Defenestration: Have a Nice Fall!

A adoxography by an aeolist...

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 subject

gossypiboma - 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 accomplishments

callipygean - 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 house

strikhedonia - 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.