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1998

Jan 1998

  • Words from chess
  • Words about forts and castles
    • machicolation
    • postern
    • rampart
    • entresol
    • garderobe
    • groin
    • oratory

  • Words with numbers
  • Words about pregnancy
    • primipara
    • gravid
    • parity
    • couvade
    • natality
    • parturition
    • postpartum
Feb 1998
  • Words about body parts
    • glabella
    • lunula
    • uvula
    • frenum
    • axilla
    • canthus
    • gular

  • Words from Joseph Heller's "Catch-22"
    • motile
    • mellifluous
    • obstreperous
    • rubicund
    • expurgate
    • rancor
    • subcutaneous

  • Hair today, gone tomorrow
    • piliferous
    • pilgarlic
    • hispid
    • glabrous
    • hirsute
    • alopecia
    • chevelure

  • Poison words
    • mephitic
    • envenom
    • bane
    • cyanosis
    • toxicant
    • noxious
    • lavage
Mar 1998
  • Words from the 3rd vol. of OED Additions
    • affluential
    • mediocracy
    • luggable
    • ableism
    • animatronics
    • exfiltrate
    • maudit

  • Words from Faulkner's "Mule in the Yard"
    • suspiration
    • burlesque
    • celerity
    • apotheosis
    • hap
    • indomitable
    • bucolic

  • Words with weird pronunciations
    • chaos
    • oeuvre
    • segue
    • rendezvous
    • victual
    • contretemps
      Readers' comments:
      AWADmail 8

  • Words from Scott Joplin songs' titles
    • knurl
    • paragon
    • euphony
    • heliotrope
    • felicity
    • kismet
    • nonpareil
    • augustan
      Readers' comments:
      AWADmail 9

  • Short words
    • vim
    • fey
    • gest
    • kip
    • dun
    • purl
    • maw
      Readers' comments:
      AWADmail 10
Apr 1998
  • People and places that became words
    • dunce
    • baedeker
    • casanova
    • caucus
    • aceldama
    • babel
    • shillelagh

  • Words with interesting histories
    • prude
    • debunk
    • apartheid
    • cabal
    • dicker
    • midwife
    • maroon

  • Words with interesting histories
    • comstockery
    • seersucker
    • rankle
    • trump
    • fizzle
    • sleuth
    • vogue

  • Words about the quality of speech
    • jape
    • badinage
    • confabulate
    • snivel
    • importune
    • implore
    • bluster
May 1998
  • Words about symbols
    • caduceus
    • chevron
    • escutcheon
    • totem
    • ideogram
    • oriflamme
    • hieroglyphic

  • Words with interesting histories
    • earwig
    • chaperon
    • impeach
    • dirge
    • ennui
    • acrostic
    • exorcise

  • Words with interesting histories
    • kaput
    • embargo
    • lucre
    • superman
    • sarcophagus
    • iconoclast
    • typhoon

  • Words with interesting histories
    • ombudsman
    • diatribe
    • posthumous
    • mascot
    • bigot
    • goatee
    • chivalry
Jun 1998
  • Words from 1998 Spelling Bee
    • daedal
    • maieutic
    • sang-froid
    • seriatim
    • assonance
    • integument
    • codicil

  • Words with novel pluralizations
    • numen
    • opus
    • virtuoso
    • occiput
    • trousseau
    • chrysalis
    • stigma

  • Words with novel pluralizations
    • os
    • calcar
    • arcanum
    • gravamen
    • corpus
    • lemma
    • cherub

  • Words that make you say, "Eschew obfuscation"
    • splendiferous
    • philoprogenitive
    • comestible
    • pulchritude
    • apothegm
    • cerumen
    • pronunciamento

  • Words with interesting origins
    • bootleg
    • haywire
    • logrolling
    • southpaw
    • credenza
    • supercilious
    • red-letter
Jul 1998
  • Words from "The Figured Wheel" a collection of poetry by Robert Pinsky
    • marmoreal
    • ichor
    • brogan
    • mullion
    • mattock
    • mortmain
    • souk

