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April Davila - Author

Nineteen Nerd Words for Dictionary Day

October 17, 2018

Okay, so technically Dictionary Day was yesterday, but I’m celebrating all the same.
HAPPY DICTIONARY DAY!
Here are nineteen nerd words for all my word nerds out there.

Nerd Words — Deipnosophist ~ an adept conversationalist at the dinner table. As in: He brought Rachel, the deipnosophist, in the hopes that she would distract his mother.

Nerd Words — Struthious ~ Of or relating to ostriches. As in: I’m writing about struthious birds in the Mojave.

Nerd Words — Celerity – swiftness of movement. As in: It moved with the distinct celerity of its kind.

Nerd Words — Grawlix ~ A string of typographical symbols used to represent an obscenity. As in: She told him to go #@$%*! himself.

Nerd Words — Callipygian ~ having well-shaped buttocks. The beach-bound collection of young, bronze, and callipygian individuals was enough to make one feel lightheaded.

Nerd Words — Insensate ~ lacking physical sensation. As in: A few moments barefoot left the cuffs of her pajamas stiff and her diminutive toes insensate.

Nerd Words — Truculent ~ eager or quick to argue or fight. As in: The truculent little beast would hide in the strangest of places, just waiting to attack.

Nerd Words — Lutaceous ~ pertaining to or made of mud. As in: The only color in the lutaceous landscape lay in puddles of water that reflected the brilliant blue sky above.

Nerd Words — Gnathic ~ having to do with the jaws. As in: Everything we know about that particular branch of the genus “homo” was deduced from a single gnathic fossil.

Nerd Words — Quomodocunquize ~ To make money in any way possible. As in: His baby needed food, so he set out to quomodocunquize.

Nerd Words — Atavistic ~ relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral. As in: They backed away from the atavistic scene, hoping they might remain unseen.

Basorexia ~ an overwhelming urge to kiss. As in: For months they lived in a constant state of basorexia.

Heterochiral ~ reversed (as a mirror image), but otherwise identical. As in: Her heterochiral self always inspired thoughts of parallel realities.

Amphoric ~ characteristic of a sound made by blowing across the mouth of a bottle. As in: She helped him up, taking note of his amphoric breathing.

Rime ~ frost formed on cold objects. As in: The rime on the window pane obscured the source of the rosy light.

Pareidolia ~ the imagined perception of a pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist. As in: Her shock stemmed from the most human of experiences, a common case of pareidolia.

Misogamy ~ the hatred of marriage. As in: The open bar helped to quell his misogamy.

Lambent ~ running or moving lightly over a surface. As in: Lambent flames were all that remained of the night’s inferno.

Pooter ~ A suction bottle for collecting insects and other small invertebrates. As in: I caught a wicked-cool beetle in my pooter.

Comments

Anonymous says
July 21, 2024 at 12:51 pm
hi
Reply
Jason Bougger says
October 19, 2018 at 8:49 pm
Fun post! How many of us see this as a writing prompt challenge to write a story using all 19 of these words?
Reply
- April says
  October 24, 2018 at 1:29 pm
  OMG I would LOVE to see what people came up with. If anyone out there is so inclined, send me what you come up with and I’ll publish my favorite on the blog.
  Reply

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