salawat
"Salawat" (also transliterated "salawaat" and perhaps other ways as well) is apparently the term for certain blessings used by Muslims, particularly the Arabic phrase "salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam" (abbreviated...
Mind the gap
Sorry about the long pause here over the past couple weeks. I haven't forgotten about this blog; just been busy, and keep neglecting to post the words that have been...
catchpenny
Another one from a submission. "Catchpenny" is an adjective, meaning "using sensationalism or cheapness for appeal" (sez MW11). Useful in all sorts of circumstances. Dates back to 1750. Presumably refers...
platypus beatkeeper
I'm sure y'all know about hinky-pinkies. Here's a sort of quasi-variant: one person gives a clue, others try to find an answer that consists of two adjoining words (or phrases)...
flocculent
It's possible I've seen this word before, but it's a funny word, so I'll post it anyway. It turns out that the word "flock" can be a synonym for "floc."...
widdershins
I had always assumed that "widdershins" derived somehow from "widow shins," though I was never quite sure what that had to do with anything (something about witches and shinbones, no...
topit
A "topit" is a "[l]arge pocket in the lining of a jacket that allows [a stage] magician to vanish items by tossing them secretly and smoothly into the pocket," according...
neritic
I just looked up "oceanic," and the definition distinguished oceanic waters from "littoral or neritic waters." I had a vague idea that "littoral" was something to do with margins, and...
calcine
[...] yellow, like sand calcined and made incandescent by the sun[....] --We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, translated by Bernard Guilbert Guerney in 1960; p. 92 of the 1977 Penguin edition...
faience
His face had its usual look: it was a round plate of white faïence[....] --We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, translated by Bernard Guilbert Guerney in 1960; p. 87 of the...