Is it just me? Do you know these words?

in Random Crap

I make my living with words. I’m a 4x NYT bestselling author. I read voraciously. I own an independent bookshop and pick books for multiple book clubs, but I still find myself looking up new words or concepts whenever I read new books. This is actually what I love because I want to expand my mind and learn more, but I read a book coming out in April that I really loved but which made me run for the dictionary so many times I started to question my own intelligence. I kept a list of a few of the words or phrases I had to look up because I need to know if I’m alone in not knowing them.

Semaphoric

Bolshy

Lushington

Voight-Kampff

Viz

Mithered

Flense

Sublimate

Rhotic

Épée

Corpse (as a verb)

Quotidian

Exegesis

Sloe

Edenic

Gelid

How many did you know? If you knew all 16 you win.

PS. Here are the definitions in case you’re clueless like me: Visual signaling, difficult or argumentative, a drunk, a test run by Blade Runners to see if someone was an android, to wit, fussing, slicing fat off a carcass, to change form but not essence, dialect in which “r” is pronounced before a consonant, a sword, being unable to control laughter while acting as a dead body, common, critical interpretation of scripture, blackthorn fruit, relating to the Garden of Eden, extremely cold.

148 thoughts on “Is it just me? Do you know these words?”

Read comments below or add one.

  1. I knew Épée and that’s all! I’m all for learning new words but if I have to run to a dictionary or google that many times while I’m reading a book, I’m not sure it’d be worth it to continue reading it.

  2. Um, eight? Was the author British, by any chance? Bolshy sounds british… (I love me a good word hunt!)

    (She’s British-Cambodian. But I watch so much BBC I just assume I know most British slang. Apparently not. HUMBLED. ~ Jenny)

  3. I think I knew three words. I quite often look up words. I am like you, I like to expand my mind. You help, and we love you for it!!

  4. I knew six of them, but boy, you gave me good grist for the list for spelling bee words I make every year!

  5. I knew half of them – of those 8, I could have defined 4 to someone else and the other 4 were things I “know” but couldn’t really explain their meaning, if that makes sense.

  6. Three. I knew bolshy mainly because of Jodi Taylor’s Time Police series. Also knew sublimate and quotidian. Corpse as a verb is FANTASTIC and I’m embarking on a quest to fit it into a conversation. Level of difficulty elevated by the fact that I don’t really have that many conversations.

  10. Wow, I love words but I would drop any book that made me look up more than a couple of words that made me have to get out my dictionary.
    These seem like words that one would hear or see mostly in a spelling bee. Or the NYT crossword puzzle.

  12. I knew 5. These are pretty obscure! English is such a weird language cuz we borrow words from everywhere. As a reading tutor for kids, that’s always so hard to explain.

  13. I knew 10. I briefly dated someone who taught fencing at college so I knew Epee. I think of him every time I see this word. I try to learn new words so I can play killer Scrabble.

  14. I learned “flense” from Judy Blume’s Blubber! I had to look up for of them–I’m totally going to use “bolshy” now–what a useful word!
    I often look up words in books that I’m reading. But I enjoy doing that. (Many of these words seem British-isms–that might be part of the challenge.)

  15. They are in old English and maybe the author of the book wanted its readers to run to their dictionary he or she might have thought it was funny and also wanted us to learn new words

  19. I knew 10, but I am a vocabulary need who also tutored students for PSATs once upon a time.

  21. I didn’t know Flense, Lushington (although I guessed the meaning as a lush is a drunkard) or Gelid but can happily use the others in a sentence.
    The origins of a few –

    Bolshy is slang from Bolshevik, referring to the reputation of U.K. communists as argumentative buggers who could start an argument in an empty room

    Mithered is another excellent bit of British slang, mostly from the north. My kids would mither me to take them to the fun fair or buy a chocolatey cereal.

    Epée is a sword used in fencing. If you watch the Paris Olympics you’ll see them being used.

