10 new, old words to add to your vocabulary this year
DETROIT — Many Michigan State football fans, upset by their team's performance in the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Eve, likely absquatulated from parties that night..
Or they might have if they knew what absquatulate meant. For the record, it means "to discreetly leave a gathering or party without informing the host."
It's one of 10 words Wayne State University's Word Warriors think we should be using more often.
Here are the others, with a definition and a little usage help from the Word Warriors in case you don't know what they mean. Click on the link to go to Cambridge Dictionaries' or Emma Saying's recording of its pronunciation:
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2. Anathema: Something or someone that one vehemently dislikes. Supporting such a vile, bigoted candidate was anathema to the young voter.
3. Delectation: Pleasure and delight. I showed up with a box of chocolates for her delectation.
4. Epigone: A less-distinguished follower or imitator of someone, especially an artist or philosopher. Even their most loyal fans knew The Monkees were a silly, manufactured epigone of The Beatles.
5. Puerile: Childishly silly and trivial. When his old buddies came over, Jake transformed from a respected businessman into an overgrown child, giggling at puerile jokes.
6. Rumpus: A noisy, confused or disruptive commotion. I entered the day care, wondering how the teachers held onto their sanity during the daily rumpus.
7. Sockdolager: Something that settles a matter, a decisive blow or answer. On the playground, "I know you are, but what am I?" is the ultimate sockdolager to many an argument.
8. Sybaritic: Fond of sensuous luxury or pleasure, self-indulgent. As soon as the kids were out of the house, Dan cashed out his savings and had a sybaritic retirement on the Florida coast.
9. Torpid: Mentally or physically inactive, lethargic. The torpid teen sat on the couch shoveling chips into his mouth, his eyes never breaking from Cartoon Network.
10. Turpitude: Depravity, wickedness. The trial exposed the public to the turpitude hiding behind his pleasant demeanor.
Now beginning its eighth year, the Detroit university's Word Warriors series promotes words especially worthy of retrieval from the linguistic cellar.
The Word Warriors’ extensive list is composed of submissions from both administrators of the website as well as the public. Participants worldwide have seen their favorite words brought back from the brink of obsolescence at wordwarriors.wayne.edu. New entries are posted there — as well as on Twitter and Facebook — each week.
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“The English language has perhaps more words in its lexicon than any other,” Jerry Herron, dean of Wayne State's Irvin D. Reid Honors College and a member of the website’s editorial board, said in a news release. "By making use of the repertoire available to us, we expand our ability to communicate clearly and help make our world a more interesting place.
"Bringing these words back into everyday conversation is just another way of broadening our horizons," he said.
Follow David Jesse on Twitter: @reporterdavidj
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