  • Words to describe people
    • atrabilious
    • cockalorum
    • rock-ribbed
    • troglodyte
    • duplicitous
    • caitiff
    • ambidextrous

  • To need or not to need
    • desideratum
    • bounden
    • obviate
    • behoove
    • gratuitous
    • substantive
    • superfluous
Aug 1998
  • Words of all kinds
    • schadenfreude
    • ormolu
    • panspermia
    • labret
    • muliebrity
    • discombobulate
    • micturate

  • Words of all kinds
    • opuscule
    • phantasmagoria
    • coprolite
    • grig
    • fugacious
    • tyro
    • tocsin

  • People and places that became words
    • boycott
    • shangri-la
    • bluestocking
    • ritzy
    • leotard
    • jodhpurs
    • limerick

  • People and places that became words
    • rialto
    • karst
    • psyche
    • spa
    • bobby
    • pantaloon
    • jesuit
      Readers' comments:
      AWADmail 11

  • Words from math
    • osculate
    • vinculum
    • singularity
    • annulus
    • protract
    • involution
    • congruent
Sep 1998
  • Words with synonyms that appear suspiciously like their antonyms
    • flammable
    • personate
    • tegument
    • criminate
    • privation
    • filiation
    • candescence

  • Reduplicatives
    • tussie-mussie
    • herky-jerky
    • knickknack
    • wishy-washy
    • shilly-shally
    • pell-mell
    • mishmash

  • Eponyms
    • chauvinism
    • tattersall
    • titian
    • simony
    • romeo
    • pinchbeck
    • jacobin

  • Places that became words
    • laputan
    • vesuvian
    • siamese
    • canter
    • geyser
    • tenderloin
    • alpine
Oct 1998
  • Words derived from place names (toponyms)
    • orrery
    • capitol
    • piedmont
    • balkanize
    • monadnock
    • mocha
    • sodom

  • Meta words or words about words
    • heteronym
    • pangram
    • toponym
    • word-hoard
    • etymon
    • logogram
    • wordmonger

  • Portmanteaux or blend words
    • cremains
    • pennant
    • fruitarian
    • cinematheque
    • blaxploitation
    • carmine
    • birl

  • Words about writing
    • bildungsroman
    • palinode
    • litterateur
    • palimpsest
    • peripeteia
    • excursus
    • roman-fleuve
Nov 1998 Dec 1998

1997

Jan 1997

  • Eponyms
    • benedict
    • jonah
    • gascon
    • sibyl
    • vestal
    • magdalen
    • bantam

  • Loanwords from Spanish
    • camarilla
    • peccadillo
    • paseo
    • picaresque
    • picaro
    • picaroon
    • fandango

  • Eponyms
    • lucullan
    • jezebel
    • apocalypse
    • armageddon
    • calvary
    • bunkum
    • scapegoat

  • Things Are Seldom What They Seem
    • noisome
    • froward
    • cupidity
    • toxophilite
    • fatuous
    • antimacassar
    • comity
Feb 1997
  • Slang
    • copacetic
    • shamus
    • switcheroo
    • moola
    • schmo
    • dibs
    • heist

  • Valentine's Day: words of affection, passion, and romance
    • aubade
    • inamorata
    • amative
    • moonstruck
    • amoretto
    • paean
    • amorist

  • Cold words
    • gelid
    • hyperborean
    • frigorific
    • pogonip
    • furfuraceous
    • lyophilize
    • congeal

  • Eponyms
    • pierian
    • janus-faced
    • galahad
    • dionysian
    • marplot
    • falstaffian
    • apollonian
Mar 1997
  • Eponyms
    • nimrod
    • boswell
    • panglossian
    • luddite
    • midas
    • philistine
    • serendipity

  • AWAD's third anniversary: Words from AWAD archives
    • defenestration
    • omphaloskepsis
    • cwm
    • quiddity
    • decalcomania
    • abiogenesis
    • billingsgate
      Readers' comments:
      AWADmail 5

  • Incubus, and what else to avoid while shopping for shoes
    • incubus
    • succubus
    • cassandra
    • banshee
    • maenad
    • snollygoster
    • lolita
      Readers' comments:
      AWADmail 6

  • Words from Rabindranath Tagore's "Geetanjali"
    • dreary
    • maya
    • vagrant
    • evanescent
    • clamorous
    • penury
    • boisterous
      Readers' comments:
      AWADmail 7

  • Eponyms
    • fagin
    • pavlovian
    • lilliputian
    • pharisaical
    • clerihew
    • jorum
    • pygmalionism
Apr 1997
  • Words from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"
    • lenitive
    • restive
    • apothecary
    • prognostic
    • lenity
    • cashier
    • diadem

  • Portmanteau words
    • palimony
    • muzzy
    • prissy
    • ruckus
    • splurge
    • splatter
    • splotch

  • "It was a dark and stormy night..."
    • pabulum
    • taradiddle
    • fustian
    • bombast
    • screed
    • circumlocution
    • penster

  • Similar sounding ten* words that can be confusing
    • tenacious
    • tenuous
    • tendentious
    • tendinous
    • tenebrous
    • tenesmus
    • tenuis
May 1997
  • Loanwords from Spanish
    • lariat
    • disembogue
    • vaquero
    • aficionado
    • bonanza
    • bastinado
    • calaboose

  • Looong words
    • deinstitutionalization
    • honorificabilitudinity
    • antidisestablishmentarianism
    • floccinaucinihilipilification
    • hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian
    • supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
    • pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

  • Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet"
    • minatory
    • ineffable
    • bumptious
    • sonorous
    • piquant
    • necromancer
    • effusion

  • Dickensian characters who have turned into eponyms
    • bumbledom
    • micawber
    • gradgrind
    • podsnap
    • chadband
    • stiggins
    • gamp
Jun 1997
  • Words from 1997 Spelling Bee
    • usufructuary
    • deliquesce
    • enfilade
    • bruit
    • quodlibet
    • cenotaph
    • appulse

  • Words from Patrick O'Brian's novels
    • pule
    • contubernal
    • grizzle
    • urinator
    • mammothrept
    • miasma
    • esculent

  • Eponyms
    • samson
    • vandal
    • solomon
    • hegira
    • barmecide
    • dulcinea
    • sophist

  • Words pertaining to animals
    • vulpine
    • ursine
    • leonine
    • lupine
    • porcine
    • hircine
    • ranine

  • Professions of yesterday that now exist mostly as surnames
    • chandler
    • wheelwright
    • bowyer
    • cooper
    • sawyer
    • tinker
    • fletcher
Jul 1997
  • AWAD's recommendations for some unusual areas to work in
    • demonology
    • cryptozoology
    • ufology
    • phyllotaxis
    • myrmecology
    • pharology
    • aristology

  • Tongue twisters
    • indubitability
    • vicissitudinous
    • latitudinarian
    • indefatigability
    • incogitativity
    • incommensurability
    • inconsequentiality

  • "These are all real words."
    • crapulous
    • callipygian
    • fard
    • hootenanny
    • ripsnorter
    • nuncupative
    • formication

  • Twin words
    • contumacious
    • perspicacious
    • provenance
    • acerbate
    • malefic
    • immanent
    • phylogeny
Aug 1997
  • Words from chemistry
    • bromidic
    • acidulous
    • caustic
    • fulminate
    • vitriolic
    • acidic
    • miscible

  • Eponyms and toponyms
    • scaramouch
    • golconda
    • scylla
    • pandemonium
    • deipnosophist
    • milliner
    • milesian

