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The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English: Based on the Oxford English Dictionary and Its Supplements
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1264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1911
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July 28, 2020
Dictionary best words – 1991 the concise oxford dictionary
William Caxton the first English sprinter 1942 to 1991, exercised an important but not always beneficial influence. The unnecessary insertion of H in ghost for example is due to Caxton And the change had its effects on other words such as ghastly and perhaps ghetto. In general Caxton used the form of English prevalent in the South East of England although the East Midlands dialect was more extensive. The choice, together with the growing importance of London as the essential English capital gave the dialect of the South East a special importance that survives to the present day.
so here are some of my best words and phrases:
• aboulia: the loss of will power as a mental disorder
• ack emma: formerly a signallers name for the letters AM
• Admass: the section of the community that is regarded as readily influenced by advertising and mass communication.
• Arriviste: an ambitious or ruthlessly self seeking person
• aubade: the poem or piece of music appropriate to the dawn or early morning
• auto da Fe: a sentence of punishment by the Spanish inquisition
• Ballon d’essai: an experiment to see how a new policy will be received
• Beau geste: a generous or gracious act
• beelzebub: the devil and the name comes from the hebrew word which is “ba’al ze bub” which literally translates to Lord of the flies which was the name of a phillistine God
• Billy oh: very much, hard, strongly for example it's raining like billy oh
• black Maria: a police vehicle 4 transporting prisoners
• boustrophedon: of written words from right to left and then from left to right in alternating lines this is from the Greek word which describes an ox which turns in ploughing in a field
• ca’canny: A practise of going slow at work; a trade unions policy of limiting output
• cadmean victory: same as a pyrrhic victory which is a victory which you win But you lose a lot in it also
• caryatid: this is a pillar in the form of a draped female figure which you often see on Big Greek buildings
• casus belli: an act or situation Which provokes or justifies war. So you could say that the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand by gavrilo princip was a casus belli
• Chiliasm: this is the doctrine of all the belief in Jesus christs prophecised reign of 1000 years on earth which is still to come
• Cockalorum: A self important little man
• Cosa Nostra: a US criminal organisation resembling and related to the mafia
• deux ex machina: an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation
• Deimante: Decorated with powdered crystal or other sparkling substances
• disjecta membra: Scattered remains, fragment's especially of written work
• dolce far niente: pleasant idleness
• echolalia: the meaningless repetition of another persons spoken words
• eirenicon: a proposal made as a means of achieving peace
• Eminence grise: a person who exercises power or influence without holding office
• Enosis: a political union of Cyprus and Greece
• Eudemonism: a system of ethics that bases moral obligation on the likelihood of actions producing happiness
• Factotum: an employee who does all kinds of work.
• Faineant: an idle of ineffective person
• Fartlek: a method of training which mixes fast with slow running
• Feu de joie: salute by firing rifles on a ceremonial occasion
• Fille de joie: a prostitute
• Formication: sensation of ants crawling across your skin
• Gossamer: what spiders webs are made up of
• Gotterdamerung: the downfall of the gods or a regime
• Grand siècle: golden age
• Harum scarum: wild and reckless
• Hendiadys: connecting 2 words and maybe 2 different concepts with “and” eg .. nice and warm
• hypnopaedia: learning by hearing while asleep
• ides: the 15th day of march, July, In October and the 13th of other months.
• Idiolect: The form of language used by an individual person
• inflagrante delicto: caught in the very act of committing an offence
• INRI: the sign which was written on Jesus cross . In Latin it is written as Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum. which means Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.
