#1: Defenestration
Definition:
a throwing of a person or a thing out of a window; or a usually swift expulsion or dismissal
Example:
“If you were expecting Michael Steele to stay angry at Republicans over his defenestration from the [Republican National Committee], you were wrong. In the weeks after he lost the job, Steele has appeared on MSNBC and Fox News…” – David Weigel, Slate.com, Jan 31, 2011
#2: Flibbertigibbet
Definition:
a silly flighty person
Example:
“I was very good at being a girl and I’m not quite so good at being a woman. I was good at being quite flighty and dippy and a flibbertigibbet. But I don’t feel so convincing as a responsible human being.” – Actress Emily Mortimer interviewed in The Telegraph, September 19, 2005
#3: Kerfuffle
Definition:
disturbance; fuss
Example:
“‘Glee’ Cast Members React to GQ Kerfuffle” – Headline on WashingtonPost.com, October 21, 2010
About the word:
Kerfuffle is the most recent coinage on this list, dating to 1946. It may be an alteration of the Scottish carfuffle, from the Scottish Gaelic cearr (“wrong; awkward”) plus fuffle (“to become disheveled”).
#4: Persnickety
Definition:
fussy about small details; fastidious
Example:
“I have seen the most reluctant and persnickety buyers change before my eyes when they at last encounter the Perfect House. It’s downright touching.” – Felicia Stidham, TheGeorgetownDish.com, February 13, 2011
#5: Callipygian
Definition:
having shapely buttocks
Example:
“His most prominent work, however, was on the cover of book jackets, where his signature images were of strikingly fierce, hard-bodied heroes and bosomy, callipygian damsels in distress.” – From an Obituary of Frank Frazetta by Bruce Weber and Dave Itzkoff, New York Times, May 10, 2010
#6: Serendipity
Definition:
luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for
Example:
“Old-time print journalists bemoan the absence of serendipity – the accidental discovery of stories that readers didn’t know they were interested in reading.” – L. Gordon Crovitz, Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2010
#7: Mellifluous
Definition:
having a smooth rich flow
Example:
“Ted Williams, a scruffy former drug addict and alcoholic, became a viral sensation this week after he was filmed by a newspaper reporter delivering lines in a mellifluous radio voice.” – NineMSN.com, January 6, 2011
#8: Discombobulated
Definition:
upset; confused
Example:
“On their final possession [of Super Bowl XLV], Pittsburgh looked discombobulated. They were slow to get plays off. Wallace was openly looking at Roethlisberger and motioning with his hands that he didn’t know which route to run.” – Ken Trahan, NewOrleans.com, February 7, 2011
#9: Palimpsest
Definition:
writing material used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased; or, something with diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface
Example:
“Rome, the old hands always say, is a palimpsest. For folks like you and me, that means layer upon layer of history, buried right there in the Eternal City clay.” – Paddy Agnew, The Irish Times, June 23, 2010
#10: Sesquipedalian
Definition:
long; characterized by the use of long words
Example:
“Plus he has a weakness for what we can mischievously call sesquipedalian excess: Look out for such terms as ‘epiphenomenal,’ ‘diegetic’ and ‘proprioceptive.'” – Jabari Asim, Washington Post, November 19, 2000
