Wordlist

Oh! What is more wonderful than a word unveiled? These are a few I've stumbled across, and enjoyed. I'm looking to maximize esoteric appeal here, generally; you are not advised to use this list to study for the GREs or whatnot.

• costermonger - one who sells vegatables and fruits in the street
• pellulate - to swarm, or teem
• lucubrate - to laboriously perfect, especially by night
• octothorpe - term for the "hash sign" (#), sourced from telephone operator's jargon
• asperand - the '@' symbol ("at symbol")
• involution - something which turns in upon itself
• endorheic - a drainage basin not connected to the open sea
• oneiric - relating to or suggestive of dreams
• alluvium - clay or silt or gravel carried by rushing streams and deposited where it slows
• emersal - floating up toward the surface of (a body of) water
• fescue - a stick used to point when teaching reading OR a grass of importance for agriculture / sports
• moti mentali - 'motions of the mind' according to Renaissance Italian painters
• lambent - Playing on the surface; touching lightly; gliding over
• purfling - Ornamentation on the border of a thing; specifically, the inlaid border of a musical instrument,
• brobdingnagian - having colossal, comical size (from the island Brobdingnag of Gulliver's Travels)
• callipygian - pertaining to the finest ass in the land
• distaff - characteristic of or peculiar to a woman
• tellurian - of or relating to or inhabiting the land as opposed to the sea or air
• Rennomierschmiss - (facial) dueling scars, from 19th century Germanic dueling clubs
• palimpsest - a manuscript page from a scroll or book that has been scraped off and used again
• boustrophedonically - written in alternating directions
• ekphrasis - verbal description of a visual artwork
• en passant - in passing, almost always with intentional reference to chess
• furor scribendi - rage for writing, a bout or attribute of compulsive and manic authorship
• lacunarity - measure of the denseness of a fractal (less is more dense/space-filling)
• trabeculation - formation of a small bar, rod, bundle of fibers, or septal membrane in the framework of an organelle
• sapient - acutely sagelike or wise
• acescency - the quality of actively turning sour, tart, and/or acidic
• sprezzatura - a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and effort (from Castiglione's Book of the Courtier)
• murine - having to do with rats
• anodyne - a reliever of pain, adj: relieving of pain. anything taken to soothe disturbed feelings
• anosognosia - condition in which a sufferer of disability seems unaware of or denies its existence
• dirigiste - directed by a central authority (eg a dirigiste economy)
• contretemps - an unexpected, untoward accident/conflict; something inopportune or embarrassing
• Festschrift - a book honoring a respected academic, presented in their lifetime (vs. posthumous Gedenkschrift)
• nacreous - having the appearance of slick pearl; iridescent stratospheric clouds seen near the poles
• pareidolia - a psychological phenomenon perceiving significance in vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound)
• Tumah - a state of ritual impurity in Halakha (Jewish law)
• condottiere - leader of plundering mercenaries
• sehr einfallsreich - "very imaginative", used sarcastically -- an unimaginative but practical solution
• gravid - advanced with child, especially in the sense of an insect
• benthic - bottom-feeding, pertaining to the bottom of a body of water
• parusia - figure of speech by which the present tense is used instead of the past or the future
  • as in the animated narration of past, or in the prediction of future, events.
