word hunt
I miss the old, red paperback dictionary I had growing up. I could waste hours inside of it. The pages were lined yellow and the sheets were impossibly thin, it smelled more of ink than of lignin. The cover became more of a collection of tape. Not surprising: the family tree was inside a different dictionary.
That dictionary’s long been lost. The wonder in paging through it is gone. Today, I prefer to hunt words in the wild.
I’m talking about the word that’s so ridiculous, so marvelous, so sublimely placed. The one that’s a delicious little morsel, screaming: LOOK ME UP. It must be decoded. It’s at that point where you reach, again, for the dictionary. And at that point, you add it to the list.
the list
getmütlich
pleasant and cheerful
oleaginous
oily, greasy, or insincere
antimacassar
the cloth on the back of a living room chair, from when men oiled their heads.
(I woke up to this one from a dream)
onanism
something not appropriate for this website
reveille
a bugle call, or just how the French wake up
perihelion
the point at orbit when you’re closest to the sun
wangle
to wrangle or finagle, sneakily
thigmotaxis
when your back to the wall feels the safest
sinecure
bullshit jobs
genuflect
bowing down to power
callipygian
beautiful butts
monopsony
one buyer controls the market
numismatics
currency collectors. C.R.E.A.M.
feuilletons
little leaves, sketches, gossip. also, the Talk of the Town.
baldachin
an abbreviated canopy
periphrasis
an editor’s nightmare
catachresis
strained metaphors
antonomasia
He-Who-Shall-Metonymously-Named
soteriology
the study of salvation
gazar
a bride’s silk organza
tatterdemalions
ragamuffins
thaumaturgical
working miracles
concupiscence
the temptation and appetite for gratification
abyssopelagic
the permanent darkness of the ocean