Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 3

Definition:
erroneous observation or interpretation

Degree of Usefulness:
Nobody would ever make a mistake on the internet. Especially not concerning facts and figures. Nope.

An Example:
If the facts and arguments set forth in the foregoing pages are soundly based and sound in themselves, they go a long way to show that malobservation and misinterpretation of nature have been the unsound foundations of theories of the supernatural.
— Sunday Review (London, Eng.), 31 Jul. 1886

Definition:
a state of feeling that accompanies preoccupation with trivial and insipid diversions

Degree of Usefulness:
Look where you are. Look what you're reading.

Some Trivia:
This word appears to have been the creation of Thomas Gray, the 18th century poet and scholar. It first appears in a letter written by him in 1742, and is rarely after used except for in reference to Gray (“Mine, you are to know, is a white Melancholy, or rather Leucocholy for the most part; which, though it seldom laughs or dances, nor ever amounts to what one calls Joy or Pleasure, yet is a good easy sort of a state and ca ne laisse que de s’amuser.”)

Definition:
the state of being warmed

Degree of Usefulness:
Winter is coming. Your feet would like you to learn this word.

Some Trivia:
Calefaction, which comes from the latin calefacĕre ("to warm"), can also be used to mean "warming."

Definition:
having or showing a disinclination for social activity: unsociable

Degree of Usefulness:
You don't have to be Mr. Darcy to find something valuable in this one.

Some Trivia:
This word does not, to the best of our knowledge, have the literal secondary meaning of "incapable of being hit with a club."

Definition:
“wearied with complaining”
(Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed.)

Degree of Usefulness:
Oof. Yup.

Some Trivia:
The adventurous and intrepid among us can be wayworn (“wearied by traveling”), but for those of us who prefer to sit on the couch and kvetch a word such as forplaint is perhaps more apt.

Definition:
“To cry like a rat”
(Henry Cockeram, English Dictionarie, 1623)

Degree of Usefulness:
There has to be someone out there writing a mob movie script, right?

Some Trivia:
Cockeram was very fond of odd words, including many which may or may not have been in actual use at the time he compiled his dictionary. In addition to this word for 'crying like a rat' he entered bubulcitate (to cry like a cow boy"), ensuring that crying words were well-represented in his book.

Definition:
a defect of character : error, guilt, or sin especially of the tragic hero in a literary work

Degree of Usefulness:
There has to be someone out there writing about a mob movie, right?

Some Trivia:
Harmartia arose from the Greek verb hamartanein, meaning "to miss the mark" or "to err." Aristotle introduced the term in the Poetics to describe the error of judgment which ultimately brings about the tragic hero's downfall.

Definition:
a 125th anniversary

Degree of Usefulness:
You know how you're always getting invited to 125th anniversary parties?

Some Trivia:
Here is a short list of some other little-known anniversaries you might like to remember:

• · triennial (3 years)
• · quadrennial (4)
• · decennial (10)
• · vigentennial (20)
• · quinquagenary (50)
• · sesquicentennial (150)
• · tercentenary (300)
• · quadricentennial (400)
• · quincentenary (500)
• · sexcentenary (600)
• · septicentennial (700)
• · bimillenary (2,000)

Definition:
biting or sharp in manner or style

Degree of Usefulness:
You would think it's useful, wouldn't you. (But for real, though, it has potential.)

Some Trivia:
Mordacious can be traced to the Latin word mordēre (“to bite”), a root it shares with numerous other words in English, including remorse (“a gnawing distress arising from a sense of guilt for past wrongs”), morpion (“crab louse”), and morsel (“a small piece or quantity of food”).

Definition:
tendency to make insurrection

Degree of Usefulness:
Our Words of the Year 2021, for reference.

Some Trivia:
Take care to not confuse insurgescence with insurgence, which is defined as "an insurrection; an act or the action of being insurgent."

Definition:
frightful, loathsome

Degree of Usefulness:
Who doesn't love Halloween? Or occasionally need to describe something loathsome?

Some Trivia:
Please take care to not confuse ugsome with ugglesome, which is a totally different word (it means "horrible").

An Example:
Three years ago I was critical of the show's uneasy switches between ugsome and winsome, but either my tastes have changed or Kathi Leahy's direction cleverly holds these extremes in balance.
— Jeremy Kingston, The Times (London, Eng.), 9 Jan. 2004

Definition:
a credulous person; especially, one who believes everything he or she hears

Degree of Usefulness:
Too easy. Pass.

