\n\nSome very special words<\/font>\n
\nAn interesting list of words for improving English, expanding the mind and winning at Scrabble games<\/font>\n
\n
![](\"https:\/\/purechocolate.org.uk\/freespace.virgin.net\/putneyevan.church\/wmichkkavana\/1113547.jpg\")
\n<\/font><\/center>\n\nThe original list of words used to be found here, but Karen E Kavana<\/a> appears to have fallen off the West Michigan website.\n
\nhttp:\/\/homepages.wmich.edu\/~k0kavana\/specialwords.html<\/a>\n
\nThere are many other words which I cannot read on the only representation<\/a> of the original site that I have been able to find. But the following has been recorded for us:\n
\nChambers is particularly comprehensive in its coverage of Scottish words, many of which have a striking sound.<\/font>\n
\n
\n
| \u00e6stivate <\/td> | vi <\/td> | to pass the summer esp in a state of torpor <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| angels’_share <\/td> | n <\/td> | the amount of a spirit lost in the cask through evaporation <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| batology <\/td> | n <\/td> | the study of brambles <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| beblubbered <\/td> | adj <\/td> | disfigured by weeping <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| bed-swerver <\/td> | n <\/td> | a person false to their marriage vow (Shakesp) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| blatherskite <\/td> | n <\/td> | a garrulous talker of nonsense (dialect) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| bring_one’s_hogs_to_a_fine_market <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to make a complete mess of something <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| broach_the_admiral <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to steal some liquor from a cask in transit or in store <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| bull-beggar <\/td> | n <\/td> | a hobgoblin, etc (dialect) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| burn-the-wind <\/td> | n <\/td> | a blacksmith (Scots) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| burn_the_water <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to spear salmon by torchlight (Scots) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| buttock-mail <\/td> | n <\/td> | the fine formerly exacted by the church in commutation of sitting on the stool of repentance (Scots) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| callipygous <\/td> | adj <\/td> | having beautiful buttocks <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| carnaptious <\/td> | adj <\/td> | bad-tempered, cantankerous <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| clamjamphrie <\/td> | n <\/td> | rubbish; nonsense; rabble <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| clishmaclaver <\/td> | n <\/td> | gossip <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| collieshangie <\/td> | n <\/td> | a noisy wrangling <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| crinkum-crankum <\/td> | n <\/td> | something that is full of intricate twists and turns <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| cry_roast_meat <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to publish one’s good luck foolishly (archaic) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| cry_stinking_fish <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to decry one’s own goods <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| dandy-horse <\/td> | n <\/td> | an early bicycle without pedals, driven by kicking the ground <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| deipnosophist <\/td> | n <\/td> | a person who converses learnedly at dinner, a table-philosopher <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| deliquesce <\/td> | vi <\/td> | to melt and become liquid by absorbing moisture <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| discombobulate <\/td> | vt <\/td> | to disconcert, upset <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| doddypoll <\/td> | n <\/td> | a blockhead (obsolete) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| dree_one’s_weird <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to undergo one’s destiny (Scots) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| dumbledore <\/td> | n <\/td> | the bumblebee <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| fantoosh <\/td> | adj <\/td> | fashionable; pretentious or showy <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| ferntickle <\/td> | n <\/td> | a freckle <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| fishyback <\/td> | n <\/td> | transportation of freight containers and trailers by ship or barge (US) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| fizgig <\/td> | n <\/td> | a giddy or flirtatious girl <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| flimp <\/td> | vt <\/td> | to rob (someone) while a partner hustles <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| forky-tail <\/td> | n <\/td> | an earwig <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| gardyloo <\/td> | interj <\/td> | the old warning cry in Edinburgh before throwing slops out of the window into the street <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| gawpus <\/td> | n <\/td> | a silly person <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| genethliac <\/td> | adj <\/td> | relating to a birthday or to the casting of horoscopes (obsolete) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| gerund-grinder <\/td> | n <\/td> | a pedantic teacher <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| give_leg_bail <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to run for it <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| give_someone_his_kale_through_the_reek <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to reprimand someone severely (Scots) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| glimmer-gowk <\/td> | n <\/td> | an owl <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| gloop <\/td> | vi <\/td> | (of a thick viscous substance) to bubble or plop slowly and heavily, esp with a soft thick plopping or popping sound <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| goluptious <\/td> | adj <\/td> | delicious; voluptuous <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| grammaticaster <\/td> | n <\/td> | a piddling grammarian (archaic) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| grufted <\/td> | adj <\/td> | dirty, begrimed <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| have_a_crow_to_pluck_with <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to have something to settle with someone <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| have_a_rod_in_pickle <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to have a punishment ready <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| have_the_black_ox_tread_on_one’s_foot <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to experience sorrow or misfortune <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| hen-hussy <\/td> | n <\/td> | a man who meddles with women’s affairs <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| horse-godmother <\/td> | n <\/td> | a fat clumsy woman (dialect) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| humdudgeon <\/td> | n <\/td> | low spirits <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| humgruffin <\/td> | n <\/td> | a terrible person <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| incompossible <\/td> | adj <\/td> | incapable of co-existing <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| kakistocracy <\/td> | n <\/td> | government by the worst <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| kilfud-yoking <\/td> | n <\/td> | a fireside disputation (Scots) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| leiotrichy <\/td> | n <\/td> | straight-hairedness <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| Lob-lie-by-the_fire <\/td> | n <\/td> | a brownie who works by night for his bowl of cream <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| mackerel_sky <\/td> | n <\/td> | a sky streaked with long, parallel white masses of cloud <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| mallemaroking <\/td> | n <\/td> | carousing of seamen in icebound ships <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| merry_dancers <\/td> | n <\/td> | pl the aurora borealis (Scots) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| mirligoes <\/td> | n <\/td> | pl dizziness <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| mops_and_brooms <\/td> | adj. <\/td> | half-drunk <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| moudiewort <\/td> | n <\/td> | a mole (the animal) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| mulligrubs <\/td> | n <\/td> | pl colic; sulkiness <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| mutton-thumper <\/td> | n <\/td> | a clumsy bookbinder <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| nepenthe <\/td> | n <\/td> | a drink or drug causing sorrow to be forgotten <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| nipcheese <\/td> | n <\/td> | a stingy person <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| nipperty-tipperty <\/td> | adj <\/td> | finical; mincing <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| not_know_a_B_from_a_bull’s_foot <\/td> | adj. <\/td> | to be very ignorant (old slang) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| obumbrate <\/td> | vt <\/td> | to overshadow <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| omoplatoscopy <\/td> | n <\/td> | divination by observing the cracks in a burning shoulder-blade <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| outrun_the_constable <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to go too fast; to get into debt <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| pad_the_hoof <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to walk, trudge <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| paneity <\/td> | n <\/td> | the state of being bread <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| pilliwinks <\/td> | n <\/td> | pl an instrument of torture for crushing the fingers <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| pinguitude <\/td> | n <\/td> | fatness <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| presentment_of_Englishry <\/td> | n <\/td> | 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) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| pulchritude <\/td> | n <\/td> | beauty <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| quaking-grass <\/td> | n <\/td> | a moorland grass of the genus Briza with pendulous, panicled, tremulous spikelets <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| Ralph <\/td> | n <\/td> | the imp of mischief in a printing house <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| ramgunshoch <\/td> | adj <\/td> | rough <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| refulgent <\/td> | adj <\/td> | casting a flood of light; radiant; beaming <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| roscid <\/td> | adj <\/td> | dewy <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| rumgumption <\/td> | n <\/td> | common sense <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| rutilant <\/td> | adj <\/td> | shining; glowing ruddily <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| scroddled <\/td> | adj <\/td> | (of pottery) made of clay