Phee's Obscure Word thread

[phee]

scurryfunge: a hasty tidying of the house between the time you see a neighbor and the time she knocks on the door.

[phee]

gardyloo: Spirited warning cry that once preceded the emptying of slops, bucketsful of wastewater, from an upstairs window into the street below.

[phee]

They both sound like they could be titles for Cocteau Twins songs.

That made me sugar hic-up (lol)

I LOVE THIS ONE:

kippleization: the tendency of the universe towards decaying entropic trash

[Homicidalheathen]

reconstituted angels: good kitties that probably reincarnated as cats from angels just to keep me happpy, company.

[phee]

desuperpollicate: to give a 'thumbs down'

[Rev.Reverence]

I'm gonna' use them in a sentence...didn't you like doin' that in school PHEE?...(don't leave me dorky alone...)

abyssopelagic of, like or pertaining to the depths of the ocean

PHEE likes the abyssopelagic deity most often referred to as Kthulu.

aestival of, like or pertaining to summer

I like a good festival; when the weather is aestival.

(EDIT for BOLD tags)

[phee]

Oh Rev... you are such a macquereau

[Rev.Reverence]

Well PHEE aren't you just a queer¹ little piece of arcanum²?

¹Unusually different.

²A deep secret; a mystery.

(whatis a "macquereau")

{I looked in the Dic.&Encyc.}

[phee]

Well PHEE aren't you just a queer¹ little piece of arcanum²?

¹Unusually different.

²A deep secret; a mystery.

(whatis a "macquereau")

{I looked in the Dic.&Encyc.}

I won't obvaricate that statement and go ahead and agree with you

[Rev.Reverence]

Your anglomania will only obfuscate my cerebral facilities in an ephemeral fashion.

[phee]

Your anglomania will only obfuscate my cerebral facilities in an ephemeral fashion.

you definitly keep this board from forming into a nulliverse as well. And we always enjoy your quidnunckery

[jynxxxedangel]

Obscure Words: grimalkin

a cat; esp: an old female cat

Wikipedia: grimalkin

Grimalkin was the name of the witches' cat in Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

A grimalkin is defined as an old or evil-looking she-cat. The term stems from gray (the color) plus malkin, an archaic word for cat. Scottish legend makes reference to the grimalkin as a faery cat which dwells in the highlands.

During the Middle Ages, the name grimalkin - and cats in general - became associated with the devil and witchcraft. Women tried as witches in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were often accused of having a familiar, frequently a grimalkin.

The name has been re-used for various other things including a racing yacht which was a casualty in the 1979 Fastnet race storm. However the boat did not sink, has been refurbished and is still sailing.

Other References

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in The House of Seven Gables, Ch. XVI, mentions "...a strange grimalkin... was seen by Hepzibah while she was looking into the back-yard garden for Clifford. In the next sentence he gives definition to grimalkin as "...this cat seemed to have more than ordinary mischief in his thoughts,..."

The Godolphin Arabian, one of the stallions that helped found the line of Thoroughbred racing horses, was very close to a companion cat called Grimalkin. (Racehorses tend to be very high-strung and nervous animals, and often form a close bond with a companion animal; the tactic of trying to sabotage a race by abducting a racehorse's companion animal the night before the race is thought to have given rise to the term "getting someone's goat.")

In the television show "Batman", and later "The New Adventures of Batman", Catwoman (played by Julie Newmar) operated the Grimalkin Novelty Company, at the corner of Cattail Lane and Nine Lives Alley.

See: malkin, greymalkin

Used in a sentence: Jynxxedangel is a wily old grimalkin.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Weird - Noun - Fate, Destiny

Lich - Noun - Corpse

It was his weird to die by the sword he forged, his lich to lie bloating in the sun.

[chEmo]

rhapsodomancy divination by opening works of poetry at random.

When I have writer's block, the best cure is rhapsodomancy

[Corpse_Ecstasy]

maigre

adj. - Roman Catholic, not containing meat or its juices, thus permissible on days of abstinence; (of a day) on which abstinence is enjoined.

subnubilar

adj. - under clouds.

ebriose

adj. - drunk.

And my personal favorite :

embolalia

n. - the use of virtually meaningless filler words, phrases, or stammerings in speech, whether as unconscious utterings while arranging one's thoughts or as a vacuous, inexpressive mannerism

[torn asunder]

honestly, i'd like to defenestrate this entire topic!!

[Burrich1]

Ennui. A feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction arising from lack of interest; boredom.

As in: "The ennui seemed to have settled into his very bones."

I am seriously considering starting an ennui thread.

[phee]

Does this thread interfere with the "Word of the Day" thread?

[Rev.Reverence]

Does this thread interfere with the "Word of the Day" thread?

no

I am twitter-pated.

[jynxxxedangel]

Waldeinsamkeit (German): the feeling of being alone in the woods

[pomba gira]

• To the oubliette with this thread! And all participants shall be urticated and pelted with fulgurites, and finally dispatched with the misericorde.

• I can't decide whether my new fetish gear should be done in saffian or cordwain.

• Some color words I like: pavonine, cerise, gamboge, celadon, celestine, mazarine

[Rev.Reverence]

..ballyhoo...

[Simon Bar Sinister]

phlogiston

...back in the early 18th century, before people understood chemistry, the understanding among scientists of the day was that the reason certain materials burned was because they were rich in phlogiston (also known as terra pingua, or oily earth). For example, wood was thought to be made of phlogiston and ash and would only stop burning when all its phlogiston was released.