A neologist is one who makes up new words. Well, I am not a neologist, and these words are not made up, but they are less known than most words! This is the third installment of the Weird and Wonderful Words series. Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. So here we go: L, M and N:
L
labtebricole – living in holes
lacustrine – of or having to do with a lake
laeotropic – turning to the left
lapidate – to stone to death
latrinalia – graffiti found in restrooms
lexer – a law student
limophoitos – insanity due to lack of food
liripipes – a long scarf or cord attached to and hanging from a hood
lutrine – of, like, or pertaining to otters
M
maelid – apple nymph (no, I don’t know that that is!)
maffick – to rejoice with an extravagant and boisterous public celebration
mammothrept – a spoiled child
marrano – Jew who converted to Christianity to avoid persecution
meldropa – drop of mucus at the end of the nose
misopaedia – the hatred of children (aw, no!)
monomania – an obsession with one idea or interest
mosh – to engage in uninhibited, frenzied activities with others near the stage at a rock concert (mosh pit – the place near the stage at a rock concert where moshing occurs)
mundungus – stinky tobacco
muriphobia – fear of mice
N
napiform – resembling a turnip
neologist – one who makes up new words
neophobia – a fear of novelty
nidify – to build a nest
niff – an unpleasant smell
noology – science of the intellect
nothosonomia – the act of calling someone a bastard
nucivorous – nut-eating
nudiustertian – pertaining to the day before yesterday
nupson – a simpleton or fool
According to Google’s Ngram viewer (https://books.google.com/ngrams), nudiustertian was used for the first time around 1820 (only in American English) and is rarely used nowadays
Did I use that one? what does it mean????
Hello Arlene,
Well, I’m proud to say I know at least one word for each letter in this fourth part! Of course Latin and Greek help quite a bit. But I certainly had no idea that the screaming kids at the supermarkets were mammothrept(s) [adjective or noun?] Thanks for sharing these gems with us.
You’re welcome! Yes, we see quite a few mammothrepts, don’t we? Lots of them in restaurants too!
I love your penultimate word!
I have never encountered many of these words. I wonder if, through the magic of Google, we could tabulate all the words used in all publications, transient and literary, and get a ranking of all words used in English language. How often are such words as those you list used, and where? If this list showed dates of usage, we could also see which words are being used less, and more, often.
I am a rabid neologist. I write science fiction, and the circumstances in the larger universe require the creation of many new terms, along with a glossary. Not just names of beings, but of things, and conditions, and actions. Maybe even some adjectives and adverbs.
I don’t think I’ve ever coined a conjunction or preposition, however.
Good questions. I know only that the most common word in the language is “the.” The words I choose are not “made up,” meaning that they are generally in the dictionary — especially the ones in this latest installment. Someone obviously made them up at some time. I have not heard many of them used, though! I suspect we don’t need any more prepositions!
Wikipedia already has this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_common_words_in_English
The article includes a list of the 100 most common words used in English.
The first 10 are: The, be, to, of, and, a, in, that, have, I.
Note: the term “word” is either a word form (i.e. a different spelling) or a lexeme (!!?) which is the base word or word as used for a dictionary entry. (e.g. “be” includes is, are, were, was, and so on…)
Thanks, Pete, for the information!