The English language is full of weird or interesting words describing minuscule or gigantic occurrences. Some are remarkably specific and some are obtuse. Enough with the intro! Onto the list!
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Defenestrate: I love this verb. It means to throw out a window. With only one more syllable you could just say “thrown out a window”.
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Agnomen: It’s another name for a nickname. The mind boggles… Personally I just like the way it rolls off my tongue. Plus it sounds like a name for an evil wizard.
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Crapulous: Describing one who ingests to much food or alcohol. A specific word that has been simplified to have a more general meaning. Here I thought that crap was just slang for fecal matter.
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Doppelganger: This is another one of those words that is just fun to say. Try it. Now try it again. See? A doppelganger refers someone or something that resembles a person in some way. Also if the word is used in literature the doppelganger is always evil.
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Ambergris: Such a lovely word. Ambergris is a product used in expensive perfumes. People have described Ambergris’s raw scent as sweet and earthy. It’s so rare that just a gram of it is worth 20$. So now what is this Ambergris you ask? Simply put its whale vomit.
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Deus Ex Machina: This one gets special mention because for the longest time I pronounced the “Deus” part like “moose”. Turns out you pronounce it like “day us”. Deus Ex Machina refers to an improbable quick solution to a current arduous plot.
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Frabjous: Random fact about me. I can recite “The Jabberwocky” from memory. Ask me some time. I even have voices and hand gestures for it. Anywho, frabjous means joyful, wonderful, great, or any other positive word. Most commonly uttered as “Oh frabjous day!” while chortling with joy. The word and many more were penned by Lewis Carroll of “Alice in Wonderland” fame.
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Fop: A fop was the middle ages version of a metrosexual. It describes a vain man who is mainly concerned with his clothing and appearance. The word is even funnier in its adjective form, foppish.
- Hemidemisemiquaver: A musical note having the time value of a sixty-fourth of a whole note. There is absolutely nothing funny about this whatsoever.
Now that you’ve finished reading this you might ask yourself, “Why is this list here?” Well its rather simple really. Its for a contest. Plus it was pretty fun to come up with weird words. Heres a link to the contest if you’d like to try your hand at it. Hurry up though since it ends this Thursday.
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Tags: Agnomen, Alice in Wonderland, Ambergris, Crapulous, Defenestrate, Deus Ex Machina, Doppelganger, Fop, Frabjous, Hemidemisemiquaver, Lewis Carroll, Slang
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[...] 9 Weird Words That Amuse me by Erik [...]
Love the list of words! Defenestrate definitely deserves to be used more in daily conversation (maybe we need more open windows to facilitate this?)
My favorites are repeating words that don’t sounds like they repeat, like tsetse or hotshots.
Of the 9 words, I’m familiar with one…that’s Fop. I guess I better brush up my English. =P
Great choice of words, anyway!
I love this! I’ve always been into words and meanings… :) Great list!
My husband loves to pull out words like these and use them all straight faced…I’m like “What???”..and he does the “You’ve NEVER heard of that word?” I know he’s been saving it up for eons!
Darn guy had nothing better to do then study the dictionary I guess…I was busy living when I was younger!
[...] 9 Weird Words That Amuse me by Erik [...]
LOL I actually knew some of those ;). Our list is up if you’d like to look… have a great day!
A couple more for your list:
spiffy – fun and irony all in one word
scrafulous – I have no idea what it means but it brings images of the sort of thing you really don’t want in your house to mind.
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The fact that scrumtrulescent isn’t on your list, immediately nullifies your list. ;) I kid! It’s fun knowing a new word to describe defenestrating a booger. Thanks for the list!
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i love learning weird words… i laugh at random things and enjoy knowing words to say and see the faces of people who dont know the words! hahaha… you should try it…
What about Oojah – it’s anything that exsist; its something that you might have forgotton the name to or that has no name at all
Thats actually pretty cool
This website says it was created by the British Soldiers during WW1
My sons made up a useful word to describe those dirty chunks of compacted ice/slush which fall off the bottoms of vehicles in the winter
They are “carmets” like comets are dirty chinks of ice in space. see?
