STERNUTATION? Gesundheit!

What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's.... 

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)

Feeling OIKOFUGIC now that you're vaccinated?

What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's.... 

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)

How many times could you have said "What an IMBROGLIO" lately?

What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's....

IMBROGLIO [im-BRO-lee-o] (noun)

A confusing, complex, or embarrassing situation, a painful misunderstanding, or a scandal

"Mr. Ervin Wardman, in the Broadway Magazine for April, exhaustively reviews the McClellan-Hearst-Murphy imbroglio, and concludes that Mr. Hearst’s real ambition, the goal of his desire, is the White House."
--Albert Shaw, The American Monthly Review of Reviews (January–June 1907)

Are you dreaming of a CLINQUANT Christmas?

What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's....

CLINQUANT [KLING-kunt] (adjective)

Glittering, but in a false or cheap way, like tinsel

"No, there are too many of these fine sparks you talk of who perhaps may be very clinquant, slight, and bright and make a very pretty show at first, but the tinsel-gentlemen do so tarnish in the wearing, there’s no enduring them."
--Thomas Shadwell, The Virtuoso (1676)

I once had a cat that liked to eat the tinsel (of the “icicle” type) off the Christmas tree. Maybe he had an iron deficiency. Anyway, he always threw it up later, in a clinquant hairball, which was both pretty from a distance and disgusting close up--like many things. (TWITO, page 32)