Some are rarely used anymore and possibly obsolete, but here is my list of interesting, unique and uncommon words.
Think about how you might use one today!
A gogo | As much as you like; galore; plentiful or without limits. |
Ab initio | From the beginning. |
Abstergent | Cleansing, scouring or having a detergent effect. |
Ad Nauseam | To a sickening or disgusting degree. |
Addle | To make or become confused. |
Afterclap | An unexpected repercussion. |
Agog | Excited and eager to know more or see more. |
Bafflegab | Confusing, incomprehensible, or generally unintelligible pretentious language, especially bureaucratic jargon; gobbledegook. |
Banal | Something that is so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring; ordinary; not original. |
Barbermonger | Someone who frequents the barber’s shop, or prides himself on being dressed by a barber; a man who is concerned with his clothes and appearance in an affected and excessive way; a dandy. |
Battologize | To repeat a word, phrase, mannerism, etc. to an excessive and tiresome degree; |
Blatherskite | One who talks foolishly at length (or blathers on and on); rambling nonsensical or inconsequential talk or writing. |
Bukh | To brag or talk boastfully. |
Borborygmus | the sound of a rumbling stomach; the movement of fluid and gas in the intestinal tract. |
Bovine | Having qualities (such as placidity or dullness) characteristic of oxen or cows. |
Brabble | Noisy, quarrelsome chatter. |
Brusque | Abrupt in manner; blunt. |
Bumfuzzle | To confuse or fluster. |
Caperlash | Abusive language; to scold. |
Carpophagous | Feeding on fruit; fruit-eating. |
Cattywampus | (or Catawampus) To be positioned diagonally, askew, or awry; describing something that is not in the correct or expected position; out of alignment. |
Chockablock | Very full or crammed full with people or things; brought close together; crowded; jammed. |
Churlish | Resembling a churl; vulgar; marked by a lack of civility or graciousness; surly; boorish; rude |
Cockamamie | Ridiculous, pointless or nonsensical. |
Cogitate | To think deeply about something; meditate or reflect. |
Confabulate | To converse informally; chat. |
Cornucopia | An abundant, overflowing supply. |
Coxcomb | A conceited, foolish dandy; pretentious fop; a man who is too proud of his appearance (or Cockscomb) |
Cretin | A person with impaired mental and/or physical development; a stupid person. |
Divulgate | To make publicly known or to publish. |
Dolosity | Deceitfulness; having hidden malice. |
Drivel | Nonsense; boring and unnecessary information; talking stupidly and carelessly; slobbering, drooling or saliva spilling from the mouth or mucus draining from the nose; twaddle, blather, foolishness, gibberish, babble; talking childishly or foolishly; ideas, statements or beliefs that are silly or not true; meaningless talking or thinking. |
Echolalia | The imitation sounds made by babies as they learn to talk. |
Equiponderate | To counterbalance or offset in weight, force or importance. |
Estival | Pertaining to summer. |
Feinschmecker | A person who appreciates, enjoys and knows a lot about good food; a gourmet. |
Felonious | Wicked or villainous. |
Fickle | Likely to change. |
Finial D’arbre | A Christmas tree topper. |
Flapdoodle | An idea, something said or written, or behavior that is silly or stupid; nonsense. |
Flibbertigibbet | A flighty or whimsical person; a gossipy or overly talkative person. |
Folderol | Mere nonsense; foolish talk or ideas. |
Footle | To talk or act foolishly. |
Foozle | To bungle or botch an attempt at something; play clumsily (i.e. in golf). |
Frabjous | Wonderful, elegant, superb, joyous, delightful, delicious. |
Fractious | Unruly; unwilling to comply. |
Fribble | To act in a foolish or frivolous manner; trifle; wasteful. |
Gad | To move restlessly or aimlessly from one place to another. |
Galactoid | Milky or resembling milk. |
Gallimaufry | A hodgepodge; confused medley; jumble. |
Gambol | To frolic or skip about, as in dancing or playing. |
Gelid | Very cold or icy. |
Gnathonic | Excessive flattery; fawning over someone or something. |
Gobbledegook | Language that is usually hard to understand |
Grame | Anger, sorrow, harm, misery. |
Habiliment | Clothes or clothing. |
Haboob | A strong desert sandstorm. |
Hardihood | Boldness or Daring; Courage. |
Harrumph | To clear one’s throat in a self-important manner. |
Honeyfuggler | A person who deceives, swindles or cheats someone by talking to them nicely, sweet-talking them, or by using flattery. |
Hoodwink | To deceive or trick. |
Hornswoggle | To cheat or swindle. |
