Archive

This month’s word is:

Pettifogger – someone who argues over something petty or trivial, or who is excessively concerned with unimportant detail.
What a lovely word.

Example:
‘Stop being such a terrible pettifogger and focus on the main points of the case!’
There’s a few people not a million miles away that this would apply to…

This month’s word is Humdudgeon.

The urban dictionary actually gives a few definitions.

1) A person down on his/her luck
2) A grumpy simpleton
3) Someone who sits in the corner of parties angrily eyeing guests, or pervertedly leering at the young female guests
4) Someone who sits in the corner at a party POKING other guests as they walk by… usually with a drink in their hands.

‘Oh my goodness, what a humdudgeon you’ve met there.’

‘That hundudgeon really rubs me up the wrong way.’

This month’s word is Betwixt.

This month’s word was chosen purely because we love its feel of old fashioned, fusty bookishness: Betwixt (adverb or proposition) – meaning ‘between’

“Betwixt” and “between” have similar origins: they both come from a combination of the prefix ‘be-’ and an Old English root meaning ‘two’. Both words appeared before the 12th century, but the use of betwixt dropped off considerably toward the end of the 1600s.

It survived in the phrase “betwixt and between” (neither one thing nor the other), but nowadays betwixt is uncommon. It’s still widely understood, though, and this writer, for one, will be making a conscious effort to reintroduce it into common parlance. Until next month’s word, at least.

This month’s word is Hebetude.

hebetude (heb-uh-tude), noun.
It means lethargy or dullness.

Example:
Pull yourself together Gregory and shake off these chains of sloth and hebetude.