Hapax Legomena
Extending my last post – the verbal fringe-dwellers afoot in any fat dictionary – I’ve gathered a bunch of words that still mean next to nix to me. Chief reason being I remain nonplussed by their supplied definitions.
Earlier this year, under Hazy Definitions, I cited such brain-bending examples as these:
praltriller: inverted mordent
blackman’s potatoes: see early Nancy
spathe: conspicuous bract subtending a spadix
velarise: to produce with velar articulation
Um, okay. I think I saw someone velarising on the tram last week, but he cleaned up afterwards.
So, moving onto the next batch of hazy definitions, see if any of these abstruse words mean the least to you. All hail from Macquarie 3rd Edition, and each one adjoins a nebulous definition. With no reference guide allowed, I dare you identify any of these hombres:
impatiens
imparipinnate
hapax legomenon
rupture wort
Poisson’s ratio
(I’ll come back to these after a decent burst of think-music. In the meantime, any other dictionary words you’ve found whose definitions or sheer freakin’ obscurity defy mortal understanding?)