Some Trivia:
This word's etymology is particularly tasty: it comes from the French words gober ("to gulp down, swallow") and mouche ("fly").

Definition:
to make supremely happy, transport with delight or joy

Degree of Usefulness:
We certainly hope you have occasion to use it.

An Example:
So this imparadised neighbourhood made Zelmanes soule cleave unto her, both thorow the ivory case of her body, and the apparell which did over-clowd it.
— Philip Sidney, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia, 1590

Definition:
things that impede or hinder progress or movement

Degree of Usefulness:
It's all about framing: maybe, instead of "procrastinating," you've been "dealing with impedimenta." Sounds classy, actually.

Some Trivia:
The word impedimenta is most often used in reference to things such as baggage, equipment, or supplies. This does not mean, however, that you cannot use it to describe the various things and people in your life that have been hindering your progress.

Definition:
“Mingling mirth and seriousness”
(Webster’s New International Dictionary, 2nd Ed., 1934)

Degree of Usefulness:
By the time you explain its meaning, the tone of the conversation will have shifted from mirth to seriousness.

Some Trivia:
This word was formed by attaching the combining form joco (which comes from the Latin word jocus, meaning "joke") with _serious. Jocus also serves as the root of words such as juggle, jocular, and jeopardy.

Definition:
a person of no outstanding distinction

Degree of Usefulness:
Okay, this is a good one.

An Example:
Warburton draws a very just distinction between a man of true greatness and a mediocrist.—“If (says he) you want to recommend yourself to the former, take care that he quits your society with a good opinion of you; if your object is to please the latter, take care that he leaves you with a good opinion of himself.”
— The Morning Post (London, Eng.), 2 Jan. 1823

Definition:
“Having the same opinion”
(Webster’s New International Dictionary, 2nd Ed., 1934)

Degree of Usefulness:
We're still waiting on the survey results to see what everyone thinks.

Some Trivia:
Homodox is less common than heterodox, a word defined either as “contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion” or “holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines.”

Definition:
one given to dispute over or about words

Degree of Usefulness:
We all know this kind of person ... and, to be honest, if you're reading this article there's a better-than-average chance that this word applies to you. If so it's nice to be able to self-describe as a logomachist, as opposed to grouchy-word-grouch.

Definition:
one who raises poultry or rabbits on a small lot, usually a back lot

Degree of Usefulness:
It depends. Are we getting free eggs out of the deal, or what?

An Example:
A backlotter in Oak Park, Edgewater, Rogers Park, Evanston, Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, or any of our beautiful suburbs, raises a crop of which he is justifiably proud, and nobody knows about it save his wife and children and his immediate friends.
— The Inter Ocean (Chicago, IL), 7 Oct. 1907

Definition:
gloomy, lowering

Degree of Usefulness:
A word. A mood. A way of life?

An Example:
Call upon him not only in adversity, when the sky overhead is dark and lowery, but in prosperity, when all above and beneath thee is bright and smiling with glad faces, and he will teach thee to be humble and whom to adore.
— J. S. Kibbe, Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate, Utica, NY), 11 Jul. 1845

Definition:
the action or art of swimming

Degree of Usefulness:
Kinda makes it sound like you're swimming in a really fancy pool.

Some Trivia:
The Latin word natare, meaning “to swim,” serves as the root of natation, and a number of other words in English that are related. Also found in this company are _natant (“swimming or floating in water”), natator (“swimmer”), natatorial (“of or relating to swimming”), and natatorium (“an indoor swimming pool”).

Definition:
misbehavior and especially corruption in an office, trust, or commission

Degree of Usefulness:
Maybe you can find an example if you try really hard.

Some Trivia:
Malversation can also be defined as “corrupt administration.” In the event that you need the word meaning “to be guilty of malversation,” you should use malverse.

Definition:
the condition of being inherent in something

Degree of Usefulness:
Inherently not that useful.

An Example:
The latter of these, which is the righteousnes of the spirit, is possessed of vs by loue, & made our owne by inhesion.
— Richard Webb, The lot or portion of the righteous; A comfortable sermon, 1616

Definition:
relating to or occurring in the summer and autumn

Degree of Usefulness:
This word is chiefly used in describing a form of malaria, but if you want to appropriate it to describe your vacation plans there is no official commission that can stop you from doing so.

Definition:
one who steals cattle

Degree of Usefulness:
Unless there are more rustlers in our audience than we thought, this word is unlikely to become all that necessary.

