A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “G” Words

Adult education, Creative Writing, Literary & Linguistics, Popular Culture

Hits the “G” spot!

G-words, words starting with the letter “G”, like “G-men” can be gritty, exacting and uncompromising…sometimes they salaciously and lustfully invoke “the beast with two backs”. Here’s some fairly unorthodox, non-mainstream “G” words you quite possibly have not encountered before.

Gallimaufry: a mixture of different things; a hodge-podge [MFr galimafree (“a kind of stew concocted from various ingredients)]

Galluptious: (or Goloptious) wonderful, delightful, delicious; provocative and sexually alluring [origin uncertain, perhaps alteration of “voluptous]

Gamic: carnal or sexual; requiring fertilisation (biol.) [Old Nth Fr. gam (from “animal’s leg”)]

Genoph: a pickpocket [origin unknown)

Geophilious: live in or near the ground [Gk geo (“earth”) + -phil (“love”)]

Gewgaw: a showy trifle; a trinket; useless, worthless [ME. giuegaue (orig. meaning uncertain)]

Gigantology: the study of giants [Gk. “giant” + -logy]

Glabrous: without hair; smooth [L. glaber (“smooth”; “bald”; “hairless”)] 👨🏾‍🦲

Glossoid: like a tongue [Gk. glōssoeidēs + -oid] 👅

Gnomic: a phrase that’s short, catchy and clever; puzzling, enigmatic and ambiguous yet seemingly profound [Gk. gnome (“an opinion”)]

Goliard: a learned person, esp in the humanities; (hist.) a wandering, fun-seeking scholar/clerical student in medieval Europe who wrote goliardy (irreverent , satiric Latin verse) [MF, origin uncertain)]

Medieval Goliards (Image: faculty.sgc.edu)

Grallator: someone who walks on stilts (taking quite long strides); an ichnogenus dinosaur [L. grallotores (“stilt-walker”)] 🦕

Gremial: pertaining to the lap or bosom; intimate [L. gremium (“lap”)]

Gymnogynomania: urge to rip women’s clothes off [Gk. gymnos (“naked”; “bare”) + gyn (-“wife”; “-woman”) + -mania

Gymnophoria: the sensation that someone is mentally undressing you [Gk. gymnos (“naked”; “bare”) + -phoria (“to bear”)

Gynotikolobo-massophilia: a proclivity for nibbling one’s earlobes [Gk. gyn + –lobos (“earlobe”) + -masáomai (“to chew”) + -phile] 👂

2 thoughts on “A Logolept’s Diet of Obscure, Obsolete, Curious and Downright Odd “G” Words

  1. Append to G-words, a word invented it seems to reinforce the cliche concerning GPs ~ Griffonage: careless handwriting; crude or illegible scrawl.
    [French, from Middle French grifounder “to scribble” (from griffon “stylus”, from griffe “claw”) + -age]

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