Books

25 Splendiferous Words You Should Add To Your Daily Vocabulary

by Charlotte Ahlin

If you're a sesquipedalian (or just a plain old logophile), then you know the power of a prodigious vocabulary. Sometimes it's about adding to your stockpile of words, so you always have the perfect verbiage for any situation. And sometimes... you just come across a marvelous word, and you simply must find a way to shoehorn it into your personal lexicon. I mean, you can never know too many words or read too many books (if you did, you would be a bibliobibuli). Here are a few obscure, splendiferous, and all around awesome words you should incorporate into their daily vocab, especially if you're a book-lover.

Most book-lovers are already way ahead of the game when it comes to having a tremendous vocabulary, anyway. Fiction readers especially tend to have a higher than average vocabulary, with hardcore readers knowing about 8,000 more words than people who only read "somewhat." But why stop there? The more words you know the more you'll get out of the next book you read, right? The more you'll be inspired to learn. And the more you'll sound impressive and/or overly loquacious on first dates. So if you love to read, here are 25 stupendous words to sprinkle casually throughout your daily speech:

Bibliosmia

Bibliosmia, n. The smell of a book. Or, to be more specific, the scent or aroma of a good book.

Hamartia

Hamartia, n. The tragic flaw that usually leads to the downfall of a hero or heroine. For example, Odysseus' arrogance, or Macbeth's willingness to take career advice from witches.

Ballycumber

Ballycumber, n. One of the six half-read books lying somewhere in your bed. First coined by Douglas Adams in The Deeper Meaning of Liff.

Coruscation

Coruscation, n. A brilliant flash of wit.

Nunchion

Nunchion, n. Food eaten between meals. Like when you should make dinner, but you want to finish this chapter of your book, so you opt for some handfuls of dry raisin bran instead.

Daymare

Daymare, n. An anxiety attack or frightening trance experienced while awake.

Amphigory

Amphigory, n. A poem, which at first appears to be meaningful... but upon closer inspection, is found to be nonsense.

Zeugma

Zeugma, n. A rhetorical device that uses a word in more than one of its senses at the same time. For example, "He opened his heart and his wallet," or "She lowered her hand and her expectations."

Solander

Solander, n. A protective box made in the form of a book.

Inglenook

Inglenook, n. A place by the fire or any other warm and comfortable area (i.e. perfect for reading).

Atramentous

Atramentous, adj. As dark or as black as ink.

Ultracrepidarian

Ultracrepidarian, n. One who offers advice or opinions on something beyond their own knowledge. See: Everyone on Twitter.

Scripturient

Scripturient, adj. Possessing a violent desire to write.

Admarginate

Admarginate, v. To write (or doodle) in the margins.

Spoonerism

Spoonerism, n. A transposition of the initial sounds of two or more words. For example, pronouncing "jelly beans" as "belly jeans," or "Sleeping Beauty" as "Beeping Sleauty."

Labyrinthine

Labyrinthine, adj. Twisting and turning, like a labyrinth.

Incunabulum

Incunabulum, n. A book that was printed before 1501.

Lucubration

Lucubration, n. An overly elaborate or pedantic piece of writing, produced after laborious, overnight study. It comes from a word meaning to "work by lamplight" in Latin.

Scandalbroth

Scandalbroth, n. An old fashioned term for tea. Good to know that the true meaning of "tea" hasn't changed in several hundred years.

Nefelibata

Nefelibata, n. Literally, a "cloud walker." One who lives in the "clouds" of their own imagination and refuses to face reality, or one who does not obey the conventions of society.

Dunandunate

Dunandunate, v. To overuse a word or phrase that you have recently added to your vocabulary.

Bibliobibuli

Bibliobibuli, n., pl. People who read too much.

Dontopedalogy

Dontopedalogy, n. An aptitude for putting one’s foot in one’s mouth.

Longueur

Longueur, n. A long, boring passage in any work of literature or art.

Eutony

Eutony, n. The pleasantness of the sound of a word.