I have read every word and entry of the unabridged Second Edition of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary and during that time I kept notebooks on hand to make note of words that captured my interest. Some I liked how they sounded, some I liked the definition, some made me laugh, some stirred up memories and nostalgic moments, some made me contemplate aspects of society, and so I ended up filling two notebooks of words that impacted me in some way. This list is the very condensed version of those two notebooks.
Acidulous – sharp tongued, sour-tempered
Acrimonious – extremely bitter in manner or temper
Afflatus – a divine creative impulse; inspiration
Affluenza – pursuit/obsession with wealth, material things, an affluent lifestyle to a degree that is detrimental to one’s mental health and to society as a whole
Ahimsa – (in Hindu, Buddhist and Jainist tradition) respect for all living things and avoidance of violence against others in thought and deed
Akimbo – (of the arms) with hands on the hips and elbows turned outwards
Alfresco – in the open air
Alligator Pear – an avocado
Almighty Voice – Jean-Baptise, who held off 100 cops for 2 days because he illegally butchered a cow in 1897
Alpenglow – rosy light of the setting or rising sun on high mountains
Alterity – state of being other or different
Amen – so be it
Animal spirits – natural exuberance
Anxious – uneasy in the mind
Arcane – mysterious; secret; understood by few
Ardour – burning enthusiasm, passion
Arsenic hour – the period in the late afternoon when youngsters become particularly cranky and unmanageable
Auld lang syne – times lost past
Azoic – having no trace of life
Badinage – humorous or playful ridicule
Bafflegab – official or professional jargon which confuses more than it clarifies
Banjax – ruin, incapacitate
Barf – an attack of vomiting
Barley sandwich – a beer
Bedazzle – confuse by excess of brilliance
Bibliomania – an extreme enthusiasm for collecting and possessing books
Blood and thunder – sensational, melodramatic
Bob’s your uncle – an expression of completion or satisfaction
Bone shaker – 1. A type of bike with solid tires 2. A decrepit or uncomfortable old vehicle
Boondoggle – work of little or no value done merely to appear busy
Brobdingnagian – gigantic, colossal (from Gulliver’s Travels)
Go bush – leave one’s usual surroundings; run wild
Cadaverous – 1. Corpse-like 2. Deathly pale or gaunt
Caprice – an unaccountable or whimsical change of mind or conduct
Careworn – showing the effects of prolonged worry
Carpe diem – seize the day; enjoy the present and give little thought to the future (Latin)
Catachresis – an incorrect use of words
Catawampus – askew, awry
Confute – prove (a person) to be in error
Constellate – 2. adorn as with stars
Contumacy/contumacious – stubborn refusal to obey or comply
Corduroy road – a road made of tree trunks laid across muddy or swampy ground
Corpulent – portly; fat
Create – 1a. cause to exist; make (something) new or original
Crepuscular – 1a. of twilight b. dim
Crocodile – 2. A line of school children etc walking in pairs
Dalliance – 1. A leisurely or frivolous passing of time
Dance of death (also danse macabre) – a medieval dance in which a personified Death is represented as leading all to the grave
Darkling – in the dark; in the night
Defenestration – the action of throwing (esp. a person) out of a window
Delete – remove or obliterate (written or printed matter)
Devastating – crushingly effective
Dinkum oil – the honest truth
Disabuse – 1. Free from a mistaken idea 2. Disillusion, undeceive
The dogs of war – the havoc accompanying war
Dolce far niente – pleasant idleness (Italian for “sweet doing nothing”)
Dream in colour – be wildly unrealistic
Effulgent – radiant, resplendent, or shining out brilliantly
Egg beater – a helicopter
Egghead – a person regarded as intellectual or highbrow
Eldritch – 1. Weird, spooky 2. Hideous
Elegiac – 1. Having a pleasing quality of gentle and wistful mournfulness
Empurple – 2. Make angry
Empyrean – the visible heavens
Ennui – boredom or mental weariness from lack of occupation or interest
Ephemeron – 1b. a short lived thing
Eructation – the act or an instance of belching
Ex nihilo – out of nothing (Latin)
Fantods – a state or attach of uneasiness or unreasonableness
Fart – 2. An annoying or unpleasant person
Fie – (archaic) expressing disgust, shame, or a pretense of outraged propriety (Old French from Latin, fi, an exclamation of disgust at a stench)
Formication – a sensation as of ants crawling over the skin
Frankenfood – a genetically modified food
Fuddle duddle – go to hell; drop dead
Fugacious – 1. Fleeting, evanescent, hard to capture or keep
