WORD LISTS

Wayne State Word Warriors Words to Rescue, 2014-2015 Edition

Wed Jan 07 10:03:28 EST 2015
By Vocabulary.com (NY)Visual Thesaurus Moderator
For six years, logophiles at Wayne State University have curated a crowd-sourced list of "old words [that] deserve a bit more love," selecting a top ten list of words especially in need of attention at the new year.

Here's a selection of our favorites from the 2014 and 2015 lists. Adopt one and promise to use it regularly in the coming year!

Check out "Word Warriors: Four Years of Words Worth Reviving, 2009-2013" here.
Note: sentence examples drawn from the Word Warriors page.
arcadian
When Leeman retired, he left the city and built a tiny house in a quiet, arcadian corner of the Berkshires.
eldritch
The feeble light of the waning moon, the crumbling stones, the dark shadows of skeletal trees and the mournful cries of owls gave the old cemetery such an eldritch aspect that we got out of there as fast as we could.
fug
Saying goodbye to the cats, Roger stepped out of his cool house into the fug of August in southern Louisiana.
humdinger
I've been in big storms before, but that Sandy was a real humdinger.
lubricious
Brad swears that Katie gave him a radiantly lubricious wink, but I think she just had something in her eye.
martinet
As a manager Geoffrey was such a martinet that staff meetings were mostly just his ranting about our imaginary foibles.
mephitic
After grading his class' term papers, Edmund felt that he had confronted and overcome something so vile and mephitic that only bourbon could reward the achievement and erase the memory.
perfidy
Being dumped by Alice was bad enough, but what really galled Roger was the perfidy of his so-called friends, who knew of her dalliances and never said a word to him.
pestiferous
I've made my living primarily as a science journalist, learning what evolutionary biology and ecology I know by self-education and pestiferous questioning of experts. (David Quammen)
Weltschmerz
Brian's long bouts of weltschmerz made him think he was a romantic poet, but most people just thought he was depressed.
caterwaul
As the storm raged on, the caterwaul from the wind as it whipped through the trees kept me from getting any sleep.
knavery
His presidency was founded on malice, lies and knavery.
melange
Her painting was a melange of colors and shapes that dazzled the eyes.
philistine
Ever the philistine, my dad never understood the joy I found in foreign films and classical music.
rapscallion
April Fools' Day was better than Christmas for the young rapscallion.
subtopia
As the city grew outward, our charming small town became a subtopia overrun with franchise pharmacies and strip malls.

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