Wonderful Words: Use Them or Lose Them

Gobbledygook – Speaking or writing indecipherable nonsense, as in “I can’t understand this, it is just gobbledygook!”

Herculean – A huge, nearly unmanageable task to accomplish, as in “Getting those children out of bed and into school on time is a herculean task – but I did it!”

Ingratiate – To try to get into somebody’s good books by sycophantic behavior, as in “She tried everything to ingratiate herself with the boss, and I mean EVERYTHING!”

Jackanapes – A clownish person, up for a laugh or fun, full of trickery, as in “He was so entertaining, a real jackanapes, what a party – he is rather naughty as well.”

Killjoy – A miserable individual, pain in the ass, as in “Everything was buzzing till that killjoy arrived and brought us all down.”

Loggerheads – In dispute, as in “The heat of this argument left them at loggerheads, with no chance of agreement or positive outcome.”

Mollycoddled – Overly protected, preventing personal growth and mature development, as in “That poor child is so mollycoddled, he will never be able to face the realities of life.”

Numskull – Someone who lacks intellectual ability, as in “He has missed the point again, he is a real numskull!”

Optimistic – Something not many people are these days, it means to look on the bright side of life, as per Monty Python, as in “Let’s take an optimistic view of the credit crunch, it won’t last forever.”

Parsimonious - Extremely careful with all possessions, especially money, as in “Parsimonious doesn’t begin to describe her meanness, skinflint is better.”

Querulous - A whingey, whiny, moaney way to be in life, as in “What is wrong with you now, why are you so querulous?”

Rambunctious - Being rowdy, fun-loving and sometimes a bit rough, as in “Things got a little out of hand, after folks got so rambunctious, and a few injuries were sustained.  Oops!”

Serendipity  – A lovely, unexpected event that lifts the spirits and alters perceptions positively, as in “Meeting that old friend today by accident was just serendipity, it opened some doors for me.”

Taciturn – Describes a person of few words, as in “He’s so taciturn that communication with him is like getting blood out of a stone.”

Upstart – A  person who, though rich and successful, has neither dignity or style, as in “She may be famous and wealthy, but she has no manners and is really an upstart.”

Vicissitude – A change of circumstances or luck, usually for the worse, as in “Here we go again, the vicissitudes of my life put me in a downward spiral.”

Wishy-washy – Something or someone feeble, lacking in strength of definition, as in “That argument is just too wishy-washy, it will not hold up, your points are not strong enough.”

Xenophobia – A rather morbid fear of anyone or anything foreign, as in “It might be said that xenophobia is one of the motives for starting wars.”

Yearning – A great longing for something, usually tinged with sadness, as in “When I think of those wonderful childhood days, I have a great yearning to be young again.”

Zillion – (I struggled with this one, folks).  It is an indefinite large number, over a million, as in “Look at my face, I’ve got zillions of zits!”

Most of these definitions and examples of their use are my own inventions, so I would advise the use of a good dictionary to find complete and less eccentric meanings.  If that is the result of this little exercise, then hurrah, I will have met my objective of bringing back interest to those great old words of the English language.