Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Strange and funny English words part I


Abibliophobia (noun)
The fear of running out of things to read

Absquatulate (verb)
Leave abruptly: some overthrown dictator who had absquatulated to the USA

Argle-bargle (noun) [mass noun]
Copious but meaningless talk or writing; waffle: bureaucratic argle-bargle
Another term for argy-bargy.

Billingsgate (noun)
A London fish market dating from the 16th century. In 1982 the market moved to the Isle of Dogs in the East End.

Bloviate (verb)
Talk at length, especially in an inflated or empty way.

Boustrophedon (adjective & adverb)
(Of written words) from right to left and from left to right in alternate lines.

Cabotage (noun) [mass noun]
The right to operate sea, air, or other transport services within a particular territory.
Restriction of the operation of sea, air, or other transport services within or into a particular country to that country’s own transport services.

Callipygian (adjective)
Having well-shaped buttocks.

Cockalorum (noun) (plural cockalorums)
A self-important man.

Collop (noun)
A slice of meat: three collops of bacon

Collywobbles (plural noun)
Stomach pain or queasiness: an attack of collywobbles
Intense anxiety or nervousness: such organizations give him the collywobbles

Comeuppance (noun)
A punishment or fate that someone deserves: he got his comeuppance in the end

Crapulence (adjective)
Relating to the drinking of alcohol or drunkenness.

Donnybrook  (noun)
A scene of uproar and disorder; a heated argument: raucous ideological donnybrooks

Dudgeon (noun) [mass noun]
A feeling of offence or deep resentment: the manager walked out in high dudgeon

Ecdysiast (noun)
A striptease performer.

Eructation (noun)
A belch: I heard what sounded like a half-stoppered eructation[mass noun]:the only complaint that still tormented her was eructation

Fartlek (noun) [mass noun]
A system of training for distance runners in which the terrain and pace are continually varied.

Firkin (noun)
A small cask formerly used for liquids, butter, or fish.
A unit of liquid volume equal to half a kilderkin (usually 9 imperial gallons or about 41 litres).

Firman (noun) (plural firmans or farmans)
An oriental sovereign’s edict.
A grant or permit.

Flibbertigibbet (noun)
A frivolous, flighty, or excessively talkative person.

Floccinaucinihilipilification (noun) [mass noun]
The action or habit of estimating something as worthless.

Folderol (noun) [mass noun]
Trivial or nonsensical fuss: all the folderol of the athletic contests and the cheerleaders
Dated a showy but useless item.

Formication (noun) [mass noun]
A sensation like insects crawling over the skin.

Furbelow (noun)
A gathered strip or pleated border of a skirt or petticoat.
(furbelows) showy ornaments or trimmings: frills and furbelows just made her look stupid
(verb) [with object] (usually as adjective furbelowed)
Adorn with trimmings: cold chickens and galantines, all white-frilled and furbelowed

Furphy (noun) (plural furphies)
A rumour or story, especially one that is untrue or absurd: I remembered the schoolyard furphies about sewer gangs

Gazump (verb)
Make a higher offer for a house than (someone whose offer has already been accepted by the seller) and thus succeed in acquiring the property: the trio are fuming after they were gazumped by a property speculator (as noun gazumping) gazumping has returned, as there is a shortage of good properties
Dated swindle (someone):I gazumped a friend of mine with complete success last night

Gobbledygook (noun) [mass noun]
Language that is meaningless or is made unintelligible by excessive use of technical terms: reams of financial gobbledegook

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