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
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