46 Uncommon But Useful Words

Good additions to the counselor’s vocabulary.

This is the first in a five-part series on vocabulary.

A good vocabulary signals a good mind. That’s useful whether you’re a helping
professional or not, in your worklife and outside.

For example, if you are a counselor, a good vocabulary helps ensure you understand
what your client is saying. And if your response reflects that, you’ve also enhanced your
credibility. Of course, use an uncommon word only if you feel confident the person will
understand it and know that you’re choosing that word because it more accurately
reflects what you’re trying to say, not that you’re trying to show off.

Another plus for a good vocabulary is that on encountering uncommon words while
reading, you’re less likely to need to stop to look it up.

And of course, a good vocabulary is valuable when writing although the use of
uncommon words risks your appearing like a show-off.

For all those reasons, when I read or hear a word I don’t know but have encountered
before, I write it in a Microsoft Word file named “vocabulary,” look it up on Merriam-
Webster.com or Dictionary.com, write a definition and, if helpful, that entry’s use of the
word used in a sentence.

Here, I’ve selected 46 words from my list that would seem useful to psychotherapists,
counselors, and coaches. Most are more precise in meaning than a common word yet
are understandable by enough people. That makes them worth adding to your
vocabulary. You might simply take the first five you don’t know and learn those. In
ten days, you’ve significantly boosted your vocabulary.

For each word, I include the most common definition plus the word in a sentence that’s
relevant to people in counselor roles.

Rather than list the words alphabetically, they’re in estimated order of likely utility:

abject: contemptible. The lawyers so dragged out the proceedings, that both parties
ended up in abject poverty.

enervate: weaken mentally or morally. After being “laid off” three times in a row, she felt
too enervated to look for another job.
effete: over-refined. His manner was effete, from his cocked cap to the way he lifted his
tea cup.

fatuous: silly yet smug. His self-satisfaction when telling inane jokes made him
a laughing stock.

credulity, readiness to believe. Having gone broke, her credulity opened him to get-rich-
quick schemes.

remonstrate: argue in protest. The child knew he’d get his way if he remonstrated long
enough.

n’est-ce pas (pronounced ness-pah): Right? No one is going to support you so you
better support yourself, n’est-ce pas?

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT

reprobate: without scruples. That reprobate would do anything to get a sale.

insouciant: carefree, nonchalant. His insouciant manner attracted women who liked the
dandy type.

risible: laughable. In the face of round after round of layoffs, the corporate slogan, “Our
people are our most important product” is risible.

mien: demeanor. Her mien was demure, insouciant.

mawkish: insincerely emotional. She doesn't want to appear like the cold fish she really
is, so she makes mawkish expressions of empathy.

execrable: detestable. Not having seen their aging parents in two years is execrable.

fulsome: insincere, mawkish. The employee’s fulsome praising the boss didn’t fool him
a bit.

fractious: irritable. Everyone was afraid the fractious guy would explode.

abjure: renounce. I abjure all rights to child visitation in exchange for no longer having to
pay child support.

fulminate: denounce forcefully. She fulminated against the president even when
watching him on TV.
importune: beg persistently. She was so eager to marry that she importuned him until
he felt so pressured, he dumped her.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT

proscribe: command against. The regulations proscribe even the smallest deviations
from the law.

imperious: domineering. The chef’s imperious manner intimidated the entire kitchen
staff.

descry: catch sight of. They quickly pulled their clothes back on lest someone descry
them in the act.

roué: cad. Every woman in town was wary of that roué except of course for those who
were attracted to bad boys.

martinet: demander of conformity. The boss was a martinet; who insisted that everyone
had to punch a clock and divide the work precisely equally.

cavil: quibble. Siblings can cavil even over who gets to wash their hands first.

querulous: peevish. Ever so querulous, you’d think she was looking for an opportunity to
argue with you.

tendentious: biased. Today, many people are more tendentious than even-handed.

timorous: beyond timid, fearful. He was understandably timorous as he awaited

the psychiatric evaluation.

