‘Tharoorosaurus’ of english vocabulary

A journalist friend, in one of his Facebook posts, ‘My experiences with press conferences of Chief Ministers’ used an interesting lengthy English word, referring to CM KCR’s press conference describing the meet as ‘SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS’ (Being great or extraordinary), a 34-alphabet word and commented that every time KCR outwits himself compared to the previous performance.

In response to my query as to where such words could be obtained, he suggested the book ‘Tharoorosaurus’ authored by Shashi Tharoor, written in style of thesaurus and gifted me a copy. Shashi Tharoor as everyone knows is a high-profile politician and literary person and was former Union Minister in UPA Cabinet.

In his book, Shashi Tharoor shares 53 examples of unusual words from his vocabulary, and says that, one need not be a linguaphile to enjoy the fun facts and interesting anecdotes behind the words! Back cover page note enthuses reader to ‘be ready to impress, and say goodbye’ to “HIPPOPOTOMONSTROSESQUIPPEDALIOPHOBIA” (phobia or fear of long words). In his preface admitting that he is neither a trained linguist nor philologist, he says the book is not a scholarly one and only for those who loves words. According to him, the more words one knows, the more precisely and effectively one would be able to express thoughts and ideas. Some interesting words of him make reader more interesting when read in detail.

AGATHOKAKOLOGICAL is an adjective, meaning, consisting of both good and evil. Usage in a sentence is: “The Mahabharata is unusual among the great epics because its heroes are not perfect idealized figures, but agathokakological human beings with desires and ambitions who are prone to lust, greed, and anger and capable of deceit, jealousy, and unfairness.”

AUTHORISM is a noun and a word, phrase or name created by an author, which passes into common usage. Usage in a sentence is: The works of Shakespeare include hundreds of authorisms, including words now commonly used but unheard before his time, like bump, hurry and critical.

CLAQUE is a noun, meaning a group of people hired to applaud. Usage in a sentence is: No one thought much of his speech, except the usual claque of party hacks who applauded his every line vigorously.

CROMULENT is an adjective meaning appearing legitimate but actually being spurious. Usage in a sentence is: The government’s statement to the Supreme Court on the migrant workers’ crisis made a cromulent case, that no migrant worker had perished on the way home, which, in fact turned out not to be the case.

DEFENESTRATE is a verb, meaning, to throw (someone) out of the window; symbolically to jettison. Usage in a sentence is: The opposition is united in its determination to defenestrate the Modi Government.

EPICARICACY is a noun, meaning deriving pleasure from the misfortunes of others. Usage in a sentence is: When the boastful braggart (loudmouth) was defenestrated by his club, my epicaricacy knew no bounds.

EPISTEMOPHILIA, is a noun, meaning an excessive love of knowledge. Usage in a sentence is: He was constantly nose-deep in general knowledge textbooks to a point where his epistemophilia was positively antisocial.

FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION is a noun, meaning, the act of estimating something or someone as worthless. Usage in a sentence is: My new book, ‘The Paradoxical Prime Minister, is more than just 500-page exercise in floccinaucinihilipilification.

KAKISTOCRACY is a noun, meaning, a form of government in which the least qualified or most unprincipled individuals are in power. Usage in a sentence is: Sometimes, in recent years, it appears that the world’s largest democracy has in many ways degenerated into a kakistocracy.

LUDDITE, is a noun, meaning, one who strongly opposes (or at least avoids) the use of new technology. Usage in a sentence is: My aunt is a luddite; she still refuses to have a mobile phone and insists on retaining her old rotary-dial telephone from the 1960s.

MULIEBRITY, is a noun, meaning, womanhood, womanliness, femininity, the condition of being a woman or behaving in ways considered typical of a woman. Usage in a sentence is: His mother embodied all the qualities of gentle nurturing, devotion, uncritical affection, and fine cooking that be associated with muliebrity.

OPSIMATH, is a noun, meaning a person who begins, or continues, to study or learn late in life; also, an old student, a late learner. Usage in a sentence is: When it came to reading, she was definitely an opsimath, as she had never opened the cover of a book until she was age of forty.

PANGLOSSIAN, is an adjective, meaning, foolishly and unrealistically optimistic, especially in the face of unrelieved hardship or adversity. Usage in a sentence is: ‘Ayushman Bharat’ is essentially a Panglossian idea, a policy based on wishful thinking.

PARAPROSDOKIAN, a noun, means a figure of speech in which the later part of a sentence or phrase, or larger statement, is surprising or unexpected, in a way that prompts the reader or hearer to rethink the first part or understand it differently. Usage in a sentence is: My favorite paraprosdokian declares that ‘the pun is the lowest form of humor, when you don’t think of it first’.

RODOMONTADE is a noun, verb, and adjective, meaning, boastful or inflated talk or behavior. Usage in a sentence is: The politician’s rodomontade speeches sought to conceal his total lack of substance, or indeed of any real accomplishment.

SNOLLYGOSTER, is a noun, meaning, a shrewd, unprincipled politician. Usage in a sentence is: Though snollygoster is a financial coinage in American English slang going back to 1846, it can easily apply to many practitioners of Indian politics in 2020.

There are other interesting words like CONTRONYM, EPONYM, LETHOLOGICA, SPOONERISM, VALETUDINARIAN, XENOPHOBIA, ZEALOT, ZUGZWANG etc. There is a mention to words that are familiar like NAMASTE, PANDEMIC, PHOBIA, QUIZ, SATYAGRAHA, UMPIRE, WHISTLEBLOWER, YOGI etc. the meanings and usage of which in a sentence as well as genesis and evolution of each and every word are explained by Shashi Tharoor in his exceptional style.

One very familiar and frequently used word, though the exact meaning and usage of which is less known to those many who use it is TROLL, which is both a verb and noun. Shashi Tharoor elaborates the meaning of this word both as a verb and noun. As a verb, the meaning is to try to lure or incite someone by passing something where they can see it or to issue hostile or offensive social media posts. As noun the meaning is, someone who posts provocative messages to social media intended to cause maximum disruption. Usage in a sentence is: The ruling party engages a well-organized army of trolls on social media to attack those of different political views. The word’s modern usage is a mystery!!! Incidentally the journalist friend who suggested to me to read this book is none other than A Saye Sekhar. A MUST-READ BOOK!!!

(The writer is Chief Public Relations Officer to Chief Minister Telangana)