Unusual Words Rendered in Bold Graphics:
“Ultracrepidarian: A person who gives opinions and advice on matters outside of one’s knowledge.”
As a lover of
language and
words, especially
obscure and
endangered words, I was instantly besotted with
Project Twins’ visual interpretations of unusual words, originally exhibited at the MadArt Gallery Dublin during DesignWeek 2011.
Acersecomic
A person whose hair has never been cut.
Biblioclasm
The practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media.
Cacodemonomania
The pathological belief that one is inhabited by an evil spirit.
Dactylion
An anatomical landmark located at the tip of the middle finger.
Enantiodromia
The changing of something into its opposite.
Fanfaronade
Swaggering; empty boasting; blustering manner or behavior; ostentatious display.
Gorgonize
To have a paralyzing or mesmerizing effect on: Stupefy or petrify
Hamartia
The character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall.
Infandous
Unspeakable or too odious to be expressed or mentioned.
Jettatura
The casting of an evil eye.
Ktenology
The science of putting people to death.
Leptosome
A person with a slender, thin, or frail body.
Montivagant
Wandering over hills and mountains.
Noegenesis
Production of knowledge.
Ostentiferous
Bringing omens or unnatural or supernatural manifestations.
Pogonotrophy
The act of cultivating, or growing and grooming, a mustache, beard, sideburns or other facial hair.
Quockerwodger
A rare nineteenth-century word for a wooden toy which briefly became a political insult.
Recumbentibus
A knockout punch, either verbal or physical.
Scripturient
Possessing a violent desire to write.
Tarantism
A disorder characterized by an uncontrollable urge to dance.
Ultracrepidarian
A person who gives opinions and advice on matters outside of one's knowledge.
Vernalagnia
A romantic mood brought on by Spring.
Welter
A confused mass; a jumble; turmoil or confusion.
Xenization
The act of traveling as a stranger.
Yonderly
Mentally or emotionally distant; absent-minded.
Zugzwang
A position in which any decision or move will result in problems.Some of the designs are available as prints in the
Project Twins shop.
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Among February’s vintage Valentine’s Day postcards from the early 1900s was some anti-suffragette propaganda. That brand of misogynist messaging, it turns out, wasn’t reserved just for Cupid’s favorite holiday — in fact, as the suffrage movement swelled into a groundswell in the early 20th century, the picture postcard industry was enlisted in producing propaganda that discredited and denigrated women fighting for the vote. Here are a few more anti-suffragette postcards from the period, a reminder at once amusing and appalling of our culture’s history of socially sanctioned bigotry. (No doubt, Tea Party signage on marriage rights and immigration will appear in similar contexts in the cultural criticism of tomorrow.)
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![[GIF] Day and night on a Dymaxion world map over the seasons [600x300]](http://i.imgur.com/hZkvr.gif){kind=link}