  22. I could define epee and sloe. I’d heard/seen a few others but couldn’t define them without seeing the context (like sublimate and quotatidian).

  23. 8 for me. There are others I could have guessed at and probably have been correct, but I really wasn’t “fer sure” for sure.

  24. I played a dead body in a high school theater production of arsenic and old lace and when they dropped me on the ground I picked my head up a little too far, then I had to hold it there because, obviously, I’m dead. Then someone from the audience shouted “rigor mortis” and suddenly I found myself corpsing. Never knew there was a word for it. Still a family favorite around the dinner table 30 years later.

  25. I knew all of them except Lushington and Voight-Kampff, and that particular usage of corpse, -which is not at all what I would have guessed it meant- but I am pretty (extremely) nerdly (and also read Judy Blume in middle school).
    Mithered I learned just a couple of days ago from one of those word of the day things- the Jeopardy effect strikes again!

  27. Some I knew (semaphoric, flense, epee, rhotic, sloe, sublimate, edenic, gelid), some I recognized but would have to look up to remember (qotidean, exegesis, bolshy, viz), the others I had no clue. For me however “to sublimate” means to go directly from a solid to a gas phase without liquifying first, such as with carbon dioxide aka “dry ice”. Standard scientific terminology. (Chemistry major umpty-umph years ago. Gave it up quickly.) It’s a very British list, heavy on idiomatic usage.

  28. I maybe knew two. (Hands in professional copywriter card.) If any of y’all read Lauren Groff’s latest, you might have hit that look up button quite a bit. Maybe. But maybe I’m just a clodpate.

  29. I got 4, though I technically only knew the science definition of sublimate, which is going straight from Solid to a gas. Definitely thought “bolshy” just meant “behaviorally russian”

  30. I knew quite a few. Several are more common in the UK. Corpsing applies to any actor who breaks character by either forgetting their lines or laughing.

  32. I know a few from doing crosswords: sloe and epee. The only other one I know is Voight-Kampff, though that’s more pop culture than vocabulary.

  33. I knew then all except for “ Voight-Kampff”, but I am Scottish so encounter quite a few of these in the wild.

  34. When I read Anne of Green Gables to my daughter I loved that we had to look up words. Some I “knew” (mostly) what they meant but couldn’t define for her. I agree it’s great to expand our horizons and vocabularies!

  35. Hmm, brings new meaning to “sloe jam”. I knew flense. That’s it. I’m a biologist and have done lots of flensing in necropsies.

  36. I knew ‘mithered’ – I think it’s a northern word (England) as I’m from the north and remember hearing it a lot as a child (probably from my mum telling me to stop mithering!)
    Some great words in this list 🙂

  38. Quotidian, sublimate, exegesis, and sloe I knew. I think the author made up some of the other words. 😃

  39. I thought I knew 10, but for 2 I had a different (but related/close ) idea of what it meant so it could be I had the gist but didn’t recognize the synonym you gave.

  40. Get thee to a bar in a fancy steakhouse or an authentic olde pub (or any place with a lot of wood) and ask for a Sloe Gin Fizz. It’s a delightful drink, but if the bartender isn’t at least 50yo (or British) they may never have heard of it.

  42. Oh! That’s why it’s called a Sloe Gin Fizz… I thought it was SLOW Gin Fizz because that’s how it makes me feel

  44. I recognize most of them but couldn’t give a definition off the cuff for about half. I’m a former proofreader, so word nerd. But there have been plenty of times I think the author is just showing off.

  45. I knew epee (crossword nerd) and rhotic, and kinda knew a few others.

    In my early teens I read my way through Lilian Jackson Braun’s Cat Who series with a little notebook handy to write down all the words I needed to look up later. By the end I had it filled with the words and definitions. I know it greatly expanded my vocabulary, but the only one I remember specifically learning from those books was “juxtaposition,” a word I have never actually bothered to use in the last 30 years.

