Good day to you my loyal logophiles! I am going to preface this Words of the Week with a suggestion for those who may appreciate more words than I can provide: have a listen to the podcasts The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman or Something Rhymes with Purple by Susie Dent and Gyles Brandreth, both of which explore mostly the English language and its origins, as well as topics that those words inspire. Something Rhymes with Purple has been a fun romp with Gyles playing the flabbergasted posh bumbling sidekick to Susie’s serene expert and it has been a lovely source for many of the Words of the Week that I choose to share with you all. With that out of the way…
Forswunk (adj. – Middle English): There are certain times in the school year when this adjective is more than apt. To be forswunk is to be entirely overworked and wholly worn out. I would argue that the end of the Fall Semester is the time when students are the most forswunk, what with Talking Leaves and all of the essays and final projects everyone has to do.
Backpfeifengesicht (noun – German): I hope you weren’t expecting me to stick with words exclusively from the Isles, or other English-speaking countries for that matter, because there is a plethora of great words from other languages that could be lovingly worked into our day-to-day speech. ‘Backpfeifengesicht’ is not exactly one of them. German is a fantastic language with amazingly specific words and if this were a series of articles entirely focused on those German words, I would barely scratch the surface. ‘Backpfeifengesicht’ is a person with a very slappable face, or more specifically: a face that is just begging to be slapped. I’m not certain how often we say that someone has a slappable face, but if it is something that comes up a lot for you, tell them they have a Backpfeifengesicht. If you can pronounce it. German is hard.
Confelicity (noun): Confelicity isn’t a German word, but its antonym (a word many of us already know), schadenfreude, is. When one breaks down the word, it makes a lot of sense. ‘Con’ means ‘with’ and ‘felicity’ means happiness, so ‘confelicity’ is to take joy in another person’s happiness. It’s a very sweet word for an emotion that many of us have undoubtedly experienced without a word to describe it. On birthdays or holidays we often watch our loved ones open presents with confelicity.
Tartle (verb – Scottish): If you’ve a terrible memory for names like I do, this word may be… well maybe not crucial for your lexicon, but certainly descriptive of it. To ‘tartle’ is to hesitate while talking to or introducing somebody because you forgot their name! I know I certainly have done this many a time, and when one isn’t experiencing it themselves, it can be great fun watching friends tartling (until one comes to their rescue, of course).
Frobly-mobly (adj. – 19th century): With this fun word from 1839, gone are the days of responding ‘fine’ whenever somebody asks how you are doing! To be ‘frobly-mobly’ is to feel neither well nor unwell, just okay. Now you have a response that says how you really feel and you can reserve your dejected ‘fine’ for when something is seriously wrong. It can also be spelled ‘fobly-mobly.’
Adieu. And I will speak to you all again next time!
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