Friday, August 07, 2009

great words

Scot McKnight reviews Ammon Shea's Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages.
There are two parts to this book -- there is the personal story of the experience of reading 8-10 hours a day, holed up in a library in NYC, consuming large quantities of espresso -- he says a thermos full by noon on most days -- and getting headaches from all that reading.

Then there is his deposit of words from each letter in the alphabet -- so 26 chps of funny words -- and his funny comments.
Here are some of Scot's favourite words:
Avidulous: somewhat greedy.
Balter: to dance clumsily.
Bayard: a person armed with the self-confidence of ignorance.
Fard: to paint the face with cosmetics, so as to hide blemishes. (As in "she went out to fard.")
Gound: the gunk that collects in the corners of the eyes.
Homodoxian: a person who has the same opinion as you. (A denominational trait.)
Kakistocracy: government by the worst citizens.
Minimifidian: a person who has the bare minimum of faith (which Calvinists begrudge of Anabaptists and Arminians).
Nod-crafty: given to nodding the head with an air of great wisdom. (Surely someone will bring in the word emergent here.)
Paracme: the point at which one's prime is past.
Peccability: capacity for sinning.
Philodox: a person in love with his own opinion.
Redeless: not knowing what to do in an emergency, and I thought of Barney Fife.
Superfidel: overly credulous; believing too much (which Anabaptists and Arminians think of Calvinists).
Sympatetic: a companion one walks with, Calvinist or Anabaptist or Arminian.

He's offering a prize to whoever comes up with the funniest sentence using 2 or more of these words... check out the comments on his blog

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