  46. I thought I knew one but I was wrong anyway. Which language was this book in? Imma need a translator….

  47. Semaphoric – I only knew this one because the flags on the HELP Beatles album are fake semaphores.
    Voight-Kampff – my husband likes Blade Runner.
    Viz – I’ve never seen it spelled like this?
    Sublimate – again, husband also has a degree in geophysics, and sublimation is a thing in plate tectonics!
    Rhotic – my mom is a speech pathologist lol
    Épée – tiny sword!
    Quotidian – my high school English teacher loved this word, aaaand…
    Exegesis – I went to Christian high school!
    Sloe – juniper berries is what makes gin, blackthorn berries is what makes sloe gin!
    Edenic – could infer, but have never heard.

    I have never heard the others and I have a generally weirdly big vocabulary?

  48. I knew none. Friggin none. I was pleasantly surprised to be put ahead by two years in English way back in the ancient days of when I entered college. I write and read a lot. But God knows these terms? You’re not alone!

  49. I knew sloe but only because my 16-year old self’s drink of choice was Sloe Gin Fizz and I’m pretty sure on the label there was a picture of a twig of sloe berries. (But to be fair, that could be a hallucination!)

  51. Dear Bloggess, I’m sorry to be specified as Anonymous, above. I merrily subscribe to your side-splitting newsletter, I promise. But I don’t know my ass from my elbow about how to login? Thank you, O patient one, if you’ve read this far 😉

  53. These words were all Greek to me. I get a daily word of the day email, and it’s always these esoteric, weird words hidden in the depths of English language (at least that’s what I tell myself). English is such a complicated language!

  54. Knew a few outright. Intuited 2. Recognized a bunch but couldn’t give you dictionary definitions. A few were completely knew to me. Thanks for sharing this list! 🙂

  57. I knew about half, mostly from crosswords, my occasional foray as the Countess of Lushington (Sloe Gin), girl scout badge in fencing (epee), and an unnatural obsession with Biblical Archeology (exegesis).

    I’d like to offer up another obscure, but divine, word for this list. It’s my favorite word.

    Solipsism (Solipsistic) – it’s basically object permanence for adults. “If I don’t know about it or it doesn’t pertain to me, it simply does not exist.” Extreme self-centeredness. I really just like the way the word sound. (And sadly, I’ve had more opportunity than I’ve wanted to use the word since in the last, oh, about 8 years!)

    Thanks for this amazing forum with all of these amazing people!

  59. Knew a few: sublimate, epee, quotidian, sloe. Sloe I knew from my sodden youth, hanging out in Nick’s Bar in NOLA. There was a drink they named the ‘Sloe Comfortable Screw’ with Sloe Gin, Southern Comfort and OJ. Needless to say, a few of these made quite an impression on my teenage digestive system, which promptly rejected the influence. Bah

  60. I knew 2 and was semi-sure of a few more. Have you tried the game Semantle? It’s my favorite word game. I spend way too much time playing it as well as Jumble, Blossom and Connections.
    I love the slogan The More You Know. My heart did a little leap when I saw it, in all its 80’s glory.
    I’m such a nerd😂

  62. Just Bolshy, sublimate, epee (where are you accent?) and sloe. I used to know gelid I think. No more.

  63. I don’t know 4, so that’s not too bad. Of course, I’m an editor, so I’m kinda supposed to know.

  64. Lushington is definitely going into my brain for frequent use. I didn’t count how many I knew, but I am a bit of a word nerd.

    I like to click on the word in my ebooks to get a definition or a Wikipedia link. I find myself stabbing the page in a regular book. 🤣

  65. Thirteen. I wasn’t familiar with lushington, mithered, and rhotic, although I could have gotten the first, and probably the second, if used in a sentence. Very British. P.G. Wodehouse used “viz.” although with a period because it’s a contraction (from Latin videlicet, where the “z” represents “-et”).

  69. I knew: Semaphoric, Sublimate, Épée, Corpse (as a verb) [This one is used a lot to describe actors on SNL who laugh during a scene. AKA “Jimmy Fallon corpsed during the Bee Gees skit with Justin Timberlake”], Sloe [You’ve heard of Sloe Gin Fizzes, yes? This is the Sloe in that.].

