A Lover of Words
Ahh, words... What sweeter passion is known to humankind than the search for beautiful words and phrases? For example, how much more moving is the phrase 'amaranthine love' than plain vanilla 'undying love'? And how much more descriptive are the words 'Augean task' than the more common ways of saying 'distasteful duty'? Our vocabulary is what allows us to describe the world around us precisely, and thus it is a subject worthy of research and expansion. This page is devoted to fabulous us, the people who read the dictionary for fun, and to our burgeoning vocabularies - every month I will try to add 10 new words to the list for you to enjoy. Click here for past words. I'm more than happy to take suggestions, by the way. Just email me your favorite words! And, if you would like to join the thousands of people who receive a new word every day via email, just go to AWAD - A.Word.A.Day. and sign up for a free subscription! Lastly, for some serious online word-game fun, try The Funster Lobby for a guaranteed mindstretch.

rhadamanthine - Strictly and uncompromisingly just. This word is eponymous, meaning it comes from someone's name; Rhadamanthus was, in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Europa who was made a judge of the Underworld.

Augean - abominably filthy -or- extremely difficult

acedia - boredom, apathy... a good one to doodle in class -- your teacher's not likely to know it!

salmagundi - the literal meaning is a dish of chopped meat, onions, anchovies, eggs, oil and seasonings.
Figuratively, it means a miscellany, medly, mixture or hodgepodge.

schadenfreude - pleasure derived from other's misfortune -- comes up more often than you might think --
I've heard it on an episode of Ballykissangel and my sister saw it in her freshman English Comp textbook!

cerumen - ear wax. Gross, aren't I?

coprophagous - excrement-eating (to put it nicely) (this is a good one to call people!)

nullifidian - a person who lacks any faith or religion - a skeptic or unbeliever. I found this gem in George Eliot's Middlemarch.

cerulean - sky-blue. True, this isn't a hard one, but it is lovely, isn't it?

glabella - the little bald spot between your eyebrows - who knew it had a name??


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