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STHENIA [STHEE-nee-uh] (noun)
strength, energy, vitality
"The first condition he called sthenia," I explained. "Meaning lots of energy." "Correct. And the other group, by distinction had a-sthenia." "No energy." "Correct again. You do know your etymology, Samantha."
--Beach Conger, It's Probably Nothing: More Adventures of a Vermont Country Doctor (2011)
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PANDICULATE [pan-DIK-yuh-LAYT] (verb)
To stretch and yawn simultaneously
"I'm troubled with pandiculation, An ailment dire and rooted deep 'Tis caused by undue hesitation In rising from the couch of sleep." --George W. E. Daniels, "Pandiculation", in The Medical Pickwick (1921) (TWITO, page 106)
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CHELONIAN [che-LO-nee-UN] (noun or adjective)
A turtle or like a turtle or tortoise (i.e., slow)
"Weighed down by bickering and blather, the farm bill crept through Congress at a chelonian pace."
--Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post (2013)
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PSITHURISM [SIGH-thur-IS-em] (noun)
The sound of rustling leaves or wind in the trees.
"Another day the sweet south is blowing; do you not see how the larch and lime palpitate with pleasure? ... do you not hear the musical psithurism of the feathered foliage?"
--Mortimer Collins, "The Secret of a Long Life" (1875)
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RHATHYMIA [ruh-THY-mia] (noun)
Light-hearted, carefree behavior
"The Beatles proved that one could combine rhathymia with mayhem in ‘Maxwell’s
Silver Hammer,’ their bizarrely jaunty little ditty about a serial killer." (TWITO, page 125)
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OVATE [OH-vait] (adjective)
Having an oval shape, like an egg
"Todd Smith's engaging small paintings create intricate patterns out of myriad, carefully hand-painted ovate dots, which set the eye dancing in somewhat the same manner as op-art."
--Peter Clothier, "Gallery Rounds/Bergamot Station" (2007)
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STERNUTATION [ster-nyuh-TAY-shun] (noun)
The act or sound of sneezing
"Tabby, the omnipresent housecat, seemed to delight in Natalie's constant sternutation." (TWITO, page 149)
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OIKOFUGIC [oy-ko-FU-jik] (adjective)
Marked by the urge to wander or travel away from home
"Genevieve's employment as an air hostess for Oceanic Airlines enabled her to indulge her most oikofugic fantasies, but an emergency landing in Uzbekistan was not one of them." (TWITO, page 101)
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ZEPHYR (noun)
A gentle, refreshing wind; also the Greek god of the west wind.
"He saw attempted murder in the pains of green-apple colic, cyclones in the summer zephyr, lost children in every top-spinning urchin, an uprising of the down-trodden masses in every hurling of a derelict potato at a passing automobile."
--O. Henry, "Whirligigs" (1923)
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GELASTIC [jel-AS-tic]
(adjective)
Provoking laughter
"Only Desmond's gelastic comments made the tedious seminar bearable." (TWITO, page 60)
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EDACIOUS [ih-DAY-shuss] (adjective)
Voracious;
devouring
"Abigail flailed in despair as the edacious
aphids consumed her garden." (TWITO, page 44)
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DELIQUIUM [del-IK-wee-um] (noun)
Melting or
dissolution; liquefying; a maudlin mood
"When at length overtaken and reconveyed to the house, deliquium
followed deliquium, and when they
ceased, frenzy succeeded; the dark night of insanity had utterly quenched the
light of reason."
--Reuben Percy, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement,
and Instruction (1834)
"The worship of
Odin astonishes us, -- to fall prostrate before the Great Man, into deliquium of love and wonder over him,
and feel in their hearts that he was a denizen of the skies, a god!"
--Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship
and the Heroic in History (1840)
Things melt. The salad left too long in the refrigerator turns to green slime.
A vinyl phonograph disc left in the sun warps disastrously. A plastic carafe
left too close to the stove burner assumes a comical shape. All these things
have happened to me, sad to say. But the worst was during my childhood, when my
parents gave me a chocolate bunny one hot Easter morning. While we attended
some religious rite, we left the confection in the car. When we returned, all
that was left of my sacchariferous hare was a pool of chocolate milk. And yes,
that put me in a deliquium. (TWITO, page 40)
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SACCADE (noun) [sa-KAHD]
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NEPHELOCOCCYGIA (noun) [nef-el-o-kok-sij’-ia]
Cloud gazing; the act of looking for and finding
shapes in clouds; also, when capitalized, the name of "Cloud-Cuckoo-Land" in
Aristophanes’ The Birds
"Terrence spent Saturday prostrate in the yard and in nephelococcygia,
finding inspiration in the thunderheads."
I remember seeing a lot of things in clouds as a kid:
faces, cities, fabulous beasts. I can’t do that anymore, which is sad. Now I
just see water vapor, though I still can’t quite believe, sometimes, that I
couldn’t sit on one of those diaphanous thrones if I could just get up there. (TWITO, page 95)
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