January 3, 2012

Words of the Year for 2011

Each year for Christmas some discerning soul gives me a "Word A Day" calendar for the upcoming year.  When I came upon a word that I particulary liked, I would tape the calendar page to the door of my overhead office bookshelf.  Today, I cleared the 2011 Wall of Favourites.  So for posterity,  and in the spirit of sharing my love of words and increasing the volume of my vocabulary, I am sharing with you my Top Ten Words from 2011.

Solecism - a mistake in grammar or speech: something deviating from the proper, normal or accepted order:  a breach of etiquette.

Overweening - arrogant or presumptuous:  immoderate or exaggerated.

Flocculate - to aggregate or coalesce into small lumps or loose clusters.

Apodictic - expressing or of the nature of necessary truth or absolute certainty.

Quidnunc - a person who seeks to know all the latest news or gossip:  busybody.

Espiegle - frolicsome or roguish.

Embonpoint - plumpness of person: stoutness.

Palaver - a long discussion usually between persons of different levels of culture: a conference or discussion: idle talk.

Bouquniste - a dealer in secondhand books.

Eclogue - a poem in which shepherds converse.

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