Excuse the cacology
![Excuse the cacology Excuse the cacology](https://highbrook.media/abd/wp-content/themes/highbrook2022/images/timthumb/timthumb.php?src=https://highbrook.media/abd/wp-content/gallery/blog-posts/girl-red-jumper-book-.jpg&w=1094&h=612)
We'll try to simplify things for you
Back by popular demand, more verbal obscurities collected by Highbrook’s Andy Cowan. Don’t expect any of these to pop up on Wordle…
Amphipneust: an animal with both lungs and gills
Aquabib: a water-drinker
Cacology: bad choice of words or faulty pronunciation
Gaping stock: an object of open-mouthed curiosity
Hapax: a word which occurs only once
Ictuate: to emphasise; to put metrical stress on
Ideophone: a word that is spoken but not written
Quidnunc: one who always wants to know what is going on
Mythomania: a compulsion to lie or exaggerate
Glossophobia: fear of talking
Groaking: staring at someone eating with the hope that they will give you something
Cunctator: a procrastinator, one who postpones, delays, lingers
Entasis: the slight swelling or convexity given to a shaft or column to create the optical illusion that the upright is perfectly straight.
Funambulist: a tightrope walker
Tetragrammaton: any word of four letters
Bum nuts: a naval term for eggs
Guddle: to fish with one’s hands by groping under the stones or banks of a stream
Toplofty: haughty and arrogant
Winebibber: a heavy drinker