Words, Wonderful Words!

Here are some fine, fun, fascinating words!

cahoots

questionable collaboration; Perhaps from French cahute, cabin,


callithump
a noisy celebration


chortle

A snorting, joyful laugh or chuckle. (A blend of chuckle and snort.)

Word History: “‘O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’ He chortled in his joy.” Perhaps Lewis Carroll would chortle a bit himself to find that people are still using the word chortle, which he coined in Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1872. In any case, Carroll had constructed his word well, combining the words chuckle and snort to create it. This type of word is called a blend or a portmanteau word. In Through the Looking-Glass Humpty Dumpty uses portmanteau to describe the word slithy, saying, “It's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word” (the meanings being “lithe” and “slimy”).  --Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

credenza

You gotta love the crunchy sound of this fancy word for "side table" or "closed cabinet for papers." 

flabbergasted

overwhelmed with astonishment, surprised

flummery

“This word has sound sense, in that it sounds a lot like what it is: insincere talk or flattery. It's from a Welsh word denoting a kind of porridge, and thus shares a niche in English with pablum, another porridge word that also has a disparaging meaning pertaining to language” –Visual Thesaurus

flummox

to confuse, perplex


fricative

(this one is just so fun to say!): a consonant produced by forcing breath through a restricted passage (such as f or s in English)

frippery

pretentious, showy finery; ostentation; something trivial, a non-essential

 

guffaw 

Originally Scots, this word denoting a hearty laugh is like some other words that designate laughter: it's an imitation of the sound of it. Ha-ha, te-hee, and Yo-ho-ho are in the same club.

 

higgledy-piggledy

in utter disorder, confusion

hobnob

associate with familiarity; probably derived from drink (hob) and toast (nob)

kerfuffle

form of carfuffle: disturbance, fuss (chiefly British, probably Scots car (wrong, awkward) and fuffle (disheveled)

kow-tow

to show servile deference, fawn (to kneel an touch forehead to ground in respect, worship, as formerly done in China. From the Chinese kou (to knock) and tou (head)


lollygag

to waste time by puttering aimlessly; dawdle. Which brings up two other great words: putter and dawdle!

mollycoddle

to pamper excessively

nudnik

an obtuse, boring, bothersome person; a pest

persnickety

over particularly about details, fastidious

tarradiddle

1. A petty falsehood; a fib.  2.Silly pretentious speech or writing; twaddle. - Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

tintinnabulation

the ringing or sound of bells; related is tinnitus--a persistent ringing in the ears.

tussie-mussie

a small bouquet of flowers; a nosegay; a coneshaped holder for such a bouquet