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What’s your favorite weird word?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Keck.
Gound.
Fard.
Excuse me!
Credit to Arts & Books editor Tom Sabulis, who had a short piece on the book page in our Sunday print section about a new book, “Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages” by Ammon Shea. It’s coming out later this year.
Just as A.J. Jacobs read the whole Encyclopedia Britannica a few years ago and wrote a very clever book about the experience, so Shea read the whole Oxford English Dictionary. The above are some examples of some of the words he enjoyed.
Keck is to make a sound like you are vomiting. Gound is the gunk that collects in the corners of your eyes. And fard is to paint the face with cosmetics.
My family has aways loved what we just call “The Dictionary Game.” You get an unabridged dictionary, and one person looks up a word and writes down the real definition. Then everyone but whoever is “it” writes down a fake definition that sounds real. Then “it” has to guess the real one.
One time, years ago, the word was “glanders,” and one definition that was read was “a disease of horses, characterized by profuse mucous duscharge.” Everyone thought that definition was totally made up, and to this day the members of my family are the only people who hear the word “glanders” and start to laugh.
What’s your favorite weird word?
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Books
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By Jimmy Etheridge
March 14, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
Here in Atlanta they’re probably not so weird… flustrate, ort, axe, confusement, conversate, ruebbon, ar, tar, salmon (with the l), ain’t, them license, see can you…
By Kat
March 14, 2008 12:36 PM | Link to this
I love the precision of the English language. Such as the word defenestrate, which is to throw something (or someone) out the window. Also, I once ran into an older acquaintance and mentioned that I hadn’t seen him in a while. He said that he had been away because he had to funeralize his mother. I had never heard that word before, but it is a real word, and it means exactly what it implies.
By UhUh..that's the way I like it !
March 14, 2008 2:54 PM | Link to this
the weird word is: snert, another word for gas
the weird sentence: ‘rooty tooty fresh and frooty’ i love the way it rolls off my tongue and of course the breakfast ain’t bad either!
By Dana
March 14, 2008 3:23 PM | Link to this
Doppler its just fun to say- even better? super doppler
By Rachel
March 14, 2008 3:27 PM | Link to this
Bafflegab is my favorite weird word
It means Incomprehensible or pretentious verbiage.
Thanks Rachel The Baked Blogger http://bakedblog.com
By BPJ
March 15, 2008 12:30 AM | Link to this
Blog. It’s a very strange & ugly-sounding word. Sounds like a synonym for barf, retch, or puke.
By Kate
March 15, 2008 8:44 PM | Link to this
There’s something about the word ‘sphincter’ that makes me cackle.
By Anna Burke
March 19, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this
I love love love boondoggle!