verb? noun? Nothing in the OED. The definition is unknown… let’s make one up!

Not a sound to break the silence save the plunge of a porpoise or the fluck of the fishes in quest of their evening meal.
A naturalist’s wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, Heny Ogg Forbes (1885)

It’s time for you to help noncilexicographers everywhere with a definition for this word! I could come up with something — I have my ideas — but I want to hear from you. What the fluck does fluck mean?

It’s a contest to come up with the best definition you can. I’m looking for definitions that fit the quotation above. Loosely, at least. Serious or humorous, it has to make some sense. If you want to send me definitions that don’t make sense with the above, that’s okay too. I’ll feature some of these in a separate list.

What do you win? The chance to imagine that you actually won something. Who cares? You get to make up a word’s definition.

It’s just for fun and I want some interaction with the two of you who actually read this blog. So tell your friends to come play too. That way we’ll have four submissions.

Click here to send me your definitions, or send me a message via Twitter. Entries are due by July 17th, 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time… just because it sounds official.

Start your engines. Ready, set, define!

adj. Shiny or Glittery

Wood..Smooth, emicatious, free from knot or joint.
The Vestriad, Hans Busk (1819)

Are you easily distracted by emicatious objects? I sure am. Why, there’s one right over there…

…

Sorry. I was distracted.

I like the fancy sound this word has. It might be easier to say that I’m “distracted by a shiny object”, but to say that “my gaze was drawn upward to the welkin of emicatious orbs” is much more fustian, and therefore more enjoyable.

And now before I’m distracted by another shiny object, I think that this word is

adj. Of, pertaining to, or having shapely buttocks.
/ˌkæləˈpɪdʒiən/

Callipygæ and women largely composed behinde.
Pseudodoxia epidemica, Sir Thomas Brown (1646)

Because a shapely posterior deserves a word just as bootylicious.

While bar hopping with friends, do you worry about talking about a woman’s physical features without her hearing? Fear no more. “Bro, Check out that callipygian female!” Or you could use it as a noun… because I say you can. “Don’t look now. Callipygian: 9 o’clock!”

Ladies: Baby got back? Does your callipygous behind bring all the boys to the yard? If you ever hear “Damn girl! You is callipygian!” You know the man has a very large… vocabulary.

noun. A mad extravagance such as Caligula comitted.

Alas! it would be endless to tell you all his Caligulisms.
Letters to Sir Horace Mann, Horace Walpole (1745)

Caligula was a ruler with an appetite for excess. He became emperor of rome in 37 AD and very quickly squandered the state treasury that his predecessor, Tiberius, had amassed… but you already knew that.

Right?

So he liked to party! He was only about 25 when he became emperor and clearly hadn’t outgrown is fratboy phase. Give the guy a break! How good of a ruler can you be when your nickname means “Little Boot”?

This word is in need of a comeback, or any life at all; there doesn’t seem to be any record of its use other than the above citation. Despite our economic situation there isn’t a lack of opulence, ostentation, and extravagance in our society. All the rich, drunk, crazy celebrities hitting the front pages need new words to keep the stories fresh.

Journalists, this one’s for you! You’re welcome.

adj. Producing cold.

Data for determining the frigorific effect of the ice on the temperature of the Pole.
An account of the artic regions, William Scoresby (1820)

It’s summer right now but when winter comes again it’ll be friggin’ frigorific! “Frig” as in “frigid” means, of course, cold.  And “-rific” is uninterestingly enough a respelling of the French word “frigorifique.”

For the purpose of my own satisfaction let’s say that it’s from “terrific,” so that Frigorific now means “terrifically cold.” People make up words all the time, who says I can’t change definitions or etymologies?

The original meaning was used in science but, as always, figurative use is much more fun.

A frigorific torpidity of despair chilled every sense.
Zastrozzi, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1810)

He sure had a way with words! And now you can too.

“Mom! This meatloaf is frigorific!” … “Silence, you old frigorific hag!” … “The frigorific weather and bigger rigor made him wiggle and wriggle like Tigger and he lost his vigor.” Say that one five times fast.

noun. A braggart, bully.

…that rogue, that foist, that fencing Burgullian?
- Every Man In His Humor, Ben Jonson (1598)

This word has a great sound to it. If you call someone a burgullion, they might not know what it means but it’s not to hard to tell that this isn’t a very nice thing to call someone… so use it!

This word is “Conjectured to be a term of contempt, invented upon the overthrow of the Bastard of Burgundy in a contest with Anthony Woodville, in Smithfield 1467,” but OED says that this story is most likely not the true origin of this word.

Maybe it’s “burglar” + “gullion” which would be “a mean person who steals things.” Maybe not.

verb. To make like a dunghill.

These dreery, direfull dayes condunghill’d and uglified me into a darke dense lumpe.
Discollimunium, B. (1650)

When I first saw the definition I thought, “Make like a dunghill and ____ .” Stink? Rot? Stay put? What is it exactly that dunghills do? I can’t seem to make my own, clever, “make like a tree and leaf!” type statement with this word. If you can, please share.

Makes a nice metaphor, doesn’t it? I can’t think of too many literal uses of this word at the moment.

If I was speaking in front of a large crowd and passed gas, I’d be condunghilled. If I were on a date and spilled dinner and drinks all over myself and my date, she would condunghill me. If I used condunghill in a conversation where a scatalogical reference wasn’t appropriate… you guessed it: condunghilled.

Sounds like condunghilled might take the place of pwned! It’ll catch on because it has to do with poop. Just you wait.

Verb. To annoy, irrititate.

There’s nothing niggles me more than cutting myself shaving.
- A Kind of Loving, Stan Barstow (1960)

The word has had many different meanings over the years but ‘to annoy’ is the most recent and the one I like best.

It’s almost too cute not to use, isn’t it? It has a savory sound to it. If it bugs you – it gets under your skin or pinches. If it pisses you off – it makes you angy. If it perturbs you – you’re vocabulary is above average. If it niggles you… what is it exactly?

I would probably use it to describe the little annoyances in life. As in the above example, to cut one’s self shaving; to misplace keys; to oversleep just enough to make you rush though the morning routine…

I get very niggled when pop-up ads flood my screen. What niggles you?