One of my many quirks is that I find ineffable joy in the pursuit of all things weird and wonderful.
In the spirit of revealing quirks, here's one for the wily old gossip-mongers: I publicly announce my love-affair with words that are strange, obscure and rare.
After an hour or so of being mesmerized by the Oxford English Dictionary, that corpus of all things boring yet beautiful, I discovered that 'happify' is a word. A real word. It means, of course, to make someone happy. I love the word enough to contemplate making it my middle name. ^_^
After solemn deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that I must impart my newly-acquired wisdom and corpus of obscure words with each and every one of you. I do this in the spirit of social service and happifying, because who knows, you may want some of these words at the tip of your tongue while convincing the irate police officer that you weren't driving drunk.
1. Petrichor- The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell.
(You will not believe how glad I was when I found there is a word for this! )
2. Nod-crafty -- Given to nodding the head with an air of great wisdom
3. Paradobre- A defense against bores
4. Hypergelast- A person who won't stop laughing.
5. Kankedort- An awkward situation
6. Vicambulist- A person who wanders city streets
7. Selcouth- Unfamiliar, strange, marvellous, wonderful
8. Onomatomania- Vexation at having difficulty in finding the right word
9. Jocoserious- Half serious and half in jest
10. Apricity- The warmth of the sun in winter.
This made me smile :)
11. Fard/infucate- To paint the face with make-up, so as to hide blemishes.
(Hilarious! Excuse me, as I visit the washroom to fard. :D)
12. Shot-Clog- An unwelcome companion tolerated because he pays for the rest.
13. Psithurism- The sound of wind in the woods.
14. Influous- The phenomenon of ignoring one's horoscope when it's bad.
Care to tell me which words happified you the most? :)
Image Source: Flickr
Image Source: Flickr
