Some very special words
An interesting list of words for improving English, expanding the mind and winning at Scrabble games
The original list of words used to be found here, but Karen E Kavana appears to have fallen off the West Michigan website.
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~k0kavana/specialwords.html
There are many other words which I cannot read on the only representation of the original site that I have been able to find. But the following has been recorded for us:
Chambers is particularly comprehensive in its coverage of Scottish words, many of which have a striking sound.
| æstivate | vi | to pass the summer esp in a state of torpor |
| angels’_share | n | the amount of a spirit lost in the cask through evaporation |
| batology | n | the study of brambles |
| beblubbered | adj | disfigured by weeping |
| bed-swerver | n | a person false to their marriage vow (Shakesp) |
| blatherskite | n | a garrulous talker of nonsense (dialect) |
| bring_one’s_hogs_to_a_fine_market | v. | to make a complete mess of something |
| broach_the_admiral | v. | to steal some liquor from a cask in transit or in store |
| bull-beggar | n | a hobgoblin, etc (dialect) |
| burn-the-wind | n | a blacksmith (Scots) |
| burn_the_water | v. | to spear salmon by torchlight (Scots) |
| buttock-mail | n | the fine formerly exacted by the church in commutation of sitting on the stool of repentance (Scots) |
| callipygous | adj | having beautiful buttocks |
| carnaptious | adj | bad-tempered, cantankerous |
| clamjamphrie | n | rubbish; nonsense; rabble |
| clishmaclaver | n | gossip |
| collieshangie | n | a noisy wrangling |
| crinkum-crankum | n | something that is full of intricate twists and turns |
| cry_roast_meat | v. | to publish one’s good luck foolishly (archaic) |
| cry_stinking_fish | v. | to decry one’s own goods |
| dandy-horse | n | an early bicycle without pedals, driven by kicking the ground |
| deipnosophist | n | a person who converses learnedly at dinner, a table-philosopher |
| deliquesce | vi | to melt and become liquid by absorbing moisture |
| discombobulate | vt | to disconcert, upset |
| doddypoll | n | a blockhead (obsolete) |
| dree_one’s_weird | v. | to undergo one’s destiny (Scots) |
| dumbledore | n | the bumblebee |
| fantoosh | adj | fashionable; pretentious or showy |
| ferntickle | n | a freckle |
| fishyback | n | transportation of freight containers and trailers by ship or barge (US) |
| fizgig | n | a giddy or flirtatious girl |
| flimp | vt | to rob (someone) while a partner hustles |
| forky-tail | n | an earwig |
| gardyloo | interj | the old warning cry in Edinburgh before throwing slops out of the window into the street |
| gawpus | n | a silly person |
| genethliac | adj | relating to a birthday or to the casting of horoscopes (obsolete) |
| gerund-grinder | n | a pedantic teacher |
| give_leg_bail | v. | to run for it |
| give_someone_his_kale_through_the_reek | v. | to reprimand someone severely (Scots) |
| glimmer-gowk | n | an owl |
| gloop | vi | (of a thick viscous substance) to bubble or plop slowly and heavily, esp with a soft thick plopping or popping sound |
| goluptious | adj | delicious; voluptuous |
| grammaticaster | n | a piddling grammarian (archaic) |
| grufted | adj | dirty, begrimed |
| have_a_crow_to_pluck_with | v. | to have something to settle with someone |
| have_a_rod_in_pickle | v. | to have a punishment ready |
| have_the_black_ox_tread_on_one’s_foot | v. | to experience sorrow or misfortune |
| hen-hussy | n | a man who meddles with women’s affairs |
| horse-godmother | n | a fat clumsy woman (dialect) |
| humdudgeon | n | low spirits |
| humgruffin | n | a terrible person |
| incompossible | adj | incapable of co-existing |
| kakistocracy | n | government by the worst |
| kilfud-yoking | n | a fireside disputation (Scots) |
| leiotrichy | n | straight-hairedness |
| Lob-lie-by-the_fire | n | a brownie who works by night for his bowl of cream |
