Very Strange Words You Probably Never Knew Existed

The following are abnormal and weird words that I have never heard mentioned in daily life and I'm sure you haven't either. These are rare and not found in most common dictionaries.

Tintinnabulation
This means the ringing of bells, and is an example of onomatopoeia(words that sound like their meaning, "buzz", "zap", etc.)

Puissance
This means power, and the adjective is puissant.

Luftmensch
This is a fancy-sounding word that basically means smart-aleck bum. Someone that comes up with lots of crazy ideas and thinks hard about things, but has no job or source of income. May not be a bum, but is not really accomplishing anything.

Hobbledehoy
An awkward and clumsy youth, specifically a teenager

Hippodrome
This sounds like some vehicle for a hippopotamus, but it's actually an arena or stadium for horses and horse racing.

Didgeridoo
A big trumpet, either wooden or made of bamboo, that Australian natives use.

Tmesis
This is when you inject a word into a polysyllabic word or a compound word, like abso-*FILB*-lutely, or something like chocolate-yummy-chip cookies.

Hoatzin
A rare South American bird with a strange blue face holding red eyes, and surrounded by brown plumage.

Zugzwang
A bleak situation in a chess game whereby the losing player is forced into making bad moves, and usually losing a piece.

Unclubbable
Anti-social and solitary

Qiviut
This is a short-haired wool that is obtained from the undercoat of a musk ox, one of those huge oxen found in the northernmost parts of Canada and Greenland

Flibbertigibbety
This crazy-sounding word means flighty and a bit silly & wacky.

Babassu
A palm tree of Brazil that has hard-shelled nuts that produce a valuable oil

Hizzoner
A funny way of saying "mayor", derived from the words... well you should know.

Pizzicato
No, this isn't a new type of pizza. It's referring to music, and to a note that is played by plucking a string.

Zyzzyva
A zyzzyva is a dangerous weevil that attacks plants.

Zenzizenzizenzic
I know this sounds like pure jibberish or a Martian language, but this is a real word, albeit an obsolete and old one(it was originally cited in a book from the 16th century and hasn't really caught on - probably because it seems like a tongue twister). It represents the eighth power of a number. So the zenzizenzizenzic of 2 is 256, because 2^8 equals 256. Now I feel sleepy for some reason...

These words are admittedly not the most useful or practical. You probably won't ask the salesman at the local clothing store where you can find a blouse made of qiviut, or tell the police officer you recognize his or her puissance and respect the hizzoner. But next time you play Scrabble you'll be a little more ready to impress your opponent!

source:

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. CD-ROM Version 2.5. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 2000.