expiate: make amends for. He went all out to expiate himself for having cheated on his
wife.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT

calumny: slander. To get that promotion, my coworker said such unfair things about me,
such a calumny.

apotheosis: supreme example. She is the apotheosis of the modern spouse: superb at
work and at home.

impecunious: having too little money. The lack of good jobs has made many formerly
middle-class people impecunious.
interlocutor: a go-between. The parents were so at odds that they needed a therapist if
only as an interlocutor.

noisome: annoying, noxious. The noisome office culture led to high turnover.

orotund: bombastic. The professor’s orotund voice was commanding if intimidating.

asperity: harshness. The teacher’s asperity yielded a quiet classroom but the kids hated
her.

ipso facto: a logical extension. He suddenly opened a secret account. Ipso facto, she
concluded he was hiding money from her.

obeisance: deference. At family gatherings, everyone paid obeisance to grandma.

Solipsism: self-centeredness. The politician always talked about the community but in
reality was a monument to solipsism.

sapient: wise, usually said ironically. Oh sapient professor, why do your theories so
rarely work in practice?.

dissimulate: hide under false appearance. As an actress, she was trained to

dissimulate, so she had no trouble hiding her feelings off-stage.

parvenu: newly rich. Her conspicuous consumption suggested she was new to the
game, a parvenu.

sententious: pompous moralizing. People rolled their eyes at the sententious, fire-and-
brimstone sermon.

cynosure: center of attention. At a party, she always needed to be the cynosure.

portmanteau: amalgam of qualities. His portmanteau of intelligence, looks, and money,

made him irresistible.

sang-froid: equanimity. Despite the intense questioning, he maintained his sang-froid.

weltschmerz: worn down by the world's ills.. After years of fighting the system, he was
weighed down by weltschmerz.
1. bowdlerize 12. moiety

edit by omitting or modifying parts one of two approximately equal parts

considered indelicate
13. recapitulate
2. esoteric
summarize briefly
understandable only by an enlightened
inner circle 14. unctuous

3. lugubrious unpleasantly and excessively suave or

ingratiating
excessively mournful
15. remunerative
4. gauche
for which money is paid
lacking social polish
16. pithy
5. extrinsic
concise and full of meaning
not forming an essential part of a thing
17. fiduciary
6. prurient
relating to or of the nature of a legal
characterized by lust trust

7. protean 18. circumlocution

taking on different forms an indirect way of expressing something

8. tautology 19. fractious

useless repetition easily irritated or annoyed

9. deciduous 20. fatuous

shedding foliage at the end of the devoid of intelligence

growing season
21. gerrymander
10. pragmatic
divide voting districts unfairly and to
concerned with practical matters one's advantage

11. diminutive 22. paradigm

very small a standard or typical example

23. euphony 34. churlish

any pleasing and harmonious sounds having a bad disposition; surly

24. onus 35. quotidian

a burdensome or difficult concern found in the ordinary course of events

25. docket 36. abjure

a temporally organized plan for matters formally reject or disavow a formerly

to be attended to held belief

26. chicanery 37. jibe

the use of tricks to deceive someone shift from one side of the ship to the
other
27. acumen
38. loquacious
shrewdness shown by keen insight
full of trivial conversation
28. expurgate
39. timorous
edit by omitting or modifying parts
considered indelicate shy and fearful by nature

29. pecuniary 40. supercilious

relating to or involving money having or showing arrogant disdain or

haughtiness
30. abrogate
41. insipid
revoke formally
lacking interest or significance or impact
31. jejune
42. diffident
lacking interest or significance or impact
showing modest reserve
32. auspicious
43. sycophantic
auguring favorable circumstances and
good luck attempting to win favor by flattery

33. abstemious 44. aberrant

marked by temperance in indulgence

 markedly different from an accepted having or covered with hair
norm
56. bibulous
45. meretricious
given to or marked by the consumption
tastelessly showy of alcohol