  70. 8 … bolshie I use commonly, flense (mostly whales?) and epee show misspent childhood reading, and sloe only ever in relation to gin. But in Australia so may be more British influenced than y’all.

  72. I recognized 3 of these (sublimate, rhetoric, and sloe – assuming it is either the berries or the gin). I can sorta guess at corpse as a verb too, but… I have never seen it used that way before.

  73. I only knew Sublimate, because I am a scientist! 🤓
    But that is an impressive list, thanks for sharing.

  74. I’m a non-native speaker, I knew:
    Semaphoric, Bolshy, Lushington, Voight-Kampff, Viz, Flense, Sublimate, Épée, Quotidian, Exegesis, Sloe, Gelid.
    Well, I read a lot.

  75. I write for a living and considered myself to be literate. Now I am mithering about my lack of vocabulary skills.

  76. Two. I knew two. Epee and sublimate. (Epee I learned from playing video games). I do not feel smart right now

  78. I learned “flensing” from Judy Blume and I think I learned epee from Rizzoli and Isles. Sublimation is my specialty.

  79. Ooh fun!

    Let’s see, I knew the Bible-y ones- exegenic and edenic. I knew epee(my phone won’t do the accent) and sublimate. I feel like I probably could have gleaned Lushington and mithered from the context? But makes me wonder whether it was a British book, or written by a non-American English speaker. I find dialectical differences utterly fascinating!

    I have a good friend who constantly (but lovingly) bugs me about using big words. She’ll stop me in the middle of a sentence like, “The f*ck you just say?” We live in southern Louisiana which I think explains it. I “ain’t from ’round here” as my in-laws say.

    I came across the word.

  80. I knew all except 3 of them, but am an aficionado of weird words. My wall calendar this year, Grandiloquent Words of the Day, keeps me in stitches and on my toes. Some of my favorite words this month: Whooperups: someone who can’t sing but enjoys proving it at great volume (me); Wutter: a cross, peevish person (not me); Vecordious: lacking in sanity (me again); Quoz: an odd or silly person or strange and unusual thing(me once more, and an excellent Scrabble word!); Swelp: unrelenting complainer (I hope I’m not); and the one that describes me: Fubsey-Plump and short 🙂 All were in common use in 1800’s England.

    (Grandiloquent is such a fun word to say. ~ Jenny)

  83. I knew half of them. To know sloe, maybe you need to be bolshy (or just like gin a ton). Some of these words turn up less in things people read because they want to and more in stuff folks read for more…ahem…erudite pursuits such as an advanced degree? God bless Kindle for making it so easy to look up words without interrupting the flow of reading!

  84. I knew 11. Viz turns up often in 19th century novels. My husband is a pastor so I knew exegesis. Not that I use them with any frequency. [Right now I’m reading Crosswordese about the history and vocabulary of crossword puzzles. Very big on 3- and 4-letter words.]

  86. Semaphoric: with a lot of body language, like a semaphore

    Bolshy: bolshevik- like as in “He’s so bolshy”

    Lushington- idk

    Voight-Kampff- isn’t that an astronomical thing?

    Viz: short for visibility as in a hi viz t shirt for walking on roads at night

    Mithered- a cross between mused and dithered

    Flense- to strip the skin off (ew)

    Sublimate- bury it deep

    Rhotic- uhhhh?

    Épée – fencing sword

    Corpse (as a verb) : a threat, like watch out or I corpse ya

    Quotidian: daily

    Exegesis: exit, leave

    Sloe : droopy

    Edenic: really spiffy, like Eden

    Gelid: gooey?

  87. 3 sounded familiar. I know a different version of Rotic – romantic, without the man (told to me by a coworker when we were looking out at a scenic view at end of a hike)

  88. I knew three, and took a good guess for bolshy. And I only know sloe because of sloe gin fizzes. LOL

    Also, my son once corpsed in his performance of Wadsworth in Clue.

