- grok
- To understand profoundly through intuition or empathy.
- This one was neologized into being by Heinlein in Stranger in a Strange Land. It’s a nerd thing, really.
- oneiric
- Of, relating to, or suggestive of dreams.
- desiteratum
- Something considered necessary or highly desirable.
- See also “Computer”
- desuetude
- The cessation of use; disuse; discontinuance of practice, custom, or fashion.
- supererogatory
- More than is needed or required.
- It sounds dirty, like, “First we went out to dinner, and then we had supererogatory sex.”
- fin de siècle
- A phrase mostly used adjectively in English to signify: belonging to, or characteristic of, the close of the (19th) century; hence, modern; “up-to-date;” sophisticated; world-weary; decadent.
- I didn’t know it was used adjectively; now I can write even more pretentiously. Rock!
- ratiocination
- The process of reasoning, or deducing conclusions from premises; deductive reasoning.
- Using a lot of different synonyms for “rationalization” is very fin de siècle way of writing.
- celerity
- Rapidity of motion; quickness; swiftness.
- e.g. “The hungry dieting celebrity ate her celery with celerity, but certaintly wasn’t sated.”
- redress
- 1. To put in order again; to set right; to emend; to revise.
- 2. To set right, as a wrong; to repair, as an injury; to make amends for; to remedy; to relieve from.
- 3. To make amends or compensation to; to relieve of anything unjust or oppressive; to bestow relief upon.
- e.g. “After Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson’s boob, he apparently never thought to redress her; instead, she had to redress the nation, Clinton-like, in a televised apology.”
- logorrhea
- Excessive talkativeness or wordiness.
- Yes, it comes from the same roots as “diarrhea.” This, really, means “diarrhea of words.”