scraps of different colours <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| sculduddry <\/td> | n <\/td> | breach of chastity; bawdy talk or writing <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| scunge <\/td> | vi <\/td> | to slink about; to borrow or scrounge <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| shellycoat <\/td> | n <\/td> | a water goblin dressed in shells; a sheriff’s messenger (Scots) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| sit_or_ride_bodkin <\/td> | adj. <\/td> | to be wedged in tight between two others <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| slip-string <\/td> | n <\/td> | a rogue, someone who richly deserves hanging (dialect) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| snootful <\/td> | n <\/td> | enough alcohol to make one drunk <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| snuzzle <\/td> | vi <\/td> | to grub or root <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| sockdologer <\/td> | n <\/td> | a conclusive argument; a hard or decisive blow (old US slang) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| spoffish <\/td> | adj <\/td> | fussy, officious (archaic) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| squabash <\/td> | vt <\/td> | to crush, smash, defeat <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| stotious <\/td> | adj <\/td> | drunk <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| suaveolent <\/td> | adj <\/td> | fragrant <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| syzygy <\/td> | n <\/td> | conjunction or opposition; the period of new or full moon <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| taghairm <\/td> | n <\/td> | (in the Scottish Highlands) divination; esp inspiration sought by lying in a bullock’s hide behind a waterfall <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| tattie-bogle <\/td> | n <\/td> | a scarecrow <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| the_bishop_has_put_his_foot_in_it <\/td> | adj. <\/td> | it has burnt while cooking (obsolete) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| the_bitch_goddess <\/td> | n. <\/td> | material success as an object of worship <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| the_grey_mare_is_the_better_horse <\/td> | adj. <\/td> | the wife rules her husband, or is the more able partner <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| thunder-plump <\/td> | n <\/td> | a heavy fall of rain in a thunderstorm <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| tintinnabulation <\/td> | n <\/td> | bell-ringing <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| Tom_Tiddler’s_ground <\/td> | n <\/td> | a place where wealth is to be had for the picking up <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| tosticated <\/td> | adj <\/td> | fuddled; perplexed <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| two-pot_screamer <\/td> | n <\/td> | a person who gets drunk on a comparatively small amount of alcohol (Australian slang) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| ultracrepidate <\/td> | vi <\/td> | to criticize beyond the sphere of one’s knowledge <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| unguligrade <\/td> | adj <\/td> | walking on hoofs <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| urchin_shows <\/td> | n <\/td> | pl appearances of elves or goblins <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| vug <\/td> | n <\/td> | a Cornish miner’s name for a cavity in a rock, usu lined with crystals <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| wag-at-the-wa’ <\/td> | n <\/td> | a hanging clock with exposed pendulum and weights <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| wamble-cropped <\/td> | adj <\/td> | sick at stomach <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| wanchancy <\/td> | adj <\/td> | unlucky, dangerous or uncanny <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| wapper-eyed <\/td> | adj <\/td> | blinking <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| weather_gleam <\/td> | n <\/td> | a bright aspect of the sky at the horizon (dialect) <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| whigmaleerie <\/td> | n <\/td> | a trinket or knick-knack <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| whip_the_cat <\/td> | v. <\/td> | to practise small economies <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| wigs_on_the_green <\/td> | n. <\/td> | a fray <\/td><\/tr>\n |
| yump <\/td> | vi <\/td> | in rally driving, to leave the ground (in one’s vehicle) when going over a ridge or crest <\/td><\/tr>\n<\/tbody><\/table>\n<\/center>\nMy thanks to johnshaven<\/a> for saving something of the original page.\n\n\n<\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An interesting list of words for improving English, expanding the mind and winning at Scrabble games:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.purechocolate.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.purechocolate.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.purechocolate.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.purechocolate.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.purechocolate.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2584"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.purechocolate.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3289,"href":"https:\/\/blog.purechocolate.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2584\/revisions\/3289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.purechocolate.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.purechocolate.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.purechocolate.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |