I mentioned ballycumber and librocubicularist to my ninth graders a couple of weeks ago (thanks, tsuwm)--and they practiced saying them and asked me to give them some more. Those words caught them in a good place because many kids have either been librocubicularists at some point in their lives or have heard about them along the way--and ballycumber is a plain word that rhymes with cucumber and a good old concrete noun, though not in any dictionary I can put my hands on.

Now, can you think of some words having to do with reading, writing--school, even--that are fun and rare? I'd love to keep my kids smiling as we talk about this world of study into which they've been thrust.

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniconiosis

Here are some selected words from David Gramb's Endangered Words that might appeal to your students. ( the sentencing used here is mine.)

literose: (LIT-er-ose) pretentiously or self conscionsly literary.
After each Shakespeare ten generations of literose copiers hesitatingly write.

segnity: (SEG-ni-tee) laziness or sluggishness.
Look around...segnity lives on even after the extinction of the Pliocene giant ground sloth.

nod crafty: (NOD-craf-tee) nodding so as to appear wise.
an unnecessary nod crafty huddle of football coaches at halftime with their team behind 67-2.

linguipotence: (ling-GWI-po-tense) mastery of language.
his linguipotence began when he put down the pen and began to speak.

stupor mundi: (STOO-per MUN-dee) a marvelous or wondrous object.
Beleive it or not her stupor mundi was a barbie doll.

agapet: (a-ga-PET) a ladies man.
Don Juan, agapet supreme, wasn't much happy. Why?

mattoid: (MAT-toyd) a semi-sane person.
Many of the people we meet are mattoids, the problem is figuring out which.

relume: (re-LOOM) to relight or rekindle.
when faced with the harsh reality of an abrupt awaking in the dim light of a cold grey morning, a relume of campfire brings new hope to the hearts of all men.

lasslorn: (LAS-lorn) jilted by one's girlfriend.
Knowing the nature of the lasslorn, as time ticks he will be less lorn.

flob: (flob) to move in a clumsy and aimless way.
this is my last flob, hereafter you kids are seity enought to flob on your own.

can you think of some word having to do with reading, writing--school, even--that are fun and rare?

Pedagogical

Factotum ... because factotums attend to the master's routine epistolary obligations ... which reminds me ... how about

Epistolary

here are three(3) related to reading:
bibliobibuli - people who read too much and so are generally oblivious to the world around them -- coined by H.L. Mencken

bibliophagist (bibliophage)
/bi-bli''-uh-fa'-jist/ (from biblio-, book + Gk. phagos, devouring)
a devourer of books: bookworm

bibliothecarial - of or relating to a library

Floccinaucinihilipilification

(good etymolygy at: http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-flo2.htm, as well as an example where someone actually used the word - in 1999, no less!)