• persiflage - frivolous banter; treating serious subjects frivolously; light raillery
• afflatus - a strong creative impulse; divine inspiration; supernatural impulse
• epithalamia - a nuptial song in honor of bridge and groom
• sybaritic - luxurious; wanton; effeminate (from the ancient Italian city Sybaris) / sybarite - one inclined to pleasure
• casuistry - argumentation that is specious or excessively subtle and intended to be misleading OR
  • moral philosophy based on the application of general ethical principles to resolve moral dilemmas
• lacunae - missing parts, gaps
• lummox - an awkward, bumbling, fat, stupid person
• myodesopsia - the perception of protein-based visual discrepancies ("floaters")
• Vernichtungsgedanke - the doctrine of swift annihilation of enemy forces
• zetetic - one who seeks to resolve unknown quantities by direct investigation
• intercalate - to insert between others, particularly periods of time, layers of rock, or stanzas
• untrammeled - unhampered, unencumbered
• demitint - shading in a composition, that part of a painting not in full light
• cicatrix - the pellicle which turns white and becomes a scar
• anabasis - first period of a disease, journey up the coast
• volte-face - an about-face especially viz policy
• meretricious - pertaining to harlots, seeming plausible but based in deception
• orotund - ostentatiously lofty in style, characterized by roundness
• enclitic - affixed at the end so as to lose its independent accent
• etude - a composition designed for study en route to technical mastery
• morceau - a bit, a morsel, a short literary or musical composition
• desuetude - the cessation of use, a state of inactivity
• kismet - destiny, fate, the will of Allah
• dies funestis - a proscribed day of death
• moira - the deity who assigns men their fates
• perorate - to conclude a speech with formal recapitulation, to harangue
• toxophilite - a lover of archery
• epiphytotic - epidemic among a single type of plant over a large area
• larrup - to beat, thrash or flog soundly, especially with a whip
• peccant - sinning, guilty of transgression, morbid, corrupt
• sphacelate - to die, to decay, to become gangrenous
• sportula - a luxurious feeding; largess in gift-giving
• lagniappe - a trifling present, a serendipitous tip, gratuity
• suborn - to procure privately, to incite secretly, to cause false oath/purjury
• pourboire - a relatively small amount of money for services rendered
• emolument - profit arising from holding office
• guerdon - a compensation or reward
• wergild - the price paid for murder or another peccant crime
• exequatur - official recognition or permission
• nyctipelagic - regarding organisms that migrate into surface waters at night
• onychophagy - biting nails, chronically bitten-down deformed nails
• poliorcetics - the art of siege warfare and fortification
• altricial - born naked and blind and dependent on parents for food; hatchlings
• insessorial - Pertaining to, or having the character of, perching birds
• trichotillomania - tearing out one's own hair
• farrago - a mishmash of things adj: farraginous
• obstreperous - Attended by, or making, a loud and tumultuous noise; vociferous
• opprobrium - a state of disgrace, odium, public dishonor
• Laodicean - lukewarm in religion
• exiguous - lean, meagre, lacking, dessicated
• bedizenment - the state of being dressed tawdrily; that which bedizens
• velleity - lowest wish, with no accompanying effort
• esprit d' escalier - thinking of a witty rejoinder after the fact
• trenchant - cutting, sharp, fit to dig a trench
• griffonage - illegible handwriting
• barbouillage - cramped, dirty writing
• vaticinate - foretell as through prophecy
• graveolent - having a rank smell
• bien pensant - acceptance of a fashionable or newly mainstream idea without critical thought
• rechauffe - something made up from old material; a rehash, rewarmed food
• glochidate - having barbs and bristles
• funicular - dependent on the tension of a cord
• flocculent - covered with small flakes; flakey
• barbellate - being covered with stiff hairs or quils
• pilose - covered with soft, downy hairs
• moiety - that which is left behind after settlement, half
• phatry - people descended from a common ancestor
• pyx - box in which coins waiting assay or consecrated Eucharist is stored
• postprandial - coming after a meal
• barbican - defensive hole in a castle through which forward attacks were made
• hyperborean - frigidly cold (from the ancient Greek people of the far north)
• comme il faut - behaving according to custom
• consuetudinary - manual describing customs and practices of a sect
• sacerdotal - pertaining to priests and their divinely-inspired task
• hieratic - consecrated for holy purposes, especially performed by priests
• insufflate - to bring a powder into the nose
• rodomontade - vain, empty boasting
• quincunx - a pentuple arranged at points and middle of a rectangle
• peripatetic - pertaining to walking about in the manner of Aristotle @ Lyceum
• armamentarium - the collection of equipment and methods used in medicine
• entrepot - a depository for goods on which import is not paid
• nosism - the use of 'we' in referring to oneself
• sprachgefühl - feeling for language; an instinctive appreciation for words and idioms that are linguistically appropriate
• innominate - having no proper name when one would be expected
• corsucate - to glitter in flashes
• eutectic - of greatest fusibility: an alloy whose melting point is lower than that of any other alloy of the same ingredients.
• lettre-fertis - 'man marked by letters' - pretender to learning
• contumely - a debasement ; a rudeness and haughtiness
• odalisque - a female slave or concubine in the harem of the Turkish sultan
• brocade - silk stuff woven with gold ornamentation
• hypocoristic - a lesser name of the given name
• saccadic - jumpy like the movements of an eye
• ecphrasis - a sudden intense, self-contained verbal summary of an issue or art
• amanuensis - one who is employed to take diction or copy another's words
• tergiversate - to use ambiguities and evasions, to equivocate, or to change sides/apostatize
• autonomasy - use of a common word to refer to a particular: "gone to town" for "gone to Atlanta"