‹  舍  › 
Weird Word of the Week Weird Word of the Week

Thursday 6 August 2026
Ab Vrbe Condita 2779

Facebook RecommendationTwitter RecommendationReddit RecommendationEmail Recommendation
08/02/2026



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.
Recent entries
Touch word to see definition.

07/26/2026: Quaquaversal (adjective) Turning or dipping in any or every direction
07/19/2026: Frugivory (noun) The symbiotic relationship between fruit-eating birds and the fruiting plant itself whereby its seeds get dispersed
07/12/2026: Dephlogisticate (verb) To render something fireproof
07/05/2026: Parnel (noun) A priest’s mistress
06/28/2026: Fluviatile (adjective) Living in rivers
06/21/2026: Atopognosia (noun) The inability to tell where something is touching you
06/14/2026: Assoil (verb) To absolve, to pronounce Not Guilty
06/07/2026: Corncrake (noun) An elusive, omnivorous, chestnut-colored bird of the family Rallidae (rails) that ranges through Eurasia and winters in Africa
05/31/2026: 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.
05/24/2026: Penniform (adjective) Feather-shaped
05/17/2026: 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.
05/10/2026: 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).
05/03/2026: Ulotrichous (adjective) Having tightly curled or “peppercorn” hair
04/26/2026: 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.
04/19/2026: Absquatulate (verb) To slip out without being seen
04/12/2026: Semiotician (noun) An expert at reading signs, symbols, gestures, and other visual cues
04/05/2026: 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.
03/29/2026: Idiolect (noun) The individualistic traits of a person’s speech. A further subdivision of dialect.
03/22/2026: Hapax legomenon (noun) The bane of dictionary authors, a word within a particular language that occurrs only once in the written record
03/15/2026: Mesonoxian (adjective) Pertaining to midnight
Jonathan Swift
Dante
Ernest Vincent Wright
Andrew Lang
Ned Buntline
George Bernard Shaw
Charles Dickens
Fawn Brodie
Preston Sturges
Mason “Parson” Weems
Noël Coward
<span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:174px;"><i>She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on with a pitchfork.<br><br><aside>Jonathan Swift</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:166px;"><i>“… For many days Gadsby had thought of ways in which folks with a goodly bank account could aid in building up this rapidly backsliding town of Branton Hills… ”<br><br><aside>Ernest Vincent Wright</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:176px;"><i>He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts — for support rather than for illumination.<br><br><aside>Andrew Lang</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:184px;"><i>I found that to make a living I must write ‘trash’ for the masses, for he who endeavors to write for the critical few, and do his genius justice, will go hungry if he has no other means of support.<br><br><aside>Ned Buntline</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:170px;"><i>If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.<br><br><aside>George Bernard Shaw</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:182px;"><i>If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.<br><br><aside>Charles Dickens</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:178px;"><i>If the Deseret News is careful not to offend [Nazi] Germany, and I gather that it is falling backwards on the attempt, it is my guess that first of all the Church is afraid of complete banishment.<br><br><aside>Fawn Brodie</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:179px;"><i>When the last dime is gone, I’ll sit on the curb outside with a pencil and a ten-cent notebook and start the whole thing all over again.<br><br><aside>Preston Sturges</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:177px;"><i>Historical fancy is more persistent than historical fact (said of him, not by him).<br><br><aside>Mason “Parson” Weems</aside></i></span> <span class="generic-slide-caption" style="width:176px;"><i>Just say the lines and don’t trip over the furniture.<br><br><aside>Noël Coward</aside></i></span>


kill-button
Name


Your email address


Subject


security question


Message:




Though servers can be balky, you should receive an acknowledgment if your message goes through. If none arrives, please try again.