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Weird Word of the Week Weird Word of the Week

Wednesday 16 September 2026
Ab Vrbe Condita 2779

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09/13/2026



Illinium (noun)

Based on experimental data later found to have been erroneous, a name honoring the University of Illinois proposed for the element now known as promethium. Two other preliminary names for it were florentium and cyclonium.
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09/06/2026: Quaquaversal (adjective) Turning or dipping in any or every direction
08/30/2026: Frugivory (noun) The symbiotic relationship between fruit-eating birds and the fruiting plant itself whereby its seeds get dispersed
08/23/2026: Dephlogisticate (verb) To render something fireproof
08/16/2026: Parnel (noun) A priest’s mistress
08/09/2026: Fluviatile (adjective) Living in rivers
08/02/2026: Atopognosia (noun) The inability to tell where something is touching you
07/26/2026: Assoil (verb) To absolve, to pronounce Not Guilty
07/19/2026: Corncrake (noun) An elusive, omnivorous, chestnut-colored bird of the family Rallidae (rails) that ranges through Eurasia and winters in Africa
07/12/2026: Agonic (noun) The imaginary line, roughly longitudinal, where magnetic and true north lie in exactly the same direction. It wanders unpredictably, typically about 10 miles per year.
07/05/2026: Penniform (adjective) Feather-shaped
06/28/2026: Nixie (noun) A letter or package that’s undeliverable due to a faulty address. Or, a female water spirit. Or, one of those old-fashioned numeric displays consisting of a neon-filled glass tube and multiple cathodes.
06/21/2026: Grimthorpe (verb) To alter or remodel a building without taking its history and character into account. Named for Edmund Beckett, 1st Baron Grimthorpe, QC (1816–1905).
06/14/2026: Ulotrichous (adjective) Having tightly curled or “peppercorn” hair
06/07/2026: Distichiasis (noun) The condition, caused by a genetic mutation, of having double rows of eyelashes. One of its better known sufferers was actress Elizabeth Taylor.
05/31/2026: Absquatulate (verb) To slip out without being seen
05/24/2026: Semiotician (noun) An expert at reading signs, symbols, gestures, and other visual cues
05/17/2026: Jyngine (adjective) Wryneck-like. A wryneck is either of two species of European woodpeckers that can whip their heads around almost 180 degrees, which, combined with hissing, serves as a threat display.
05/10/2026: Idiolect (noun) The individualistic traits of a person’s speech. A further subdivision of dialect.
05/03/2026: Hapax legomenon (noun) The bane of dictionary authors, a word within a particular language that occurrs only once in the written record
04/26/2026: Mesonoxian (adjective) Pertaining to midnight
Catherine Parr
Elizabeth Montagu
Dante
Sappho of Eresos
Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel)
Menander
Thomas Hardy
James Lowell
Enheduanna
Salvador Dalí
Hall Caine
<span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:169px;"><i>Methinks love maketh men like Angels.<br><br><aside>Catherine Parr</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:176px;"><i>I never invite idiots to my house.<br><br><aside>Elizabeth Montagu</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:174px;"><i>Go forth and preach impostures to the world, but give them truth to build on.<br><br><aside>Dante</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:173px;"><i>Beauty endures only for as long as it can be seen; goodness, beautiful today, will remain so tomorrow.<br><br><aside>Sappho of Eresos</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:146px;"><i>Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.<br><br><aside>Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel)</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:175px;"><i>The man who cannot blush, and who has no feelings of fear, has reached the acme of impudence.<br><br><aside>Menander</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:158px;"><i>You can do anything with bayonets except sit on them.<br><br><aside>Thomas Hardy</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:174px;"><i>May is a pious fraud of the almanac.<br><br><aside>James Lowell</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:180px;"><i>You have gathered the many powers, / You have clasped them now / Like necklaces unto your breast.<br><br><aside>Enheduanna</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:183px;"><i>Have no fear of perfection — you’ll never reach it.<br><br><aside>Salvador Dalí</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:159px;"><i>A sort of a Manxman crossed with a bat. Got no tail to speak of, but there’s plenty of ears at him. A handy sort of a dog, only a bit spoiled in his childhood.<br><br><aside>Hall Caine</aside></i></span>


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