We're always on the lookout for lists and mentions of rare or unusual words, and the bigger the better. Thus, we read with great interest the Huffington Post piece on "Big, Beautiful Words You Need To Start Using Immediately."
The piece includes some stunning illustrations of words many have never heard of — the list included phantasmagoria (seen here) borborygmus, carpophagous, flibbertigibbet, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia [sic], hornswoggle, slubberdegullion, and susurrus. Even better, the post invited readers to share their favorite "big, beautiful words" by tweeting to #BigWordLove, and many did.
The resulting collection is an outstanding one, featuring stand out gems such as defenestration, homunculus, hypocorism, prestidigitation, synecdochic, and triskaidekaphobia. For anyone who wants to see or even learn these words we've created a Vocabulary.com Vocabulary List version:
#BigWordLove: Celebrating Big, Beautiful Words with the Huffington Post
Ever wonder where these crazy big words come from? Many of them, it turns out, are fabricated. In a recent Word Routes column, Vocabulary.com lexicographer Ben Zimmer wrote about "The Joy of Making up Long Words," telling the stories behind hippopotomonstrosesquipedalianism, honorificabilitudinitatibus, floccinaucinihilipilification, and the 45-letter "whopper," pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (aka "P45"), as well as the intentionally silly-sounding discombobulate, its "comrade-in-arms" absquatulate, and the 34-letter supercalifragilisticexpialidocious of Mary Poppins fame.
