English is a wonderful language with some of the strangest pronunciation rules and words that come from many other languages. This is a list of 20 weird English words.
1. Erinaceous
Like a hedgehog
2. Lamprophony
Loudness and clarity of voice
3. Depone
To testify under oath
4. Finnimbrun
A trinket or knick-knack
5. floccinaucinihilipilification
Estimation that something is valueless.
Proper pronunciation based on Latin roots: flockə-nowsə-nəkələ-pələ-fək-ation.
6. Inaniloquent
Pertaining to idle talk
7. Limerance
An attempt at a scientific study into the nature of romantic love.
8. Mesonoxian
Pertaining to midnight
9. Mungo
A dumpster diver – one who extracts valuable things from trash
10. Nihilarian
A person who deals with things lacking importance (pronounce the ‘h’ like a ‘k’).
11. Nudiustertian
The day before yesterday
12. Phenakism
Deception or trickery
13. Pronk
A weak or foolish person
14. Pulveratricious
Covered with dust
15. Rastaquouere
A social climber
16. Scopperloit
Rude or rough play
17. Selcouth
Unfamiliar, rare, strange, marvelous, wonderful. For example: The List Universe is such a selcouth website!
18. Tyrotoxism
To be poisoned by cheese
19. Widdiful
Someone who deserves to be hanged
20. Zabernism
The abuse of military power or authority. I wonder how long it will take for this one to show up in the comments.
Comments
Dear Frank DiSalle,
I wonder how many people would use these words in their writings and daily conversation even if they know their meanings. This is because, to put it simply, their readers or listeners may not understand the words.
Besides the difficulty in remembering the meanings of those words, one will also find himself clueless about their pronunciations. I checked with a few online dictionaries and found the pronunciation of only three* words from your list. However, I’ve transcribed the pronunciation of the balance seventeen words into phonetic symbols based on the pattern of some other words. I would appreciate it if you check whether that’s how these words are pronounced. For your info, I'm a phonetics enthusiast! Thank you in advance.
Best regards,
~* GS *~
OR
Look in here :: http://www.drbilllong.com/Words/Words.html
look them up this way define widdiful
THEN
look them up this way widdiful +etymology
See what you get !
I also haven't ever come across any of these words except the parts of couple of compound words mentioned above. Many of them seem to be loanwords of Latin origin...
The words listed above sound really weird to me. I've had never heard of any of them before and I don't think I'd be able to remember them. Some of them are bit easier, for example: Lamprophony, Mungo, Pronk, and Widdiful. Others are virtually impossible to remember.
I've 2 questions to ask;
1. How often native speakers use these words in their conversations? Or do they use them at all?
2. When I was typing some of the words here in my comment, a read line appeared under them, as it usually appears under misspelled words. Why is it so?