Zarf (n) – ornamental hot coffee cup holder
Strigil (n) – skin scraper
Smew (n) – fish eating diving duck
Omphaloskepsis (n) – the contemplation of one's navel
Soporific (adj) – Sleep inducing
Triskidecaphobia (n) – fear of the number 13
Duniwassal (n) – a Scottish highland gentleman of secondary rank
Farkleberry (n) – an inedible blackberry
Churl (n) – an uncultured person
Sporran (n) – a pouch usually of skin with the hair or fur on that is worn in front of the kilt with Scots Highland dress
Spinney (n) – a thicket
Fungible (adj) – interchangeable
Quark (n) – subatomic particle
Obfuscation (n) – communication calculated to confuse
Circumlocution (n) – a roundabout way of speaking
Ilk (n) – family, class, or kind
Dingo (n) – wild Australian dog
Primogeniture (n) – being first born
Foible (n) – a minor character flaw
Hemisemidemiquaver (n) – a 1/64th note
Stet (v) cancel correction
Pecadillo (n) – a slight offense
Fubsy (adj) – plump
Surd (n) – irrational root
Sine qua non (expression) – a necessity
OOPT (acronym) – Of Or Pertaining To
Collop (n) – a layer of fat
Quid pro quo (expression) what for what
Faux pas (expression) – a social error
NQOCD – Not Quite Our Class Dear
Quorum (n) – the minimum number of members of a group needed to conduct business
Noblesse oblige (expression) high station demands high standards
Mnemonic (n) – memory aid
Lustrum (n) – a period of five years
Xyster (n) bone scraper
Pixilated (adj) slightly screwy
Rigadoon (n) – a lively dance for two
Sesquidoon (n) – a lively dance for one and a half
Withershins – in the opposite direction
Quintissential (adj) the most typical example
Defenestrate (v) to throw out a window
Zounds (expression) a mild oath
Flygit (n) – typographers mnemonic
Synonym (n) – a word that means the same as the other word
Antonym (n) – a word that means the opposite of the other word
Homonym (n) – a word that sounds like another word, is spelled differently and means something different
Acronym (n) – a word made up of the first letter or letters of another word
Ampersand (n) – (and per se and) symbol for "and"
Incunabulum (n) – a book printed before 1501 A.D.
Cognoscente (n) – well informed person
Bis – repeat
Maven (n) – connoisseur
Bowdlerise (v) to remove parts considered indelicate
Prefix (n) – letter or letters added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning
Suffix (n) – letter or letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning
Infix (n) – letter or letters added to the be middle of a word to change its meaning
Affix (n) – letter or letters added to a word to change its meaning or a prefix, suffix or infix
Dipthong (n) – two vowels sounded on the same syllable
Dieresis (n) – two dots over the second of two adjoining vowels to show that they do not form a dipthong
Ultima (n) – last syllable of a word
Penult (n) – next to last syllable in a word
Antepenult (n) – the syllable preceeding the penult
Quanult (n) – the syllable preceeding the antepenult
Onomatopoeia (n) – where the sound of a word shows its meaning
Placebo (n) – inert pill
Poltergeist (n) – noisy ghost
Macron (n) – straight line over a vowel to make it long
Breve (n) – curved line over a vowel to make it short
Antecedent (n) – Noun or pronoun to which a pronoun refers
Somnambulist (n) – sleepwalker
Funambulist (n) – tightrope walker
Yoiks (n) – a word that denotes exclamation
Aviary (n) – a place for birds
Apiary (n) – a place for bees
Diptych (n) – two piece panel
Triptych (n) – three piece panel
Boondoggle (n or v) – to work on useless matters
Participle (n) – verbal adjective
Gerund (n) – verbal noun
Ambergris (n) – whale vomit used in perfume
Auxilliary (n) – helping verb
Erg (n) – a unit of energy
Googol (n) – one preceeding one hundred zeros
Ibid (expression) the same
Persona non grata (expression) – an unwelcome person
Bibliography (n)source material
Quid pro quo (expression) – what for what
Veni, vidi, vici (expression) – I came, I saw, I conquered
Dum spiro, spero (expression) – while there is life there is hope
Pejorative (n or adj) a degrading word
Status quo (expression)the existing state of affairs
Alea iacata est (expression)the die has been cast
Logophile (n)a word lover
Festoon (n & v) – ornamental strip
Ecdysiast (n) – strip tease artist
Pixilated (adj) – slightly screwy
Phoneme (n) – smallest unit of sound
Morpheme (n) – smallest unit of meaning
Cardinal (n) – a number that does not show order (e.g. one, two)
Ordinal (n) – a number theat shows order (e.g. first, second)
Queue (n) – line-up
Clept (past participle) – called
Micro (prefix) – small
Graph (affix) – OOPT writing
Sesqui (prefix) – one and one half
Phon (affix) – sound
Fid (n) – tapered bar
Xenophobia (n) – fear of foreigners