Some Trivia:
Abactor differs slightly from blotter, as the former simply applies to anyone who steals cattle, while the latter is defined specifically as "a thief who steals cattle and alters their brands to conceal the fact that they were stolen."

Definition:
"Worse than one’s father"
(Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd Edition)

Degree of Usefulness:
The fact that this word has been quite obsolete for hundreds of years now does not mean that it is not appropriate to be used by you, dear reader. We'll leave it up to you to decide how "worse" may be applied here.

Definition:
Irritated beyond self possession
(Webster’s New International Dictionary, 2nd Ed., 1934)

Degree of Usefulness:
If you've time spent on Twitter, you already know the answer.

Some Trivia:
Little used in modern English, emporte comes directly from French, in which it has the meaning of "carried away."

Definition:
to feel or show antipathy

Degree of Usefulness:
Nothing says "ugh" like a four-syllable word.

Some Trivia:
In addition to antipathize our language contains such useful words as antipathy (“a strong feeling of dislike”), antipathist (”one who has an antipathy"), and antipathetic (“arousing antipathy”).

Definition:
To look on silently—like a dog—at people while they are eating, hoping to be asked to eat a bit
(P. W. Joyce, English as We Speak it in Ireland, 1910)

Degree of Usefulness:
Chances are, your dog is doing this right now.

Some Trivia:
This word is also defined in more Dickensian fashion, as a noun, by Joseph Wright in his English Dialect Dictionary: "a child who waits around at meal-times in the expectation of getting something to eat."

Definition:
"To speak through the teeth"
(Henry Cockeram, English Dictionarie, 1623)

Degree of Usefulness:
This is an opportune time to sit back and ask yourself, Is my jaw clenched right now?

An Example:
Those I meane which are not Neutralizers (if any such heare mee this day) Neutralizers, I say, or Interim-ists; such as dare secretly mutter and mussitate.
— Richard Sheldon, A sermon preached at Paules Crosse laying open the Beast, and his marks, 1625

Definition:
a stretching and stiffening especially of the trunk and extremities (as when fatigued and drowsy or after waking from sleep)

Degree of Usefulness:
Is it naptime yet?

Some Trivia:
Pandiculation shares a root with expand: both come from the Latin pandere, meaning “to spread, unfold.” Pandere is also thought to be the source of the charming word pandy, “to punish (a schoolboy) with a blow on the palm of the hand especially with a ferule.”

Definition:
The condition of having said enough
(Webster’s New International Dictionary, 2nd Ed., 1934)

Degree of Usefulness:
We all know someone who could stand to learn this one....

An Example:
To the Imposers of the Engagement, whom they exhort to stop their course and descend to reason it out with them, as if the supreme Authority of the Nation had nothing to do; but to argue with a Company of jugling Sophisters, who must have satisdiction not satisfaction, and whom non persuaseris etsi millies persuaseris.
— Ephraim Elcock, Animadversions on a book called, A plea for non-scribers, 1651

Definition:
one who practices or defends corruption especially in politics

Degree of Usefulness:
Hm.

An Example:
These are the men, these are the main supporters of the Ministry, and the polluters of society, against whom the resentment of elections should be manifested, even more so than against the prominent corruptionists.
— The Examiner (London, Eng.), 8 Jul. 1810

Definition:
promoting the healing of a wound or the formation of a cicatrix

Degree of Usefulness:
A cicatrix is "a scar resulting from formation and contraction of fibrous tissue in a wound," and cicatricial is "of or relating to a cicatrix." So: useful, if you're willing to follow it up with all that every time.

Definition:
“Long and tedious talke”
(John Bullokar, An English Expositor, 1616)

Degree of Usefulness:
Ten out of ten (minutes too long).

An Example:
Christ doth not condemne Macrologie or long prayers; which I also note as a caution by the way against profane spirited men, who are ready to catch at the shado'ws of advantage which such like places seem to give them, and turn the sharpedge of such Texts against all such who having their hearts full of matter, and their spirits inflamed doe continue long in prayer.
— Samuel Torshell, The hypocrite discovered and cured, 1644

Definition:
public attention or acclaim not necessarily based on or proportionate to real value or achievement

Degree of Usefulness:
At last, a fancy French way of describing social media.

Some Trivia:
Réclame comes from French, in which it means “advertising, publicity.” The word may also carry such meanings as “a gift for dramatization or publicity” or “public acclaim.”

Definition:
the quality or state or doing or producing good

Degree of Usefulness:
A good one to keep in mind while writing those New Year's resolutions.