Heres an already in existence word I find amusing just to say it its “ensorcelled” (means to have been enchanted)
Deus Ex Machina, uhhhh you made an error there dude it doesnt mean that, its from greek tragedy, it means god from the machine it refers to the stage “effect” created by a crane in the ancient greek theater………. oh well =P its still funny
1. (in ancient Greek and Roman drama) a god introduced into a play to resolve the entanglements of the plot.
2. any artificial or improbable device resolving the difficulties of a plot.
deus ex machina. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved February 13, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deus%20ex%20machina
Here are some words I find amusing:
1. zenzizenzizenic- the eighth power of a number
2. pana po’o- to scratch your head to remember something (Hawaiian)
It seems there is a word for everything!
BTW, doppelganger is german too: Doppelgänger
Doppelganger comes from the german word Doppelgänger. And the meaning in German is also the same.
It’s another of those words that escaped german and entered english. Kindergarten is another of these words.
Great list, I will have to add Agnomen to my vocabulary.
Small typo, to/too confusion. Crapulous: …who ingests
totoo much food or…And still your pronouncing ‘deus’ wrong.
The last syllable should rhyme with ‘puss’.
While I’m at it: ‘Doppelganger’ should rhyme with ‘hangar’.
your => you’re, forgot to check it before submitting.
Pronounciation: http://www.howjsay.com/
Cool site but I’m in the US so pronunciation defaults to West Coast American accent. According to Merriam Webster Deus Ex is pronounced like so… http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Deus%20Ex
While it sounds pretty cool, we don’t pronounce laser like this either http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=laser
I also spell color like color. Not colour…
The metric system is superior however.
ive never seen so many corny things said on one site.
I have liked the word Defenestrate ever since I saw it in a Calvin and Hobbes book about 15 years ago.
love all of them I am a word nut, one of my favourites is loquacious it is so onomatopoeic another of my faves. The english language is so rich with over 300,00 words, next closest id german with circa 100,000. Also like the hotshots entry I had never seen it like that before because it is not so obvious as others of that ilk (another good word)
I was under the impression that the word “defenestrate” meant to disembowel someone. Who knew!
defenestrate is totally a normal word, i’ve heard people use it
fenestra is actually Latin for window. see what i did there? its called etymology. i have no idea where the word ‘etymology’ comes from.
Regarding fop – I always found both that and the associated word “dandy” amusing. And defenestrate has been my favorite word for ages… I love that there’s a word for the act of throwing something out of the window.
some of my favs are:
verisimilitude- n. the appearance or semblance of truth
omphaloskepsis- n. the contemplation of one’s navel
moiety- n. a half; a portion
ataraxia- n. a state of freedom from disturbance of the mind
I have yet to be able to use any of them in normal conversation however. :P
i too can recite jabberwocky.. learnt it in class 3 and i still remember it. my favourite poem ever. you know what word should be used in real life.. “uffish”
One word I think that should be added is : Salubrious – favorable to health of mind or body; “not the most salubrious campsite”; “one of the less salubrious suburbs”.
Using it in completely the wrong context is also fun.
hi, just checking out ur words – i will write back when i feel amused……….!
Oh my GOD I adore defenestrate and all your other words. I should have done this because it's useful for building someone's vocabulary
deus ex machina = machine of the gods. its rewarding to pay attention in middle school
I don't want FOP god dammit! i'm a dapper dan man!!!!
Well.. I've seen many a fop in my day.
Stumbled on this, but just had to comment: I'm another person who can recite Jabberwocky from memory. Sometimes, I do it in my head in a British accent.
wat about masticate? its the act of chewing, u did have definistrate and i give u props for tht. theres also liripoop which is a wilderness person wondering wat to do with there frequal matter. and Nudiustertain wich means the day before yesterday, theres a whole bunch u should put on there
Good words, but if I added more I would have to change the title. :-)