Obscure Words A to Z: Fun with Words

Do you have a logolepsy (obsession with words) or a verbophobia (fear or dislike of words)? I’m betting everyone in here has a logolepsy. I thought it would be fun to find an obscure word for each letter of the alphabet and work them all into a story. I searched some websites and found one called Luciferous Logolepsy or ‘an illuminating obsession with words’. They had an A to Z listing of obscure words, though I did recognize a few of them. So I picked out one word for each letter and this is what I came up with. In case you don’t know all of the words there will be a glossary after the story!

The ventripotent cabotin was resting in his office. His lagena, filled with usquebaugh, was at his side. He was a fastuous man and prone to dizen. Yestreen, he had the first patient in his office in a long time. His office was very acherontic, not very conducive to patients. She was a zingaro who was a beldam. She said she needed some parenesis, even though she had an intense iatromisia. He inquired about her concerns. She said she had a gonalgia. The cabotin replied that she seemed to obambulate well. She answered yes but it was becoming rigescent. She also had a whitlow she wanted him to check. The cabotin consulted his enchiridian which was xanthic with age. He found something to ‘cure’ both of her concerns. He handed her a bottle of tisane and told her to take a quantulum, but she needed to be careful as it could cause kef. The zingaro looked very nullifidian, but he was very jannock so she took a sip. By the moue on her face, the concoction was not tasty. He told her to take it on a hebdomadal basis and she would be cured. Satisdiction!

Acherontic – dark, gloomy

Beldam – repulsive older woman

Cabotin – medical quack

Dizen – dress in a gaudy fashion

Enchiridion – handbook

Fastuous – arrogant, showy

Gonalgia – pain in the knee

Hebdomadal – weekly

Iatromisia – dislike of doctors

Jannock – pleasant

Kef – sleepiness, caused by drugs

Lagena – flask

Moue – grimace

Nullifidian – skeptical

Obamulate – to walk about

Parenesis – advice

Quantulum – small quantity

Rigescent – becoming numb or stiff

Satisdiction – enough said!

Tisane – medicinal beverage of barley, chamomile, etc

Usquebaugh – whiskey

Ventripotent – fat

Whitlow – abscess on a finger

Xanthic – yellow in color

Yestreen – the night before

Zingaro – gypsy

I hope you had some fun with my little word exercise. It was a little harder picking out the words and composing the story than I thought it would be! But it was fun and I learned some new words. But if I ever use any of them in conversation, people will think I am off my rocker!