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#133439 09/24/04 10:39 PM
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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.


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pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniconiosis



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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.


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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


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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


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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!)



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