Word Nerds!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Defenestrate.

[Neo]

rabiator.

[VertOlive]

I just learned this one, where has it been all of my life?!

Mordacious: Denoting or using biting sarcasm or invective.

From Classical Latin mordax (gen. mordacis), biting

[fountainpenkid]

Defenestrate.

That is a horrible thing, but gosh, if you know Latin, and then hear that word for the first time, it is hilarious (who came up with THAT? sort of thing).

[Sailor Kenshin]

Defenestrate.

That is a horrible thing, but gosh, if you know Latin, and then hear that word for the first time, it is hilarious (who came up with THAT? sort of thing).

That's why it tickled me.

[RuiFromUK]

OK let me have a go at this since we are talking about words.

We all know that the New Chinese Lunar Year is up and running at the moment. The question that comes to my mind is: 2014 is it the year of the ram, sheep, goat, lamb, etc? According to Victor Mair (to whom I have a lot of respect) it should be the year of the 'ovicaprid' as he says "According to the Chinese zodiac, the coming New Year is referred to as yángnián 羊年"(http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=17761).

According to Wiktionary (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ovicaprid) that word seems to cover most of the Western words in question.

[VertOlive]

Defenestrate.

That is a horrible thing, but gosh, if you know Latin, and then hear that word for the first time, it is hilarious (who came up with THAT? sort of thing).

That word came to mind when the company laid off some key and loyal employees last year...

And, yes, I'm being mordacious.

[Neo]

I guess the company had no redamancy for its employees.

[Flounder]

Here's a longtime favorite of mine: absquatulate

It's a 19th century "regionalism" that means to leave abruptly

Probably a blend of abscond, squattle(depart) and perambulate.

I've only seen this word in the context of an American character, so that makes sense! Thanks for the etymology!

[VertOlive]

Gelomancy: 1. Fortune-telling by means of a laugh or laughter. 2. Divination by means of or involving laughter or interpreting how a person laughs.

gelo-, geloto- +
(Greek: laugh, laughter, laughing)

[Sailor Kenshin]

Gelomancy: 1. Fortune-telling by means of a laugh or laughter. 2. Divination by means of or involving laughter or interpreting how a person laughs.

gelo-, geloto- +
(Greek: laugh, laughter, laughing)

Now I have to learn how to do this!

[Flounder]

Philtre: A drink supposed to arouse love and desire for a particular person in the drinker; a love potion.

Late 16th century: from French philtre, via Latin from Greek philtron, from philein 'to love' (Oxford Dictionaries).

[Neo]

Nescience-a lack of knowledge

Late Latin nescientia, from Latin nescient-, nesciens, present participle of nescire not to know, from ne- not + scire to know — more at no, science
First Known Use: 1612

[Sailor Kenshin]

I had to drag out an old notebook (not bad for fp ink, a struggle to keep open) for these:

Gaber lunzies: Scots, Medieval: a beggar

Hendy: Chaucer, obsolete: friendly, civil, gentle, kind

Jimp: Scots, 1500: Slender, trim, delicate, scant

The last time I read The Worm Ouroboros I had the notebook in one hand and an archaic words site in the other. Unfortunately, I lost the site.

[VertOlive]

From my ramblings in Donna Tartt novels:

ep·i·cene /ˈepiˌsēn/

adjective: epicene

1. having characteristics of both sexes or no characteristics of either sex; of indeterminate sex.

"the sort of epicene beauty peculiar to boys of a certain age"

noun: epicene; plural noun: epicenes

1.an epicene person.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Fom my long-ago brushes with this word and trying to 'get it' from context, I thought it meant something different! Now I know better.

[Jon Szanto]

I don't have anything to contribute at the moment, but I just wanted to say, since I just found it today: I like this thread!!

[Scrawler]

Today I learned a new word. It is "evince", which means "reveal the presence of a quality or feeling".

[cwent2]

http://phrontistery.info/archaic.html

[cwent2]

Defenestrate.

That is a horrible thing, but gosh, if you know Latin, and then hear that word for the first time, it is hilarious (who came up with THAT? sort of thing).

Origin of DEFENESTRATION

de- + Latin fenestra window
First Known Use: 1620