The Best Online Dictionary You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
We occasionally hear of a particular word or two making a name for itself, most often when the OED produces a new edition and news articles full of amusement and outrage abound. (The day that “D’oh!” made the cut was a great day for news reporters everywhere.) What never makes the 10 o’clock news, however, is words that have drifted off into obscurity, never to be heard from again.
Until now. Enter the International House of Logorrhea (no relation to the pancakes of similar name, unfortunately), a self-dubbed “dictionary of unusual and weird words”. A quick stroll through the dictionary, and you’ll be treated to words like bacillicide (killer of berries), hamshackle (to fetter or restrain), vapulate (to flog or be flogged), and mabsoot (happy).
If that’s not enough of a diversion for you, you can detour over to the Compendium of Lost Words, where you can do what I did and create a mental list of words you’d like to re-introduce to the English language through whatever means necessary. A sample from my list, if you’re interested:
- adimpleate – to fill up
- chronanagram – an anagram of a chronogram
- egrote – to feign an illness
- gnathonize – to flatter
- ichthyarchy – the domain or rule of fishes
- mancation – maiming; mutilation
- phasianic – of or pertaining to pheasants
- rogitate – to ask frequently
- stiricide – falling of icicles from a house
- uglyography – bad handwriting; poor spelling
I haven’t yet figured out how I’m going to do it, but I think I can safely say my strategy will be so veteratorian (crafty; subtle) your vocabulary will be suffarcinated (loaded up; stuffed) with these words before you even realize it.
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