furciferous

Strange & Obscure Words To Expand Your Vocabulary With

Improve or Expand Your Vocabulary…

Impress or Baffle Your Friends…

Empower Yourself With New Words…

While doing some web surfing earlier in the day I came across a couple of websites that caught my eye which listed hundreds of strange, weird, old-fashion, unusual or seldom used words from the English language along with what they actually mean or describe. So I thought I’d list a few of the more intriguing ones that caught my attention. Each letter of the alphabet is covered at least once. So go ahead and try to dazzle your friends with brilliance or baffle them them bull@#$% — Enjoy!

Accismus – When you pretend to be not interested in something or someone, when you really are interested
Anglewitch – Obsolete word meaning a worm used as bait in fishing
Astrobleme – An eroded meteor impact crater
Battologist – Someone who repeats the same thing needlessly or excessively
Bloviate – To speak pompously or in an overbearing way
Bromopnea – Bad breath
Cleptobiosis – The act of plundering food
Crapulous – Relating to drunkenness or drinking of alcohol
Cumberground – Someone who takes up space
Dignotion – A birthmark, tattoo, mole or any other type of distinguishing mark on the body
Drazel - A vagabond wench, hussy or outright slut
Droogish – Relating to the nature or attitudes of a member of a street gang
Eccedentesiast – One who fakes a smile
Emacity – A fondness for buying things
Ergophobic – Someone who fears work
Faineant – A person who does nothing – a loafer – something that is idle
Farctate – The state of being stuffed with food – overeating
Fladge – pornographic literature
Furciferous – acting like a brat – mischievous
Ginglyform – Hinge-shaped
Gradgrind – One who is only interested in the cold, hard facts
Gymnophoria – The sensation that someone is mentally undressing you
Heimganger – A person who stays at home
Hibernacle – a winter retreat (like a cabin) – a hibernating animal
Hoddypeak – a blockhead or a fool
Honeyfugle – To swindle or cheat
Impignorate – to pawn or mortgage something
Inaniloquent - Pertaining to idle talk – to babble or speak foolishly
Ithyphallic – Indecent or obscene
Jargogle – To confuse or mix up things
Jiffle – To fidget or shuffle
Jollux – A rotund person – fat
Jumentous – smelling like horse urine
Kench – to laugh really loud
Knabble – to take small bites or to nibble
Kyriolexy – speaking literally
Lalochezia – The use of foul or abusive language to relieve stress or ease pain
Leggiadrous – being graceful or elegant
Lethologica – the inability to remember an exact word or name for something
Limerance – the initial exhilarating rush of falling in love – the state of being in love
Lubitorium - a service station
Mulligrubs – the state of depression or low in spirit
Mumpsimus – one who sticks obstinately and /or wrongly to their old ways
Mungo – A scavenger or one who extracts valuable things from the trash – nowadays commonly referred to as a “dumpster diver”
Nelipot – someone who walks without shoes

Nihilarian – A person who deals with things lacking importance
Noceur – a person who stays up late
Nudiustertian – The day before yesterday
Obambulate – to walk around or wander about
Onychophagy – the habit of biting one’s fingernails
Octothorpe – Another name for the symbol ‘#’ on the telephone keypad or keyboard – also known as the ‘pound symbol‘ or ‘number sign’
Orgulous – proud – haughty
Ostrobogulous – bizarre – unusual – interesting – slightly risque or indecent
Panticulation – The stretching of one’s body that often accompanies yawning
Peenge – The act of complaining in a whiny voice
Petrichor – The smell of the first rain of the season after a long dry spell
Phenakism – Deception or trickery – cheating
Philosophunculist – One who pretends to know more than they do to impress others
Phlyarologist - A person who talks gibberish or nonsense
Pogonotrophy – Cultivation or growing of a beard
Polydipsia – The symptom of a person having abnormal or excessive thirst
Pronk – A weak or foolish person
Pulveratricious – Covered with dust
Pyknic – a person that is stocky with a round body, thick trunk and a small frame (in other words – short & fat)
Quaestuary - seeking money or trying to make money
Quagswag – to shake back and forth
Quidnunc - one who always wants to know what’s going on
Rastaquouere – A social climber who tries too hard to be in fashion
Relexification – Replacing a word (or phrase) in one language with a word (or phrase) from another language that corresponds to it
Retroition – Re-entrance or the act of returning – it also means to return to a party after all the goodbyes to retrieve something you forgot or left behind
Scofflaw – Someone who contemptuously breaks the law – especially a law that is hard to enforce
Scopperloit – Rude or rough play
Scrippage – Your baggage and personal belongings
Selcouth – Unfamiliar, rare, strange, marvelous, wonderful
Semiopathy - The tendency to read signs and translate it humorously into inappropriate or sarcastic meanings (check out my posts on funny, creative & weird signs for several examples)
Slubberdegullion – A filthy slobbering person
Snollygoster – A dishonest politician (geez, there’s enough to choose from – take you pick)
Steatopygic – having a fat behind
Sybarite – A person who is devoted to a life of luxury and sensual pleasure
Tachyphagia - Rapid or hasty eating – eating food fast
Testudineous – To be as slow as a tortoise
Troke – To fail or to deceive – unable to do something
Tropology – The use of metaphors in writing or while speaking
Tyrotoxism – To be poisoned by cheese
Ubiquarian – someone who goes everywhere
Ultracrepidarian – one who offers opinions or speaks on matters beyond their own knowledge
Vagarious – erratic or unpredictable in behavior or direction
Ventripotent – gluttonous or having a big belly
Viraginity – Masculine qualities in a woman
Voculation – Type of speaking where you give proper pronunciation and enunciation – to properly accent every word (A good example is Alex Trebek from TV’s Jeopardy)
Widdiful – Someone who deserves to be hanged
Windlestraw – A person who is tall, thin and unhealthy looking
Woofits - An unwell feeling or depression – also a hangover
Xanthippe – An ill-tempered woman
Xenology – The study of extraterrestrial phenomena
Xerophagy – A diet of bread and water
Yaffle – A green woodpecker
Yepsen – When you cup your hands to drink water out of the faucet or to form a bowl with your hands to receive food
Yisel - A hostage
Youf – A bark that is muffled
Zabernism – The abuse of military power or authority
Zoilist – A person who thoroughly enjoys finding fault with others or in things around him

Many of the words listed above are not easily found in most dictionaries. For additional research, you’ll need a decent unabridged or specialty dictionary (either online or the old fashion reference type)