the joy of words

I have been told once or twice that I have an interesting vocabulary. Take note that I am careful to emphasize the word "interesting," because "good" and "large" are not appropriate descriptors of my wordbank.

When push comes to shove, I'll admit that I can eke out a paper that sounds semi-educated. But I'm not particularly interested in eloquent or rhetorical vocabularies and writing styles. My true love lies in extremely weird and obscure words. I especially enjoy using them in non-traditional (i.e., incorrect) contexts.

Below, please find a list of a few of my favorites.

A prime example is the word careen. Technically, it means to move carelessly, or to swerve or lurch while in motion. I, however, prefer to use to term in reference to my every day travels. Example: "I must now careen to class." "Shall we careen to the grocery store for some eggs?"

Another word I enjoy is dogtrot, which means 'to go or move at a gentle trot, like that of a dog' sayeth my good friend dictionary.com. I am certain I never move gracefully enough to describe my gait as 'gentle,' but the word is irresistible to me. I use it similarly to careen, as a verb for any sort of movement in which one might partake. Examples: "Dan, why don't you dogtrot to the cabinet and retrieve my favorite pink coozie?" or "I better dogtrot on over to the library before class."

One of my most obscure favorite words is sounder. Technically, a sounder is a herd of wild pigs. In practice, it is what my boyfriend and I refer to ourselves as singularly and collectively. I'm yet to find anyone who's ever heard the word, but we discovered it one joyous day last spring at the North Carolina Zoological Park, and it shall remain in our vocabularies forever.

Tomfoolery is a long time favorite of mine that I stole from some of the (usually drunk and) beloved cooks at Lone Star Steakhouse and Saloon many moons ago. It means foolishness or silly behavior. I tend to use this word in its correct context, as I often seem to be involved in various forms of tomfoolery, and the opportunity therefore regularly presents itself. Tomfoolery gets extra points for its fabulous synonyms monkeyshines and tomfoolishness.

While its difficult to misconstrue its definition, snout is an outstanding noun. It's just so much funnier to refer to people's noses as snouts in every day conversation. The same is true for commonly referring to people's butts as rumps.

There are also a few words in my vocabulary that are not words at all. Nor are they common slang. They are mostly words I stole from my father, who is the source of all that is weird about me.

One of these words is wobbule, which is any sort of feline, ranging from housecat to leopard. I'm not really sure how this happened, but human children may also be referred to as wobbules.

The antonym of wobbules is weenles, which refers to any creature of the canine variety. Similar to "wobbule," I have also heard kids referred to as "weenles." I have also heard my boyfriend refer to himself as a "weenle."

I have found that "wobbule" and "weenle" are big hits with lovers of words once discovered. So feel free to use them. It'll make me feel original, even if I did steal them from my pappy.

I'd say that's a good starter list, although I assure you there is plenty more where that came from. I've found that life is much more interesting when rejecting common words and replacing them with things such as these.

I beg of you: Please share with me any obscure words that are integral to your vocabulary. You will absolutely make my day. :]