| mackerel_sky | n | a sky streaked with long, parallel white masses of cloud |
| mallemaroking | n | carousing of seamen in icebound ships |
| merry_dancers | n | pl the aurora borealis (Scots) |
| mirligoes | n | pl dizziness |
| mops_and_brooms | adj. | half-drunk |
| moudiewort | n | a mole (the animal) |
| mulligrubs | n | pl colic; sulkiness |
| mutton-thumper | n | a clumsy bookbinder |
| nepenthe | n | a drink or drug causing sorrow to be forgotten |
| nipcheese | n | a stingy person |
| nipperty-tipperty | adj | finical; mincing |
| not_know_a_B_from_a_bull’s_foot | adj. | to be very ignorant (old slang) |
| obumbrate | vt | to overshadow |
| omoplatoscopy | n | divination by observing the cracks in a burning shoulder-blade |
| outrun_the_constable | v. | to go too fast; to get into debt |
| pad_the_hoof | v. | to walk, trudge |
| paneity | n | the state of being bread |
| pilliwinks | n | pl an instrument of torture for crushing the fingers |
| pinguitude | n | fatness |
| presentment_of_Englishry | n | the offering of proof that a person murdered belonged to the English race, to escape the fine levied on the hundred or township for the murder of a Norman (history) |
| pulchritude | n | beauty |
| quaking-grass | n | a moorland grass of the genus Briza with pendulous, panicled, tremulous spikelets |
| Ralph | n | the imp of mischief in a printing house |
| ramgunshoch | adj | rough |
| refulgent | adj | casting a flood of light; radiant; beaming |
| roscid | adj | dewy |
| rumgumption | n | common sense |
| rutilant | adj | shining; glowing ruddily |
| scroddled | adj | (of pottery) made of clay scraps of different colours |
| sculduddry | n | breach of chastity; bawdy talk or writing |
| scunge | vi | to slink about; to borrow or scrounge |
| shellycoat | n | a water goblin dressed in shells; a sheriff’s messenger (Scots) |
| sit_or_ride_bodkin | adj. | to be wedged in tight between two others |
| slip-string | n | a rogue, someone who richly deserves hanging (dialect) |
| snootful | n | enough alcohol to make one drunk |
| snuzzle | vi | to grub or root |
| sockdologer | n | a conclusive argument; a hard or decisive blow (old US slang) |
| spoffish | adj | fussy, officious (archaic) |
| squabash | vt | to crush, smash, defeat |
| stotious | adj | drunk |
| suaveolent | adj | fragrant |
| syzygy | n | conjunction or opposition; the period of new or full moon |
| taghairm | n | (in the Scottish Highlands) divination; esp inspiration sought by lying in a bullock’s hide behind a waterfall |
| tattie-bogle | n | a scarecrow |
| the_bishop_has_put_his_foot_in_it | adj. | it has burnt while cooking (obsolete) |
| the_bitch_goddess | n. | material success as an object of worship |
| the_grey_mare_is_the_better_horse | adj. | the wife rules her husband, or is the more able partner |
| thunder-plump | n | a heavy fall of rain in a thunderstorm |
| tintinnabulation | n | bell-ringing |
| Tom_Tiddler’s_ground | n | a place where wealth is to be had for the picking up |
| tosticated | adj | fuddled; perplexed |
| two-pot_screamer | n | a person who gets drunk on a comparatively small amount of alcohol (Australian slang) |
| ultracrepidate | vi | to criticize beyond the sphere of one’s knowledge |
| unguligrade | adj | walking on hoofs |
| urchin_shows | n | pl appearances of elves or goblins |
| vug | n | a Cornish miner’s name for a cavity in a rock, usu lined with crystals |
| wag-at-the-wa’ | n | a hanging clock with exposed pendulum and weights |
| wamble-cropped | adj | sick at stomach |
| wanchancy | adj | unlucky, dangerous or uncanny |
| wapper-eyed | adj | blinking |
| weather_gleam | n | a bright aspect of the sky at the horizon (dialect) |
| whigmaleerie | n | a trinket or knick-knack |
| whip_the_cat | v. | to practise small economies |
| wigs_on_the_green | n. | a fray |
| yump | vi | in rally driving, to leave the ground (in one’s vehicle) when going over a ridge or crest |