Describing the undescribed: Douglas Adams' Spare Words

Have you ever found yourself in a situation for which you couldn’t find a proper word?

For instance, you enter a kitchen only to realize that you forgot what you went in there for in the first place.  Or, how many times have you placed an important object in a safe spot, but eventually forgot where the safe spot was?

Don’t worry, you’re not the only one to experience such things.  People all over the world face similar difficulties; yet, the biggest problem lies in the fact that there is no word to describe your trouble.

SEE ALSO: 20 Uncommon Names for Common Things

Douglas Adams, a great science-fiction writer, deep thinker and a genius mind found a perfect solution for this burning and common issue.  Having observed that there is a large number of “spare words which spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts pointing at places”, he set out to find a new use for them.

The result of his thoughtful effort is a dictionary of spare words comprised of words that are actually place names in the United Kingdom.  Each of these words thus gets a new meaning related to everyday events, experiences or feelings.  The dictionary is available in its entirety online.  You will be surprised upon finding that you are familiar with large number of meanings.

The dictionary is symbolically named “The meaning of Liff”.  It arose from a noble attempt to find the answer to the question of life, universe and everything else which he addressed often in his work.  It is also a step forward to finding the purpose of all the things existing in this world.

Feel free to share with us your favorite spare words with us and please, tell us about situations for which you could not find a suitable word.

• BALLYCUMBER (n.) One of the six half-read books lying somewhere in your bed.
• BODMIN (n.) The irrational and inevitable discrepancy between the amount pooled and the amount needed when a large group of people try to pay a bill together after a meal.
• EVERSCREECH (n.) The look given by a group of polite, angry people to a rude, calm queuebarger.
• FIUNARY (n.) The safe place you put something and then forget where it was.
• GRIMMET (n.) A small bush from which cartoon characters dangle over the edge of a cliff.
• HAPPLE (vb.) To annoy people by finishing their sentences for them and then telling them what they really meant to say.
• IPING (participial vb.) The increasingly anxious shifting from leg to leg you go through when you are desperate to go to the lavatory and the person you are talking to keeps on remembering a few final things he want to mention.
• KENT (adj.) Politely determined not to help despite a violent urge to the contrary.  Kent expressions are seen on the faces of people who are good at something watching someone else who can’t do it at all.
• OZARK (n.) One who offers to help just after all the work has been done.
• QUALL (vb.) To speak with the voice of one who requires another to do something for them.

Source: folk.uio.no/alied/TMoL.html

Photo credit: michael_hughes / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Author Bio
Maja Zikic is an anglophile.  She is an ESL teacher, translator, lover of all things English.  Profesionally she is interested in creative exploitation of language.