In a Word
Four words the dictionary keeps but everyday speech mostly doesn't — each one filling a gap that "there isn't really a word for this" leaves behind.
- condisciple
- A fellow student — someone who studied under the same teacher, or in the same class, as you.
- precariat
- The class of people whose employment and income are chronically insecure, with no stable footing to plan from.
- scripturiency
- An itch to write — the compulsion to put words down, whether or not anyone asked for them.
- refocillation
- The act of restoring someone's strength or spirit — a warming-back-up, of a person rather than a room.
Alongside the list, the original post notes a small unsolved curiosity: a brass plate set into the pavement at the corner of Drummond Street and South Bridge in Edinburgh, near Rutherford's Bar — spotted and photographed by a reader, its purpose left unexplained.
Based on a vocabulary post on Futility Closet.