Mighty Deep Roots

Defenestrate

To Defenestrate someone is to throw them out of a window.

God, I love this word.  Not only is it absolutely amazing that there actually is a word for this, but it's such a threatening word.  It screams transitive, clearly something, without any knowledge of what it means, that you must do to someone.  Someone bad.  I've been told that it is often mistaken for meaning something along the lines of castrate.  Either way, it comes across as something deeply unpleasant.

Dotage

A person's dotage is the period of their lives when they are on the downward path into senility.

I can often be heard to claim that I dislike euphemisms.  This is a lie, in part.  What I dislike are bad euphemisms.  Dotage, on the other hand, is a very good one.  It refers to something that is sad at best and tragic at worst.  It is a horrible thing to watch a vibrant mind decay.  When you say that a person is in their dotage, though, it makes it sound like they're just old and silly and fun and enjoying themselves and their grandchildren, possibly playing in a greenhouse somewhere (oh, and they're British, for some reason).  To say that someone is in their dotage makes it sound somehow like they're vaguely high all the time, rather than in the grips of a terrible disease.  That, my friends, is a good euphemism.

Nougat

-Nougat refers to any of a variety of similar candies made of sugar or honey, roasted nuts, and sometimes chopped fruit.  The term is very loosely applied when we use it to describe the substance in various American candy bars, as those are generally made of mixes of whipped sugar and sucrose.

Nougat has managed to be the primary selling point of many candy bars since at least my youth despite the fact that very few of us know what the hell it actually is.  I certainly didn't know until a few months ago.  All I knew is that it's a really fun word to say and, if that's the stuff in between the chocolate in a 3 Musketeers, I like it.  That's why they say it on the commercials, you know.  Not because we like it or even know what it is, but because it just sounds so damned delicious.  Go ahead, say it: "Nougat."  Hell yeah.

Anatidaephobia

-"The fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you."

This comes from a Far Side strip by Gary Larson published years ago (thus the quotation marks).  The word has snuck into some popular culture (the nerdier side), mostly based on the fact that it's really damned funny.  Maybe I've just hung out with some of the very nerdiest of nerds, but I've heard people use the word anatidaephobia to describe the sensation of impending doom, and I really like it for that.  Using it as such is, I suppose like a nerd secret handshake that lets other nerds know what you are.  Then again, you spout off about anatidaephobia, and norms might have the distinct impression that something's up.  So maybe it's like a really obvious secret handshake: everyone knows that something's going on, but only those who are hip to it will know quite what.

(photo dramatization)

Masturnapping

-Masturnapping: the ultimate in lazy indulgence.  To spend a day masturnapping is to spend the day idly cycling between eating, masturbating, watching TV, and napping.

My very dear friend Layla introduced me to this word.  I was so glad to have a word to encapsulate those days where you manage to get absolutely nothing of any use to any other human beings done.  It's one of those words that you don't get to use very often, but when you do use it, it's perfect.

Or maybe you do get to use it often.  You should be careful, you'll go blind or something.

Schadenfreude

-Schadenfreude is the feeling of sudden, unexpected pleasure at another's misfortune or pain.  It's commonly mistaken with sadism, but true sadism is taking pleasure in actually inflicting harm on another. 

The etymology is simple: it comes directly from the German, with Schaden, meaning harm, and Freude, meaning joy.  In that delightful German way, the two words are just slapped together to make a new, complex word.

All on its own, Schadenfreude is a great word.  It succinctly describes something that would otherwise require a wordy, less elegant description.  Plus, it's a word that's coming into vogue, so it's pretty likely to be understood by a literate crowd.  What I love most about the word, though, is how utterly German it is.  I don't think that I can explain it adequately, but it seems to me that if any language should have a word for this feeling, it is German.  Partly it's because we associate black leather and whips with Germany, I think (let's face it: even among Europeans, Germans are pretty odd).  Partly, too, it's that German seems to have a word for everything, probably because the Gerrmans are so likely, when searching for a word, to just glue several other words together and make a new one.  It's just good engineering.  This is very much one of those "I just love that there is a word for this" words.

Duty

Heh heh, duty.  Ok, that's really childish. 

And yet. . . . . . .

Zygodactyl

-A Zygodactyl animal has two pairs of toes on each foot aligned opposite to each other, two toes on the front of the foot and two toes on the back.

Wow.  Isn't that just one of those awesomely specific words?  I'm thinking that if you have a reason to use this in conversation, you are absolutely required to, now that you know it.  Also, it's great fun to say.

(suggested by the love of my life, Ingrid)

Cwtch

(that's pronounced basically like "Kutch," I think)
-Cwtch comes from Welsh, and literally means something like "a safe place." 

Cwtch can refer to a cupboard of sorts or a storage place (like a "coal cwtch" in the basement), or maybe something more like a "cubby" in America.  More interestingly, though, it also refers to a more metaphorical, personal safe place.  It is often used to refer to intimate gestures, from the way a mother wraps up a baby in a shawl or holds her children to a hug between old friends to a cuddle between lovers.  It also can be used to mean to keep something private or secret.  Sometimes it is used more broadly to refer to the feeling of safety and privacy that being comfortable with loved ones brings.  Mostly, I think it's used as we use the word "hug," but it seems to imply much more.  I like how much can be carried in this word, how the idea of safety and comfort can mean so much, and can be imparted in simple gestures.  American English doesn't have a word that I think even begins to carry all of this meaning in it, so I think that we should bring it in, even if only for the awesome spelling.

[note: a Welsh friend of mine pointed out that Cwtch was added to the Oxford Concise Dictionary in August of 2005]

Effervescent

- To bubble, foam, hiss, as a gas escapes, generally from a liquid.  Also used to describe someone who is lively, energetic, entertaining.

It's a fun word, certainly.  It brings up images of Alka-Seltzer and champagne, sophisticated women with perfect, engaging laughs.  There's something of youth in this, too.  Champagne is only effervescent for a limited time, because it is letting that which makes it wonderful escape for your pleasure.  It is that way, I think, when someone is effervescent.  It isn't a state that can be maintained indefinitely; it is deeply, intrinsically associated with youth.  A bubbly, effervescent woman is indulging in her youth for you.

I think that I especially love this word in the verb form: to effervesce.  "We all sat in wonder, watching her effervesce in the circle of strangers."

This girl made this word hit my brain.  Here's a picture of her joyfully popping bubbles.  She seemed unaware that anyone else was even there.  She was totally in the moment, and deeply infectious, giving all of us huge smiles.