• jejune: intellectually unsatisfying
• jobs comforter: someone who pretends to comfort you but actually causes you distress
• Maieutic: a Socratic mode of enquiry serving to bring a persons latent ideas into clear consciousness
• Meliorism: a doctrine that the world may be made better by human effort
• Mutatis mutandis: making the necessary alterations
• Nebuchadnezzar: a wine bottle of 20 times the normal size
• Occams razor: a principle made up by Willam Of Occam who was an English philosopher that the fewest possible assumptions should be made in explaining something
• Omerta: the practise of silence as practised by the mafia
• Opsimath: a person who learns only later in life
• Panjandrum: a mock title for an important person
• Parthian shot: a remark or glance reserved for the moment of departure
• Peripeteia: a sudden change in fortune
• peter principle: the principle that you are promoted until you get to a point that you cant go any further
• phatic: sayings like “nice weather isn’t it?” which is supposed to convey sociability rather than a specific statement
• pooh-bah: someone who holds many offices and looks after many things at the same time
• potlach: north American Indian custom where you compete on how much you can give away to your guests
• Pyrrhic: something which is won at too great a cost
• Quod erat demonstandum QED. So show that you have proved something.
• Quaquaversal: pointing in every direction
• Quorum: a minimum number of people that need to be there to get a meeting started
• Rachmanism: the exploitation of slum tenants by unscrupulous landlords
• Rape: any of the 6 ancient divisions of Sussex. Crawley is in the “rape of Lewes”
• Rhabdomancy: finding water underground by holding sticks
• Risorgimento: unification of Italy achieved in 1870
• Rubicon: point of no return The phrase comes from the Story of when Julius Caesar attacked Rome. He crossed a River called the Rubicon Which was a point of no return for him and his army.
• St lukes summer: period of fine weather expected around 18th of October
• Saint Martins summer: the period of fine weather expected around 11th of November
• Samadhi: in Hinduism this is a state of concentration That can be brought on by meditation
• Samizdat: system of clandestine publication of banned literature in Russia
• Sangfroid: this literally means cold blooded in French but in English this means to be composed or very cool under pressure
• Satori: Sudden enlightenment
• Savoir faire: The ability to act suitably in any situation
• schadenfreude: an enjoyment in other peoples failures
• Scylla & Charybdis: two dangers such that if you avoid one of the dangers it just increases the risk from the other. It's named after a sea monster and a Whirlpool in Greek mythology
• Sfumato: The technique that Leonardo davinci used for painting the corners of the Mona lisas mouth which gives it that blurred effect. it's a technique of allowing tones and colours to shade gradually into one another and is linked to the word in Italian “fumare” to smoke
• Shibboleth: an ancient passport used by certain Jewish tribes. The word “sibbolet” actually means an air of corn and it was used because some tribes couldn't pronounce it properly.
• Sinecue: position that requires little or no work
• Spoonerism to get the 1st letter of two words mixed up so you could say that “you have hissed the mystery lectures”. This is named after an English scholar called WA Spooner
• strappado: this is a form of torture in which the victim is secured to a rope and then made to fall from a height almost to the ground then stopped with a jerk
• strine: This is a word used to describe the comic translation of Australian speech so for example Australians would say “Emma Chissit?” - but in normal English that would mean That they're saying “how much is it?”
• Sturm and drang: this was a literary and artistic movement in Germany in the late 18th century which was characterised by the expression of emotional unrest and strong feelings
• Suttee: This is the Hindu practise of a widow throwing herself onto her husband’s burning funeral pyre when he's being cremated
• Synaesthesia: this is when You sense something using one sense but your mind converts it into a different sense. For example you may smell a certain smell and then immediately see a certain colour
• Taxidermy: the art of preparing and stuffing the skins of animals and sometimes humans to make them look real. At my University in University College London you can see Jeremy bentham's taxidermized body in the main cloisters.
• tergiversate: someone who changes ones party or changes ones principles
• Thaler: An old German silver coin And the origin of where the American dollar comes from
• tmesis: the separation of parts of a compound word by an intervening word or words . For example “I can't find it any-blooming-where”
• Ultimogeniture: a system in which the youngest son has the right of all the inheritance from their father
• Vade-mecum: A Handbook that is carried constantly for use the word is Latin for go with me
• weltanschauung: a particular philosophy or view of life or a conception of the world
• Withershins: anticlockwise or in a direction country to the sun’s course and considered as unlucky
• Yggdrasil: In Scandinavian mythology an ash tree whose roots and branches join heaven and earth and hell
• Zugzwang: in chess this is the obligation to move in ones turn even when this must be disadvantageous
William Caxton the first English sprinter 1942 to 1991, exercised an important but not always beneficial influence. The unnecessary insertion of H in ghost for example is due to Caxton And the change had its effects on other words such as ghastly and perhaps ghetto. In general Caxton used the form of English prevalent in the South East of England although the East Midlands dialect was more extensive. The choice, together with the growing importance of London as the essential English capital gave the dialect of the South East a special importance that survives to the present day.
