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

Oh, there are so many fun phobias. Triskaidekaphobia--fear of the number 13; gymnophobia--fear of nudity; ailurophobia--fear of cats; ophidiophobia--fear of snakes; agoraphobia--fear of open spaces....

Floccinaucinihilipilification--the categorizing of something as worthless or trivial

Salubrious--good for one's health

Autological--(of an adjective) descriptive of itself (e.g. short, polysyllabic)

Heterological--not descriptive of itself (see above)

Pulchritudinous--possessing physical beauty

what about preciprocation? i don't actually know if its a word,but me and my friends use it to describe preemptive reciprocation.

i'm afraid i like the old ones, like moist, pert and possibly soiled

Ah yes, and verisimilitude--the appearance of reality (or "realisticness")

ah, why not "pulchritudinous" - a great word!

Always liked it.

Castigate?

If you are looking for some new slants to w-o-t-d how about a section
to clear up common confusions, you'd be amazed how many people don't know that there is a difference between say excrescence and excrement, let alone what it is. There also seem to be a lot of people around who think that a millenium is a period of 999 years but that could be a whole different can of worms.
Explanations of odd sayings (like 'can of worms') could be another line for you.

Continually vs. continuously needs to be cleared up too.

Tenesmus - a straining motion whilst attempting to defecate (either due to constipation, obstipation (another good word) or perhaps being unable to stop after a particularly violent bout of diarrhoea (a bad word))

Used to great comic effect in Curry houses up and down the land with the question "Waiter, do you have Chicken Tenesmus"

I think we should have some zeds in there, how about Zeitgeist- the spirit of our time.

Ooo, I agree, also something beginning with Q, X and Y, too. And we could do with a few more Ds, Is, Js, Ks, Rs, Us and Ws...

I found one that starts with a D in the Cassell Encyclopaedia Dictionary. It is a medical word, but I think it would be amusing to start using it to refer to publishers, gossips, and mass media.

Discutient: adjective- (Med.) having power to disperse morbid or abnormal matter. noun- a discutient preparation.

If it's Q you want then I use this word quite often when talking to older chums of mine....
As in..
"Hey you groovy quadragenerian!!"

It means someone aged 40-49...

Gulp!!! Don't even think what Groovy means... LOL

Just a quick note to let you know that Today's word could be spelt wrong, shouldn't it have an 'r' after the 't' in 'trophic'
Also, without trying to sound pucilanimously versipotent i thought that if you put the pronunciation of the word in brackets after it, that would go down a storm! also, here is a nice word for you guys... Galeanthropy (n. gal-ee-AN-thra-pee) The delusion that one has become a cat.

Yours Grandiloquently,
Trick Stapler

Oops, sorry about that, slip of the finger, or possibly something to do with not having had enough coffee by that time of the morning... All better and corrected now.

Was keen to reward your eagle eye by including your rather lovely suggestion, Galeanthropy, but, sadly, was unable to find it at/in either Dictionary.com or the Oxford English Dictionary... Hope you find pusillanimous - with two ls - to be a worthy substitution.

Ubiquitous - seeming to be everywhere at once. (q.v. things to do)

Beryl (n)-
a hard transparent material.

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalianism-
Being in a habit of saying long words.

You almost definatley won't find the second one in any consice dictionary. You really want to find it, you find a big meaty one with 1000 pages first published in 1952. You know the sort.

I think "trouser" takes some beating.