unusual_words

Taw

petrusplancius wrote in unusual_words Jan 23, 2009 22:12

A marble (as used in the game of marbles), especially a fancy one with streaks of colour inside or the like; of uncertain etymology.

Acater

petrusplancius wrote in unusual_words Jan 22, 2009 14:11

A purveyor of provisions and delicacies, from French achateur, buyer. The word seems largely to have fallen out of use by the end of the 17th Century, but it survived as a colloquial term for a ship's chandler until the last century.

Tatterdemalion

petrusplancius wrote in unusual_words Jan 18, 2009 17:52

A person in tattered clothing, a raggedy beggar; or more specifically, a cant term for a beggar who tries to move people's pity by going out in very tattered clothes even though he has better ones at home. A less familiar word of a similar kind is 'slubberdegullion' for a dirty slovenly sort of fellow; very expressive I think.

vlast

emperor wrote in unusual_words Jan 13, 2009 14:50

[Russ. vlast´.]

In Russia and formerly in the Soviet Union: power, esp. political power. Also concr. in collect. pl., those in authority; the government, the establishment. [source: OED online ( Read more... )

vlast

sciolism, sciolist

petrusplancius wrote in unusual_words Jan 12, 2009 23:12

Sciolism: superficial knowledge. A sciolist: someone who pretends to have more knowledge than he or she really has. From late Latin 'sciolus', one who has little knowledge, a smatterer.

No sciolists here I am sure, so how about getting this community going again?

Wherret

petrusplancius wrote in unusual_words Dec 25, 2008 12:39

A blow or slap, especially on the face; once not uncommon, but now obsolete as far as I know.

Crang

petrusplancius wrote in unusual_words Nov 19, 2008 09:20

It is 1866 and a ship is in imminent danger of being crushed by the ice to the west of Greenland. The ship's doctor is gathering together as much warm clothing as he can, but the mate comes up to him and says, "I shouldn't worry too much about your crang if I were you, doctor - we're all done for if we go down here." I had to think for a moment to ( Read more... )

Does anyone know the word for...

mhw wrote in unusual_words Nov 11, 2008 09:50

I don't know that there actually is a word for this concept, but this seems like a sensible place to start asking.

"A place/room/container where (human) skulls (and no other types of bony structure) are kept/stored/enshrined/preserved."

Ossuary is too wide, as it doesn't restrict the type of bone. Ditto charnel house.

I postulated calvarium, but ( Read more... )

Suppliants and supplicants?

ihcoyc wrote in unusual_words Nov 10, 2008 17:58

Etymologically and notionally, both *suppliants* and *supplicants* are making impassioned and formal pleas for aid from positions of deep humility.

At least to my ear, though, there is a clear distinction between the two, and the words are not redundant to each other. A supplicant craves mercy from the angered, typically from the majesty he has ( Read more... )

definition, suppliant, supplicant

spagyrical, adj.

goliard wrote in unusual_words Oct 28, 2008 19:22

1. Of or pertaining to alchemy. 2. Of persons: Given to the study or practice of alchemy; believing in alchemy.

< early mod. L. spagiricus (used, and prob. invented, by Paracelsus) [OED]

How or why Paracelsus came to invent this word, the OED doesn't say.

One of Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China volumes is titled Spagyrical ( Read more... )