Great Big Beautiful List of Useless Words
What could be better?
Welcome to “Off the Clock,” a little something that lands somewhere between Timeless & Timely.
I send out this fun look at language and words every other Saturday as bonus content. If someone sent this to you, please consider subscribing.
In a week when the adjectives Big and Beautiful are capitalized, it’s worth spending some time on some Big Beautiful words.
But not just any old words. These may be longer words, but they are words that no longer have practical use.
Sure, you can make sense out of them from an etymological perspective if you take the time to parse them. But will they come up in conversation? Highly unlikely.
Related:
These were culled from a longer list by Merriam-Webster, the resource for all mainstream and obscure facts about words.
Off the Clock is a paid subscriber feature. If you’re a word nerd and you think you’d enjoy this, here’s an incentive:
Cacography
Definition: bad handwriting
Just as cacophony is a harshness in sound, cacography applies to writing.
Solivagant
Definition: rambling alone; solitary wandering
It’s dangerously close to solitary vagrant, but we’ll let it slide.
Flingee
Definition: one at whom anything is flung
Makes perfect sense, if one is the object of a flinger.
Scripturient
Definition: having a strong urge to write
Thanks to supporters like you, I have an incentive for my scripturience.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Timeless & Timely to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.