Futureshock – a state of distress or disorientation due to rapid social or technological change
Galoot – a person, esp. a strange or clumsy one
Galumph – 2. Go prancing in triumph
Goober – a peanut
Gourmandize – 1. Eat or devour voraciously
Grandiloquent – 1. Pompous or inflated in language 2. Given to boastful talk
The great unwashed – the mass or multitude of ordinary people
Hell’s half acre – a great distance
Hirsutism – the excessive growth of hair on the face and body
Hoodwink – deceive, delude
Iconoclasm – 1. The breaking of images 2. The assailing of cherished beliefs or conventions
Ill-starred – unlucky; destined to failure
Inkhorn – 2. (of a term, word, language, etc) obscure; literary
Intestinal fortitude – courage; guts
Kiss of death – an act or situation (often apparently friendly) which causes ruin
Limpid – 2. (of writing) clear and easily comprehended
Lower the boom on – 1. Inflict a physical defeat on (a person)
Magniloquent – grand or grandiose speech
Moonstruck – 1. Romantically captivated 2. Mentally deranged
Nimrod – a skilled hunter
Normal school – a school or college for training teachers
Nullity – 2a. the condition of being non-existent b. a mere nothing
Obscurantism – opposition to knowledge and enlightenment
Obstinate – 3. Inflexible, self-willed
Obstreperous – 1. Unruly, resisting control 2. Noisy, vociferous
Odium – 1. A general or widespread dislike or reprobation incurred by a person or association with an action. 2. Hatred
Offence – 2. A wounding of the feelings
Olivaceous – olive green; of a dusky yellowish green
Otiose – serving no practical purpose; not required; functionless
Palooka – an oaf or lout (origin unknown)
Paper tiger – an apparently threatening but ineffectual person or thing
Peregrinate – travel; journey, esp. extensively or at leisure
Perfervid – impassioned; very intense
Perishing – freezing cold, extremely chilly
Pinguid – fat, oily, or greasy
Perspicacious – having or showing discernment or insight; perceptive
Phantasmagoria – a shifting series of real or imaginary figures as seen in a dream or as created as an effect in a film, etc
Poisoned chalice – an assignment, award, honour, etc which is likely to prove a disadvantage or source of problems to the recipient
Pugnacious – quarrelsome; disposed to fight
Purple – 2. (of writing, speech, etc) excessively elaborate or ornate
Pyrrhic – (of a victory) won at too great a cost to be of use to the victor
Redivivus – (placed after a noun) come back to life
Refulgent – shining, radiant; gloriously bright
Rusticate – 1. Retire to or live in the country
Saturnine – 1. A sluggishly gloomy temperament 2. Dark and brooding
Sayonara – goodbye (Japanese, lit. “if it be so”)
Scintillate – 1. Talk cleverly or wittily; be brilliant
Self-willed – obstinately pursuing one’s wishes
Snafu – 1. A confused, muddled, or messed up condition or state (acronym from Situation Normal: All Fucked (or Fouled) Up)
Snarf – eat or drink greedily
Sough – make a moaning, whistling, or rushing sound as of the wind in trees, etc; a gentle rushing or murmuring sound
Suggest itself – (of an idea, etc) come into the mind
Svelte – slender, graceful, elegant
Tatterdemalion – a person in ragged or tattered clothing; ragged or tattered, dilapidated
Tenebrous – dark, gloomy
Thunder mug – a chamber pot
Timorous – 1. Timid; easily alarmed 2. Frightened
Transmogrify – transform or be transformed esp. in a magical or surprising manner
Triskaidekaphobia – fear or superstition regarding the number 13
Troglodyte – 2a. a person regarded as living in wilful ignorance, esp. of current trends and subjects; a conservative or old-fashioned person
Truculent – 1. Vehemently defiant
Tube steak – a wiener
Unctuous – 1. Unpleasantly flattering
The Unknown – the postulated absolute or ultimate reality
Vacuity – 1a. absolute emptiness 2a. complete absence of ideas; vacancy of mind or thought
Veracious – 1. Speaking or disposed to speak the truth
Verdant – green, fresh-coloured
Welkin – (archaic) sky; the upper air
Weltschmerz – a feeling of pessimism; an apathetic or vaguely yearning outlook on life (German from welt world + schmerz pain)
Wisdom – 2. Experience and knowledge together with the power of applying them critically or practically
Word painting – a vivid description in writing
The worm turns – a meek person retaliates after being pushed too far
Wound – 3. (literary) the pangs of love
Wunderkammer – a place where a collection of curiosities and rarities is exhibited (German, lit. “wonderchamber”)
Xanadu – used to convey an impression of a place as almost unattainably luxurious or beautiful
Yaffle – an armful or small load, esp. of cod, firewood, etc
Zeitgeist – 1. The spirit of the times
Zephyr – (literary) a mild gentle wind or breeze