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.