There's a fun little article in today's Telegraph about words that have been rejected by the OED and now skulk miserably in a vast oubliette somewhere among the dreaming spires. You can read the article here. The failed candidates are mainly portmanteau words. My favourite was dunandunate, which is to learn a new word and then use it incessantly.
Being the weblog of Mark Forsyth
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Dunandunate
There's a fun little article in today's Telegraph about words that have been rejected by the OED and now skulk miserably in a vast oubliette somewhere among the dreaming spires. You can read the article here. The failed candidates are mainly portmanteau words. My favourite was dunandunate, which is to learn a new word and then use it incessantly.
My fav is 'dringle' (watermark left on wood by a glass of liquid.
ReplyDeleteI like furgle; I am constantly furgling in my bag or a drawer for things. A Very Useful word.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to read this article again in 2015 and see "griefer", "earworm", "pharming" and "freegan" on the list. I wouldn't be at all surprised if all four of those were in the OED by now.
ReplyDelete