Tag Archives: word lists

Glossophilia’s year-end mega-list of word lists

lists

He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice … And Santa’s not the only one doing it. List-making has become the world’s favorite past-time — especially as the year draws to a close — and Glossophilia isn’t going to miss out on the fun.  Here’s a compilation of 24 of the year’s best word lists, each with a couple of notable examples/entrants to make you click. Thanks to the kings of lists, Buzzfeed and mentalfloss, for supplying most of them. Enjoy!

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Top 8 (real) misspellings from 2013
Prozaic, impeckable

‘Tis and 10 other fun proclitic words
‘Twas, ’twill, th’art

12 old words that survived by getting fossilized in idioms
kith, umbrage

A wordnado of words in 2013 (from the New York Times)
Bae, cronut

The 10 most 2013 words
sequestration, surveillance

6 grammar points to watch out for in Christmas songs
“You better watch out, you better not cry …”

The Independent’s 2013’s words of the year
cybernat, fracker

11 wonderful winter weather terms
Hoarfrost, albedo

Merriam-Webster’s Year in Words, 2013
knaidel, indemnify

15 fun phrases that were popularized during Prohibition
Jake walk, teetolater, and hooch

9 words that genuinely might be added to the Oxford English Dictionary
legsie, dosant

What we liked in 2013: words (from The Guardian)
listicle

10 Latin phrases people pretend to understand
Habeus corpus, quid pro quo

The words that popped in 2013 (from the Wall Street Journal)
subtweet, doge

15 delightful flapper-era words for ‘awesome’

The fly’s thighs, the sardine’s whiskers, the clam’s cuticle

12 words and phrases that were popularized in the funny pages
wimpy, worrywort

15 words etymologically inspired by animals
tyke, hobby and hackneyed

11 word of the year candidates everyone forgot immediately
deleb, blamestorm

The last words of 17 historical figures
“That’s very obvious.”

26 of Noah Webster’s spelling changes that didn’t catch on
soop for soup, tung for tongue

11 sexting acronyms from the 1930s
EGYPT, ENGLAND and VENICE

15 wonderful words for delightful experiences
suaviloquence, petrichor

15 more excellent Victorian slang words you should be using
nurse the hoe-handle, raked fore and aft

11 words for people who hate certain things
misopogonist, misapodysist

12 of the highest-scoring Scrabble words
cazique, jukebox