  89. I love words! But I only “knew” 2 of these: semaphoric–I knew that flags are semaphore, and I knew (from teaching 5th grade science!) that sublimation is matter skipping a state when changing (dry ice evaporates from solid to gas, skipping the liquid state). AND….I’d never even HEARD/READ all those other words!

  90. I knew 4, and was vague about a couple of others. I connected sloe with sloe gin, and figured it was something fruity, for example.

  91. Four (4) for sure, and vaguely understood a few others. Would likely know more were I a Brit.

  93. I probably missed it, but what’s the book title?

    Love experiencing new words; had a geeky thrill this week thanks to ‘TEXAS HOLD ‘EM’ by Beyoncé. One of the last lines starts with Solargenic.

  95. Thirteen here. What was the book? I think I’d like it!

    (The Ministry of Time. ~ Jenny)

  96. Four I know the meaning of, and a couple more I had seen but don’t know the meaning.

  100. I knew 5 but, to be fair, 2 I only recognized but couldn’t have given you the definition of because my menopausal brain is addled and can’t remember shit. 😉

  103. Huh. I knew some, guessed one, learned a few, and knew a different definition of the same word for one. Go figure. Also, gotta say I’m surprised that you didn’t know Flense, as a taxidermy fan! Lol

  104. I saw giant flensing knives at the whaling museum in Sandefjord, Norway this weekend! There were also videos… do not recommend.

  105. As a Brit, more than half of those words were pretty “normal” for me.

    However, I wonder if Viz refers to the comic from the 1980s. It doesn’t mean anything (at least not until it was adopted for the name of the comic and the founder “cannot remember exactly where the name of the magazine comes from. The most he can remember is: at the time, he needed to come up with a proper name for it, and he considered the word “Viz” a very easy word to write/remember, as it consisted of three letters which are easily made with straight lines.”
    Oh, and by comic, I don’t mean Marvel type comic. It was (is, I guess they have a website now) more of a parody of classic British comics (The Beano, The Dandy) and tabloid newspapers with a lot of schoolboy humour thrown in – e.g. Roger’s Profansaurus.

  106. I knew “flense” from Blubber by Judy Blume, and “Épée” is a popular crossword puzzle answer so I recognized that one. “Sublimate” as in science class is familiar too, but after that I’d seen some of then but would need context, and some seem made up.

  107. I knew 9, so perhaps the writer was English as someone suggested. Mithered (and to mither) is a good northern English word I use regularly, as I come from Stockport, near Manchester. A friend, who comes from Preston, about 50 miles away, pronounces it differently to me, saying ‘moither’.

  108. I knew 5. Epee is quotidian in crossword puzzles. (see what I did there?😃). However, I’m planning on introducing Lushington into regular conversations.

  109. Exegesis always makes me laugh! I used to get a weekly email from the dean of a seminary which was always interesting, but he loved using the word. It made sense, but it always stood out to me as a strange word that only made any kind of sense if you were a seminarian (which I am not, and never was)!

  110. I stopped reading Umberto Eco because I had to look up so many words in the first chapter that I couldn’t follow the story.

  111. I had the same experience with a WONDERFUL book called Ella Minnow Pea! If you haven’t read it, you should!

  112. Ok, who’s this author?! Gee whiz. I was familiar with about 4 of them but I don’t use them regularly. I wonder if the author uses them daily? Questions, questions…

  113. I occasionally corpse like the cartoon character Muttly. My friends and family just mock me. This is why you and I can be friends Jenny!

  114. I knew six and there were a few more that I’ve seen before and was able to get the gist of the meaning from context.

  116. I recognised about half, definitely a very British vocab though, Bolshy for sure is still pretty common in use here, and Sloe because GIN.

  117. If I come across a word I don’t know, I might look it up… but if ALL those words were in one book? I’d toss it! I have no patience. LOL!

