• sultry • Pronunciation: sêl -tree • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1. Oppressively hot and humid, sweltering. 2. (of women) Sensual, sexually attractive, arousing desire in men. Notes: Today's Good Word comes with the usual adverb and noun, sultrily and sultriness . It is paralleled ...

• ribald • Pronunciation: rai -bawld or rib -êld • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Bawdy, raunchy risqué, coarsely funny, borderline obscene. Notes: Today's rather tawdry word started its life in the 13th century as a noun referring to the lowest servants in the royal court. Its meaning...

• parasite • Pronunciation: pæ -rê-sait • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. An organism that depends on a host for its own survival, contributing nothing to the host. 2. A person who lives at the expense of another person or other people without contributing anything in return, a sponger, a...

• bygone • Pronunciation: bai -gawn • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: Temporarily gone by, chronologically passed, past, implying outmoded, old fashioned. Notes: Today's is a word used in so few familiar phrases, like 'bygone days' and 'bygone years' that we seem to have forgotten it is...

• ashram • Pronunciation: ah -shrahm • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. A place of religious retreat and sanctuary, especially a Hindu retreat. 2. A hermitage, a secluded dwelling of a Hindu sage. Notes: This word is seldom heard in conversations; it is more often read in published works. ...

• enteric • Pronunciation: en- ter -rik • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1. Pertaining to the intestines or, more generally, the digestive tract. 2. Designed to pass through the stomach unaltered and disintegrate in the intestines. Notes: Here is a word that has become much more useful...

• bonkers • Pronunciation: bawng -kêrz • Hear it! Part of Speech: Adjective Meaning: 1. Crazy. nuts, balmy, daft, loony, bananas, meshuga. 2. (British navy slang) Tipsy, light-headed, mildly drunk. Notes: Today's word is a rather funny synonym of crazy. It contains a very rare suffix, -ers, which p...

• blarney • Pronunciation: blahr -nee • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun, mass Meaning: 1. Persuasive cajolery, eloquent flattery, silver tongued speech. 2. Nonsense, poppy-cock; foolish, misleading talk. Notes: Today's word is a lexical orphan, albeit an unusual one. It is unusual for a noun to refer...

• obfuscate • Pronunciation: ahb -fê-skayt • Hear it! Part of Speech: Verb, transitive Meaning: 1. To dim or darken, to obscure by light deprivation or other means. 2. To make confusing, to obscure the meaning of, to make less comprehensible. Notes: The spelling of this word is rather easy since th...

• relic • Pronunciation: re -lik • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. An object or idea that has survived history in ways others in their class have not, a remnant. 2. An object or idea cherished for its association with a famous historical or religious figure, a memento. Notes: Today's word...

• funambulism • Pronunciation: fê- næm -byê-li-zêm • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. Rope or wire walking, tightrope or slack-rope, highwire, or skywalk. 2. A delicate complicated maneuver requiring a balancing act between two opposing forces. Notes: I love words that lead us down the gar...

• hypocorism • Pronunciation: hai-pê- kor -ri-zêm • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: 1. A pet name, a nickname, an unofficial affectionate label. 2. The use of such names. Notes: Here is the word for all shortened names and some labels, including diminutive nicknames like Billy or Jimmy , or ...

• furlong • Pronunciation: fêr -lawng • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: A unit of length measuring 660 feet, 220 yards, 1/8 of a mile or 201 meters. Notes: Here is a word that is bit dated but still available. If you are a horse-racing fan, you hear it often. It is unrelated to furlough , so...

• apricity • Pronunciation: ê- pri -si-ti • Hear it! Part of Speech: Noun Meaning: The light or warmth of the sun, especially in winter. Notes: Here is a pretty word with a pleasant meaning that has been crushed under the wheels of time. Actually, before it became a victim of chronology back in the...

Monika Freund sent this comment about luftmensch : In German there is a similar expression: Luftnummer . It means, if someone promises something that, upon closer inspection, turns out to be impossible, that is also a „Luftnummer“. “Das ist eine Luftnummer,” is what people say, for example, when som...