Sher Matsen with Vocabulaary Tips
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VOCAB TIPS

Awreak (vb) to avenge. This is a wonderful word - can't you just hear yourself giving a blood-curdling cry of 'Awreak, awreak!' as someone takes your spot in the car-park? It comes from an Anglo-Saxon word awrecan which means 'to take vengeance on.' 

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Abature(n) Here's another of those words that proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that English has a word for every occasion. An abature is a trail through a wood beaten down by a stag.  

Not a trail through a forest or across a plain, but through a wood ... and not beaten down by a horse or a bear or a tiger, but by a stag - not a doe ... a stag!

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Parasigmatism (n) a lisp that leads to an inability to pronounce the sound 'S'

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Diastema (n) I'm sure you already know someone who has this ... but you just never had the word to describe it ... until now. It refers to that space between teeth. This word comes originally from the Greek, from diistanai meaning 'to separate.'

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Sesquipedalian(n or adj) “a word of many syllables”. The “pedal” part of this word refers to a “foot” – as in your “pedal extremities”. And the “sesqui—” prefix means “one and a half” so sesquipedalian refers to words of many syllables or words that are “one and a half feet long.” The Roman poet Horace (65 BC – 8 BC) wrote about “sesquipedalia verba” – literally “words a foot and a half long.”

It was used in the 18th century to mean a measurement of half a yard in height or length, but today it's back to Horace’s original meaning and is used to describe those people whose writing is littered with big words.   

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Synecdoche(n) comes from a Greek word, sunekdekhesthai, 'to take on a share of,' and refers to when a whole is represented by naming one of its parts, as in, 'Take a look at my new wheels!' Presumably after making the long trip to your place we're going to see more than four tyres - I, for one, want a chassis, an engine to peer into while making appreciative noises, and lots of buttons on the dash.

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Floccinaucinihilipilification(n) the act or habit of esteeming or describing something as worthless, or making something worthless by describing it as such

Bet you thought I'd made that one up, didn't you? Wikipedia gives this interesting comment on its origins: It is the longest non-technical word in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), where it dates back to 1741. The first use the OED gives is from the poet William Shenstone in 1741: 'I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money'. 

It is said to have been made up by some Eton College students from four words meaning 'nothing' or 'worthless', presented in 'a well-known rule from the Eton Latin Grammar', as for example: 

flocci - Latin, 'a sheep's fleece or piece of wool', as in flocci non facio - 'I don't care' (literally 'I couldn't give a sheep's fleece) 

nauci - Latin, 'of the trifle' 

nihil - Latin, 'nothing' 

pili - Latin, 'the hairs', by implication small and insignificant 

In fact, as given in the OED, the word includes four sets of quotation marks and is presented thus: 'Flocci' 'nauci' 'nihili' 'pili' fication 

It is often spelled with hyphens, and has even spawned the back formations: floccinaucical ('inconsiderable, trifling') and floccinaucity ('thing of small importance'). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floccinaucinihilipilification  

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Dephlegmate (vb) to deprive of superabundant water, as by evaporation or distillation; to clear of aqueous matter; to rectify; used of spirits and acids. (Funny how that Scotch doesn't taste quite the same now you know that, isn't it?)

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Echolalia(n) the mindless repetition of things that other people say. 

And isn't that so-o-o annoying? It comes from echo + the Greek word “lalos” (talkative).   

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Eisoptrophobia(n) Fear of mirrors ... and can't we all relate to this? Especially when the weather warms up and the time to don the swimming cossie draws ever closer ... shudder ... 'Eisoptrophobia' is derived from the Greek 'eis' (into) and 'optikos' (vision, image, sight). Other English words derived from this include 'optic” and 'optician.'

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Mammothrept(n) A child raised by its grandmother; or a spoiled child. This word comes from the Greek words “mamma” (grandmother) and “threptos” (nourished, reared). And why is it that when you’re on a long plane trip you always get seated in front of a mammothrept?

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