindrome. |
| Autodidact | Do you suffer from autodidactism? Do you have an insatiable thirst for knowledge? Do you take pleasure in learning everything you can about things you are interested in? Are you a self-learner? If so, congratulations, you are an autodidact. |
| Bamboozled | It means to be hoodwinked, flimflammed, hornswoggled… all fun & fancy words that mean to be tricked, deceived in underhanded ways. Like the way Tom Sawyer bamboozled his friends into whitewashing that fence for him. Discover why this locution is more important than ever. Read more... |
| Banjaxed | I was on my way to the market for a batch of snickerdoodles, and a weasel ran in front of my Schwinn Black Phantom. When I swerved to miss the little critter, I crashed into a Snaggletooth Maple tree. And, now my beautiful bike is banjaxed. That is to say broken, ruined, destroyed. |
| Biblioklept | You definitely want to avoid having one of these in your library or bookstore. Because a biblioklept is someone who steals books… and, I bet they don’t even read them. Read more... |
| Collywobbles | It’s what happens when you eat your entire bag of trick-or-treat candy in one sitting – you get the collywobbles. So, take your mom’s advice about making your goody stash last, and avoid the bellyache this Halloween. |
| Discombobulated | The word discombobulate sounds like you feel when discombobulation takes place. If you’re so confused and flustered you can’t think straight, you’re discombobulated. And what you need… is to get recombobulated. Which is easier said than done. It’s a big of a tongue-twister so it isn’t that easy to say, much less do. |
| Finifugal | Being finifugal means you’re averse to endings, so you try to avoid or delay the final moment of… well, anything. That’s pretty concise, but I just can’t bring myself to conclude this definition. And by that, I mean the semantic statement of the meaning of the term finifugal. Because definition can also mean the level of detail in a digital image or recording. But that’s not what it means in this instance. Defining something can also mean clarifying the details of a particular project. And then there’s… (insert play-off music here). Read more... |
| Gardyloo | A silly, fun-to-say word to be sure! But, if you were an 18th-century Scotsman walking down the street and heard it being hollered, you’d make an abrupt move away from any window you might be passing under. It comes from the French expression, “Prenez garde a l’eau!” Which literally means ‘beware of the water.’ But in 18th-century Edinburgh it’s a warning that the person doing the hollering is about to empty their chamber pot out the window. |
| Gobsmacked | No… gobsmacked is not a never-ending candy made by Willy Wonka. It means to be utterly astounded, astonished, overwhelmed by surprise. Like you’ve been slapped in the face. Gobsmacked is how Brad Pitt described himself when he won his best supporting actor Oscar for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. |
| Hangdog | Did you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar? Maybe your girlfriend recently broke-up with you. Or you dropped the ball, causing your team to lose the championship game. If any of these things have happened to you, then you probably had a droopy, defeated, hangdog look on your face. Read more... |
| Hobbledehoy | An adolescent boy whose transition to adulthood is as gawky and awkward as the word hobbledehoy itself. Think Neville Longbottom in his first year at Hogwarts. |
| Lickspittle | What in tarnation is a lickspittle? Well… it’s a lackey, a suck up, a toady, a brown noser, a bootlicker. You know, a servile flatterer, a contemptible fawning underling, a person who gives empty praise to someone in authority in an effort to gain their approval. |
| Liminality | A state that’s betwixt & between. No, not Colorado in relation to Utah and Kansas. Liminality is the middle phase in rites of passage, the transition from one mode of being to another. From childhood to adulthood, for example. From living the single life to being married. Or from partying it up in college to paying off student loans. Liminality is full of potential, but disorienting because you’re no longer this but not yet that. In short, your average high school experience. |
| Macaronic | You might be expecting macaroons. If that’s the case, you’re gonna have to wait until after dinner. The word macaronic actually refers to when two different languages are mixed together like macaroni and cheese. Seriously. That’s the 15th-century origin of the word – maccarona, a type of dumpling or pasta eaten by peasants at that time. An example of a macaronic language is Spanglish – with words like hangear [to hang out], lochear [to have lunch], marketa [a market or supermarket]. Is English the pasta and Spanish the cheese, or is it the other way around? Either way, it’s delicious. Read more... |
