- abulia - the loss of will or volition, as a mental illness
- acosmist - one who denies the existence of the universe
- acrasia - acting against one's better judgment; lack of self-control
- ailurophile - one who loves cats
- alexithymia - difficulty in experiencing, expressing, and describing emotional responses
- anathema - a thing/person cursed or reviled
- anecdote - short interesting story
- antapology - a reply to an apology (usually negative)
- aphorism - short witty saying or principle
- apostate - one who has deserted their faith
- argot - the jargon or slang of a particular group or class
- athanasia - deathlessness; immortality
- atrabilious - melancholy or bad-tempered
- becloud - cause to become obscure or muddled
- bildungsroman - a novel concerned with a person's formative years and development
- brontide - a low muffled sound like distant thunder heard in certain seismic regions especially along seacoasts and over lakes and thought to be caused by feeble earth tremors
- captious - marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections; calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument
- calumny - slander, false accusation
- chatoyant - like a cat's eye
- chiaroscuro - the arrangement of dark and light elements in a picture
- chimera - foolish, fancy, unreal thing
- clinomania - an excessive desire to sleep
- colporteur - a book peddler
- complect - to embrace or join by weaving; to be interwoven
- copacetic - "just right"
- coquette - flirty
- dalliance - a brief love affair
- dichotomy - a division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different
- dolour - great sorrow
- doppelgänger - apparition or double of a person
- doyen - a person who has a lot of experience in or knowledge about a particular profession, subject, etc.
- dysphoria - a state of unease or generalized dissatisfaction with life
- efflorescence - blooming, flowering
- eigengrau - the color one sees in the absence of light
- ephemeral - short-lived
- epigone - imitator, follower
- ersatz - being a usually artificial and inferior substitute or imitation
- erstwhile - at one time, for a time
- esoteric - understood by only a small group of specialists
- facinorous - atrociously wicked; infamous
- farouche - sullenly unsociable or shy
- fatuous - silly or foolish
- fuliginous - sooty; dusky
- gibbous - (of the moon) having the illuminated part greater than a semicircle and less than a circle
- gloaming - dusk
- harbinger - messenger with news of the future
- horripilate - to cause one's hair to stand on end; give someone goosebumps
- ichor - blood or a fluid likened to it
- inimical - unfriendly, hostile
- insouciance - casual lack of concern, indifference
- inveigh - attack verbally
- jeremiad - series of laments, complaints
- lachrymal - connected with weeping or tears
- languor - listlessness
- lethologica - the inability to remember a word or put your finger on the right word
- limerance - a state of infatuation or obsession; typically involuntary and characterized by a strong desire for emotional reciprocation rather than a sexual relationship.
- limn - represent in painting or words
- loquacious - talkative
- macadam - pavement made of closely packed broken stone
- malefic - causing harm
- manque - unfilled, frustrated
- maudlin - easily emotional; self-pityingly sentimental
- mendacious - untruthful
- meretricious - deceitful
- misanthrope - one who dislikes the human race
- moiety - two parts of a whole which can be divided
- morosoph - a philosophical or learned fool
- mondegreen - a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung
- mythomane - a person with a strong or irresistible propensity for fantasizing, lying, or exaggerating
- noceur - one who sleeps late or not at all; or, one who stays out late to revel or party
- nugatory - trifling, worthless, ineffective
- nyctophilia - a love or preference for night, darkness
- obdurate - unmoved by persuasion, pity, or tender feelings; stubborn or unyielding; persistently impenitent
- orphic - entrancing; mystic; beyond ordinary understanding
- otiose - serving no practical purpose or result; indolent, idle
- paradigm - major change in thinking/acting
- peccadillo - a slight & unimportant offense or sin
- penumbra - the shadow cast by the earth/moon over area experiencing an eclipse
- penury - extreme poverty
- perdition - future misery (ie: going to hell)
- petrichor - the smell after rain
- phosphenes - the lights, shapes, and colors seen when one rubs their closed eyes
- plenilune - the full moon
- portmanteau - embodying several uses or qualities; a blended of two or more words into one concept
- potboiler - a mediocre work of literature or art produced merely for financial gain
- pottroon - coward
- polymath - person of great, varied learning
- rancor - vindictive malice
- redamancy - the act of loving in return
- repine - to be discontented
- sabaenism - the worship of stars
- samizdat - underground newspaper
- sangfroid - composure or coolness, sometimes excessive, as shown in danger or under trying circumstances
- saturnine - morose, gloomy
- scurrilous - grossly offensive, vulgar
- serein - fine rain falling after sunset from a sky in which no clouds are visible
- sobriquet - nickname
- somnambulism - sleepwalking
- sprezzatura - studied carelessness, practiced nonchalance
- sycophant - flattering parasite
- syzygy - (per Carl Jung) a pairing of opposites
- tablier - an apron, or part of a dress resembling an apron
- tacenda - things better left unsaid
- tenebrous - dark and shadowy
- teratism - a monster, malformed person/animal, anomaly, monstrosity; love or worship of the monstrous.
- toska (Russian) - a dull ache of the soul
- turpitude - depravity
- tristful - sorrowful, deeply melancholy
- vorfreude - the anticipation of imagining future pleasures
- wanton - to play/frolic, to behave promiscuously
- widdiful - deserving to be hanged
- woebegone - sorrowful, downcast
- yonderly - mentally or emotionally distant
mar 4 2009 ∞
jan 16 2020 +