Some Trivia:
The Latin bene (“well”) serves as the root of the initial portion of many English words. In addition to beneficence, which is not terribly common, bene- begins such words as benefic (“doing or producing good”) and benefaction (“the act of benefiting).

Definition:
trial balloon; a project or scheme tentatively announced in order to test public opinion

Degree of Usefulness:
Its usefulness may depend on how much you want to explain the history of the word essay.

An Example:
The Constitutional contains a communication of a report circulating in well-informed circles that the Austrian note, containing a protest against the Erfurth parliament, has now really arrived; the despatch to Herr von Prokesch, then, was merely a ballon d’essai.
— Daily News (London, Eng.), 11 Dec. 1849

Definition:
lack of feeling or capacity for emotion

Degree of Usefulness:
Pretty high.

Some Trivia:
In addition to its emotional sense, callosity may refer to the state or quality of being callous, as in “marked or abnormal hardness and thickness.”

Definition:
Of teeth: set on edge; acutely irritated or discomforted (Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd Edition)

Degree of Usefulness:
Really high.

An Example:
It healeth the payn of the bladder. The same if it be chowed after the maner of meat helpeth the teth when as they ar an edged the heat of the stomack guttes and it stilleth the flowyng.
— William Turner, The first and seconde partes of the herbal, 1568  

Definition:
an act that purposely inconveniences or offends

Degree of Usefulness:
Useful to the highest possible degree.

Definition:
“To play the fox; to deceive with crafty wiles or deceits”
(Thomas Blount, Glossographia, 1656)

Degree of Usefulness:
A great word, if you can track it down.

Some Trivia:
A similar word is vulpeculated, an adjective defined by the OED as “robbed by a fox.”

Definition:
dangerous to society; pernicious

Degree of Usefulness:
Pestiferous may also mean “carrying or propagating infection,” “infected with a pestilential disease,” or simply “annoying.”

Definition:
“To flatter one for a meales meat”
(Henry Cockeram, The English Dictionaries, 1623)

Degree of Usefulness:
No one would be as good at using that word as you! You're the best word-user there is! (Is it working?)

Some Trivia:
Supperasitate differs from similar words such as sorn in that the former is defined as entailing flattery to get food, while the latter has the broader meaning of “to impose in order to obtain hospitality.” Supperasitate is also completely unused outside of dictionaries. And it’s longer than sorn.

Definition:
“Private opinion, a desire to be odde from other men”
(John Bullokar, An English Expositor, 1616)

Degree of Usefulness:
Might be a fun one to bring back?

Some Trivia:
We often think of the word odd, used by John Bullokar in his definition above, as meaning peculiar. While it certainly does carry this meaning, the word may also have other meanings, such as “excelling in a unique way.”

Definition:
“One who promises or distributes public offices and their emoluments as the reward of services to a party or its leaders.”
(Webster’s New International Dictionary, 2nd Ed., 1934)

Degree of Usefulness:
A solid political insult never goes out of style.

Some Trivia:
Monger can mean “broker, dealer” or “a person who attempts to stir up or spread something that is usually petty or discreditable” (in both cases it is usually used in combination). Other types of mongers you might come across include fishmongers and cheesemongers, or warmongers and carpetmongers.

Definition:
harboring a grudge; full of resentment

Degree of Usefulness:
Chances are very good that a specific person comes to mind for most of us as soon as we encounter this word. Some lexicographic advice: do not go find this person and tell the that you came across a word that describes them perfectly.

Definition:
Unpleasant in conversation
(Nathan Bailey, Dictionarium Britannicum, 1730)

Degree of Usefulness:
Harrumph.

Some Trivia:
Affable means “being pleasant and at ease in talking to others” or “characterized by ease and friendliness.” This word was formerly used especially in reference to someone who was at ease with people of equal or lower social standing; inaffable, on the other hand, seems to exist without any such reference to social standing.

Definition:
a wandering of the mind

Degree of Usefulness:
It's kinda the point of this whole list, isn't it?

Some Trivia:
Evagation may also refer to the act of wandering (or an instance of it), similar to vagation (“an act or instance of departing from an expected or regular course”).

Definition:
corrupt or guilty assent to wrongdoing that involves knowledge of and failure to prevent or oppose it but no actual participation in it 

Degree of Usefulness:
Connivance? More like convoluted. That said, useful in very specific instances.

Some Trivia:
Connivance and connive both come from the Latin connivēre, which means "to close the eyes.” The earliest sense of connive was “to pretend ignorance of or fail to take action against something one ought to oppose,” although the word now most often is used to mean “to conspire or intrigue.”