- chiaroscuro-- the distribution of light and shade in painting
- hypaethral-- open to the sky, from the Greek temples
- sesquipedalian- many-syllabled
- defenestrate- to throw out a window
- crepuscule-- my current absolute favorite: twilight, pronounce "crep-es-cool"
- acronychal-- occurring at nightfall
- analemma-- a figure eight scale showing the sun's position
- chatoyant--the gleam like a cat's eyes in the dark
- insinuendo-- insinuation plus innuendo, use at your own risk
- reduplicative-- a word used twice for emphasis, "Coke-Coke" to describe classic Coke and not Diet Coke or Cherry Coke etc
- kelemenopy-- a ghost word fathered by poet John Ciardi meaning a straight line through everything leading nowhere, inspired by the sequential letters klmnop
- paraleipses and apophasis-- ironic rhetorical devices emphasizing with phrases like "not to mention" or "they may say that"
- apotheosis-- the god version
dec 29 2008 ∞
jan 8 2009 +