Chimera

From Greek mythology, a chimera is a fire-breathing monster with a lion's head, a goat's body and a serpent's tail. But it can also mean something positive that is unattainable in reality, or an imaginary monster made up of parts that don't really fit with each other. You know, like Donald Trump. No wait, he actually exists, doesn't he?

Unputdownable

Believe it or not, this is a real word, the first known citation being by Raymond Chandler when in 1947, he was quoted as saying of a book that it was unputdownable. As in once you pick it up and start reading it, it's so riveting, you can't put it down. Well in fact, what would you use to describe other than a book? Well, maybe these days, you might use it to describe an app or device. A few books I've found unputdownable are Ragtime, the Hannibal Lector series, Shogun and pretty much any Elmore Leonard book. How about you?

Pandemonium

Today, we use pandemonium to refer to wild chaos and uproar. Literally it means the home of the demons, and it was coined by John Milton in Paradise Lost where it was the assignation of the capitol of hell. Not a nice place - though I hear they had some really happening bars and nightclubs.

Snarky

Rude or sarcastic, this word comes from Lewis Carroll's brilliant nonsense poem,

"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.

"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What i tell you three times is true."

The crew was complete: it included a Boots--
A maker of Bonnets and Hoods--
A Barrister, brought to arrange their disputes--
And a Broker, to value their goods.

Read the whole poem

Chintzy

Cheap, poor, crappy, bargain basement, low quality, gaudy... if something is chintzy, don't buy it. You can almost guess what the word means just by the sound of it, can't you?

Polyanna

A Polyanna is a person who is blindly optimistic putting everything in a positive light. You know the type. In fact, you can probably ascribe the word to several of your Facebook friends. It comes from Eleanor Porter's popular children's book from 1920, which had sequels and movie adaptations. Although the word is used negatively now, the title character, Pollyanna was the heroine of the story.

Shenanigans

Mischievous behavior, as in "What kind of shenanigans are you kids up to?" Nowadays, it is also often used in the phrase, "I call shenanigans," meaning "I suspect you are trying to pull one over on me." I just love the sound of this word. Try saying it out loud. It will lift your mood.

Mosey

To move in a leisurely fashion. This is a country word; it's not a city word. It's a west coast word, not an east coast word. It's a word used in the dialog of old western movies with Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne, not in the dialog of gangster movies by Scorcese.  Nobody moseys on down anywhere in a Scorcese movie.

Commiserate

To commiserate is to sympathize with someone over their poor fortune.An elegant, lovely word, if you ask me. So what do you say, shall we commiserate together?

Berserk

Native English speakers, and many others, will know that berserk means crazy, deranged, reckless, destructive and violent. But did you know that the word originates from the ancient Scandinavian warriors known as berserkers who fought in a trance or possibly drug-induced state?

Sanguine

Hopeful, confident, cheerful - the word sanguine originates from the ancient theory of the four humors or personality types. The theory went that if you had blood as your dominant bodily humor, then you were a happy-go-lucky type.  The other three humors are:

Choleric: Too much yellow bile makes you a bad-tempered hombre
Melancholic: Black bile makes you the quiet, introspective type
Phlegmatic:  An abundance of yellow bile produces a chilled out type of dude

The idea was to have a good balance of all four, which is still a good rule, I think. But in the middle ages, it lead to the idea of blood-letting as a medical treatement.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoetic words suggest their meaning by the very words themselves, for example, splash drip, meow. Listen to the Spike Jones version of Old Mcdonald Had a Farm for more examples. (Anyone remember Spike Jones?)

Digerati

If the literati are the elite group who are extremely knowledgable about literature, the digerati are those who are in the know about computers and technology. The digerati are the influencers, the elite, the geek-hipsters of the internet.

Malapropism

The misuse of a word that sounds similar to another word to comic effect. Malapropism comes from the playwright Richard Sheridan's character Mrs. Malaprop from the play, The Rivals, who often was guilty of this. The 1970's American comedian, Norm Crosby, built his whole career on malapropisms.
Check him out.

Shibboleth

A word or phrase that can be used to identify whether someone belongs to a given group. The word comes from the Bible's Book of Judges, where one tribe could not pronounce word Shibboleth the way their rival tribe did, and thus it was used to expose enemies, Kind of like Danes asking foreigners to try to pronounce the phrase: "Rødgrød med fløde," although that's usually more for laughs.

Hypnagogic

Refers to that strange, almost hallucinogenic state between wakefulness and slumber just before you fall asleep. Kind of like the state that Donald Trump appears to be in all the time.

Quixotic

Idealistic to the point of foolishness. This word comes from the Spanish classic novel, Don Quixote. You could be guilty of worse things than being quixotic, though.

Donkeyman

A man who works in the engine room of a ship. Ah, that's kind of disappointing, eh. But on the other hand, what did you think it would mean?