Weird Words and Their Meanings
Old and Archaic Terminology – Odd Words Definitions
If you love to know weird words and their meanings, Wordskit offers a list of 40-50 of the weirdest terms you’ll ever find in the English. Many of these words not only sound funny, but they often have an odd meaning which has very little to do with what the word sounds like itself.
Sure, you might be able to cipher out “autolatry” and “lethologica”, and you might have encountered words like “hagiography” in a medieval history book, but most people would guess something completely different if they were asked the definitions of these bizarre looking words.
So let’s start our survey of the oddest English words you’re likely to read about all week.
Weird Words – A through D
Let’s start where most dictionaries start, the beginning of the alphabet. It would be hard to puzzle out what the first term means. Frankly, “Anglewitch” sounds like a Wonder Woman villain. Who would imagine anglewitch is a fishing term.
Anglewitch – Fishing bait, particularly worms.
Autolatry – Self-worship.
Bombilate – To hum; to buzz.
Bletcherous – Disgusting in design or function; aesthetically unappealing. This word is seldom used of people. The term bletcherous applies to the aesthetics of the thing so described.
Cleptobiosis – An ecological relationship in which members of one species, as of ants, steal food from another.
Dactylion – The tip of the middle finger.
Decubitis – Any position assumed by a patient when lying in bed.
Digamy – A second marriage, after the death or divorce of the first husband or wife; deuterogamy.
Dentiloquist – One who speaks through the teeth, that is, with the teeth closed.
Dompteuse – Animal tamer, animal trainer.
Doodlesack – Bagpipe. Variant spelling “dudelsack”.
Dumbledore – Bumblebee.
“Doodlesack” just sounds naughty, while “emunction” actually sounds appropriate, once you know what the term means. Without looking, can you guess what “farctate” means?
Weird Words – E through L
Emunction – The act of blowing one’s nose.
Farctate – Stuffed, filled solid.
Funambulist – Tightrope walker.
Ginglyform – Ginglymoid; a freely moving joint in which the bones are so articulated as to allow extensive movement in one plane.
Gambrinous – Drunk; full of beer.
Hagiology – The branch of literature dealing with the lives and legends of the saints.
Hadeharia – Constant use of the word ‘hell’, as in “hades”.
Impignorate – To place in pawn; to pledge or mortgage; pledged, pawned, mortgaged.
Kerfuffle – Disturbance; a disorderly outburst or tumult.
Kissing Crust – The crust where the lower lump of bread kisses the upper lip.
Lethologica – The inability to remember a word or put your finger on the right word.
Limerence – An involuntary state of mind which seems to result from a romantic attraction for another person combined with an overwhelming, obsessive need to have one’s feelings reciprocated.
Limerence sounds like a dirty form of poetry, of course. The next time you’re at the bar, you’ll have to use the term “gambrinous”. I love the fact that someone created the word “hadeharia”, but I kind of wonder if there are terms for constant use of other curse words, especially that word they used so much in that Scarface movie.
Weird Words – M through R
Mulligrubs – Ill temper; colic; grumpiness.
Mungo – A low-grade wool from felted rags or waste.
Nelipot - One who walks without shoes.
Nihilarian – Of or pertaining to nihilism.
Nudiusterian – Of the day before yesterday.
Oxter – Armpit.
Pandiculation – A stretching and stiffening of the trunk and extremities, as when fatigued and drowsy or on waking, often accompanied by yawning.
Pogonology – The study of beards.
Pronk – To jump with all four limbs at once.
Runcation – A weeding.
Who in the world becomes a pogonologist? I love words like “nudiusterian”, because it’s easier to say the “of the day before yesterday”. Pronk sounds obscene, and I suppose it would look obscene, in a certain context.
Weird Words – S through W
Sabrage – To open a champagne bottle with a saber.
Sesquipedalianism – The practice of using very long words.
Tarantism – A disorder characterized by an uncontrollable urge to dance.
Tittynope – A small quantity of anything left over.
Ultracrepidarian – Of a critic, giving opinions on something beyond his or her knowledge.
Ventripotent – Big-bellied, gluttonous.
Viraginity – Masculine qualities in a woman.
Vomitory – One of the tunnel-like passages of an amphitheater or stadium between the seats and the outside wall or passageway.
Wanweird – An unhappy fate.
Winklepicker – A shoe or boot with a narrow, sharply pointed toe.
After reading through these again, there are so many of these weird words that sound a little dirty. Who wouldn’t expect that a word about using long words would be 17 letters long. I’ve read a few movie critics and book critics who were ultracrepidarian sesquipedalianists. Keep reading our Wordskit blog for more weird words and their meanings.