<word meaning and root formation>

Cabotin: ham actor; theatrical; poser (perjorative) [from Fr. cabotin (“histrionic”]

Cacedoxical: heretical (cf. Cacodoxy: heterodoxy) [from Gk. kákos (“bad”) + –doxa, (“opinion” or “glory”]

Cacestogenous: caused by unfavourable home environment (OU)

Calepin: a notebook; a dictionary, esp a polyglot dictionary [It. calepino, named after Ambrogio Calepino ((15th-16th cent. author of a Latin dictionary]

Callisteia: beauty prizes; originally a festival held by the women of the island of Lesbos, with a prize for the fairest beauty [name of the festival , named in honour of the Greek goddess of Callisto]

Callithumpian: a noisy band parade or demonstration [alteration of gallithumpian)

Cambist: one skilled in the science of financial exchange; a banker [from L. cambire (“to exchange”)]

Campestral: pertaining to or thriving in open countryside [L. from campester from campus (“field”; “plain”) + -al]

Canard: a fabricated anecdote; an unfounded sensational report; a phoney yarn; a hoax — or to put it in immediately-recognisable contemporary currency…fake news [Fr. canard (“duck”), in the sense of being a hoax] 🦆

Cancrine: reads the same backwards as forwards; palindromic [From Latin cancer (“crab”) + -īnus]

Canatory: pertaining to a singer or singing [from It. cantata from L. cantare (“to sing”) + -ory] (cf. Cantatrice: female singer) 🎤

Caprine: pertaining to a goat; goat-like [L. caprīnus,  from caper (“goat”)] 🐐

Carriwitchet: absurd, riddling question; a condundrum; a kind of hoax; pun [uncertain, possibly a humorous alteration of catechism]

Castrophenia: the belief that one’s thoughts are being stolen by one’s enemies (OU, castro- kastron-(?))

Catholicon: a universal remedy or fix; panacea [Gk. katholikós, (“universal”), from katá, “(according to”) + –hólos, “(whole”)]

Charientism: a figure of speech wherein an insult is disguised as or softened by a jest [from Gk. kharientismós]

Chimera: (also spelt Chimaera) imaginary monster; fanciful; impossible idea; a body; an unjustified fear [from Greek mythology: a fire-breathing she-monster having a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail]

Circumforaneous: wandering from house to house, from place to place, from market to market [L. circumforāneus (“itinerant”), from circum- (“around”) + –forum (“marketplace”) + -aneus (“-aneous”)]

Claudicant: (Medic.) limping (L. claudicans from claudio (“to limp”) from claudus (“crippled”)]

Claviger: club-bearer; key-keeper or caretaker [L. from clavi- (“clavi”) – + -ger (“bearing, bearer”)] 🔑

Comiconomenclaturist:  a connoisseur of humorous names; a specialist in the creation of funny names [from L. comicus (“of comedy”) from Gk. komikos (“of or pertaining to comedy”) + L. nōmenclātūra nomenclature (“naming”) + -ist]

Key: OU ➨ origin unknown