  118. I would have said that you must be reading The Hexologists, but that is already out.

  119. Context is everything for me! Without it- I * thought* I knew two of the words…and would define neither as you did. *Shrug* William S.Birroughs (and Laurie Anderson) were right- “Language is a virus.”

  120. I knew 8, or thought I did: I’ve always heard of sublimate in the sense of sublimating rage, and I thought it just meant to internalize it instead of letting it out. Which: is changing its form but not its essence. Huh.

  121. I knew 8 and could guess at another 3. And I would also guess your writer speaks British English if she’s comfortable using bolshy as a word. Sloe was the funniest to me, because I thought of the drink sloe gin fizz, which meant it had to be some kind of fruit, right? Words are indeed an interesting source of entertainment.

  124. Had a bad experience many years ago with a few too many sloe gin fizzes. It was winter and it ended in a scene looking a lot like a particular scene in the move Fargo…

  127. I knew 5. I’ve seen Blade Runner way too many times. Why I love my kindle – instant connection to definitions.

  128. I knew around ten – Australian here, so we’re probably more familiar with the British-ness of some of these, and a reader. Bolshy I use myself all the time (but I spell it, in my head at least, as Bolshie , from Bolshevik, and when I think about it I’m not sure if I’ve ever really seen it written down). Viz is one I see used regularly, sloe gin is rather nice, the blade runner reference is familiar one. Exegesis I tend not to use in regard to scripture – I’d suggest it’s a critical analysis of any text or creative work. Arts student are often asked to provide an exegesis re their body of work (in higher ed). Sublimate is a science term – but effectively that’s why dye-sub printers are called that (the ink/dye undergoes the process of sublimation as part of the process – it’s the transition of something from a solid to a vapour without passing through a liquid stage). Words are fun – I’m constantly annoyed by the New York Times spelling bee and the words it won’t accept (mizzle, fleek, and rort are some of the ones that come to mind…)

  129. I knew epee because I do crossword puzzles and epee is the official sword of crossword puzzles. I’ve heard of sloe gin but never really knew what sloe was. And I’ve heard of some of the other words, but couldn’t tell you what they mean because I’m too lazy to look up words I don’t know.

  130. I knew sublimate, epee and sloe (because of sloe gin!).

    I always end up looking up words too, but I think there is a limit to how much I am willing to pause reading to look things up before I start detaching from the story I’m reading and lose interest.

  131. I know about half of them at least well enough to sense their meaning by context. Epee, Voight Kampf and sloe I knew exactly. I’ve seen gelid a lot (not at all sure why or where) but I probably should have looked it up at some point.

    Almost all of my reading ebooks, so hitting a new (or old and “I’m sick of not know what this means” word) just means touching it on my Kobo and bringing up the dictionary.

  132. Harder still is when I reach for the dictionary and after looking up the definition I have to look up definitions of the words they used to define the first word. It becomes a dictionary black hole.

  133. I knew 4 and my college roommate used to call my “the human dictionary”. I’m a writer, editor, and former English teacher who also used to teach SAT classes part-time (back when the test really stressed vocabulary and the company I worked for had this ridiculous curriculum that required students to learn over 100 obscure “SAT words” in a few weeks. I taught the course half a dozen times and had to come up with “fun” ways to get 16 year olds to learn these words (playing Pictionary, Charades, and writing Yo momma jokes were my favorite). Needless to say, I feel wholly incompetent. That said, I typically understand words based on context, so I like to think I’d be able to “figure out” what they meant if I was reading the text. But still…

  134. I knew epee because of crosswords, sloe because of sloe gin, and it was an answer on Jeopardy semi-recently.

  135. I’m enjoying the irony of an unusual word like “Quotidian” meaning “common”.

  136. I know bolshy, because I am 🙂 also mithered. This is used where I am (Yorkshire, UK) in the context of ‘stop your mithering’ (my-there-ing), i.e. stop complaining. Love it.

