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.

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 hit, strike, beat.

Nine or ten times
I had thought t’ have yerked him here under the ribs.
- Iago, Othello (I.ii.5) – William Shakespeare

Many references of this word are used when referring to kick, whip, or spur a horse or other animal to get moving. It has had a lot of different usages over the years, actually. One source uses this word to mean “beat” in a metaphorical sense, such as, “the Sun’s rays beat down on us.” So on a hot day you can tell your friends, “The Sun’s rays yerked us all day long.”

The word has had 500 years of life, but not much in the last 100. It’s a shame, really. Such a fun word to use.

“Why I oughta yerk you…”

Also works as a threat, as in the above. Sprinkle this one into your conversations. Might be a good way to keep the chat going after you’ve run out of things to say about the weather.

noun. Female babbler.

O you cockatrices and you bablatrices,
that in the woods dwell:
You briers and brambles, you cook’s shops
and shambles, come howl and yell.
- Locrine (1595)

The author of Locrine is up for speculation, some attribute it to George Peele, Robert Greene, and even William Shakespeare. Whoever wrote it, I thank them for giving us such a fun word! 

If we are to look at this word in context of the above, it would seem to be perhaps a female cockatrice. A mighty foe indeed. But the definition above from the OED gives it a broader meaning.

A babbler is basically anything that won’t shut up. A bablatrice is a female that won’t shut up. Do you know any of those? Of course you do.

You now have a name for all those valley girls, talkative co-workers, the never-silent spouse, and all other women in your life who flood you with chat. Use it wisely.

Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.
- Rosalind, As You Like It (III.ii), William Shakespeare 

Noun. A government ruled by the wind.
From the Greek for wind, anemo.  

Such is the miserable and precarious state of an anemocracy, of a
people who put their trust in hurricanes, and are governed by wind.
- Peter Plymley’s Letters by Sydney Smith 

The Oxford English Dictionary dates this word to 1808 but it’s still very usable today. As unpredictable the future is, criticizing the government will always be around. It is a favorite pastime of many. Calling your country an Anemocracy is a wonderful — nearly poetic — way to say that the head honchos don’t know what they’re doing.

I vote that we bring this word back. Please help me in my campaign to spread the word to the people. Ask not what your language can do for you, but what you can do for your language.