Monday, January 30, 2012

Words from Josefa Heifetz Byrne

One of my most prized specialized dictionaries is Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words. (The Citadel Press, 1976) Not sure if it's out of print or not. Try both new and used bookstores.

A few examples of the gems to be found within:

acalculia: the inability to work with numbers; a mental block against arithmetic (now you know what it's called!)
canoodle: to caress
omphaloskepsis: meditation while gazing at one's navel
lethologica: inability to remember the right word (something I hope to find a way to counteract)
godling: a puny or small-time god

More some other time . . .

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