  137. Semaphoric- feeling you get when you go to the sema car show
    Bolshy-the new beanie baby
    Lushington-The town of lushes
    Voight-Kampff-a test to determine if you have Jon voight’s lebaron.
    Viz-hi-visibility jiz
    Mithered-when you have been given mithril
    Flense-sensing a flinch
    Sublimate-Aussie version of sublime
    Rhotic-Greek god of England
    Épée-Kée MF
    Corpse-verb for decorating for Halloween
    Quotidian-mathing
    Exegesis-job title for lead exorcist
    Sloe-slower than slow
    Edenic-prehistoric fish off the coast of Madagascar
    Gelid-Greek goddess of lids

    Nailed it. I should make crossword puzzles.

  138. I knew five, and I am a word nerd who also happens to teach adult English learners. I devour all manner of books and do NY Times and LA Times crosswords daily, so you’d think I might know a few more!

    Sometimes it seems as though writers (not you Jennie!) put in ‘big words’ to prove how much smarter they are, and that makes me hate them. Seriously.

  139. I knew all 16 but I am British and like browsing through dictionaries and watching intellectual videos. I assume flense is in Herman Melville’s famous big book, though I have not read it.

  141. I knew 7 or 8, but my definition did not always match yours. Example: when a solid (like ice) goes directly to a gaseous state (water vapor), that is sublimation. Sloe is a kind of plum; vviz, sloe gin. (See what I did there?)

  142. Gelid: extremely cold. I just found my new adjective to describe how I feel from November to April.

  143. I enjoyed the post and didn’t know most of the words. Wanted to add though, there’s nothing wrong with being into rhotic fiction, Jenny.

  144. Well, I thought I knew 4. But now I only know 2.
    And, Epee is specifically the “sword” used in fencing. Correct me if I’m wrong. And I used to use Sloe Gin when I was a “bartender” (at my house).
    I’m feeling challenged to use a dictionary when I read. Thank-you.

  145. kmkat, blackthorn is a type of plum tree, Prunus spinosa, the fruit is also known as a sloe and is used to make sloe gin.

  147. I have alternate takes on some of your definitions…

    Bolshy: British slang for Bolshevik. At least, I heard it used as such in “The Ruling Class”, my favorite Peter O’Toole film.

    Corpse as a verb. I’ve heard it used by multiple British stage actors, including Olivier, for any inappropriate, uncontrollable laughter before a live audience. Perhaps an actor impersonating a corpse who couldn’t contain his laughter was the source of this use of the word.

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The Mack Files: Digesting life in bite-sized pieces through the lens of clichés, quotes & “truisms”.  Often irreverent, always honest.

Wonder and Joy for the Wired and Tired: Feeling wired, tired, and stretched too thin? You’re not alone. Re-ignite your sense of childlike wonder, joy, and well-being with this enlightening and entertaining book by Dr. Pam Stephens Lehenbauer, well-being thought leader and author of the blog, Mother Nature’s Apprentice.

Stuff and Thangs from Xanaru: A mostly funny stuff about my quest for happiness through stories, art, friendship, Great Danes, one naked weirdo alien cat and indiscriminate swearing.

How the Hell Did I Not Know That?: Humorist Lucie Frost shares daily Instagram reels with learnings of the day—words, music, whatever–with plenty of laughs and all the curse words.

Beautiful Writers book: Writers! This coming-of-career memoir (w/ the BEST advice from celeb authors, real shit you haven’t heard) is life. A page-turning beach read doubling as how-to. #Magic

Sunday Comics With Cooper and Fitz: A light-hearted comic strip about two sibling felines and their life with their adopted family: their relationship is complicated but hilarious, and navigating life with humans adds to the fun.

Guilded Monocle: Hand-assembled writing kits to lure your muse back from its side quest. Two paths always included: one structured, one wandering. Every pairs with a prompt if you’re in the mood — if not, be as feral as you wanna be. No yoga voice here, just a judgy mutt named Rory.

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh: SO GOOD.

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