  • Coined words
    • googol
    • blurb
    • boondoggle
    • heebie-jeebies
    • quark
    • kludge
    • runcible

  • Words about laughing
    • cachinnation
    • titter
    • cackle
    • chortle
    • snicker
    • fleer
    • risible
Sep 1997
  • Trademarks that are often used figuratively
    • band-aid
    • teflon
    • ping-pong
    • technicolor
    • jell-o
    • kleenex
    • yo-yo

  • Eponyms from fiction
    • paparazzo
    • blimp
    • pollyanna
    • fauntleroy
    • boniface
    • skunkworks
    • rambo

  • Fear and desire
    • agoraphobia
    • erotomania
    • acrophobia
    • dipsomania
    • xenophobia
    • mythomania
    • panophobia

  • Figures of speech
    • prolepsis
    • anastrophe
    • aposiopesis
    • enjambment
    • anaphora
    • polysyndeton
    • apophasis

  • Words about stamps
    • cachet
    • carnet
    • indicia
    • se-tenant
    • frank
    • imperforate
    • tete-beche
Oct 1997
  • Toponyms
    • fescennine
    • mecca
    • golgotha
    • marathon
    • waterloo
    • hallmark
    • watergate

  • Positional words
    • antipodal
    • intercostal
    • obverse
    • antepenult
    • primogeniture
    • cater-cornered
    • geostationary

  • Aeiou words or words with all the vowels
    • abstemious
    • duoliteral
    • arterious
    • subcontinental
    • annelidous
    • uncomplimentary
    • facetious

  • Skywatchers' watchwords
    • perihelion
    • azimuth
    • occultation
    • ephemeris
    • retrograde
    • libration
    • planisphere
Nov 1997
  • Oeuvres of nature
    • fjord
    • estuary
    • massif
    • peninsula
    • terrain
    • archipelago
    • subterranean

  • Words that seem risque
    • vomitorium
    • defalcate
    • mensuration
    • castigate
    • schist
    • fallacious
    • menstruum

  • Words from Gibran's Sand and Foam
    • exalt
    • spurn
    • disdain
    • caravan
    • righteous
    • dervish
    • eternity

  • Eponyms from fictional characters
    • dagwood
    • celadon
    • cinderella
    • bluebeard
    • euphuism
    • tappertitian
    • simon-pure
Dec 1997
  • Much Ado About Nothing
    • kerf
    • lacuna
    • fissure
    • breach
    • aperture
    • interstice
    • weir

  • Topology words
    • isthmus
    • contour
    • culvert
    • strand
    • agglomerate
    • terrace
    • plateau

  • Words from Tintin Comics
    • skedaddle
    • anacoluthon
    • tattle
    • anthropophagus
    • oculist
    • dowse
    • ungulate

  • Words from Tintin Comics
    • perfidious
    • menagerie
    • sigillography
    • palaver
    • diabolical
    • palliasse
    • pestilential

  • Words from Maya Chandrasekaran's novel
    • precocious
    • veritable
    • condescend
    • veritable
    • fastidious
    • doleful
    • bedlam

1996

Jan 1996

  • Misc. words
    • esperance
    • vivific
    • sthenic
    • utile
    • demiurge

  • Words from German
    • blitzkrieg
    • leitmotiv
    • realpolitik
    • weltanschauung
    • sprachgefuhl
    • weltschmerz
    • diktat

  • Eponyms
    • mithridatism
    • pecksniffian
    • podunk
    • pasquinade
    • jabberwocky
    • tantalus
    • dishabille

  • Miscellaneous words
    • dishabille
    • triste
    • canton
    • predilection
    • ere
    • digitate
    • deuterogenesis
    • solipsism

  • Words from Greek mythology
    • iliad
    • nestor
    • hector
    • odyssey
    • mentor
    • harpy
    • argus
Feb 1996
  • Portmanteaux or blend words
    • rurban
    • meld
    • slimsy
    • squiggle
    • weeny
    • guesstimate
    • contraption

