Recently I was teaching a lesson at an English learning centre - four local chinese kids, of about six years - when one of the little Abecedarians unintentionally planted a little seed of inspiration in my brain.We were brainstorming words beginning with the letter B (ironically no one came up with the word brainstorm) and this little girl suggested Boogaloo. I laughed, and said something to the effect of 'don't be silly, that's a made up word!' but she was convinced it was a real word.
Recent Googling has revealed that Boogaloo is infact a real word.
Boogaloo or bugalú (also, shing-a-ling, Latin boogaloo, Latin R&B) is a genre of Latin music and dance that was popular in the United States in the 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City among teenage Cubans, Puerto Ricans and other groups. The style was a fusion of popular African American R&B and soul with mambo and son montuno.
I'm not entirely convinced that this is what the girl meant, but it is a valid word, nonetheless. I stand corrected. This trifling peccadillo got me thinking about all the other strange unused words are lurking in the dusty corners of dictionary.com...
Dictionary of Not Entirely Useless and Uniteresting Words
adoxography - Skilled writing on an unimportant subjectgossypiboma - A surgical sponge accidently left inside a patient's body
aeolist - A pompous windy bore who pretends to have inspiration
abecedarian - A person who is learning the alphabet
alphamegamia - The marriage between a young woman and an older man
autohagiographer - One who speaks or writes in a smug fashion about their own life and accomplishmentscallipygean - Having well-shaped buttocks
estrapade - A horses's attempt to remove its rider
floccinaucinihilipilification - The categorising of something that is useless or trivial
hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian - Pertaining to extremely long words
gambrinous - Being full of beer
qualtagh - The first person you see after leaving your housestrikhedonia - The pleasure of being able to say to hell with it
tarantism - An urge to overcome melancholy by dancing
vigesimation - The act of killing every twentieth person
lethologica - The inability to recall a precise word for something
And finally, I give you...
My Top Five Obscure Unused Words Which I Believe Should be Reintroduced into Everyday Conversation
1. Wamfle – To walk around with flapping clothes.
I also think it implies an attitude (think 30-something boho-type single-because-I-want-to-be-NOT-because-I-can't-get-a-partner yoga teacher), but mostly I just like the sound of this word.
2. Coprolalomaniac – Someone who compulsively uses foul language.
I figured this one is pretty relevant to quite a few people I know (including myself to some extent).
3. Defenestrate - to throw someone out a window.
Apparently there was a time when this happened often enough to warrant making a word for it.
4. Rule-of-thumb - a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation..
I realise this is a phrase, not a word, but the origins are interesting:
The 'rule of thumb' has been said to derive from the belief that English law allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick so long as it is was no thicker than his thumb.
I propose it should be reinstated for general use.
5. Solastalgia - distress or melancholy caused by a significant change to one's local environment. Whereas nostalgia is homesickness for a place, solastalgia is a yearning for the way a loved place used to be.
This is for all you boring old gits in Hong Kong who love to moan about how things used to be...
In closing, I hope you enjoyed my list. Try to use one of these words every day, and if you wish to hear some suggestions, just listen to the Mars Volta.
