Brabbling Over A Whisternefet: Weird Words and Their Meanings

Brabbling Over A Whisternefet: Weird Words and Their Meanings

When at a loss for words, most of us reach for the dictionary to find the appropriate sentiment. However, thousands of words are omitted from stand-bys like the Oxford English Dictionary every year to make way for new additions. For every weird word like “woot” or “jeggings” that was added to the OED in 2011, little-used words like “growlery” and “brabble” were given the old heave-ho. And yet, for all the weird words annually added to dictionaries, there are still gaps in the English language where there isn’t the word to describe those just-so situations.

However, just because words are not included in dictionaries does not mean they don’t exist. Adopting a discarded word into your every-day vernacular can save the word from total obliteration, and looking to other languages offers the discerning writer  a wealth of options that accurately convey specific people, experiences or eyebrows (Albanian dialects reportedly contain nearly thirty variations on the eyebrow theme). There are dozens of societies and books dedicated to these very purposes, from the OED’s own online “Save the Words” campaign to the recently published “I Never Knew There Was a Word for It” by wordmeister Adam Jacot de Boinod.

Adopting an undervalued word adds a certain flair and color to tales of your everyday life. There truly is a word for everything; for starters, who hasn’t tolerated an evening with a shot-clog, which is Yorkshire slang for a person who you only hang around because they always foot the bar tab? And while out for the evening, did you run into your old college biology lab partner and completely blank on his name when introducing him to your friends and shot-clog? The Scottish would say you “tartled”; yes, that moment of hesitation you experience when introducing an acquaintance whose name escapes you has a word for it, and the word is “tartle.”

After leaving the bar with your shot-clog in tow, you may discover that those beers have left you hungry, so you’ll head to an all-night diner for a meal that is positively jentacular. Nope, it doesn’t mean it served by a waitress named Jen who is spectacular at her job; “jentacular” is an English word that indciates a meal is related or close to breakfast. And if, while walking home, the shot-clog (will we ever get rid of him?) attempts to steal a kiss, dispatch him with a whisternefet (English for a crisp, brisk slap) and continue home on your own, passing through a park whose boscaresque (picturesquely wooded) charms you admire.

Will the world at large understand if you tell them a tale of tartles and whisternefets? Probably not, but it’s far more interesting than saying you drank free booze with some jerk, couldn’t remember a guy’s name, ate scrambled eggs at 3:00 A.M., slapped the jerk and took a short-cut home through a park with a lot of trees.

And should you find yourself confronted by a speaker who has adopted obscure words whose definition you cannot guess, don’t brabble (argue over something insignificant); just head to your growlery (a spot where you hide when in a bad temper) until your irritation passes.

How about it, Studio 602 readers? Do you have a favorite obscure word that you’ve attempted to work into your daily conversation? Care to adopt a new word and introduce us to it? Share away in the comments below!

Photo Credit: “Spell Check”/Stock.Xchng