I like big words. I like weird words. I like the way some words sound coming out of my mouth (ululate, lullaby, cacophony, voracious, cornucopia, rampage, and others...) and I also keep a mental list of "ugly words" that I just can't stand the sound of (plethora, infatuated, creme brule, horn, pith, yak, and scope to name a few...)
I also like to make up words and use them in real life and convince other people that they are real words too. Words that no other people use are entirely normal to me.
When I open up the Internet I am greeted with the "Word of the Day" from Dictionary.com and today's particularly caught my eye. 'Tis a beasty.
gallimaufry \gal-uh-MAW-free\ , noun;
1. A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.
[Origin: Gallimaufry, originally meaning "a hash of various kinds of meats," comes from French galimafrée, from Old French, from galer, "to rejoice, to make merry" (source of English gala) + mafrer, "to eat much," from Medieval Dutch maffelen, "to open one's mouth wide.]
I am so going to use this one. Be on the look out for this word in the next conversation that you have with me. I will work it in there somehow.
2 comments:
I can barely spell it.
I actually have seen this word used, and when I shared the article with a literate friend of mine, I remember he was annoyed by this very word:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n21/pankaj-mishra/watch-this-man
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