A Standardized Love for Non-Standardized Words

Let’s get one thing straight from the start: I certainly don’t miss prepping for lengthy English Proficiency tests like the GRE, SAT, or TOEFL. Who does? But, and maybe this is the inner linguist in me speaking (as a literature graduate I’m surprised I even had a linguist doppelgänger to begin with!), there is actually one part of the test-studying process that I do genuinely miss, and that’s when I used to sit for endless hours memorizing the meanings of the strangest selection of never-heard of words by tirelessly flipping through various flashcards back and forth. And because there is a charm to complicated words, I decided to include a couple I happened to come across recently and find quite amusing to pronounce:

1.     Limerence (n): The state of being infatuated with another person.

2.     Petrichor (n): The pleasant earthly smell after rain.

3.     Syzygy (n): An alignment of celestial bodies.

4.     Phosphenes (n): The light and colors produced by rubbing your eyes.

5.     Velichor (n): The strange wistfulness of used bookshops.

6.     Defenestration (n): The act of throwing someone out of a window.

7.     Sonder (n): The realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own.

What are some of your favorite “odd” words? Leave me a comment and let me know! J

References:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/danieldalton/bob-ombinate?utm_term=.blbPk7ZQL#.ycrkvOXor