Strigg (verb or noun) – to gyp
Horometrist (n) – hour measurer
Metr (affix) – measure
Panache (n) – style
Pap (n) – soft food for infants
Quinquennial (adj) – oopt a five year period
Purfle (verb and noun) – to ornament with metallic thread
Acrophobia (n) – fear of heights
A – the alpha privative (prefix negating the root meaning)
Alpha & Omega – first and last letters of the Greek alphabet
Beta – second letter of the Greek alphabet
Poly(prefix) – many
Muckrake (v) – to disclose corruption
Palindrome (n) – word or words that read(s) the same backwards or forwards
Iconoclast (n) – destroyer of images
Tilde (n) – wavy line over a Spanish n
Dipsomaniacal(adj) – oopt dipsomaniac (lush-drunk)
Jingoist (n) – one who isexcessively patriotic
Chauvanist (n) – synonym of jingoist
Zounds (exclamation) – an exclamation
Quark (n) – subatomic particle
Brouhaha (n) – hubbub
Donnybrook (n) – brawl
Joseph (n) – nothing, none
Phil (affix) – fond of
I.E. (affix) – id est (that is)
Virgula (n) – a diagonal
Drelb (n) – a mini-dragon
Bar sinister (n) – a heraldic line from left to right denoting bastardy
Salic law (n) – law excluding females from inheritance
Qua (expression) – as, in the capacity of
Mycologist (n) – fungus expert
Frippery (n) – showy finery
Crux (n) – essential part (of an argument)
Interdigitation (n) – intertwining of fingers and/or toes
Firkin (n) – 1/4 barrel sized wooden container
Barm (n) – yeasty foam. Foamy yeast
Hallucal (adj) – oopt the big toe
Nark (n) – stool pidgeon
Calophon (n) – publisher's emblem
Derivative (n) – a word that has its origin from another word
Pavane (n) – a stately dance for couples
Caudal (adj) – oopt the tail
Foible (n) – minor flaw
Narcissist (n) – self lover
Calligraph (n) – oopt writing
Teratophobia (n) – fear of monsters
Logy (suffix) – study of
Mono (prefix) – one
Ochlocracy (n) – mob rule
Cracy (suffix) – oopt government
Extrapolate (v) – to predict the unknown from the known
Hasta luego (expression) – so long
Billingsgate (n) – coarse language
Ped (affix) – oopt the foot
Seasquipedian (n or adj) – oopt long words
Empirical (adj) – based on observation
Decibel (n) – unit of sound
Schwa (n) – unaccented mid-central vowel
Bleb (n) – air bubble
Quatrain (n) – four lines of poetry
Couplet (n) – two lines of poetry
Cide (suffix) – killing of
Quibble (v or n) – in argument to evade the real point
Larynx (n) – Adam's apple
Nullity (n) – a Joseph
Cetology (n) – study of whales
Selenology (n) – study of whales
Limerick (n) – five line poem with aabba rhyme scheme
Numismatic (adj) – oopt coins
Gnomen (n) – pointer on a sundial
Lepidopterist (n) – butterfly chaser
Blurb (n) – short sales pitch
Luddite (n) – machinery smasher
Wyvern (n) – winged dragon
Orgule (n) – the phoneme of -r
Wickiup (n) – Native American single room dome like dwelling
Nosegay (n) – Posey (ies)
Shibboleth (n) – slogan
Ack-ack (n) – anti-aircraft fire
Bifurcate (v) – to spit
Euphony (n) – good sound
Eu (prefix) – good
ufologist (n) – studyer of UFOs
Comment allez-vous? (expression) – how are you?
Plinth (n) – square base
Abeyance (n) – suspension
Coup d'etat (expression) – overthrow of a government
Transitive (n) – oopt a verb that takes an object
Ergo (adv or conjunction) – therefore
Vute (n) – a vowel or a mute 'h"
Verbose (adj) – wordy
Prolix (adj) – wordy
Fandango (n) – lively Spanish dance
Nouveau riche (expression) – newly rich
Truffle (n) – tasty fungus
Dernier cri (expression) – the very latest thing
Ichtyologist (n) – studyer of fish
Comme ci, comme ca (expression) – so-so
Philatelist (n) – stamp lover
Cacographer (n) – an illegible writer
Euthanasia (n) – mercy killing
Kleptomania (n) – obsessive urge to steal
Savoir faire (expression) – social know-how
Sang froid (expression) – coolness under pressure
Heirloom (n) – something passed on from generation to generation
Cornucopia (n) – horn of plenty
Thaumaturge (n) – miracle worker
Wadi (n) – gully
Umlaut (n) – double dots over German vowels
Loquacious (aj) – talkative

Thanks: David Rubel, Jonathan Silver, Andy Dorfman.
– Stephen Beer

Another Nathaniel F. Glidden tribute

 


Nathaniel F. Glidden was a seventh grade General Language teacher at the Horace Mann School in Riverdale NY. He was a remarkable teacher who instilled a love of learning and inspired curiosity in mischevious and unconventional ways. He would grant sleeping privileges to exceptional students and those who had trouble seeing the point would be encouraged to draw on the black board or be roused by the rubber chicken flying overhead caught by the appointed "cluck" catcher. It worked.

To the right is a list of Mr. Glidden's D.V. (daily vocabulary) words.

Images scanned from 1974 and the 1975
Horace Mann "Mannikin" Yearbooks