Weird and Wonderful Words (1 of 2 free samples)

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COPYRIGHT
Weird and Wonderful Words by Erin McKean. Copyright 2003 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Sharing not permitted.

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WEIRD AND WONDERFUL WORDS

Edited by Erin McKean

With a Foreword by Simon Winchester

For Joey and Henry


FOREWORD
http://www.dailylit.com/books/weird-and-wonderful-words/foreword


INTRODUCTION

What makes a word weird? It would be convenient to say that it’s as ineffable as whatever it is that makes art Art, but that’s not quite true. Words are weird because they have odd sounds, or an abundance of syllables, or a completely gratuitous k, j, q, z, or x. Words are often weird because they mean something weird. They let you see, for as long as you care to dwell on them, some of the truly bizarre things that people have had, done, used, invented, feared, or thought.

What makes a word wonderful is ineffable. It has to hit you like a good joke, or a satisfying denouement, or the scent of something tantalizing in the air. It makes you want to go off on tangents, or rants, or wild goose chases. It adds something, not just to your vocabulary (since you may never even speak or write any of these wonderful words), but to your being. Like anything wonderful (to abuse etymology), it fills you with wonder. It opens vistas.

I hope that by combining the weird with the wonderful in selecting these words we have made a book of vistas and not a linguistic freakshow. There are plenty of words that are weird without being the least bit wonderful—nectocalyx is orthographically weird, but meaning as it does ‘the swimming-bell that forms the natatory organ in many hydrozoans’ it is sadly lacking on the wonder scale. There are wonderful words, such as brio and luminescent, which long familiarity has deprived of any weirdness. Finding a truly weird and wonderful word is like meeting a gorgeous person who is also a good cook and will help you move.

Tremendous thanks and credit go to Sara Hawker and Angus Stevenson, whose original promotional booklet of weird and wonderful words for Oxford in the UK sparked the idea for this book, and also to Michael Quinion for much of the original material. Quite a few of the words within are from their personal collections, for which I am most grateful (it’s lovely that you can give a word away and still keep it for your own). Thanks also to Martin Coleman, for managing the project, relative pronouns, bacon, and all; Sandra Ban, for keeping our quotation marks in line; Nora Wertz, for all things designed; and Casper Grathwohl, for perseverance, enthusiasm, and number-juggling.

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