Though antediluvian by today's standards, the buggy whip was once at the forefront of transportation technology.
WORD LISTSWord Warriors: Four Years of Words Worth RevivingJanuary 23, 2013
Earlier this month, Wayne State University released its fourth annual list of ten words worth reviving. In this list, check out selected words from 2009 on.
  
antediluvian
bamboozle
Stop trying to bamboozle me out of my money!
bloviate
I was totally put off by the winning coaches' tendency to bloviate ad nauseam.
charlatan
This guy claims his anti-aging cream really works, but I think he's just a charlatan.
indefatigable
The English privateer Francis Drake was indefatigable in his pursuit of Spanish gold.
insouciance
We spent our two weeks at the beach in blissful insouciance, sleeping late and basking in the sun.
mendacity
Mendacity is a system that we live in.
mercurial
She said she needed a break from trying to anticipate my mercurial moods.
quixotic
Many cherished ideals of the 1960s now seem more quixotic than even remotely practical.
unctuous
The mediator was so unctuous that both sides found him impossible to work with.
Draconian
I hear the government is considering draconian penalties for those who leak classified documents.
ossify
Bert felt as though if he waited for Alice any longer he was just going to ossify right there on her doorstep.
paroxysm
Leonard was surprised, to say the least, when his pledge of love sent Emily into paroxysms of laughter.
penurious
Gloria had tons of money, but she was so penurious that her mom had to live her last years in a crummy cold-water flat.
Schadenfreude
Those of us who had weathered the barbs of Spiro Agnew were treated to an exquisite taste of schadenfreude at his downfall.
erstwhile
Roger had disturbing reasons to suspect that Rachel, his erstwhile lover, had hacked into his email accounts.
execrable
Alice may have a Ph. D. , but her spelling is execrable.
frisson
Albert knew he’d be glad to see Victoria, but he wasn’t expecting a powerful frisson of pleasure when he took her hand.
parlous
” Prospects for Yazoo City grew increasingly parlous as the Mississippi’s record flood rolled southward.
penultimate
Everyone’s heard of the Last Supper, but the Penultimate Supper has been largely forgotten.
supercilious
I knew I was about to go into the tank socially when I noticed the supercilious way she was looking at my red shoes.
transmogrify
So Gregor drifted off to sleep, never dreaming he was in a Kafka story and would transmogrify into a hideous insect overnight.
mawkish
To her surprise, Beth found Robert’s words of love to be so mawkish that they made her feel sticky, as though she were being painted with molasses.
persiflage
Emma hoped to get Lady Astor into a serious conversation, but as long as the King was around she could elicit only persiflage and gossip.
Rate this wordlist:
|
Word List Actions:Create a new Word List |
About Us
Become an Affiliate
Technology Licensing
Contributors
Contact Us
Copyright ©1998-2013 Thinkmap, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use
Already a Subscriber?
Join the conversation
Comments from our users: