Word of the Day: unusual words you may not have heard of

[Harpo]

Floccinaucinihilipilification: the act of estimating something as being worthless

Not to be confused with floccilation which means fitful plucking at the bedclothes, or with flocculate - to collect or mass together in tufts or masses.

 

[Ursa major]

Imagine seeing that casually used in a sentence on the page ha ha. It's brutal in every sense.

I'm somewhat surprised that no one has used it to describe the nausea one may get when trying to remove one's nose hairs by using dental floss....

 

[Don]

Diener: morgue attendant - diener job openings.

Robin Cook's Brain added it to my vocabulary:

"Nobody can live on a diener's salary," said Werner. Philips nodded, waiting. Werner took a bite of his sandwich. "You know I come from the old country," said Werner with his mouth full, "from Rumania. It's not a nice story because the Nazis killed my family and took me back to Germany when I was five years old. That was the age I started handling corpses in Dachau…" Werner went on to tell his story in grisly detail, how his parents had been killed, how he'd been treated in the concentration camps, and how he was forced to live with the dead. The gruesome story went on and on and Werner did not spare Martin a single repulsive chapter. Philips tried on several occasions to interrupt the ghastly tale, but Werner persisted and Philips felt his fixity of purpose melt like wax before a hot coal. "Then I came to America," said Werner, finishing his beer with a loud sucking sound. He scraped back his chair and went into the kitchen for another. Philips, numb from the story, watched him from the table. "I got a job with the medical school in the morgue," yelled Werner as he opened the drawer beneath the sink. Below the bottle opener were several large autopsy knives Werner had spirited out of the morgue when autopsies were still done on the old marble slab. He grasped one of them, and point first, slid the knife up inside the left sleeve of his jacket. "But I needed more money than the salary." He opened the beer bottle and replaced the opener. Closing the drawer, he turned and came back toward the table.

 

[KGeo777]

muculent

adjective
1. Slimy; mucous.

 

[Sphinctus Bogstrider]

ABILENE : (adj.) Descriptive of the pleasing coolness on the reverse side of the pillow.

 

[THX1138]

Spanghew or Spang hew - to throw violently into the air; especially, to throw (a frog) into the air from the end of a stick.

 

[Pyan]

Abibliophobia - Fear of running out of things to read.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Growlery: "A place to retreat to, alone, when ill-humoured."

--Wiktionary

 

[pogopossum]

Floccinaucinihilipilification: the act of estimating something as being worthless

DING! DING! DING!
If my count is correct we have a winner, with one more letter than antidisestablishmentarianism at 29 letters.

Looking it up, I did find

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis at a ridiculous 45 letters.
Which is a word meaning a specific kind of silicosis.

 

[Ursa major]

at a ridiculous 45 letters

Don't you mean, "at a sili 45 letters"...?

 

[THX1138]

Bowyang: A strap that holds the pants legs in place.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Callipygian: having beautiful buttocks.

 

[pogopossum]

Just having re-read Raymond Feist's Prince of the Blood, I am struck by how appropriate "Callipgian" would have been to the scene where James (aka Jimmy the Hand) unexpectedly comes up behind the nude Gamina and is absolutely entranced by the shape of her rear. Not a big reader of erotic fiction I found the description - and James reaction - as striking as almost any fiction.
Also relevant to the above might be, "Agastopia" Admiration of a particular part of someone’s body.

 

[Ursa major]

"Callipgian"

Y would that be...?

 

[Parson]

"Agastopia"

A - gas- topia that might be a result of "Callipgian."

 

[Danny McG]

I was reading a book by Reginald Hill (author of the Dalziell and Pascoe series) and in a couple of places he used the word 'desert' but it seemed oddly out of context.

It took a lot of googling until I learned that, apart from the usual barren places and leaving a military post without permission, it also means (in ye olde worlde English) a person's worthiness.

 

[THX1138]

Argle-bargle: Copious but meaningless talk or writing.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Ejectamenta: material ejected from a volcano.

 

[Danny McG]

I've just now read this in a book about a manhunt
Chyron
I've never saw it before.
It means the electronic text at the bottom of a screen

 

[Parson]

I've just now read this in a book about a manhunt
Chyron
I've never saw it before.
It means the electronic text at the bottom of a screen

Mostly I would call this more simply "junk at the bottom of the screen."