Vocabulary
- Aceldama
- Acts 1:18-19
Now [Judas] purchased a field with the reward of iniquity (betraying Jesus); and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.
- Anagnorisis
- The point in a play or other work when a character makes a critical discovery
- Archididascalos
- Headmaster/chief teacher
- Aurigation
- The act of driving a chariot or a carriage
- Claque
- Group of sycophantic followers; people hired to applaud or heckle a performer or public speaker
- Contumacious
- Stubbornly disobedient to authority
- Cynosure
- Center of admiration or attention
- Encomium
- Warm, especially formal, praise
- Lustrum
- Period of five years
- Mucilaginous
- Having a viscous or gelatinous consistency
- Nympholepsy
- A mania or frenzy characterized by a desire for some unattainable ideal
- Pablum
- Bland or insipid intellectual fare, entertainment, etc.
- Pandiculation
- Act of stretching oneself, especially when waking
- Paronomasia
- A play on words; a pun
- Peripatetic
- Traveling from place to place, living/working in places for short periods of time
- Pertinacious
- Holding firmly to an opinion or purpose
- Prevaricator
- A liar
- Prolegomenon
- Critical/discursive introduction to a book
- Quidnunc
- A gossip or busybody
- Sententious
- Given to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner
- Slubberdegullion
- Dirty rascal; scoundrel, wretch
- Splenetic
- Easily angered or annoyed
- Tatterdemalion
- Ragged, unkempt or dilapidated
- Tintinnabulous
- Pertaining to or resembling the tinkling of a bell
- Zenana
- Parts of house reserved for women, harem
For many years, I was too proud to ever look up words in a dictionary. I had gotten a perfect score on the vocabulary section of the SAT both times I took it, so of course I knew all words and my eyes simply skipped over words I didn't know, to save me from realizing they exist. Perhaps I had forgotten that the SAT was multiple-choice and I had just stumbled my way to many correct answers by guessing based off of context or from vaguely-remembered French words that sounded similar. In any case, those days are now over, and to keep myself humble, I'm collecting on this page the particularly interesting words (usually because they are long or funny-sounding) that I look up.