so here are some of my best words and phrases:
• aboulia: the loss of will power as a mental disorder
• ack emma: formerly a signallers name for the letters AM
• Admass: the section of the community that is regarded as readily influenced by advertising and mass communication.
• Arriviste: an ambitious or ruthlessly self seeking person
• aubade: the poem or piece of music appropriate to the dawn or early morning
• auto da Fe: a sentence of punishment by the Spanish inquisition
• Ballon d’essai: an experiment to see how a new policy will be received
• Beau geste: a generous or gracious act
• beelzebub: the devil and the name comes from the hebrew word which is “ba’al ze bub” which literally translates to Lord of the flies which was the name of a phillistine God
• Billy oh: very much, hard, strongly for example it's raining like billy oh
• black Maria: a police vehicle 4 transporting prisoners
• boustrophedon: of written words from right to left and then from left to right in alternating lines this is from the Greek word which describes an ox which turns in ploughing in a field
• ca’canny: A practise of going slow at work; a trade unions policy of limiting output
• cadmean victory: same as a pyrrhic victory which is a victory which you win But you lose a lot in it also
• caryatid: this is a pillar in the form of a draped female figure which you often see on Big Greek buildings
• casus belli: an act or situation Which provokes or justifies war. So you could say that the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand by gavrilo princip was a casus belli
• Chiliasm: this is the doctrine of all the belief in Jesus christs prophecised reign of 1000 years on earth which is still to come
• Cockalorum: A self important little man
• Cosa Nostra: a US criminal organisation resembling and related to the mafia
• deux ex machina: an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation
• Deimante: Decorated with powdered crystal or other sparkling substances
• disjecta membra: Scattered remains, fragment's especially of written work
• dolce far niente: pleasant idleness
• echolalia: the meaningless repetition of another persons spoken words
• eirenicon: a proposal made as a means of achieving peace
• Eminence grise: a person who exercises power or influence without holding office
• Enosis: a political union of Cyprus and Greece
• Eudemonism: a system of ethics that bases moral obligation on the likelihood of actions producing happiness
• Factotum: an employee who does all kinds of work.
• Faineant: an idle of ineffective person
• Fartlek: a method of training which mixes fast with slow running
• Feu de joie: salute by firing rifles on a ceremonial occasion
• Fille de joie: a prostitute
• Formication: sensation of ants crawling across your skin
• Gossamer: what spiders webs are made up of
• Gotterdamerung: the downfall of the gods or a regime
• Grand siècle: golden age
• Harum scarum: wild and reckless
• Hendiadys: connecting 2 words and maybe 2 different concepts with “and” eg .. nice and warm
• hypnopaedia: learning by hearing while asleep
• ides: the 15th day of march, July, In October and the 13th of other months.
• Idiolect: The form of language used by an individual person
• inflagrante delicto: caught in the very act of committing an offence
• INRI: the sign which was written on Jesus cross . In Latin it is written as Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum. which means Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.
• jejune: intellectually unsatisfying
• jobs comforter: someone who pretends to comfort you but actually causes you distress
• Maieutic: a Socratic mode of enquiry serving to bring a persons latent ideas into clear consciousness
• Meliorism: a doctrine that the world may be made better by human effort
• Mutatis mutandis: making the necessary alterations
• Nebuchadnezzar: a wine bottle of 20 times the normal size
• Occams razor: a principle made up by Willam Of Occam who was an English philosopher that the fewest possible assumptions should be made in explaining something
• Omerta: the practise of silence as practised by the mafia
• Opsimath: a person who learns only later in life
• Panjandrum: a mock title for an important person
• Parthian shot: a remark or glance reserved for the moment of departure
• Peripeteia: a sudden change in fortune
• peter principle: the principle that you are promoted until you get to a point that you cant go any further
• phatic: sayings like “nice weather isn’t it?” which is supposed to convey sociability rather than a specific statement
• pooh-bah: someone who holds many offices and looks after many things at the same time
• potlach: north American Indian custom where you compete on how much you can give away to your guests
• Pyrrhic: something which is won at too great a cost
• Quod erat demonstandum QED. So show that you have proved something.
