• obscurantist - deliberately preventing the facts / full details of something from becoming known
• auspice - divine or prophetic token
• ganglion - nerve cell cluster in autonomic nervous system
• libertine - unrestrained by convention or morality
• viscid - glutinous sticky
• birdlime - sticky substance spread on twigs to trap small birds
• effete - affected, overrefined, and ineffectual
• stilted - stiff and self-conscious or unnatural
• catachresis - misuse of word, or departure from conventional usage
• hendiadys - expression of single idea by 2 words connected with "and"
• synecdoche - figure of speech in which a term for part of something refers to the whole of something or vice versa
• shibboleth - a custom/principle/belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a longstanding one regarded as outmoded or no longer important
• milquetoast - a timid, unassertive, spineless person
• priggish -
• ersatz -
• ablaut - a change of vowel in related words or forms, e.g., in Germanic strong verbs (e.g., in sing, sang, sung ).
• peccable - imperfect; flawed; capable of sinning.
• lodestar - moral anchor (figuratively) or guiding light
• inclement - lacking mildness (lol what an awesome phrase!)
• instantiate -
• noumenon - a posited object or event that exists independently of human sense and/or perception.
• illocutionary - relating to or being the communicative effect (such as commanding or requesting) of an utterance
• wholesale - done on a large scale; extensive.
• porous - having holes
• solecism -
• tonic -
• fillip -
• viviparous - embryo developed inside body of parent
• pneumatic - if i rememb right,, big boobs? .. omg no just looked it up and it means stuff that's filled w air.. HA

the kinds of words academics like to use

• putative - relating to reputation
• mimetic - the IntellectualTM way of saying something that copies/mimics something else.
• gestalt - whole, cumulative idea/character of something?
• memex