Big Words, explained

Minutiae: Instant bowtie noodles

hegemony

These are some words I frequently hear misused. Wanted to set the record straight. In case you don’t know what these words mean, this is what they mean:

Admonish: A Jamaican who kind of works in advertising

Ardor: The portal that opens and closes on the front of the house that belongs to us

Audacity: Volume

Cantankerous: Resembling a kind of container somewhere between a can and a tank (by Andrew Hardy)

Commentate: An average potato

Discourse: A core curriculum requirement at Battle Rap University

Disorientate: Pronounced: Dis-a-rayn-tate - The removal of a potato from power in a military coup

Disseminate: To take the morning after pill

Effectuate: To MC a funeral

Fortuitous: Intended for use or consumption by two people (by Andrew Hardy)

Gamification: Teaching someone to flirt very well

Hegemony: An expensive hardwood similar to walnut or mesquite

Minutiae: Instant bowtie noodles

Occlude: To stare in an overtly sexual manner

Paradigm: When you and your bestie are both tens (by Lily Consuelo Saporta Tagiuri)

Pedagogy: Pronounced: Puh-jaggedy - When you skip the first button on your pajamas and the rest of the buttons are misaligned

Praxis: Working on mastering the art of ax throwing

Salacious: Emotionally salty

Sublime: A citrus fruit that is misshapen and thus packaged to be sold at a discount (by Tarah Knaresboro)

Supercilious: The quality of possessing ample nose hair

Zeitgeist: The sideways wind phenomena that causes tornadoes

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I wrote these a few years ago from a hospital bed after undergoing a big emergency surgery and under the influence of some serious painkillers. (Apologies if you’d already read them on my IG.)

Please submit your own Big Words either defined or with a request for definition and I’ll repost them. You can reply to this email or leave them in the comments. Here are some suggestions for words I’ve gathered from friends:

• Ameliorate

• Shibboleth

• Liminal

• Lugubrious

• Grandiloquent

I look forward to your submissions.

Hang in there y’all. ❤️.