You Too Can Build a Stronger, Stupider Vocabulary!

Some words from ExpressWriters.com:

Bumfuzzle. To confuse. Probably derived from the Old English dumfoozle, which is even better.

Cattywampus. I know this word as catty-corner, others say kitty-corner, and others, catawampus.

Gardyloo. Apparently this was the warning people in Edinburough would shout to passers-by in the street when they were about to dump their latrines (piss-pots, I guess) on to their heads.

A toilet in a castle was called a garderobe. It was just a closet of a room (a robe, I guess, like a wardobe) with a seat and a hole. The hole went down to a cesspit or else right down outside the wall, perhaps to fill the moat with brown trout.

So I think "gardeloo" must be something like "Look out, I'm using the garderobe."

Taradiddle. Nonsense, either twaddle or just a lie.

Snickersnee. A long cut-and-thrust knife of the 1700s.

Widdershins. Counter-clockwise.

Lollygag. To waste time, to lie around lazily.

Flibbertigibbet. Someone who can't stop talking, or who is flighty. I know this one from Erg's favorite movie, Joe vs. The Volcano.

Some words from Mental Floss:

Quakebuttock: A coward.

Usage: David French is a quakebuttock, though if that is from cowardice or sexual anticipation, I cannot say for certain.

Humdudgeon: an imaginary illness or pain; a loud complaint about nothing.

This is interesting to me because I've been watching British detective shows and keep hearing the word "humbug," but used in the sense of "a kind of hard candy" rather than "nonsense." Maybe the original word used to say "nonsense" was "humdudgeon," but then people started using the shorter "humbug."

Cuggermugger: whispered gossiping.

Is that related to "hugger-mugger," meaning jumbled confusion or secrecy? It must.

Another few from Mental Floss:

Bumfodder: toilet paper.

Well that makes sense.

Betweenity. Indecision, being of two minds.

Clinchpoop. Someone lacking the social graces and gentlemanly bearing that we all share.

Scarebabe. Something that scares a baby. Not sure why you need a word for that. Everything scares a baby, except a boob.

Ventoseness.Windy, as in full of empty talk, or full of flatulence.

Yex. An archaic word for a hiccup or burb.

More from RD.com:

Pronk. A weak or foolish person

Fubsy. Squat or portly.

Usage: Jonah Goldberg is a fubsy fellow, and also likes kahhk.

Firkin: I just recently found out that "barrel" is a specific size/shape of cask -- a middle sort of size -- and that different casks have different names. "Firkin" is the smallest of these.

A few very old words this I picked up from this very, very old dictionary.

Cheaping. A market.

I think I sort of knew that: "Cheap Street" in old towns means "Market Street." Not "Low Quality Goods Street."

Update: I realized recently that all of the towns in Agatha Christie books named "Chipping something," like "Chipping Cleghorn," mean "the market at Cleghorn."

Clutch. Apparently this means "claw."

Aha! So "in his fiendish clutches" means "in his fiendish claws."

Compass. "To compass" as a verb means to "search for something."

Copener. A lover. Like a copulator.

Couth. Known. The past participle of the Old English cunnan, to know, which survives in the word ken. Beyond my ken = beyond my knowledge. I guess "uncouth" might mean uneducated? Or it can just mean "unknown" as in "a stranger," or "a foreigner," maybe.

Dayrim. Dawn, break of day.

Frippet. This is a good one: a pretty, frivolous young woman. Almost like flibbertigibbet.

Sozzled. Drunk.

Swive. To copulate.

H/T commenter: bafflegab, meaning gobblygook.

Actually I know who said that, it was weft-cut loop. (Most of this post was written almost a year ago. I don't know when weft-cut loop said that. He probably doesn't even remember.)

I just came across this word, searching for a synonym for "ramble:"

pootle: to move somewhere slowly and with no real purpose.

Banana Dream added this one today:

unbosom

intransitive verb
1. To confide (one's thoughts or feelings).
2. To relieve (oneself) of troublesome thoughts or feelings.
3. To reveal one's thoughts or feelings.
4. to make known, disclose (as information previously kept secret)
| ...unbosomed his fear of dying only to his closest friends..

I'm going to use this in an engineering report somewhere. Just watch me. I'll sneak it in somehow.

I shelled out $15 (American) for a book called The Indispensable Dictionary of Unusual Words and I'm not eating that kind of outlay as a pure loss so here are some from the M's:

mactation. "a sacrificial murder."

maffle. To mumble or stutter, or to confuse.

madefy. to wet, or becoming wet (as an adjective).

malaxation. a moistening, softening, or kneading.

makebate. A troublemaker.

Hm.

I think there are a lot of makebates in the comments.

madstone. a stone which is supposed to be an antidote to animal poison. I thought this meant a useless magical talisman but apparently it's a real remedy -- the porous stone sucks up liquid, like poison from a fresh sting or bite.

maniple. A handful. Also a body of soldiers.

mang. to lead astray or to go astray. as an adjective, anxious or puzzled.

manqueller. A murderer.

manustupration. Masturbation. This seems to be closer to the original Latin for the term.

deliberate erotic self-stimulation," 1711 (earlier as mastupration, 1620s), from French masturbation and directly from Modern Latin masturbationem (nominative masturbatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin masturbari "to masturbate."

The long-standing speculation is that this Latin word is altered (probably by influence of turbare "to disturb, confuse") from *manstuprare, from manu, ablative of manus "hand" (see manual) + stuprare "defile" (oneself), from stuprum "defilement, dishonor," related to stupere "to be stunned, stupefied" (see stupid).

That's a pretty bang-on etymology, really.

marplot. "An officious plot-marrer." That doesn't help me at all.

matugolangia. "antemeridian sexual desire." What? Oh, you mean the opposite of this....

meable. "easily penetrated." This list was made for David French.

merdivorous. "eating dung." Again, a David French word.

meacock. An effeminate or cowardly man. Again....

mentulate. "well-hung." Mentula is Latin for penis. This isn't a word about David French, but one he uses frequently in his dating life.

migniard. dainty, delicate, mincing. Most words, I'm learning, describe David French.

mird. to meddle, or to fool around sexually. Like mirding a marriage by sleeping with the wife? I dunno. Back to David French.

miserotia. Aversion to sex.

mixty-maxty. mixed up, confused.

Mithridatism. an immunity to poison gained by slowly ingesting increasing dosages of the toxin. Named for Mithridates VI of Pontus, who gained poison immunity this way.

moll-buzz. A pickpocket specializing in picking the pockets of women (molls).

mome. a crashing bore, a buffoon.

momzer. an impossible person, a useless person, a pest, a liar, a troublemaker, a "nothing."

montjoy. a medieval French battle cry.

mool. dry earth or a grave.

morology. nonsense, foolishness.

mortpay. also called "Deadpay," payments incorrectly (or fraudulently) made to a dead soldier.

mossback. a conservative. Hey, why I oughtta...

mouthfriend. a false friend. Weird, I would have guessed it meant "a really really good friend."

mytacism. Using the letter M incorrectly, or to the extreme.

To wrap up:

mataeology. Useless or foolish conversation.

If you like this thread you might see another post like this in the future. If you don't like this thread, you also might see another post like this in the future. Seriously, fifteen bills is a big expense, I have to amortize that outlay over multiple posts.

posted by Ace at 06:23 PM

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