Greetings! Have you ever wanted to use a word to describe something, but didn’t know the word for it? Well, here is one small list for you! Ranging from absurd to downright comical, these seven words will definitely brighten your day—whether it be in your Humanities essay or in your daily dialogue. Armed with these words—with their definitions from Oxford Languages and one from Merriam Webster—you’ll be sound more sophisticated in no time. 

• Malinger (verb)
  “Exaggerate or feign illness in order to escape duty or work.”
  
  Sometimes you just don’t want to do your work. You know you have something to do, but you also have another thing to do that you think is more important. Maybe it’s your school project. Maybe you just want to take a break. Nonetheless, many people just pretend they’re sick and skip. But why use such a large sentence when you can use the more concise “malinger?”
  

• Diegetic (adjective)
  “(Of sound in a movie, television program, etc.) occurring within the context of the story and able to be heard by the characters.”
  
  The best songs are diegetic. Seeing our characters react to them with us is truly one of the most interesting Russian doll worldbuilding features. So the next time you are watching First Daughter, hum along to “The Way You Look Tonight” and appreciate the diegetic song of the film.

• Glitterati (noun)
  “The fashionable set of people engaged in show business or some other glamorous activity.”
  
  You know how the paparazzi is called the paparazzi? Don’t you feel like that groups of famous people shouldn’t be called celebrities but rather a similarly jazzy name like “paparazzi”? Introducing glitterati! The fact that “glitterati” can theoretically be used to describe any “fashionable” person doing any “glamorous” means that you can be part of a glitterati too! Move over, “celebrity.” The Glitterati is here to stay.

• Pell-mell (adverb)
  “In a confused, rushed, or disorderly manner.”
  
  What’s cool about this term is that it can be used as an adverb, adjective, and a noun. It’s flexible. At the same time, it’s so useful! Why memorize three different words to describe something that you definitely do when trying to rush to school or a test when you can just memorize one? It’s just two syllables, too. Pell-mell. Everyone has at least a little bit of pell-mell in life.

• Gardyloo! (interjection)
  “Used in Edinburgh as a warning cry when it was customary to throw slop from the windows into the streets.”

This one is a bit of a historical one. While I don’t know why you would throw disgusting things out of your window—and I certainly do not hope so, it completes my list of differing word types. Hypothesized to be from “French garde à l’eau!, [which means] look out for the water,” according to Merriam-Webster, perhaps it may serve to be useful as a point-getter if you ever plan to star on Jeopardy.

• As though ([subordinating] conjunction)
  
  I’m sure you know what “as though” means. I just want to take a moment to appreciate the use of this subordinating conjunction. Slightly more malleable than “as if,” “as though” can be used to express so many emotions. An evil villain could use it in his evil monologue after catching the good guy. You can use it to express hopelessness.

• Forby (preposition)
  “In addition to; besides.”

Yes, it’s archaic. Yes, no one uses it. But it’s simply so cool being the combination of two other prepositions “for” and “by”! It would be a waste to not use such an interesting, unknown term. If no one’s using the word, shouldn’t we just adopt it ourselves and hopefully cause a new internet trend of “forby” users? No more brain rot terms. Hello “forby”!

There you go. Words matter. So, the next time you want to express your thoughts, spice them up a bit with these seven words. After all, why do it basically when you can do it with a flair? 

So long!