Words

It may appear agrestic to ask, but The Times is calling on its readers to come to the rescue of words that risk fading into caliginosity.

Dictionary compilers at Collins have decided that the word list for the forthcoming edition of its largest volume is embrangled with words so obscure that they are linguistic recrement. Such words, they say, must be exuviated abstergently to make room for modern additions that will act as a roborant for the book.

I guess Orwell and Wittgenstein will have to be tossed.

Via: Futerismic

Bloviation et al.

Every so often I find a small batch of words, usually obscure, that I like for one reason or another. Usually they contain an idea that is little remarked upon or requires a paragraph of less specific words to define. Sometimes words get the nod just because they sound so good. (i.e. cacafuego)

Bloviation: Orate, stem-winder, talk pompously. Most often used in reference to politicians for some reason.

Pejoration: A semantic shift which results in a less favorable connotation. For example, the work villain originally meant farm laborer. At one point, liberal meant someone who was attached to or approved of liberty. Currently, the word empathy is undergoing this process.

Parnel: A priest's mistress. It's odd that there should be an old word for something that doesn't exist.

Herrenvolk Democracy: One set of rules and principals for the occupier, another for the occupied.

Theseus's Paradox: A paradox that raises the question of whether an object which has had all its component parts replaced remains fundamentally the same object. The paradox refers to the Ship of Theseus, but can be taken to include our self-identity as our body rebuilds over time and our mind changes and grows.