Kenspeckle must be looking sad lately, because Hebrew posters weren’t the only tip someone sent me yesterday.
I also got a link to the Compendium of Lost Words at The Phrontistery (also home to the International House of Logorrhea) from Alberto (who also blogs in English here).
Kenspeckle is part of the International House of Logorrhea, but not the Compendium of Lost Words, which has very strict membership requirements, including:
- The word must have a header entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.
- The word may not appear in its proper English context on any readily accessible webpage.
- The word must have been used in Modern English.
- The word must not be a simple variation in spelling of another word.
These rules raise the natural question of what happens when rabid bloggers and wordie addicts put these lost words all over their blogs and wordie lists—do the Compendium’s rules necessarily write its own oblivion when people find out about it?
Luckily The Phrontistery faq states that words that have been picked up here and there by people who read the site don’t have to be removed. So I don’t have to be guilty about creating a compendium favorites list on wordie, including (but not limited to):
- alabandical: barbarous; stupefied from drink
- boreism: behaviour of a boring person
- coherentific: causing to become coherent; causing cohesion
- diffibulate: to unbutton; to unbuckle
- epalpebrate: lacking eyebrows
- foppotee: simpleton
- gaudiloquent: speaking joyfully or on joyful matters
- graviloquence: grave speech
- hirquitalliency: strength of voice
- magastromancy: magical astrology
- nubivagant: moving throughout or among clouds
- philargyrist: lover of money; covetous person
- sparsile: (of a star) not included in any constellation
- uglyography: bad handwriting; poor spelling