if your dream is to speak like Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek, look no extra than Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary of peculiar, obscure, and Preposterous words, probably the most dictionaries Catherine O’Hara used to tweak her iconic persona’s lines. As its name guarantees (and by way of design), the ebook is crammed with bizarre and staggering words—some for things decidedly exotic, and many for things we adventure consistently. Right here terms for everyday things are ones you’re going to want to add to your lexicon ASAP.
1. Asportation
This fancy word for theft dates returned to the sixteenth century.
2. Back-berend
Taken from the ancient English bæc-berende, this legislation term capacity “concerning the back,” in accordance with the Oxford English Dictionary, and refers to someone who’s caught while carrying off stolen items. The OED traces its first usage to 1292.
3. Baragouin
one other note for gibberish that dates lower back to the early 1600s.
four. Bumfodder
Why sure, here’s a 17th-century word for bathroom paper. In line with the OED, a 2nd usage that popped up not lengthy after this one is “nugatory or inferior literature; any written or printed fabric that is perceived as useless, tedious, or needless.” In different phrases, pages you may doubtless use as bathroom paper. Ouch.
5. Betweenity
Who among us hasn’t suffered from a little betweenity, or indecision?
6. Blattnerphone
Journalists, you’ll make your interview topics take notice in case you seek advice from your tape recorder as a blattnerphone in its place. The observe derives from the name of the gadget’s inventor, Ludwig Blattner.
7. Breedbate
This time period for somebody seeking to start quandary or an argument dates again to the late 16th century, but can be right at domestic in today’s social media panorama.
eight. Cachinnation
A seventeenth-century time period for loud laughter.
9. Clinchpoop
in case you get into a confrontation with a jerk, agree with calling them a clinchpoop, which the OED defines as “A time period of contempt for one considered trying in gentlemanly breeding.” The note originated in the mid-sixteenth century and is now out of date, however is definitely able to make a comeback.
10. Companage
This note for “any meals eaten as an accompaniment to bread, esp. As part of an allowance to a worker, tenant, and so on.,” dates again to 1350.
11. Emption
A mid-16th-century notice for purchasing whatever.
12. Enchiridion
Don’t name your replica of Wine for Dummies a manual—call it an enchiridion.
13. Eructation
a elaborate observe for belching, or, because the OED puts it, “The motion of voiding wind from the abdominal in the course of the mouth.”
14. Faffle
“To be inconsistent in speech,” according to one 1781 text. Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary defines it as “to stutter or mumble.”
15. Feriation
An obsolete term for now not working or happening a vacation. It’s not a vacation, it’s a feriation!
sixteen. Fimblefamble
A 19th-century British slang time period for a very lame excuse—consider “i will’t exit because I ought to, uh … wash my hair!”
17. Forel
From the historical French forrel, meaning “case” or “sheath,” this be aware dates returned to 1393 and ability “A case or covering wherein a book or manuscript is saved, or into which it is sewn.” In different words, a publication jacket.
18. Forjeskit
“Forjesket sair, with weary legs,” Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote in 1785’s “2d Epistle to J. Lapraik.” It became the first use of the be aware, which capability “exhausted from work,” in accordance with Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary.
19. Galligaskins
in the beginning a term for a particular type of extensive pants worn in the 1500s and 1600s, galligaskins later got here to be “a more or less ludicrous term for free breeches in frequent,” in line with the OED.
20. Gallinipper
When the mosquito you’re taking a look at is huge, name it a gallinipper instead.
21. Hogo
An out of date term from the 1600s for a robust flavor. Because the author of 1653’s The Compleat Angler—a ebook committed to fishing that apparently additionally included cooking advice—informed, “To give the sawce a hogoe, let the dish (into which you let the Pike fall) be rubed with [garlick].”
22. Icker
A Scottish note for an ear of corn.
23. Jigamaree
It’s time to retire thinamajig and use this note—which based on Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary is “a notice used for lack of a greater selected one”—as a substitute.
24. Be part of-hand
a further note for cursive handwriting.
25. Kindergraph
A kindergraph is what you get back after college picture day: a photo of a child.
26. Lallation
definitely babytalk.
27. Lentiginous
if you have lots of freckles, you’re lentiginous.
28. Lilly-low
This British dialect phrase, commonly used with kids, is derived from lowe, meaning a hearth or shiny flame.
29. Loof
Use this delightful Scottish word to refer to the palm of your hand. In line with Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary, it may even be used for “the inner of a cat’s paw.”
30. Makebate
A be aware from the 1500s for a troublemaker.
31. Maquillage
yet another word for make-up that dates back to the late 1800s.
32. Matutolypea
in accordance with Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary, this time period skill “getting up on the inaccurate aspect of the mattress.” Macmillan Dictionary notes that the note “is derived from the Latin identify Matuta from Matuta Mater, the Roman Goddess of the first light, and the Greek be aware lype which means ‘grief or sorrow.’”
33. Meldrop
You’re likely not the just one who had a meldrop—a.Okay.A. A drop of snot or mucus—putting off your nose under your masks.
34. Mixty-maxty
A Scottish note that the OED traces back to a 1786 poem via Robert Burns, mixty-maxty skill “Oddly mixed or jumbled together; motley; muddled, puzzled.”
35. Necrologist
one more word for an individual who pens obituaries.
36. Nicknackatory
Why name it a toy shop for those who can name it a nicknackatory?
37. Nid-nod
To nid-nod is to nod many times for those who’re sleepy.
38. Nixie
A nixie is “a letter so badly addressed it may’t be delivered,” in accordance with Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary. (here’s such an issue that the USPS has an entire plant committed to decoding awful handwriting.)
39. Obeliscolychny
A seventeenth-century note for a lighthouse or lamp bearer.
40. Ombibulous
in line with Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary, ombibulous describes “someone who drinks every thing.” It become coined by using H.L. Mencken, who once wrote, “i’m ombibulous. I drink each familiar alcoholic drink and revel in all of them.”
forty one. Oneirodynia
in response to one booklet, published in 1800, an oneirodynia is “inflamed or disturbed imagination all through sleep”—in other phrases, a nightmare.
forty two. Pozzy-wallah
British slang for “a person inordinately fond of jam,” in accordance with The lengthy trail: What the British Soldier Sang and stated in the brilliant battle of 1914-18.
43. Quakebuttock
The next time you come upon a coward, name them by using one more identify: quakebuttock.
forty four. Rechauffe
A verb, dating to the fifteenth century, that ability “To warm once more; to show (leftovers) into a new dish,” in line with the OED.
forty five. Recubation
A mid-seventeenth-century observe for lying down.
46. Rummer
in accordance with the OED, this 17th-century note for a huge glass for wine or boozy beverage probably has its roots in Dutch, center Low German, and German. Used up except the first half of the nineteenth century, rummers have been constantly round and brief with a thick stem.
forty seven. Scacchic
The Queen’s Gambit is scacchic—“of or referring to chess,” in keeping with the OED.
forty eight. Scarebabe
fairly tons exactly what it feels like: whatever thing that scares a child.
forty nine. Slobber-chops
There are diverse definitions for this frankly astounding phrase, which dates to 1670: “an individual or animal who slobbers (in a lot of senses); one who drools copiously or excessively; a messy or noisy eater or drinker; a moist or enthusiastic kisser,” in line with the OED.
50. Spizzerinctum
There are two feasible definitions of this word, in response to Mrs. Byrne’s Dictionary: One is gimcrackery (a notice coined by Ben Franklin, incidentally), a.K.A. “low cost, vulgar decoration”; the other is ambition or the need to be triumphant.
fifty one. Tapster
one other notice for a bartender.
52. Tiffin
An Anglo-Indian word for a light meal.
fifty three. Vade mecum
“A book or guide appropriate for carrying about with one for ready reference; a handbook or guidebook,” based on the OED. A which means that came about slightly later is “A issue generally carried about with the aid of someone as being of some service to him.”
54. Ventoseness
This notice, which derives from the Latin ventose, capability “Windiness, flatulence, ventosity.” actually, being gassy.
55. Whisterpoop
if you’d like to deliver a tough blow but call it with the aid of a tons extra satisfying identify, consider whisterpoop, or whister-clister, or whister-sniff, or whister-twister.
56. Yex
Yex or yesk is a really historic notice for a sob, a hiccup, or a belch, in response to the OED. Whichever one you’re regarding, notwithstanding, it sounds lots extra delightful this way.
