Hapax Legomena

anathematics             the counting of awful things

apolyglottic               sorry about not speaking many languages

apopalypse                end of the world by overcrowding

arabisque                   soup for belly dancers

avengelist                  bringer of bad news

baker’s doesn’t         eleven rolls

bardello                      whorehouse for poets

bigmy                         potentot

bignitary                    VVIP

cantopener                faulty kitchen tool

carpsichord               musical instrument that complains when you make mistakes

cerebrity                     famous thinker

Circa                         goddess of approximations

clandestination          secret rendezvous

contretrumps             minor setback in bridge

desperanto                 international language of bandits

dialectessen               place where Hegelians eat pastrami sandwiches

dictatochip                 snack for tyrants

dieties                         gods of weight loss

dismambulator       baby carriage that tears apart babies

drousers                     pajama bottoms

entrepenurious       full of ambitious plans for going bankrupt

epicalypse                 Third Coming

festidigitator               one who pinches girls at parties

fibbonachos              Mexican snack where one bite leads to two, two bites lead to three,

three bites lead to five, five bites lead to eight, eight bites lead to thirteen . . .

fraturniquet                brotherly first aid

freakeasy                   opium den

generocide                wiping people out for their own good

genufraction              ceremonial knee-breaking

gisticulate                   point to the point

glimp                          reconnaissance dirigible

gnusis                         esoteric knowledge of wildebeests

grimlin                        bloody-minded dwarf

hearspray                   rumor passed from coiffeur to coiffeur

hemigogue                apprentice mass-agitator

hemisemidemiquiver   last spasm of a dying flea, or

container for songs about miniature archery

henceman                  one who infers what his boss wants

hensation                   commotion raised by a rooster

hiberniate                   spend the winter in Ireland

hippodream               racetrack for nightmares

horniculturalist          connoisseur of lust

humbris                      underweening pride

hystereotype             caricature that causes panic

idillitry                        pickle-worship

indignition                 outrage over a car that won’t start

inuition                       Eskimo insight

irredentistry               science of reclaiming lost teeth

itchcraft                      art of giving someone hives by magic

jurisprudery               blue laws

kalitosis                      good breath

lendthrift                    soft touch

malcohol                    bad booze

maledictory               parting curse

malthusiasm              delight over mass starvation

mentropy                   exhaustion of ideas

metrapolis                  large city from which there is no escape

millodrama                soap opera with a thousand episodes

moodoo                     magic practiced by cows

mucillade                   volley of glue

nespotism                  tyranny of cousins

nihilarity                     joyous bomb-throwing

nostalgae                   seaweed that causes homesickness

obtruce                       cease-fire no one understands

ominobus                  large menacing vehicle

ostrachize                  punish someone by pretending he’s not there

otterloo                       weasels’ last stand

peremulate                 walk like someone else

perverb                      dirty old maxim

pestiary                      book of vermin

phlegmzy                  fit of coughing

pilfrey                         home for stolen bats

piscotheque               dance hall for fish

plethargy                   group indolence

poltrine                       outhouse for chickens

porm                           obscene verse

pornithologist            dirty bird watcher

pregulations               rules governing the rhythm method

prehistoic                   stiff-upper-paleolippic

prigeny                       parthenogenic children

prigmy                        impotentot

proclastinate              avoid something until it breaks

protectile                    anti-missile missile

purridge                     soft food for cats

sacerdotage               priestly senility

sansscript                   earliest form of writing, with no characters

sartori             mystical illumination of tailors

sibjection                   ordering around your brother or sister

skulldrudgery           laborious conspiracy

spaghetto                   Italian slum

sparendipity              problem of mediocre bowlers

splindor                      shattered glory

sploon                        utensil for eating while angry

squandary                 dilemma over how to spend all of one’s money

stoolhardy                 not giving a shit

stupension                 severance pay for a lobotomy

swino                         drunken pig

tadpool                       day-care center for frogs

teleoloscope              instrument for viewing one’s destiny

tinder-hearted            easily inflamed by passion

tintintabulation          the counting of bells

transcrit                      language used on ancient college records

umbilishment         navel adornment

uncannilever             beam supported at neither end

verminion                  ten red mice

worstiary                    book of disgusting animals

 

 

Michael Ferber, Laurence Marschall, Paul Chalmer