46. ingratiating 57. fulsome

capable of winning favor unpleasantly and excessively suave or

ingratiating
47. pasquinade
58. insouciant
a composition that humorously imitates
somebody's style marked by unconcern

48. parsimony 59. osculate

extreme stinginess kiss

49. cabal 60. reify

a clique that seeks power usually consider an abstract concept to be real

through intrigue
61. cetacean
50. sobriquet
large aquatic carnivorous mammal with
a familiar name for a person fin-like forelimbs

51. amenable 62. susurration

disposed or willing to comply the indistinct sound of people

whispering
52. austere
63. insouciant
of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor
marked by unconcern
53. stochastic
64. recreant
being or having a random variable
having deserted a cause or principle
54. rarefied
65. importunate
of high moral or intellectual value
making persistent or urgent requests
55. hirsute
66. empyrean a very wealthy or powerful
businessperson
of or relating to the sky or heavens
75. eleemosynary
67. teleological
generous in assistance to the poor
explaining phenomena by their ends or
purposes 76. macerate

68. supernumerary soften and cause to disintegrate as a

result
more than is needed, desired, or
required 77. coruscate

69. idempotent reflect brightly

unchanged in value following 78. detente

multiplication by itself
the easing of tensions or strained
70. limn relations

make a portrait of 79. contretemps

71. flagitious an awkward clash

extremely wicked, deeply criminal 80. scion

72. limpid a descendent or heir

clear and bright 81. potentate

73. orison a ruler who is unconstrained by law

reverent petition to a deity

74. magnate
Wonderful Words That
You're Not Using (Yet)
Once you learn these rare words, we
challenge you to use them in
conversation




Biblioklept

The biblioklept holds her bounty tightly.

Definition: one who steals books
Biblioklept is, in at least some sense of the word, fairly useless. It
is two syllables longer than book thief. It is also unlikely to be
understood by some portion of the people with whom you use it,
and so cannot be said to aid in communication. Happily, we do not
have a merit based vocabulary, and words that are useless have
the same rights of inclusion as do those that are useful.
Many eminent characters have been Biblioklepts.
—The Saturday Review (London, UK), 23 Oct. 1880

Acnestis

If you've got an itch on your acnestis, grab a back scratcher.

Definition: “The part of the back (or backbone) between the

shoulder blades and the loins which an animal cannot reach to
scratch” (Oxford English Dictionary)
This lovely word is not often found; one of the few dictionaries that
does define it, the Oxford English Dictionary, notes that it is “rare in
genuine use.” You may use this word in any fashion you see fit. In
fact, your need of it doesn't even need to be genuine.
With the stocks one assistant is sufficient. They are quite satisfactory
for operations on the withers, the acnestis, the shoulders, the
buttocks, and the tail.
—Louis A. Merillat, Veterinary Surgery, 1906

Grommet

Strong grommets are the key to a good banner, I assume.

Definition: an eyelet of firm material to strengthen or protect an

opening or to insulate or protect something passed through it
All you really need to know about grommets is that they are where
you should put your aglets.
Adm.
Which be the Gromets?
Capt.
They are small Rings made fast to the upper side of the Yard, with
Staples driven into the Yard, and are of no other use but to tie and
make fast the Laskets thereinto.
—Nathaniel Boteler, Sea-dialogues, 1688

Meldrop

Does this cold medicine tackle meldrops?

Definition: “A drop of mucus at the nose, whether produced by

cold or otherwise” (English Dialect Dictionary)
Meldrop used to be in Merriam-Webster dictionaries (it is included
in the 1934 edition of our Unabridged, defined rather poetically as
“a pendent drop, as of mucus at the nose, or of dew”). It is not in
any of our current offerings. The word does not now have
sufficient breadth of usage to merit inclusion, but if you want to
see it get back in our dictionary make sure all your friends start
using meldrop in published writing.
But looke againe on the other part of snotty nosd Gentlemen, with
their drouping mustaches covering their mouth, and becomes a
harbroy to meldrops, and a sucking sponge to al the watery
distillations of the head, he will not spare but drinke with any bodie
whatsoever, and after hee hath washed his filthie beard in the cup,
and drawing out dropping, he wil suck the haire so hartily with his
vnder lip.
—Simion Grahame, The Anatomie of Humors, 1609

Octothorpe

Start a Twitter octothorpe trend.

