Discombobulated - confused and disconcerted or ‘thrown in a big way’
Elucidate - make clear something that has previously been unclear, to draw meaning out of it
Farrago – a mishmash, a hotchpotch, a confused mixture
Gallimaufry – the French word for stew, but also means jumble or hotchpotch
Infinitesimal – tiny, tiny, tiny, immeasurably small
Intromission – the act of putting something inside something else, an insertion
Obfuscation – derived from the Latin for dark, this is another word meaning perplexity or bewilderment. If you are obfuscating, you are intentionally pulling the wool over someone’s eyes
Perspicacious – perceptive, observant – not so much in the literal using your eye more in the sense of the emotional, intellectual insightful.
Prevaricate – not exactly to lie but certainly to be economical with the truth; to mislead or avoid answering the question
Putative – from the Latin to think, this means supposed, reputed, but there is an implication that whatever is suggested isn’t true or proven
Ratiocination – a posh word for working something out logically or methodically
Recherché – a French word meaning ‘thoroughly searched for’
Sibylline – means not only prophetic but mysterious with it
Solecism – a mistake, a gaffe or a violation of etiquette
Stultify – literally to render stupid, but more generally to make something or someone useless or ineffective
Ameliorate – to make rich or become better
Badinage – light hearted witty chat or banter
Compunction – without hesitation or regret
Confabulate – to chat or to converse
Desuetude – disuse, not being used or practiced anymore
Enervate – to deprive of energy or vigour, to weaken either physical or morally
Exigency – a demand that cannot be avoided
Exiguous – scanty or meager
Extirpate – to pull out by the roots, to eradicate completely
Impecunious – a fancy alternative to ‘having no money’
Inchoate –meaning ‘just beginning or about to begin’, undeveloped
Largesse – generosity
Modicum – a bit, a small quantity. Often used of an abstract quality e.g. if you had a modicum of common sense you would have closed the windows before it started to rain.
Mollify – to soothe, to make less harsh or angry
Prerequisite – from the Latin meaning an acquired possession, this is the word from which we get perk as in the perks of the job
Profligate – associated with spending, lots of money, this comes from the Latin for corrupt and can mean immoral as well shamelessly extravagant.
Promulgate – loosely used to mean ‘spread widely’
Propitiate – meaning fortunate, promising good things
Rejoinder - a reply, a riposte, especially a sharp, witty one.
Repudiate – to reject, disown or refuse to admit to
Schadenfreude – literally ‘harm joy’, this means taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others, the feeling you get, not when you win but when someone else loses.
Sinecure – from words meaning without care, this means an easy job, one that pays you money without your having to do too much to earn it.
Aegis – normally in the expression under the aegis of someone, this means under their protection or patronage
Crespuscular – pertaining to dusk, dimly lit
Denizen – an old-fashioned or poetic word for an occupant or inhabitant
Detritus – literally, loose stones worn away from rock, bits, and pieces of exploding stars or other naturally occurring debris
Empyrean – it means heavenly, relating to the heavens, but also heavenly in the sense of sublime
Halcyon – from the Latin for ‘kingfisher’, halcyon means peaceful, gentle and carefree
Miasma – an unhealthy atmosphere, particularly one caused by something decomposing
Oligarch – the word is Greek in origin and refers to a member of any small group that happens to be in power
Prelapsarian – literally means ‘before the fall’ and can be used to refer to a state of extreme innocence, naively or other condition in which ignorance is bliss.
Subfusc – dark or gloomy
Zeitgeist – German for ‘spirit of the time’
Allegory - comes from the Greek for ‘to speak figuratively’
Amanuensis – a secretary or literary assistant
Bathos – anti-climax, a descent from something emotional to something banal
Circumlocution – talking around something, refusing to come to the point
Corollary – one thing that springs up as a practical consequence of another
Dilettante – is Italian and it means someone who dabbles, who studies or works at a subject superficially’
Elision – it means the omission of a letter or a syllable from a word, as in don’t or shouldn’t
Hagiography - strictly speaking, this means writing about saints, but has come to mean any biography that is noticeable uncritical of its subject.
Patois – the French for dialect, pronounced pat-wa. In English, it means any regional variation from the written language or the jargon of a particular group.
Tautology – may also be described as a redundancy, a pleonasm or a prolixity. It simply means using unnecessary words without adding anything to the meaning.
