101 Weird Words (and Three Fakes) From Ambidextrous to Zugzwang

Just in time for the summer silly season is the very fascinating 101 Weird Words (and three fakes) from the master of words, David Astle. He has dredged through the Dictionaries of the World to come up with an amazing collection of very real words, beginning with Ambidextrous and ending in Zugzwang, no kidding.

But there are three fake words hidden somewhere within this alphabetized lunacy of language, which also in typical Astle style, is filled with puzzles, challenges and other exiting word games, just to see if you are awake. Perhaps Zugzwang is one of these fake words.

Each of the selected words come with a complete set of instructions as to how they are pronounced, what they mean and how they can be used. Sometimes this is presented in the form of a riddle, or perhaps in the case of the Hobnob, how it came to be a word and how both the words that form Hobnob, came to join up with one another to make one word!

A Quidnung is all about gossip, something we all know about, or do we, whereas Temploid is certainly not something from outer space or part of a video game! Bet ‘ya it’s not!

Dotted throughout the pages are also some extremely Astle -like cartoons, created by Paul Tippet, to help illustrate a word or a point and to add a little comedy to words that really are already comical, amazing, and confounding, but most of all should be admired, as they hold their own amongst the more pedestrian words that also make up language.

Of course, there is the challenge of discovering the three fake words amongst the 101 addictive words that you will definitely be trying to use in all of your conversations over the summer, simply to confound those around you.

Happy word hunting as you track down the Triantiwontygong, or the outlandish Manticore, but make sure you don’t do it in your Juggernaut as you may well start something you can’t stop.

Great summer word fun to be had for all, once again beautifully presented and created from David Astle, the Master of making language fun.