Definition: the symbol #

The origins of octothorpe are shrouded in mystery; we are fairly
certain that the word began being used in the early 1970s, but we
do not know what led to the prefix for “eight” (-octo) being added to
the component for thorpe (“thorpe”).
They could have done what the Dozenal Society is trying to do. The
dozenals have banished 10 from their vocabulary. Instead, 10 is
called dek and designated by an asterisk, *. Eleven is called el and
designated by an octothorpe, #.
—Irene Virag, Newsday (Long Island, NY), 26 Oct. 1990

Nauseant

The face of a woman who just found out her favorite roller coaster is also a
nauseant.

Definition: an agent that induces nausea

In the event that you ever find yourself feeling nauseated
(or nauseous; either one is fine), say, perhaps by a meldrop clinging
tenaciously to the nose of the person with whom you are speaking,
it may prove useful to distract yourself with the knowledge that
there is a word for the thing that makes you feel that way. Before
you use the word loosely, you should know that nauseant is
generally used in a medical sense, referring to a specific agent
that causes nausea (and often is an expectorant, rather than just
anything which turns your stomach).
Having thus, as we conceived, exhausted all the material medica, we
turned to the second class, which is called atonics, and which we
found to consist of blood-letting, issues and setons, nauseants,
cathartics, gases, and abstinence.
—Monthly Review (London, UK), Nov. 1810

Augend & Addend

Time for a battle of math nerds and word nerds.

Definition: the first and second quantity in an addition of two

things
Have you ever found yourself staring at a piece of paper with “3 +
4” written on it, and wondered ‘what is the proper term for each of
these two respective quantities?’ No? The first number is
the augend and the number that is added to it is the addend. You're
welcome.
If we ask what number increased by b gives c, we seek the augend.
—Hermann Schubert, The Monist (Chicago, IL), 1 Jan. 1893
Obelus

I'm pretty sure there's an obelus or two in the mix.

Definition: the symbol ÷

In addition to serving as the sign indicating division, the obelus is
also used to mark a questionable passage of text. Our dictionary
also uses it for matters of pronunciation. It should be noted that
the entry for the word obelus itself has no obelus in it. However,
you will find this division sign in a number of other entries, such
as nuclear, where we list a pronunciation variant that is
stigmatized (÷-kyə-lər).
The obelus, or division sign, is placed before a pronunciation variant
that occurs in educated speech but that is considered by some to be
questionable or unacceptable.
—Merriam-Webster.com
Wrest pin

Harpists and people who use wrest pin in their daily conversation —both rare
creatures.

Definition: a pin in a stringed musical instrument (as a harp,

piano) around which the ends of the strings are coiled and by
which the instrument is tuned
Nevermore will you have to gaze into the depths of a piano, and,
much as one ponders the depths of one’s own soul, look at the
pins that are wrapped tightly with coiled wire, and wonder ‘what do
you suppose they call those things?’
N. B. The trade supplied with Pianoforte wire, wrest pins, hoppers,
keys, felts, and every requisite for repairing Pianofortes.
—The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW, Aus.), 16 Feb. 1853
Agelast

Definition: a person who never laughs

The humorless agelast comes from the Greek word agélastos (“not
laughing, grave, gloomy"), and not, as one might suppose, from
the fact that spending any time around such a person feels like it
lasts an age. Agélastos in turn comes gelân (“to laugh”), the same
word that gives us gelastic ("arousing or provoking laughter").
Add to these a gift of irony—that confounder of the literalists and
Agelasts—perfect self-possession and an imperturbable sang-froid,
impenetrability of expression and purpose and the equipment of the
Dandy seems to be complete.
— Temple Bar (London, Eng.), Apr. 1890
Amatorculist