• Quaquaversal: pointing in every direction
• Quorum: a minimum number of people that need to be there to get a meeting started
• Rachmanism: the exploitation of slum tenants by unscrupulous landlords
• Rape: any of the 6 ancient divisions of Sussex. Crawley is in the “rape of Lewes”
• Rhabdomancy: finding water underground by holding sticks
• Risorgimento: unification of Italy achieved in 1870
• Rubicon: point of no return The phrase comes from the Story of when Julius Caesar attacked Rome. He crossed a River called the Rubicon Which was a point of no return for him and his army.
• St lukes summer: period of fine weather expected around 18th of October
• Saint Martins summer: the period of fine weather expected around 11th of November
• Samadhi: in Hinduism this is a state of concentration That can be brought on by meditation
• Samizdat: system of clandestine publication of banned literature in Russia
• Sangfroid: this literally means cold blooded in French but in English this means to be composed or very cool under pressure
• Satori: Sudden enlightenment
• Savoir faire: The ability to act suitably in any situation
• schadenfreude: an enjoyment in other peoples failures
• Scylla & Charybdis: two dangers such that if you avoid one of the dangers it just increases the risk from the other. It's named after a sea monster and a Whirlpool in Greek mythology
• Sfumato: The technique that Leonardo davinci used for painting the corners of the Mona lisas mouth which gives it that blurred effect. it's a technique of allowing tones and colours to shade gradually into one another and is linked to the word in Italian “fumare” to smoke
• Shibboleth: an ancient passport used by certain Jewish tribes. The word “sibbolet” actually means an air of corn and it was used because some tribes couldn't pronounce it properly.
• Sinecue: position that requires little or no work
• Spoonerism to get the 1st letter of two words mixed up so you could say that “you have hissed the mystery lectures”. This is named after an English scholar called WA Spooner
• strappado: this is a form of torture in which the victim is secured to a rope and then made to fall from a height almost to the ground then stopped with a jerk
• strine: This is a word used to describe the comic translation of Australian speech so for example Australians would say “Emma Chissit?” - but in normal English that would mean That they're saying “how much is it?”
• Sturm and drang: this was a literary and artistic movement in Germany in the late 18th century which was characterised by the expression of emotional unrest and strong feelings
• Suttee: This is the Hindu practise of a widow throwing herself onto her husband’s burning funeral pyre when he's being cremated
• Synaesthesia: this is when You sense something using one sense but your mind converts it into a different sense. For example you may smell a certain smell and then immediately see a certain colour
• Taxidermy: the art of preparing and stuffing the skins of animals and sometimes humans to make them look real. At my University in University College London you can see Jeremy bentham's taxidermized body in the main cloisters.
• tergiversate: someone who changes ones party or changes ones principles
• Thaler: An old German silver coin And the origin of where the American dollar comes from
• tmesis: the separation of parts of a compound word by an intervening word or words . For example “I can't find it any-blooming-where”
• Ultimogeniture: a system in which the youngest son has the right of all the inheritance from their father
• Vade-mecum: A Handbook that is carried constantly for use the word is Latin for go with me
• weltanschauung: a particular philosophy or view of life or a conception of the world
• Withershins: anticlockwise or in a direction country to the sun’s course and considered as unlucky
• Yggdrasil: In Scandinavian mythology an ash tree whose roots and branches join heaven and earth and hell
• Zugzwang: in chess this is the obligation to move in ones turn even when this must be disadvantageous
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