Thought I’d do a little monthly round-up of my favourites from Word Perfect by Susie Dent. So far (miraculously) I’ve stuck to my resolution of a-word-a-day so here is the best of January’s jargon:
1st Jan – CRAMBAZZLED – prematurely aged/looking rough after the consumption of much alcohol
7th Jan – GYM – I was less interested in this specific word that the revelation within its dedicated paragraph that ‘muscle’ comes from the Latin ‘musculus’ (‘little mouse’), due to the appearance of the biceps moving beneath the skin.
9th Jan – DONG-DING and the rule of Ablaut Reduplication – the often unconsciously followed linguistic phenomenon that explains why reversing ‘chit-chat’, ‘ding-dong’ or ‘zig-zag’ just sounds wrong.
12th Jan – FEEFLE – historic Scottish word for snow.
15th Jan – HIBERNACLE – the place an animal spends its hibernaton period.
20th Jan – LALOCHEZIA – alleviating stress or unhappiness through profanity (perhaps the one I most related to …)
28th Jan – SEREDIPITY – expected to find this one, it’s just a lovely word.
30th Jan – MAVERICK – originally the name of an eccentric Texan who refused to brand his cows … Tom Cruise eat your heart out!
x
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