The Big A! In the beginning was A.
“Words, Words, Words”, mused Shakespeare’s brooding and enigmatic eponymous protagonist in Hamlet [Act II, Scene II]. Indeed, for those wordsmiths, verbivores and aficionados in the grips of logolepsy (fascination or obsession with words), words, lexemes, morphemes, lógos, verba, call it whatever you like, are the very stuff of the world. If you are like me and take a delight in being exposed to new words, always looking to add to the building blocks of your vocabulary, then your interest might be piqued enough to browse the following list of words, a select lexicon with entries which include the obscure, the archaic, the unusual, the peculiar and (sometimes) the downright creepily weird. To begin at the beginning, the letter “A”, primus intra pares among the strictly-ordered glyphs. “A” in the Latin alphabet is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.
Word | Meaning | Derivation |
Abactor | cattle thief or rustler | L Late Latin abigō ('drive away') |
Achloropsia [cf. Acyanopsia colour-blind blue] | colour-blind green | Gk a + clor ('green') + -podia (rel. to 'sight') |
Acephalous | lacking a (clearly defined) head | Gk akephalous ('headless') |
Acersecomic | one who has never had his or her hair cut | Gk akersekómēs ('young with unshorn hair') |
Acrologic | pertaining to initials; using a sign to represent a word denoting its initial letter or sound, assoc with hieroglyphics & acronyms | Fr acrologique |
Adelphogamy | a form of polyandry; marriage of 2 or more brothers & 1 or more wives (context: Royal marriages in Ancient Egypt, usually between siblings) | Gk adelphi ('brothers') + -gamus ('marriage') 戮 |
Adventitious | occurring as a result of an external factor or by chance, rather than by design or inherent nature; coming from outside, not native | L adventicious (coming to us from abroad") |
Agelast | someone who never laughs; a humourless person | Mid Fr agélastos ('not laughing') |
Agersia | not growing old in appearance | Gk a ('not') + geras ('age') |
Agnomen | an epithet; an appellation appended to a name (eg, Rufus the Indolent) | Anc Rome a 4th name occasionally bestowed on a citizen in honour of some achievement |
Agnosy | ignorance esp universal ignorance; unenlightened; bereft of spiritual understanding or insight | Gk agnōsia ('ignorance') |
Aleatory | something dependent on the throw of dice or on chance; random; (esp in indurance) | L alea a kind of dice game |
Amanuensis | Iiterary or artistic assistant, in particular one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts | L a manu + -ensis ('slave at handwriting') + 'belonging to') |
Ambivert | someone who a balance of extrovert & introvert features in their personality | L ambi ('on both sides') + vertere ('to turn') |
Aneabil | unmarried; single | origin unknown |
Anecdotage | someone with a tendency to be garrulous; anecdotes collectively | Gk anekdota ('unpublished') + -age |
Anemocracy | government by the wind or by whim | Gk anemo ('wind') + -cracy ('rule') |
Anhedonia | inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activities | Fr anhédonia+ ('without pleasure') |
Animadvert | criticise or censure; speak out against | L animadvert-ere ('to notice or remark on a subject') |
Antanaclasis | a literary trope whereby a single word is repeated, but in 2 different senses (for effect, a common form of punning) | Gk antanáklasis ('reflection'; 'bending back') |
Antelucan | pre-dawn | L ante ('before') + luc ('light') |
Antemundane | existing before the creation of the world | L ante ('before') + Fr mondain ('of this world') |
Antipudic | covering one's private parts | anti + L pudendum ('genitals'; shame') |
Apodysophilia | feverish desire to undress (a form of exhibitionism) | origin unknown |
Appurtenance | accessory associated with particular lifestyle, eg, luxury | OFr from L appertinere ("belong to") |
Aptronym§ | the name of a person which neatly matches or is amusingly appropriate to their occupation or character (eg, possessor of the highest-ever recorded IQ, Marilyn vos Savant; a Russian hurdler by the name of Marina Stepanova) | neologism, purportedly coined by US columnist Franklin P Adams |
Archimage | great magician, wizard or enchanter 慄♂️ | New Latin from Late Gk archimagus |
Aristarch | a severe critic | after Aristarchus of Samothrace, a Greek grammarian, (2nd BC) |
§ the concept of aptronym gives legs to the theory of nominative determinism which hypotheses that people tend to gravitate towards jobs that fit their surname, eg, a BBC weather presenter with the name Sara Blizzard ️ | |
ABACTOR (Image: American Fine Art)
ADELPHOGAMY
ARISTARCH: Aristarchus of Samos