  • Miscellaneous words
    • scissile
    • conge
    • nimiety
    • congeries
    • cosset
    • enchiridion
    • attar

  • Back-formations
    • dentulous
    • cathect
    • cerebrate
    • callithump
    • darkle
    • esthesia

  • Miscellaneous words
    • factotum
    • nescience
    • portal-to-portal
    • risibility
    • supposititious
    • scholiast
    • thirl
Mar 1996
  • Miscellaneous words
    • mitigate
    • oppugn
    • reprise
    • restaurateur
    • solicitous
    • tergiversation
    • sapient

  • Miscellaneous words
    • outre
    • phatic
    • sedulous
    • humdinger
    • edacious
    • infundibuliform
    • decant

  • Words about books
    • festschrift
    • fascicle
    • hornbook
    • pericope
    • auctorial
    • scholium
    • screed

  • Miscellaneous words
    • soigne
    • eclaircissement
    • eclat
    • pourboire
    • pourparler
    • praxis
    • megrim
Apr 1996
  • Miscellaneous words
    • farouche
    • gehenna
    • billet-doux
    • mulct
    • jabberwocky
    • chiliad

  • Words about words
    • tmesis
    • sesquipedalian
    • polysemous
    • zeugma
    • pleonasm
    • periphrasis
    • verbile

  • Misc. words
    • turnverein
    • upas
    • ana
    • fug
    • olio
    • unco
    • assiduous

  • Miscellaneous words
    • kef
    • vigesimal
    • inerrancy
    • sapid
    • tsunami
    • loquacious
    • chimera

  • Words about numbers
    • lakh
    • sesquicentennial
    • hebdomad
    • lustrum
    • duodecimal
    • senary
    • quinquennial
May 1996
  • Eponyms
    • shylock
    • yahoo
    • scrooge
    • babbitt
    • svengali
    • tartuffe
    • lothario

  • Miscellaneous words
    • conversazione
    • hebetate
    • sinecure
    • sempiternal
    • paladin
    • rugose
    • scion

  • Miscellaneous words
    • nocuous
    • peccable
    • orientate
    • argufy
    • illume
    • nocent
    • agon

  • Miscellaneous words
    • febrile
    • famulus
    • agley
    • abrade
    • rufous
    • exsert
    • exsiccate
Jun 1996
  • Miscellaneous words
    • exscind
    • gustatory
    • seigniorage
    • egeria
    • ananias
    • fuddy-duddy
    • pelagic

  • Words from Greek mythology
    • icarian
    • gorgon
    • palladium
    • augean
    • atlas
    • sisyphean

  • Miscellaneous words
    • verboten
    • nitid
    • scabrous
    • hyaline
    • supererogatory
    • compurgator
    • laconic

  • Bird words
    • rictus
    • psittacine
    • avifauna
    • ornithology
    • struthious
    • oology
    • nidifugous
Jul 1996
  • Miscellaneous words
    • abrogate
    • delphian
    • narcissism
    • sardonic
    • raillery
    • eupeptic
    • connate

  • Loanwords from Hindi
    • juggernaut
    • pukka
    • wallah
    • pundit
    • shroff
    • jungle
    • nabob

  • Words to mark the 1996 Summer Olympics
    • olympian
    • natation
    • equitation
    • atlantean
    • quadrennial
    • pugilism
    • aedile

  • Eponyms: Bad people in history who got a word after themselves
    • gerrymander
    • grangerize
    • machiavellian
    • highbinder
    • guillotine
    • charlatan

  • Words about marriage
    • espousal
    • affine
    • connubial
    • uxorial
    • affiance
    • conjugal
    • nuptial
Aug 1996
  • Savory words
    • sapor
    • viand
    • victual
    • trencherman
    • frugivorous
    • pica
    • aliment

