A Visual Alphabet-Dictionary of Unusual Words

By Maria Popova

As a lover of language and words, especially obscure and endangered words, I was instantly besotted with Project Twins’ visual interpretations of unusual words, originally exhibited at the MadArt Gallery Dublin during DesignWeek 2011.

**Acersecomic**
*A person whose hair has never been cut.*

**Biblioclasm**
*The practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media.*

**Cacodemonomania**
*The pathological belief that one is inhabited by an evil spirit.*

**Dactylion**
*An anatomical landmark located at the tip of the middle finger.*

**Enantiodromia**
*The changing of something into its opposite.*

**Fanfaronade**
*Swaggering; empty boasting; blustering manner or behavior; ostentatious display.*

**Gorgonize**
*To have a paralyzing or mesmerizing effect on: Stupefy or petrify*

**Hamartia**
*The character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall.*

**Infandous**
*Unspeakable or too odious to be expressed or mentioned.*

**Jettatura**
*The casting of an evil eye.*

**Ktenology**
*The science of putting people to death.*

**Leptosome**
*A person with a slender, thin, or frail body.*

**Montivagant**
*Wandering over hills and mountains.*

**Noegenesis**
*Production of knowledge.*

**Ostentiferous**
*Bringing omens or unnatural or supernatural manifestations.*

**Pogonotrophy**
*The act of cultivating, or growing and grooming, a mustache, beard, sideburns or other facial hair.*

**Quockerwodger**
*A rare nineteenth-century word for a wooden toy which briefly became a political insult.*

**Recumbentibus**
*A knockout punch, either verbal or physical.*

**Scripturient**
*Possessing a violent desire to write.*

**Tarantism**
*A disorder characterized by an uncontrollable urge to dance.*

**Ultracrepidarian**
*A person who gives opinions and advice on matters outside of one’s knowledge.*

**Vernalagnia**
*A romantic mood brought on by Spring.*

**Welter**
*A confused mass; a jumble; turmoil or confusion.*

**Xenization**
*The act of traveling as a stranger.*

**Yonderly**
*Mentally or emotionally distant; absent-minded.*

**Zugzwang**
*A position in which any decision or move will result in problems.*

Some of the designs are available as prints in the Project Twins shop.

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Published July 2, 2012
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https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/07/02/project-twins-unusual-words/
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A Visual Alphabet-Dictionary of Unusual Words

By Maria Popova

www.themarginalian.org

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A Visual Alphabet-Dictionary of Unusual Words

By Maria Popova

www.themarginalian.org

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