unusual meanings or of special interest or sound
Solipsism:- the idea that only the self can be proven to exist.
Solecism:- A lapse in manners, poor or incorrect use of a word or expression
Eft:- Newt. If you play Scrabble then useful. Quite often used in crosswords.
Ave:- An interesting word; a salutation, it can mean two things which are opposites. Welcome or farewell.
Snopes:- the verb to snopes; to check veracity. www.snopes.com is a very useful website that has collected, as they described it; urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation
Ululu:- Old Persian; name of a month. The old Zoroastrian calendar had 360 days so an additional 30 day month was added every 19 years.
Forgettery:- What some people have instead of a Memory.
Subliminable:- A Bushism; the poor dyslexic American president obviously meant Subliminal.
Scareware:- Fake antivirus software, for example. Can also describe websites designed to persuade the visitor of non-existent threats.
Cointelpro:- Acronym for Counter Intelligence Propaganda. Used to describe government security attempts to demonise or discredit activists and dissidents. Originally an FBI project to discredit the likes of Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein and others involved in Civil Rights Movements. A small part of the FBI activity was focussed on White Supremacist organisations.
Pyroflatulence:- Igniting farts, usually the domain of premature males. The flammable gas is mainly hydrogen. Very few humans have the gut flora to produce methane. Note that quite severe burns can result from these activities - Ed
The Big Lie:- A technique used to demonise an individual, a cause, religion or a people. An untruth us presented in a convincing way persistently and consistently so that it becomes universally believed.
Noosphere:- The domain of thought; just as the Biosphere is the domain of life.
Hermeneutic:- The study of interpretation e.g. the study of meaning in the bible.
Ponerology:- The study of evil. Ponerogenic e.g. of a society where psychopaths have power.
Blagging:- Journalists reporting on the NewsCorp bugging scandal have used the word to describe the acquisition of information using impersonation and other 'social engineering' techniques.
Irridenta:- Part of a country that is not of that country's culture and language but of another's.
Earworm:- A tune that keeps running round one's head.
Orthopraxy:- Right conduct, right behaviour (from the Greek ορθοπραξ?α). The term applies to an individual's behaviour and obligatory religious ritual. compare with Orthodoxy.
Deasil: - Clockwise, from the Scots Gaelic - see also Widdershins.
Widdershins: - A word of Germanic origin meaning anticlockwise or, less usually to go against the flow or normal direction. See also Deasil.
Photoshop: - Included here because it is increasing being used as a verb - to 'Photoshop', using the program to improve a model's looks or even create disinformation by adding or removing someone or something from a picture. More recently it reduced to "shopped", referring to an image that altered using the software.
Bushism: -The hapless ex-president of the United States generated some new words the best known is probably the one he used when he asked his critics not to "Misunderestimate" him.
Palinism: - To Refudiate. American presidents and presidential hopefuls are a rich source of amusing material.
Agnotology:- Deliberate encouragement of ignorance, the word came into use to describe the the campaign of disinformation and misinformation produced by the tobacco industry to discredit the link between smoking and cancer. As well as big business and industry is used by media barons, the state and the investment banking business. The study of the philosophical and metaphysical dimensions of ignorance and knowability is Agnoiology; see James Ferrier
Mubarack: To hang on to power for longer than necessary - after the deposed Egyptian dictator.
Gnomon: The triangular blade in a sundial.
Iranophobia: The irrational fear of the country Iran. The media and politicians in western and some other countries have been demonizing Iran and its leaders for some time, this to engender fear in their populations. In this they have been very successful despite there being no evidence to support the idea that the Iranians constitute a threat or harbour ill will to other countries.
Cicerone: - Old name for a guide
Teleology: A belief that there is purpose or design in nature. From Greek telos - purpose, end or goal - e.g. Christianity and Islam are Teleological beliefs
Thalweg: The principle that where countries have river or gulf separating the them, that these borders are defined by line drawn along the deepest part of the channel.
Palimpsest: A reused parchment where the wax writing has been removed and new applied. Often the previous text was not removed completely and was still readable. The scriptio inferior was the name given to the underwriting.
Mendonced: To subject to a good kicking. As in 'we gave that slimy bastard a good Mendoncing', also a slimebag or low life.
Spirix: A curved line that has both the characteristics of a spiral and a helix e.g. the curve to be found on the outer surface of an igloo
Isograv: A line on a map joining points of equal gravitational strength.
Sousveillance: Monitoring from underneath - watching the watchers.
What is the difference between an acrostic and an antonym?
Lucullan: - Opulent and magnificent. After Licinius Lucullus, a general in the Roman Army. An invitation to his villa meant a very special banquet, special even by Roman standards.
Everyone has heard of DYSLEXIA, however what are DYSPRAXIA and DYSCALCULIA? - -
Dyspraxia: - Poor hand /eye and brain/body coordination characterise Dyspraxia. People who are afflicted with the problem tend to flop about.
Dyscalculia: is a poor grasp of numbers and mathematical ideas.
Plantigrade means walking on the soles of the feet.
Realpolitik; Politics not based on ideology but the situation as it is. Sorely needed in this day and age.
Some more:- Suasion, exigent, refulgence, analect, Factitious Lubricious Minatory Malditties Timilays Obliquies Sanivacity Bedizened Paladin Labile Midrassic emendation Kirpan Tilwa'a,
How much is a Smidgeon? how long is a Jiffy?