Some English words are unutterable, not for their rudeness but because to say them aloud would make you sound like a stick-in-the-mud.
No, these tasty old words (like “pickerdevant” and “susurrous”) should be savoured on the page, in the quietude of our minds, and there remain a secret, guilty pleasure.
A reason, perhaps, why these words feel so good to read but make us sound pompous when spoken is that these two worlds – of speech and writing – are so divergent.
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So much so that it is possible to damage the part of the brain responsible for one without affecting the other, a recent study found.
“It’s as though there were two quasi-independent language systems in the brain,” said lead author Professor Brenda Rapp, a cognitive scientist.
With this in mind, the author trusts that you will savour the following list of weird and wonderful words without daring to give them voice.
List of words
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Accismus: pretending not to want something you truly do desire |
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Bombinate: to make a humming or buzzing noise |
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Bookstaves: the letters of the alphabet |
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Chatoyant: like a cat’s eye |
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Cledonism: the use of superfluous words to avoid saying something that is supposedly unlucky |
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Crepuscular: dim or twilit |
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Dottle-trot: to walk with short, quick steps rather than long strides. |
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Ebullience: bubbling enthusiasm |
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Eusystolism: using the initial letters of profanity or an embarrassing phrase to avoid saying it in full |
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Fugacious: fleeting |
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Gazing-stock: someone at whom everyone else is staring |
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Huffle: a sudden gust of wind |
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Ingeniculation: the act of bending a knee |
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Inglenook: a cozy nook by the hearth |
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Jingbang: the entirety of something |
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Junkettaceous: frivolous, worthless |
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Mugwumpery: a total disinterest in politics |
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Nawlstring: a baby’s umbilical cord |
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Petrichor: the smell of earth after rain |
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Phosphenes: the lights you see when you rub your eyes |
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Pickerdevant: a short beard, trimmed to a point at the chin |
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Purpurescent: tinged with purple |
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Quatopygia: the enticing movement of a man or woman’s buttocks |
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Quinquangular: to have five sides or corners |
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Recumbentibus: a knockout blow |
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Susurrous: whispering or hissing |
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Syzygy: an alignment of celestial bodies |
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Tachygraphy: shorthand writing |
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Vellichor: the strange wistfulness of used bookshops |
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