<B>Special Words</b>

Especially good for impressing English professors and for winning Scrabble games

The Chambers Dictionary has inspired affection and loyalty from its readers over the past century because, besides being a reliable guide to current English spellings and meanings, it is a treasure-trove of the unusual and the bizarre. Even those who have been familiar with it for many years are frequently surprised by a hitherto unnoticed gem while browsing through it.

Some words are appealing for their own sakes because of a pleasing combination of sounds:

beblubbered adj disfigured by weeping
deliquesce vi to melt and become liquid by absorbing moisture
discombobulate vt to disconcert, upset
flimp vt to rob (someone) while a partner hustles
goluptious adj delicious; voluptuous
incompossible adj incapable of co-existing
mulligrubs n pl colic; sulkiness
obumbrate vt to overshadow
pilliwinks n pl an instrument of torture for crushing the fingers
pinguitude n fatness
pulchritude n beauty
refulgent adj casting a flood of light; radiant; beaming
roscid adj dewy
rutilant adj shining; glowing ruddily
scroddled adj (of pottery) made of clay scraps of different colours
spoffish adj fussy, officious (archaic)
squabash vt to crush, smash, defeat
suaveolent adj fragrant
syzygy n conjunction or opposition; the period of new or full moon
tintinnabulation n bell-ringing
unguligrade adj walking on hoofs
vug n a Cornish miner's name for a cavity in a rock, usu lined with crystals

crinkum-crankum n something that is full of intricate twists and turns
dumbledore n the bumblebee
ferntickle n a freckle
forky-tail n an earwig
glimmer-gowk n an owl
grufted adj dirty, begrimed
humdudgeon n low spirits
scunge vi to slink about; to borrow or scrounge
snuzzle vi to grub or root
wamble-cropped adj sick at stomach
wapper-eyed adj blinking

Chambers is particularly comprehensive in its coverage of Scottish words, many of which have a striking sound:

carnaptious adj bad-tempered, cantankerous
clamjamphrie n rubbish; nonsense; rabble
clishmaclaver n gossip
collieshangie n a noisy wrangling
fantoosh adj fashionable; pretentious or showy
mirligoes n pl dizziness
moudiewort n a mole (the animal)
nipperty-tipperty adj finical; mincing
ramgunshoch adj rough
rumgumption n common sense
sculduddry n breach of chastity; bawdy talk or writing
stotious adj drunk
tattie-bogle n a scarecrow
wag-at-the-wa' n a hanging clock with exposed pendulum and weights
wanchancy adj unlucky, dangerous or uncanny
whigmaleerie n a trinket or knick-knack

Many of the most evocative words in English are terms of abuse. Chambers does a fine line in insult and invective:

bed-swerver n a person false to their marriage vow (Shakesp)
blatherskite n a garrulous talker of nonsense (dialect)
doddypoll n a blockhead (obsolete)
fizgig n a giddy or flirtatious girl
gawpus n a silly person
gerund-grinder n a pedantic teacher
grammaticaster n a piddling grammarian (archaic)
hen-hussy n a man who meddles with women's affairs
horse-godmother n a fat clumsy woman (dialect)
humgruffin n a terrible person
mutton-thumper n a clumsy bookbinder
nipcheese n a stingy person
slip-string n a rogue, someone who richly deserves hanging (dialect)

Some of the most charming words in the dictionary relate to folklore and fantasy:

bull-beggar n a hobgoblin, etc (dialect)
Lob-lie-by-the fire n a brownie who works by night for his bowl of cream
shellycoat n a water goblin dressed in shells; a sheriff's messenger (Scots)
urchin shows n pl appearances of elves or goblins

mackerel sky n a sky streaked with long, parallel white masses of cloud
merry dancers n pl the aurora borealis (Scots)
thunder-plump n a heavy fall of rain in a thunderstorm
weather gleam n a bright aspect of the sky at the horizon (dialect)

At times it is not so much the word itself as the concept that it describes that produces a smile:

buttock-mail n the fine formerly exacted by the church in commutation of sitting on the stool of repentance (Scots)
dandy-horse n an early bicycle without pedals, driven by kicking the ground
gardyloo interj the old warning cry in Edinburgh before throwing slops out of the window into the street
mallemaroking n carousing of seamen in icebound ships
omoplatoscopy n divination by observing the cracks in a burning shoulder-blade
presentment of Englishry the offering of proof that a person murdered belonged to the English race, to escape the fine levied on the hundred or township for the murder of a Norman (history)
taghairm n (in the Scottish Highlands) divination; esp inspiration sought by lying in a bullock's hide behind a waterfall

On other occasions the reader is charmed by the poetic language used in the definition:

aestivate vi to pass the summer esp in a state of torpor
gloop vi (of a thick viscous substance) to bubble or plop slowly and heavily, esp with a soft thick plopping or popping sound
kilfud-yoking n a fireside disputation (Scots)
nepenthe n a drink or drug causing sorrow to be forgotten
quaking-grass n a moorland grass of the genus Briza with pendulous, panicled, tremulous spikelets
Tom Tiddler's ground n a place where wealth is to be had for the picking up

angels' share n the amount of a spirit lost in the cask through evaporation
burn-the-wind n a blacksmith (Scots)
fishyback n transportation of freight containers and trailers by ship or barge (US)
snootful n enough alcohol to make one drunk
sockdologer n a conclusive argument; a hard or decisive blow (old US slang)
tosticated adj fuddled; perplexed
two-pot screamer n a person who gets drunk on a comparatively small amount of alcohol (Australian slan

Sometimes the reader is delighted to find that a word exists for a particular concept:

deipnosophist n a person who converses learnedly at dinner, a table-philosopher
Ralph n the imp of mischief in a printing house
ultracrepidate vi to criticize beyond the sphere of one's knowledge
yump vi in rally driving, to leave the ground (in one's vehicle) when going over a ridge or crest

At other times one is surprised that a word for a certain concept should exist at all:

batology n the study of brambles
callipygous adj having beautiful buttocks
genethliac adj relating to a birthday or to the casting of horoscopes (obsolete)
kakistocracy n government by the worst
leiotrichy n straight-hairedness
paneity n the state of being bread

Finally, Chambers also includes a wide range of arresting and amusing idiomatic phrases:

bring one's hogs to a fine market to make a complete mess of something
broach the admiral to steal some liquor from a cask in transit or in store
burn the water to spear salmon by torchlight (Scots)
cry roast meat to publish one's good luck foolishly (archaic)
cry stinking fish to decry one's own goods
dree one's weird to undergo one's destiny (Scots)
give leg bail to run for it
give someone his kale through the reek to reprimand someone severely (Scots)
have a crow to pluck with to have something to settle with someone
have a rod in pickle to have a punishment ready
have the black ox tread on one's foot to experience sorrow or misfortune
mops and brooms half-drunk
not know a B from a bull's foot to be very ignorant (old slang)
outrun the constable to go too fast; to get into debt
pad the hoof to walk, trudge
sit or ride bodkin to be wedged in tight between two others
the bishop has put his foot in it it has burnt while cooking (obsolete)
the bitch goddess material success as an object of worship
the grey mare is the better horse the wife rules her husband, or is the more able partner
whip the cat to practise small economies
wigs on the green a fray

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