sping
...the number of [...] fake pings--"spings"--has also increased... --Blog firm working with Google to cut 'spings', vnunet.com, 10 February 2006 The wikipedia entry on sping says the word is...
mokita
"Mokita" means "the truth everyone knows but no one talks about," according to Wendalyn at Mavens' Word of the Day. Wendalyn adds that the word apparently "comes from the Kilivila...
compere
Turns out a "compere" is a master of ceremonies (MW11 sez "chiefly British"). And to compere is to emcee. I had seen "compeer" before (mostly in Pogo, I think), for...
rimu
According to MW3, "rimu" is "a tall New Zealand timber tree." It's a Maori word. I probably won't post too many plant names in this blog; as when playing Fictionary,...
saponify
To "saponify," sez MW11, is "to convert (as fat) into soap." Not exactly a word that one is likely to need in everyday use....
coign
[...] he had wedged himself in the coign of a double-stemmed meshwood trunk[...] --On, by Adam Roberts, p. 225 of the 2002 Gollancz paperback edition This one looks even...
marmoreal
Carved like a gargoyle visage in the side of the wall, massive, marmoreal, except that a great rumbling low breath escaped from between its lips[....] --On, by Adam Roberts,...
tourbillon
[...] he was scarred, the skin twisted and pulled as if in fright. Or caught in a powerful wind; although [...] there was a dead, waxy gleam to the...
mile
Somehow it never occurred to me before (unless I've forgotten) to wonder about the etymology of the word "mile." In Adam Roberts's novel On, there's a moment when a character...
numeeja
[...] and remember the heady days when numeeja was all the rage. --Boo.com dusts down website for June relaunch, The Register, 24 January 2006 Never heard the term before....