h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

New developments - Mark's passing the Word of the Day over to me. Which I think will be rather enjoyable. We're thinking about cool new things to do on the page. I see there's been lots of feedback on the subject of changing format already... and if you've got any more ideas about what we could do, let me know!

Sententious, An excellent word this and it sums up so many people I've worked with, I never knew one word could be so appropriate.

Sententious - abounding in or given to pompous, high-flown or aphoristic moralizing.

Pendantry's a nice word, if a little common for this column:

Pendantry (n. The act of nitpicking)

iconoclast n. A person who attacks cherished beliefs or traditional institutions.

I rather like "prevaricate". It means to act or speak evasively.

For instance: Let's not prevaricate about the bush...

(Apologies to Wallace and Gromit.)

Faraday.

To increase by a factor of six.

One of those words that sounds naughtier than it actually is.

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I believe that a very important word is scholionophobia. This is the phobia of school. All of us hitchiker's who must find an excuse to leave school may one day find this word very useful. Please, expose the general population of us h2g2er's to this very important means of escape. Thank you.

My brother had scholionophobia! He stayed off school for 3 weeks in 3rd year... he's very intelligent, but he didn't want to take any sh|t from the teachers. (who would? not me!)

Cut xxx

I've always been rather fond of

mugwump, one who espouses both sides of a controversial question. Apparently it's derived from an Algonquin indian word, although there's a bit of "folk etymology" that claims it refers to a person who has his mug on one side of a fence and his wump on another.

Also there is

hurlyburly, which means commotion or tumult

How about "diaspora"

How about "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicavolcanoconiosis"? (yes I just have to be better than everyone else )
It means a disease caused by inhaling quartz dust (the word is longer than the definition!)


Cut x x x

How about mordant?

Catachrestical adj : constituting or characterized by or given to catachresis

Which in turn is
Catachresis n : strained or paradoxical use of words either in error (as `blatant' to mean `flagrant') or deliberately (as in a mixed metaphor: `blind mouths')


I'm quite sure there's a lot of us catachrestical hikers in here.

what about masticate? it means to chew, but some people get very confused when you use it in ordinary conversation - eg "i'm having an operation and i won't be able to masticate for six weeks" reply from hapless victim "but how will you relieve tension?" oh dear

OMPHALOS (AHM'-fah-luhs) is a £50 synonym for a belly button, but it can also be used to describe the center of something other than your belly. For example, "omphalos" was the name of a stone at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi which was considered to mark the centre of the known world.

So Belly Button Piercers could have a really 90's job title (like "Refuse co-ordinator" for a dustman/binman)... Omphalos beautification technician?

Having had Catachresis so wonderfully accepted (I'm honoured that you took it and am proud to say I have now officially contributed to an official guide entry and at long last have a record on the bottom right of my home!), may I be so bold as to suggest

Tautology n. [L. tautologia, F. tautologie.] A repetition of the same
meaning in different words.

Lest I should display insolence i would like to proffer this word as it features among my favourites. It doesn't beat Serendipity which so very closely matches my experiences whilst surfing h2g2. Have we had Polylogy yet? I would so much prefer this word to be pronounced Polly lodgey as it would conjur images of a bird cage (perhaps inhabited by a somewhat existence inhibited Norwegian Blue), but I digress.

I have two possible entries which I try to utilise (in either speech or in the middle of important meetings) as often as possible. They are:

borborygmous (plural - borborygmi) n. a rumbling or gurgling noise made by the movement of fluid and gas in the intestines.

callipygian / callipygean adj. having well formed buttocks (also callipygous)

i'm curious as to what kind of meetings you have that you can use callipygaen often!

Sadly, I do not get too use it too often which is a shame. The world would be a much brighter place of I could. Perhaps the callygean state of the office could be a question I ask when I am next interviewed for a job...