| Title
|
Language
|
Comment
|
| why oh why
|
English
|
why oh why wasn't there an entry for this already?
|
| Watford Gap
|
English
|
Where the North begins, according to the South.
|
| never fight a land war in Asia
|
English
|
Always good advice.
|
| GUBU
|
English (Ireland)
|
A word with a grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented etymology.
|
| English disease
|
English
|
At least a dozen senses, and easily a dozen more nonce senses that don't have 3 citations.
|
| boardsman
|
English
|
Seven senses so far – I bet there's at least ten Up to eleven
|
| ♥-lich
|
German
|
Currently the only entry in Category:German terms spelled with ♥
|
| for England
|
English (UK)
|
Inspired by this post at "separated by a common language"
|
| on the
|
English (AAVE)
|
How many mics do we rip on the daily?
|
| Lawsonize
|
English (US)
|
A flash-in-the-pan topical term from the turn of the 20th century.
|
| Tarbellize
|
English (US)
|
Ditto - I've no doubt there are many more obscure -ize neologisms out there.
|
| who's on first
|
English (US)
|
Good question.
|
| Givebox
|
German
|
A classic example of the German love of smashing English words together.
|
| FAB/F.A.B.
|
English (UK)
|
A fabulous word
|
| bloodscape
|
English
|
Originally found in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson. The site "Stephen R. Donaldson ate my dictionary" might actually be a good source for citing obscure words.
|
| lithobraking
|
English
|
Very fancy synonym for splat
|
| knit yoghurt
|
English (UK)
|
and its whole family of related terms, yoghurt knitter, yoghurt-knitting, lentil weaver, lentil-weaving...
|
| wunch
|
English (UK)
|
Always satisfying to create and cite a page that's been deleted three times.
|
| Yorkshire caviar
|
English (UK)
|
It's delicious!
|
| comerlongerme
|
English (UK)
|
Apparently at one time, this was the word to use to mark a character as a stereotypical copper.
|
| over-unity
|
English
|
How quack inventors try to get around rules banning patents on perpetual motion machines.
|
| pyramidiot
|
English
|
And another pseudoscience. I love the faux-naïve etymology.
|
| to the manor born
|
English
|
An eggcorn that has taken on a life of its own
|
| Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells
|
English (UK)
|
Great internal pluralisation
|
| plain Dunstable
|
English (UK, probably mostly Bedfordshire)
|
Another old, old bit of slang
|
| will-they-won't-they
|
English
|
Is it ever "they won't"?
|
| flashman
|
English
|
Tried and failed to cite the "bully" sense, ended up finding four other senses instead.
|
| sodcast
|
English (UK)
|
Lovely blend
|
| pope
|
English
|
In the process of saving the pope fish and two pope birds from RFV, found a third pope bird. Failed to cite the bullfinch sense, despite finding one tantalizing hit.
|
| all Sir Garnet
|
English (UK)
|
Sir Garnet was, incidentally, the original model of the modern Major-General.
|
| builder's
|
English (UK)
|
It's always fun to add entries for possessives.
|
| ooh, matron
|
English (UK)
|
Would the US translation be Hello, Nurse?
|
| Trabant
|
German (and also English)
|
Some very telling inflection differences between the noun and the proper noun.
|
| extemporanea
|
English
|
From one of the greats
|
| inexuperable
|
English
|
Discovered by accident when exuperable failed RFV
|
| naughty step
|
English
|
A phrase forever associated in my head with Private Eye's favourite picture of Michael Gove.
|
| exotic cheroots
|
English (UK)
|
Speaking of Private Eye...
|
| shurely shome mishtake
|
English (UK)
|
...and another...
|
| Inspector Knacker
|
English (UK)
|
...and another...
|
| Colemanballs
|
English (UK)
|
...and another...
|
| Brenda
|
English (UK)
|
...and another...
|
| Bufton Tufton
|
English (UK)
|
...and another...
|
| discuss Uganda
|
English (UK)
|
...and another (which also gives us sexual as a synonym of Ugandan. Sorry to all Ugandans!)
|
| Cameroon
|
English (UK)
|
Ditto, sorry to all Cameroonians for Etymology 2.
|
| und, und, und
|
German
|
I wish and, and, and was proper English...
|
| tickle the dragon's tail
|
English
|
Not a good idea in any sense.
|
| Fred Karno's army
|
English (UK)
|
Growing up, I heard the phrase "Karno's army" a lot, but it was surprisingly hard to cite
|
| auf Wiederschauen, auf Wiedertreffen
|
German
|
Sadly, I couldn't find auf Wiedergucken
|
| dandelion and burdock
|
English
|
Delicious
|
| socarrat
|
Catalan (and Spanish)
|
Mostly I was just happy to learn that my paella is meant to turn out like that.
|
| Schrödinger's
|
English
|
Another includable possessive
|
| Bummelbahn
|
German
|
Another very useful term
|
| shower tea
|
English (Aussie)
|
Tea in the shower? That's what I thought, until it appeared at Tea Room
|
| Daniel Lambert
|
English
|
One of very few entries featuring both first name and surname of an individual (weirdly, Abraham Lincoln is another)
|
| Darth Vader
|
English (UK)
|
Not the interstellar warlord, the train
|
| इसरो
|
Hindi
|
It's a Hindi acronym, but of an English term
|
| Araucarian
|
English (UK)
|
Given that we already had Ximenean, I thought we should even the score.
|
| Partridgean
|
English (UK)
|
A-ha!
|
| pram face
|
English (UK)
|
Even words I detest have to be in the dictionary...
|
| trades unions
|
English (UK)
|
One of the more ridiculous prescriptivist plurals...
|
| not your father's
|
English
|
This is, after all, not your father's dictionary (unless your dad is a Wiktionary editor, in which case I apologise)
|
| omnishambles
|
English (UK)
|
One piece of then-topical political slang...
|
| kitchen supper
|
English
|
...and another
|
| -punk
|
English
|
When will wikipunk become a genre?
|
