I love words, I find them to be fantastic ways of understanding culture and history, but it's also just fun to discover esoterica. For example; did you know that Catholic originally meant 'liberal' or 'Universal'?[^1] Or that man is simply a root of person and that in Old English one was either a waepmann (male) or weifmann (female)?[^2] The origin is associated with a Sanskrit word of Manu which is also associated with the Indo-European word Mind.

Some other fun and obscure words are :

Cacophemism ~The substitution of a mild expression with a harsher one; opposite of "euphemism"

~also a Cacophonophilist is a person who loves harsh sounds. A Maledicent is given to evil speaking. Of an utterance: slanderous.

Colposinquanonia ~ The assessment of a woman's attractiveness based on her bust.

Dactylonomy ~ Calculating mathematical values using one's fingers.

Dystmesis ~ inserting a word in the middle of another in an unlikely or unexpected place; a form of tmesis. "Unbe-freaking- lievable."

Enclitic ~ A word or syllable which is joined with the preceding word in such a way as to lose its own independent accent. "Prithee," which is a shortening of "pray thee," and "em" in, "Get'em!".

Floccinaucinihilipilification ~ The categorization of something that is useless or trivial.

Gesticulation ~ To indicate or express with gestures.

Gargalesthesia ~ The perception or judgment of tickling.

Glossolalia ~ Fabricated, non-meaningful speech, especially such speech associated with a trance state or some schizophrenic syndromes.

Hamartiology ~ The doctrine of sin; that part of theology which treats sin.

Homophone ~ A word which has the same pronunciation as another but different meaning, derivation, or spelling. differs from homonym

Lethologica ~ The inability to remember a particular word; as it might be on the tip of one's proverbial tongue.

Malapropism ~ The ludicrous misuse of a word or words, especially in mistaking a word for another resembling it.

Misandry ~ Hatred of males.

Mondegreen ~ A misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing, especially of the lyrics to a song. The origin is from the ballad of the 'Bonny Earl of Murray' in which the phrase 'Laid him on the green' is warped into Lady Mondegreen.

Mumpsimus ~ A person who obstinately adheres to old ways in spite of clear evidence that they are wrong; an ignorant and bigoted opponent of reform.

Quidnunc ~ An inquisitive person; a gossip; a newsmonger.

Parrhesia ~ Frankness or freedom of speech.

Perpilocutionist ~ One who expounds on a subject of which he has little knowledge.

I'm sure this page will be updated. Check back and I'll ad more words.



[^1]Oxford English Dict (online)

3. In current use: a. Of universal human interest or use; touching the needs, interests, or sympathies of all men.
a1631 DONNE Serm. lxvi. (1640) So are there some..Catholique, universal Psalmes, that apply themselves to all necessities. 1704 SWIFT Mech. Operat. Spirit (1711) 279 All my Writings..for universal Nature, and Mankind in general. And of such Catholick Use I esteem this present Disquisition. 1838-9 HALLAM Hist. Lit. III. v. §4 Catholic poetry, by which I mean that which is good in all ages and countries. 1844 EMERSON Lect. New Eng. Ref. Wks. (Bohn) I. 264 A grand phalanx of the best of the human race, banded for some catholic object. 1867 FROUDE Short Stud. 363 What was of catholic rather than national interest.

b. Having sympathies with, or embracing, all: said of men, their feelings, tastes, etc.; also fig. of things. (Closely connected with 8.)
1586 BRIGHT Melanch. iv. 16 The stomach becommeth the most Catholicke part in all the bodie, carying a more indifferent affection to what soever is receiued then anie part beside. 1817 COLERIDGE Biog. Lit. I. iv. 73 Others more catholic in their taste. 1620 J. PARKINSON Paradisus xxvi. 215 Such as are Catholicke obseruers of all natures store. 1833 LAMB Elia, Books & Read., I bless my stars for a taste so catholic, so unexcluding. 1851 CARLYLE Sterling I. iv. (1872) 31 Of these two Universities, Cambridge is decidedly the more catholic (not Roman catholic, but Human catholic). 1878 STEVENSON Inland Voy., On these different manifestations, the sun poured its clear and catholic looks. 1879 TOURGEE Fool's Err. xxxviii. 271 A man of unusually broad and catholic feeling.

[^2]Oxford English Dict (online)

In Old English the words distinctive of sex were wer WERE n.1 and w f WIFE n., w pmann WAPMAN n. and w fmann WOMAN n.; both the masculine terms became obs. by the end of the 13th cent., leaving English with no means of distinguishing the two major senses. The genderless uses of man to mean ‘human being’ or ‘person’ are now often objected to on the grounds that they depreciate women, and are freq. replaced by human, human being, or person.