Definition: "A little insignificant lover; a pretender to affection"

(Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755)
When one sees how pleased many people are to discover this
word, one that finally will serve to provide an accurate description
of some past lover, it is clear that amatorculisthas not received the
attention it deserves. The word is almost entirely unknown outside
of dictionaries, and lexicographers seem to take a certain vicious
glee in defining it. Joseph Wright, in his 1867 Dictionary of Obsolete
and Provincial English defined the word as "A wretched lover or
galant," and Nathan Bailey, in his 1736 dictionary, referred to it as
"a trifling Sweet-heart, a general Lover."
If you are interested in the proper word to describe an insignificant
love affair, rather than an insignificant lover, it is amourette.
Why, to tell you the truth, Squire Randal, as to the amatorculist, and
his vertiginous gilt-piece of mutability, to such I have nothing to say,
and with such I have nothing to do.
— James Hogg, Tales and Sketches, 1866
Pot-valor

Definition: boldness or courage resulting from alcoholic drink

The fancy way of saying liquid courage, pot-valor is the perfect
word to describe how imbibing a few ounces of something can
make a very bad idea seem like something you should definitely
do right now. Unfortunately, when you are at the point when this
word will be most applicable to you, chances are good that you will
also be too drunk to remember what it is. Write it down on your
arm before you go out tonight.
Againe, some cowards will so dare and bragge out a man in
company, with such swaggering words, whereby the heaters should
thinke there were not a better man to be found: and if it be in a Faire
or Market, then he will draw his weapons, because he knoweth that
he shall be soone parted, for the people will say, that such a one and
such a one made a great fray to day, but I account this but pot -
valour, or a Cowards fray to fight in the streete, for a man can giue
no due commendations of manhood vnto such fighters, for t here is no
valour in it.
— Joseph Swetnam, The schoole of the noble and worthy science of
defence, 1617

Peristeronic

Definition: of or relating to pigeons

Pigeons get short-shrift in our stable of avian metaphors. We
speak of someone with fine eyesight as eagle-eyed, and hawk lends
itself to a variety of words (hawk-like, hawkish, etc.), but rarely do
we compare anyone to the humble, intelligent pigeon. Truth be
told, it is unlikely that you have a distinc t need to use this word
anytime soon, but if it happens we want you to be prepared.
Beside the poor, who, to misquote a scriptural phrase, are always in
evidence, and the scarlet fever epidemic, which, thank goodness, is
abating, London at this writing has a congress of the National Society
of French Professors, an exhibition of the National Peristeronic
Society and a fog—a fog with a big F.
— The Boston Herald, 29 Jan. 1888
Hirquiticke

Definition: "one past fourteene yeeres of age, beginning to bee

moved with Venus delight" (Henry Cockeram, An English
Dictionary, 1623)
For those of you who are unaccustomed to reading definitions
written in the linguistic register of an early-17th century smarty-
pants lexicographer, the meaning of the word above is, well,
"horny teenager." This gives us a very fine example of how
occasionally the words for common things are themselves quite
uncommon, as hirquiticke is extremely rare. It is uncertain where
Cockeram found the word, as we have no evidence of actual use
prior to 1623, although he may have borrowed it from Thomas
Eliot's Latin dictionary of 1538, which defined hirquitalus as "a
chylde, whiche passeth the age of xiiii yeres, and begynneth to be
styrred with lechery."
The Latin word for "he-goat" is hircus, from which we
get hircine ("of, relating to, or suggestive of a goat; especially:
resembling a goat in smell"). Occasional writers have used a
variant of this root to make fanciful nonce-words based on the
goat's reputed libidinousness.
To speak of her hirquitalliency at the elevation of the pole of his
Microcosme, or of his luxuriousness to erect a gnomon on her
horizontal dyal, will perhaps be held by some to be expressions full of
obscœness, and offensive to the purity of chaste ears.
— Thomas Urquhart, Ekskybalauron, 1652