Nice day for some NEPHELOCOCCYGIA?

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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)

Are you a sun worshiper or are you UMBRIPHILOUS?

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UMBRIPHILOUS [UM-bruh-FILE-us] (adjective)

Fond of shade

"Being umbriphilous, he may frequently be seen siting on the trunks of trees, or on the shady side of houses, etc., as he rests during the day, and flies only after dusk, often being attracted by light." --Clarence M. Weed, "Two Shade Tree Pests" (1895) (slightly edited)

Summer is coming. Don't forget this word in the hot sun.

Is it real or HYPNOPOMPIC?

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HYPNOPOMPIC [hip-noh-POMP-ic] (adjective)

Associated with the period between sleep and wakefulness

"....knowledge of Mrs. Finch's balloon ascent had been acquired supernormally by Mrs. Thompson… and had lain dormant in her subconsciousness until awakened by a natural association of ideas set in motion on her reading about the accident to the airship, and not even then emerging into her full consciousness, but emerging only in a hypnopompic dream."
--J. G. Piddington, "Phenomena in Mrs. Thompson's Trance," Proceedings of the Society of Psychical Research (1904)

This word brings to mind the hypnopompic period I experience most mornings between tumbling out of bed and gulping down my first cup of coffee. While I'm staggering around like Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, I'm often brooding over some bizarre or disturbing event--until I realize that "oh...that was just a dream." (TWITO, page 69)

Somebody please invent a CURWHIBBLE to zap viruses

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CURWHIBBLE [KUR-wib-ul] (noun) 

A thingamajig or whatchmacallit

"Many thanks to your honor. What pretty curwhibbles and etceteras! I'll hang 'em to my watch to give it a travelled air."
--Anonymous, "A Captivity among the Rockites," in The Metropolitan (1831) (TWITO, page 37)

Let's EXFLUNCTIFY this virus, shall we?

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EXFLUNCTIFY [eks-FLUNK-ti-fy] (verb)

To destroy completely

"Interrupted again! my blood boiled, and I resolved that I would do my best to 'exflunctify' the animal at once."
--"Extract from the Journal of an Odd Fellow," in The Parterre (1834) (TWITO, page 50)

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

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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)

Do you miss the CANOROUS sounds of a live concert?

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CANOROUS [can-OR-uss] (adjective)

Melodious; musical

"The dull life at Oxford was varied by the occasional visit of a mesmeric lecturer; and one youth caused peals of canorous laughter by walking round in a pretended mesmeric sleep and kissing the pretty daughters of the dons."
--Thomas Wright, The Life of Sir Richard Burton (1906)