true love

en-noun

true love (countable and uncountable, plural true loves)

From Middle English trewe love, from Old English trēow-lufu.

the course of true love never did run smooth

Some believe that true love doesn’t exist.

And as all true love is reciprocal, so also is true love lasting and indestructible; or, to “speak as a man,” even because it is the very inmost life of humanity, it is, therefore, true unto death.

1847, Friedrich von Schlegel, translated by A. J. W. Morrison, The Philosophy of Life, and Philosophy of Language: In a Course of Lectures, page 38:

The leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics has tried to answer the age-old question of philosophers, playwrights and poets — the meaning of love — and concluded that erotic desire without self-sacrifice and spiritual devotion cannot be true love.

2006 January 26, Linda Morris, “Pope dedicates message to meaning of true love”, in The Age, Melbourne:

(by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.

(uncountable) The form of romantic affection that is considered pure and wholly positive, not just based on feelings of lust and sex.


wuv

en-verb

wuv (third-person singular simple present wuvz or wuvs, present participle wuving, simple past and past participle wuvd or wuved)

wuvz (present singular third-person)
wuvs (present singular third-person)
wuving (participle present)
wuvd (participle past)
wuvd (past)
wuved (participle past)
wuved (past)

From a humorous mispronunciation of love, mimicking the speech of a young child.

(childish or humorous) Alternative form of love


happy as a clam

Marlene […] ran off into the parade ground happy as a clam, […].

2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Penguin Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 363:


l-word

(euphemistic, humorous) Any word beginning with l that is not normally taboo but is considered (often humorously) to be so in the given context.


ambisexuality

en-noun

ambisexuality (countable and uncountable, plural ambisexualities)

(uncountable) The state of being ambisexual.


Judeophilia

/d͡ʒuːˌdiːəʊˈfɪlɪə/

A strong interest in the country, culture, or people of Jews.


Russophilia

/ˌɹʌsəˈfɪli.ə/

Russophilia was directly weakened by military base agreements with the US.

2015, Boris Popivanov, Changing Images of the Left in Bulgaria, page 126:

A strong interest in or admiration of Russia, Russian culture, or the Russian people.

親俄派

a strong interest in the country, culture, or people of Russia


green-eyed monster

green-eyed monster (plural green-eyed monsters)

From green + eye + monster. Coined by William Shakespeare in his play Othello.

[Iago:] Oh, beware my Lord, of iealouſie, / It is the greene-ey'd Monſter, which doth mocke / The meate it feeds on.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 324, column 1:

She was not to be convinced, and so poor Mr. Graham, who was really exceedingly polite and affable to the ladies, was almost constantly provoking the green-eyed monster by his attentions to some one of the fair sex.

1856, Mary Jane Holmes, chapter X, in ’Lena Rivers:

It was Harold. I decided to have him dark, with a very small black mustache, and passionate eyes. I felt, too, that he would be jealous. The eyes would be of the smoldering type, showing the green-eyed monster beneath.

1916, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Bab, a Sub-Deb:

The green-eyed monster had bitten [Jeeves]. He was miffed because he wasn't the brains behind this binge, the blue prints for it having been laid down by a rival. Even great men have their weaknesses.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

(colloquial, usually with the) Envy, jealousy, covetousness.


Sinophilia

A strong interest in the country, culture, or people of China.


Sinophobia

Fear, hostility or aversion to China, Chinese people or Chinese culture.


cadgy

en-adj

cadgy (comparative more cadgy, superlative most cadgy)

more cadgy (comparative)
most cadgy (superlative)

(UK, Scotland, dialect) cheerful or mirthful, as after good eating or drinking

(UK, Scotland, dialect) frolicsome; wanton


sophophobia

/sɒfəˈfəʊbɪə/

Ancient Greek σοφῐ́ᾱ (sophíā, “learning, wisdom”) + English -phobia (“fear”); compare phobosophy

uder

1995, July 24th: mary.elizabeth, sci.med.aids (Google group): From the Editor, 8:00am
Washington insiders should note that the new Presidential Advisory Council is the Administration’s second effort to form an advisory group. When one of the Administration’s staffers reviewed the original list of committee nominees, the President was informed that two of the nominees had already died and one was close to death. When I discussed the original nominations with the staffer who ultimately decided to protect the White House from this gaffe, I recommended that he let the deceased nominees go through to illustrate the Executive Office’s lack of sensibility of and sensitivity to the reality of the AIDS pandemic. If my advice would have been taken, President Clinton could have excused himself on the basis of his sophophobia.

2001, December 11th: Robert Knowles, ok.general (Google group): BumbleFrank Goes on Bended Knee, 10:36pm
Yeah, I’ve learned to downplay the “edgykashun” angle here. Especially since the vast majority of mine was obtained outside Oklahoma, where I might have been exposed to dangerous outside ideas.
Fortunately, my experience in ‛Bama taught me to recognize the symptoms of sophophobia, so I have learned to adapt and only reveal my “credentials” to those similarly endowed.
So, show me yours and I’ll show you mine.

