Product Description

Wouldn't you like to use proctomorph in your everyday conversation--or at least feel as if you could? How about singerie? Or rememble? Following the smash hit Weird and Wonderful Words, editor Erin McKean has dug deeper into forgotten corners of the dictionary gathering both the most spectacular old and the most impressive new words. The result is more than four hundred prime specimens (with pronunciations!), defined in a conversational style and perfect for adding to your own collection of favorites. Guaranteed to amuse and astonish, accompanied by full-page illustrations by New Yorker cartoonist Danny Shanahan, these words will appeal to logophiles everywhere. In addition to its wonderful offerings, the book also features a guide to finding new words, a guide to the best word websites, and an annotated bibliography of essential Oxford dictionaries. More Weird and Wonderful Words: anopisthograph: something that has writing on only one side (usually paper, although you could pedantically use this for things like t-shirts or billboards). Anopisthography is the practice of writing on only one side of something, a policy disdained by those who know how to make that 1-to-2 button on the copy machine work. (Opisthography is the practice of writing on both sides.) (from Greek words that mean "written on the back or cover.") mesonoxian: of or related to midnight. "What are your mesonoxian plans?" sounds so much better on Dec. 31 than "Hey, whatcha doin' tonight?" ichoglan: a page waiting in the palace of the Sultan. (from Turkish words that mean "interior" and "young man."). In this definition, 'waiting' obviously means 'serving,' but it's so much more poetic to understand it as 'to stay in expectation of.' What is he waiting FOR? Alas, the Sultan has fled, and we will never know.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1996767 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Lexicographer McKean, editor of Verbatim magazine, has combed the Oxford English Dictionary to come up with more than 400 choice items for this amusing dictionary of rarely used words. Perhaps you've recently been guilty of acrasia ("the state of mind in which you act against your better judgment"). Perhaps you need a new synonym for "slut": Drazel will do quite nicely. Or perhaps you've been offended but are willing to offer the guilty party ignoscency ("forgiveness"). You may never find a reason to use the word "dromaeognathous" ("having a palate like that of an emu"), but just encountering it here could brighten your day. New Yorker cartoonist Shanahan adds a touch of whimsy to the enterprise with his comic illustrations. Lighthearted and instructive, this small volume would make a good gift book for eccentric wordsmiths or grammarians.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Erin McKean, an Oxford University Press dictionary editor, here has added more than 400 obscure and almost all utterly delightful words to the 400 or so that appeared in 'WWW' last year. The definitions and commentaries she adds are sophisticated, charming and instructive. Spend an hour with this volume and just try not to go forth and ornament the vocabulary of every friend and kin. A great nerve tonic if you like words and are feeling low."--The Austin-American Statesman

"....Word junkies will enjoy this, along with the funny illustrations by New Yorker cartoonist Danny Shanahan."--Pittsburg Post Gazette

"Linguipotence ("mastery of language," according to its coiner and sole user, Samuel Taylor Coleridge) and zoilist ("faultfinder," eponymously descended from a cranky ancient grammarian named Zoilus), come from Erin McKean's More Weird and Wonderful Words, her second collection of lexical oddities (Oxford, $16.95). Nothing could be easier, you might think, than opening an old dictionary and plucking out a few hundred obsolete words, but McKean has an eye for the good ones, both nasty and nice. Had English taken a different turn, cosmetics saleswomen might be offering to infucate your face; luckily, "make up" became the term of art. It's surprising, though, that the powder pushers haven't adopted the chic French-derived job title McKean suggests: They might be visagistes!"--Boston Globe

"...for a present that is jocoserious but not entirely glaikery, try More Weird and Wonderful Words. It'll certainly allow you to ephorise the holiday games of Scrabble, and have everyone kenching; those with a penchant for trivia will find it illecebrous. And you'll discover what an ilspile is. Same as a cirogrille, a hercheon, a tiggy and a furze-pig, of course."--Financial Times

Lexicographer McKean, editor of Verbatim magazine, has combed the Oxford English Dictionary to come up with more than 400 choice items for this amusing dictionary of rarely used words. Perhaps youve recently been guilty of acrasia ("the state of mind in which you act against your better judgment"). Perhaps you need a new synonym for "slut": Drazel will do quite nicely. Or perhaps youve been offended but are willing to offer the guilty party ignoscency ("forgiveness"). You may never find a reason to use the word "dromaeognathous" ("having a palate like that of an emu"), but just encountering it here could brighten your day. New Yorker cartoonist Shanahan adds a touch of whimsy to the enterprise with his comic illustrations. Lighthearted and instructive, this small volume would make a good gift book for eccentric wordsmiths or grammarians.--PublishersWeekly.com

"As everyone knows, the words marked obsolete or archaic in unabridged dictionaries are the best words of all. In More Weird and Wonderful Words (Oxford Univ., $16.95), edited by Erin McKean, with illustrations by Danny Shanahan, the dazzled reader will learn that 'bloncket' means 'gray, or a light grayish blue' and 'infrendiate' to 'gnash the teeth' and 'discerp' to 'tear something to shreds.' This is clearly the ideal resource when feeling a certain 'delassation' (i.e., fatigue) with the plain, homespun language of everyday life. Besides isn't it good to know that a 'musophobist' is 'a person who regards poetry with suspicious dislike' and a 'rhyparographer' a 'painter of unpleasant or sordid subjects'?"--Washington Post Book World

From the Publisher
40 b/w illus.