Hotch | To fidget or shift one’s weight from one foot to the other. |
Hugger-mugger | In a confused, untidy way that lacks order; secretive or clandestine; disorder or confusion. |
Hullabaloo | A clamorous noise or disturbance; an uproar. |
Illimitable | Incapable of being limited; limitless; boundless. |
Imprimis | In the first place. |
Indolent | Wanting to avoid activity or exertion; lazy; slothful. |
Invidious | An action or situation likely to arouse or create resentment or anger in others; unfairly discriminating; unjust. |
Jackanapes | A person who acts like an ape; not showing proper respect; rude; a tame monkey; an impudent or conceited fellow; a saucy or mischievous child. |
Japery | Clowning around; playful or foolish behavior; buffoonery; acting like a fool; engaging in pranks; generally behaving in a silly or frivolous manner; tomfoolery; merriment; monkey business; goofing around and generally acting like a clown. |
Jejune | Behavior that is naive, simplistic and superficial; without interest or significance; dull; insipid; juvenile; immature; childish; lacking knowledge or experience; a lack of rewarding or satisfying substance. |
Jobbernowl | A Numskull; a Nincompoop; a Block head; a blockish or stupid head; a ludicrous term for the head, usually connoting stupidity. |
Joie de Vivre | (pronounced zhwaduh-vee-vruh) “Joy of Living;” a zest for life; a delight in being alive. |
Jubilate | To show or feel great joy. |
Jujitsu | The use of an opponent’s strengths or one’s own weaknesses to accomplish a goal. |
Juke | To make a move intended to mislead or deceive (an opponent); to turn or bend quickly, typically to avoid someone or something. |
Kyoodle | To bark or yelp noisily or foolishly. |
Lethologica | The inability to remember a particular word or name; sometimes called “tip of the tongue” syndrome. |
Lickerish | Eager to consume delicious foods. |
Logorrhea | Incessant, wearisome or compulsive talkativeness. |
Loogan | A fool or someone considered unsophisticated, sometimes with a derogatory connotation; a mentally ill prisoner; a Fooligan; a newcomer to a group. |
Luddite | A person opposed to new technology or ways of working. |
Mackle | To blur, as from a double impression in printing. |
Mendacious | Habitually telling lies; dishonest; untruthful. |
Miscreant | A person who behaves badly or in a way that breaks the law. |
Mooncalf | A foolish, absent-minded, idle or freakish person. |
Mosey | To wander or shuffle about leisurely; stroll; saunter. |
Mugwump | A person who is unable to make up his or her mind on an issue; a person who remains aloof, distant, or not forthcoming about party politics. |
Neatnik | A person who is extremely neat about their surroundings or appearance. |
Nictate | To wink or blink. |
Ninnyhammer | A fool or simpleton, someone lacking good sense or judgment. |
Nowhither | To or toward no place; nowhere. |
Nugatory | Useless; futile; of no value or importance. |
Omnium Gatherum | A collection of miscellaneous people or things. |
Opsimath | A person who begins to learn late in life. |
Parsimonious | Unwilling to spend money, use resources or use a lot of something; stingy or frugal. |
Pecksniffian | Falsely moralistic; holier-than-thou; hypocritical; insincere; sanctimonious. |
Pedantic | Someone who annoys others by correcting small errors, caring too much about minor details, or emphasizing their own expertise especially in some narrow or boring subject matter. |
Perspicacious | Having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning; having a ready insight into and understanding of things. |
Pettifogging | Placing undue emphasis on petty or insignificant details. |
Philistine | A person who refuses to see the beauty or the value of art or culture; one of a race of people who lived in the area near the coast of the southeast Mediterranean in ancient times and were often at war with the Israelites. |
Phylactery | Two small, square, black leather boxes that contain Torah verses (Scriptures) written on parchment; in Jewish religious practice, Jewish men 13 years of age and older traditionally wear phylacteries during weekday morning prayers on the left arm or the head (Matthew 23:5); protection. |
Philistine | A person who is narrow-minded, hostile to or smugly indifferent to cultural values, intellectual pursuits, and aesthetic refinement, often characterized by a materialistic worldview. |
Piffle | Nonsense; trivial, foolish or senseless talk. |
Pitapat | With a quick succession of beats or taps. |
Pithy | Brief, forceful, and meaningful in expression; full of vigor, substance, or meaning; terse; forcible. |