  • AWAD's guide to life on other planets
    • plutonian
    • martial
    • saturnine
    • earthy
    • saturnalia
    • mercurial
    • jovial

  • Eponyms
    • pollyanna
    • quixotic
    • frankenstein
    • braggadocio
    • malapropism
    • maffick
    • martinet

  • Eponyms
    • pickwickian
    • protean
    • pyrrhonism
    • punic
    • achates
    • shyster
    • apollonian
Sep 1996
  • Toponyms: Words after names of cities
    • arcadia
    • shanghai
    • babylon
    • bourbon
    • cockaigne
    • utopia
    • bedlam

  • Weather words
    • canicular
    • mammatocumulus
    • pluvial
    • weathercock
    • foehn
    • windflaw
    • williwaw

  • Eponyms
    • eolian
    • fabian
    • cicerone
    • hermetic
    • punic
    • mccoy
    • tawdry

  • Words about colors to mark the autumn
    • variegate
    • luteous
    • limbate
    • aureate
    • sanguine
    • ferruginous
    • lurid

  • Miscellaneous words
    • solon
    • mastodon
    • bathos
    • maudlin
    • orphic
    • morganatic
    • rhymester
Oct 1996
  • Loanwords from Sanskrit
    • karma
    • dharma
    • mahatma
    • avatar
    • yoga
    • sutra
    • nirvana

  • Flip-flop words
    • hoity-toity
    • hurly-burly
    • hugger-mugger
    • higgledy-piggledy
    • hurry-scurry
    • namby-pamby
    • topsy-turvy

  • Odds and ends
    • pilgarlic
    • querist
    • supervenient
    • oneiric
    • eldritch
    • discalced
    • rowen

  • Halloween words
    • doppelganger
    • gramarye
    • thanatos
    • sheol
    • hades
    • acheron
    • inferno
Nov 1996
  • Verbs
    • intromit
    • refocillate
    • insolate
    • excogitate
    • comminute
    • collocate
    • fustigate

  • Book words
    • feuilleton
    • chrestomathy
    • bibelot
    • pharmacopoeia
    • flyleaf
    • onomastic
    • donnee

  • Words about words
    • paronomasia
    • apocope
    • fictioneer
    • amphibology
    • hypocorism
    • syncope
    • hendiadys

  • Words of nautical origins
    • scuttlebutt
    • mainstay
    • figurehead
    • keelhaul
    • leeway
    • tack
    • steerage
Dec 1996
  • Eponyms
    • philippic
    • draconian
    • tartar
    • mccarthyism
    • grog
    • spartan
    • mesmerism

  • Eponyms from fiction
    • dryasdust
    • dundrearies
    • sphinx
    • ragamuffin
    • lotus-eater
    • procrustean
    • goon

  • Forgotten Positives
    • ruth
    • scrutable
    • gainly
    • maculate
    • scrupulous
    • licit
    • clement

  • Forgotten Positives
    • corrigible
    • evitable
    • towardly
    • wieldy
    • mediate
    • peccable
    • couth

  • Picturesque expressions
    • johnny-on-the-spot
    • high-muck-a-muck
    • dyed-in-the-wool
    • la-di-da
    • bric-a-brac
    • will-o'-the-wisp
    • hop-o'-my-thumb

1995

(Weekly themes did not become a regular feature until Jun 1996)
Jan 1995
Feb 1995
Mar 1995
Apr 1995
May 1995
Jun 1995
Jul 1995
Aug 1995
Sep 1995
Oct 1995
Nov 1995
Dec 1995

1994

(Weekly themes did not become a regular feature until Jun 1996. AWAD began on Mar 14, 1994.)
Mar 1994
Apr 1994
May 1994
Jun 1994
Jul 1994
Aug 1994
Sep 1994
Oct 1994
Nov 1994
Dec 1994

Also See:
Alphabetical archives
Plaintext archives
AWADmail archives

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