| Malapropism | They’re always hilarious. That is, unless you’re the one guilty of the ludicrous misuse of a word in place of one that sounds similar, then it’s embarrassing. Just ask heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson, who said he was “fading into Bolivian” (instead of oblivion). |
| Octothorpe | It’s a pretty sure bet that you call one of these a hashtag. Your mom probably calls it a pound sign. Or uses it as an abbreviation for the word “number.” Musicians recognize them as the sharp symbol on sheet music. Copy editors use them to mean “space” – “add a space between these two sentences,” for example. And in computer code, it indicates that everything after it is only comment, not instruction. But however you use it, octothorpe is the name for this symbol: #. Read more... |
| Oxter | It sounds like a mythological animal that’s a mix of an ox and an otter. But it isn’t. Though, it might be just as smelly. Oxter is actually an antiquated word for your armpit. Read more... |
| Pulchritudinous | Although pulchritude sounds like something you’d scrape off your shoe, pulchritudinous actually means beautiful. Not just attractive, good-looking or “hot,” but overwhelmingly beautiful, to the point of leaving onlookers awestruck. |
| Snollygoster | Lots of words could be used to describe a dishonest politician. But if you’re looking for one that isn’t gonna get you in trouble with your mom, try snollygoster. Read more... |
| Spondulicks | Mark Twain used this word in Huckleberry Finn. O. Henry used it in Cabbages and Kings. And you might use it if you’re saving up for an upcoming vacation. You’ll want to make sure you have enough spondulicks to bring back some awesome souvenirs. Ya’ know, moolah, cheddar, coin. It’s slang for cash – specifically, a good chunk of spending money. Cha-ching! Read more... |
| Sycophant | Also known as a “suck-up,” “bootlicker,” or “toady.” A sycophant is a fawning parasite who gets in the good graces of their target with groveling, ego-stroking praise. Some literary sycophants are: Othello’s Iago, Uriah Heep from David Copperfield, and nearly everyone who works for Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada. |
| Syzygy | This word looks like what happens when you type with your fingers on the wrong keys of the keyboard. But it’s an actual word. And it describes the phenomenon that occurs when three celestial bodies are aligned in an almost perfectly straight line. A solar eclipse, for example. So be sure to wear those special sunglasses on days when a syzygy takes place. Read more... |
| Taradiddle | If your grandfather is like mine… be sure to drop a hint to your younger cousin about not falling for the tall tales Grandpa spins, because they’re loaded with taradiddles. Read more... |
| Tintinnabulation | No, it isn’t the number of times a famous German Shepherd saved the day in the movies (that would be Rintintinnabulation). It’s actually the sound of ringing bells. Can you hear them as you say tintinnabulation? Read more... |
| Ultracrepidarian | It’s a first cousin to the word “mansplaining” we hear so often these days. But an ultracrepidarian isn’t limited to condescending dudes who disregard a woman’s expertise. They’re anyone who pontificates on subjects beyond their area of knowledge. In other words, an ultracrepidarian is someone who spouts off about things they know absolutely nothing about.Read more... |
| Wamblecropt | This fancy (but perhaps not so fun) word describes how you feel after eating 100 Kit Kat bars. Or an entire birthday cake. Or you had too many margaritas at your birthday party. And the word sounds like the physical feeling of being overcome with nausea… a mishmash of the rumble in your stomach and the wobble in your step. Read more... |
| Whopper-jawed | That picture I just hung on the wall is all whopper-jawed… you know, cattywampus, yaw-ways, cockeyed. Guess I should have used a level as well as a hammer to do the job. |
| Widdershins | You could just say counter-clockwise, or that something’s moving in the wrong direction. But that wouldn’t be nearly as much fun… now would it? |
| Yammer | Whether you yammer, jabber, or blather… it sounds like something out of Alice in Wonderland. No matter which one of these words you use, such endless rambling chatter can be irritating enough to set your listeners’ teeth on edge. Read more... |
| Zaftig | Zaftig means to be beautifully full-figured, voluptuous, and curvaceous – like Ashley Graham, Danielle Brooks, and Christina Hendricks. Also termed Rubenesque, after the sensuous goddesses depicted in the paintings of Flemish Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens. |
Stay in the know about what’s in our ever-growing treasure trove of literary goodness. And, get your free Discover Everything a Book Has to Offer packet.