Plebiscite | A direct vote of the qualified voters of a state regarding an important public question. |
Poltroon | A coward or craven; an adjective to describe something that is marked by cowardice; sneaky and devious; an idler. |
Pollrumptious | Restless, unruly, foolishly confident. |
Popinjay | A vain or conceited person, especially one who dresses or behaves extravagantly; a parrot. |
Poseur | An insincere person; a person who pretends to be what he or she is not; a person who attempts to impress others by assuming a fake manner, degree of elegance, sentiment, etc., other than their true one. |
Pugilist | Someone who is inclined to or eager to fight. |
Puzzlewit | A stupid person. |
Quakebuttock | Someone who lacks the courage to do or endure dangerous or unpleasant things; a coward. |
Querulous | Complaining in a petulant or whining manner. |
Quidnunc | A person who seeks to know all the latest news or gossip; an inquisitive, nosey or gossipy person; a busybody. |
Rapacious | Aggressively or excessively greedy or grasping; ravenous; usually in a selfish way. |
Repine | To feel or express sadness or discontent; to complain; To be fretful or low-spirited through discontent. |
Ripsnorter | a person or thing that is strikingly active, remarkably good, forceful, exciting, wild, rambunctious, extraordinary; a humdinger. |
Rubberneck | To look about or stare with great curiosity. |
Salmagundi | a general mixture; a potpourri; a miscellaneous collection. |
Samara | The winged fruit of maple and elm trees; sometimes referred to as helicopters. |
Sardonic | Bitter or scornful laughter; disdainfully or skeptically humorous; derisively mocking; humorous in an unkind way that shows you do not respect someone or something. |
Saturnine | A slow, gloomy, moody, mysterious person or thing; sluggish in temperament. |
Scrimshank | To avoid one’s obligations or share of the work. |
Scrofulous | Morally tainted, contaminated and corrupt. |
Scurrilous | Making or spreading scandalous claims about someone with the intention of damaging their reputation; obscenely abusive; humorously insulting. |
Sepulchre | A building or room where a dead person is buried; a place of burial, such as a tomb, grave, vault, or mausoleum; a receptacle for religious relics, especially in an altar; in the Bible, it indicates a burial. |
Shilly-shally | To show indecision or hesitation. |
Shindig | A large dance, party or other celebration. |
Siesta | A Midday or afternoon rest or nap. |
Skedaddle | To run away hurriedly or flee. |
Snollygoster | A shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician. |
Sop | A weak-willed or spineless person; milksop. |
Spancel | A rope used to prevent an animal from straying. |
Splendiferous | Excellent, or very beautiful and special; splendid; magnificient; |
Spondulicks | Money; cash; a reasonable amount of spending money; spondoolicks, spondulacks, spondulics, and spondoolics are alternative spellings, and spondoolies is a modern version. |
Sprechgesang | (pronounced shprekh-guh-zahng) A style of dramatic vocalization intermediate between speech and song; “speech song.” |
Sybilline | Mysterious; cryptic. |
Tabula Rasa | Anything existing undisturbed in its original pure state. |
Tenebrous | Shut off from the light; hard to understand; murky; dark; gloomy; shadowy; obscure. |
Teratoid | Resembling a monster or exhibiting abnormal development, especially in biology, genetics, or medicine. |
Tomfoolery | Foolish or silly behavior, act, matter or thing. |
Tootle | To move, go, proceed or travel in a leisurely way; a leisurely journey; to play an instrument (like a horn or trumpet) in a casual way. |
Trafficator | A blinker or turn signal on a vehicle. |
Treacly | Sentimental in a contrived or unrestrained way; excessively sad, emotional, or nostalgic. |
Twaddle | Silly, tedious talk or writing. |
Ulotrichous | Having woolly, curly or crisp hair. |
Ultracrepidarianism | The habit of offering opinions and advice on matters outside of one’s expertise or knowledge; speaking as an authority on a subject when one has limited or no actual knowledge about it. |
Unalienable | Not capable of being taken away, denied or transferred. |
Vapid | Without liveliness or spirit; dull or tedious; lacking flavor or zest; tiresome; lifeless. |
Wamble | To move unsteadily. |
Waspish | Readily expressing anger or irritation |
Witful | Wise; sage-like; skilled; cunning; ingenious. |
Withershins | In a direction contrary to the natural one; contrary; counterclockwise. |
Zonked | Exhausted or asleep. |