“Justin, you don’t wanna mess with her,” the girl warned, “not only is she smart, she got 3 brothers who’ll kick the shit outa you once they get out the penitentiary. You’d better concentrate on your own case of sophophobia, Justin, and stop worryin whether Halle Jackson’s got a fear of sexual intercourse.”

2004, H.W. Benjamin, Mamasense, page 274:

A little-known fact is that one of the fastest growing phobias in modern America is ballistophobia — fear of bullets. Especially when they are fired directly at you! That fear is right up there with sophophobia — fear of learning. Today, a considerable number of school-age kids suffer terribly from this phobia.

2006, Albert R Koch, Help Mom with the Dishes: Lessons from Life’s Classroom, page 26:


misproud

en-adj

misproud (comparative more misproud, superlative most misproud)

more misproud (comparative)
most misproud (superlative)

From Middle English misproud, equivalent to mis- + proud.

It is grete scorne to se a mysproude knave / With a clerke that connynge is to prate: / Lete theym go lowse theym, in the devylles date.

1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:

[...] dismount two hundred of our best dragooners, and, under Fight-the-good-fight Egerton, let them file down that gully to our left, and fire constantly on the advance of these misproud malignants.

1838, Knickerbocker, or, New-York monthly magazine, volume 11, page 124:

See, in the distance advancing, Richmond's misproud array, Fighting for Henry the traitor.

1904, The Lutheran observer - Volume 72 - Page 441

Yet was the song acclaimed of these aloud Whose praise had made mute bumbleness misproud, [...]

2002, Algernon Charles Swinburne, L. M. Findlay, Selected Poems:

"[...] He hath, I know not how, wrung forth a noble haunch of venison and store of Bourdeaux wine from some misproud malignant here at Naseby!"

2004, Henry William Herbert, Cromwell An Historical Novel:

(archaic) Unduly or unwarrantably proud or vain; wrongly proud; arrogant; haughty.


Pakistanphobia

Their only lament is that the Indian leaders have been continuously busy inducing Pakistanphobia just for the fun of having a neighbour around to raise their accusing finger for the purpose of indoctrination.

1985, Pakistan & Gulf Economist (volume 4, part 2, page 5)

But as numbers of legal and illegal immigrants increased, the anti-Albanian propaganda receded gradually into the background and a Pakistanphobia took its place.

2019, C. Nadia Seremetakis, Sensing the Everyday: Dialogues from Austerity Greece:

(very rare) Hostility or aversion to Pakistan and/or Pakistani people.


rivalship

From rival + ship (“a fictional romantic relationship between two characters”).

compound

it took me longer to ship drarry bc when i first read HP i was young and pure and didnt care about ships but now im rivalship trash so

2015 October 16, kat (@saItkath), Twitter:

where are my femslash rivalships/hateships i want girls who wanna DUEL before they smooch

2017 December 20, in the netherdeep (@NatRoze), Twitter:

I dont like kylo ren bc hes a bitch. Also r*ylo sucks because fuck rivalships she deserves better. Dont @ me

2019 March 6, may (@myosotiskills), Twitter:

(fandom slang) A ship involving characters with an adversarial relationship.


puff up

en-verb

puff up (third-person singular simple present puffs up, present participle puffing up, simple past and past participle puffed up)

puffs up (present singular third-person)
puffing up (participle present)
puffed up (participle past)
puffed up (past)

Small birds puff up while sleeping to keep warm.

The angry cat hissed and puffed up its fur.

(transitive, intransitive) To fluff up, such as an animal raising its fur or feathers to appear larger or conserve body heat.


collywobbles

Probably from colic (“severe pains that grip the abdomen”) + wobble (“unsteady motion”). Alternatively, it has been suggested that the word derives from colly (“coal dust”) (in the sense of someone becoming ill from breathing in such dust), or that it is a corruption of cholera.

Petunia’s off school today with a touch of the collywobbles.

Collywobbles, the gripes.

[1823, [Francis Grose]; Pierce Egan, “Collywobbles”, in Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, […], London: […] Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, […], →OCLC:

I know I have something else to say to you, but unfortunately I awoke this morning with collywobbles, and had to take a small dose of laudanum with the usual consequences of dry throat, intoxicated legs, partial madness and total imbecility; and for the life of me I cannot remember what it is.

1894 September 10, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Letter XLIII”, in S[idney] C[olvin], editor, Vailima Letters: Being Correspondence Addressed by Robert Louis Stevenson to Sidney Colvin […], London: Methuen and Co. […], published 1895, →OCLC, page 343:

"I deeply regret," answered Liza, "but my royal 'ighness 'as got the collywobbles."

1897, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 3, in Liza of Lambeth, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published [1921], →OCLC, page 36:

The prefect was there again and it was his voice that was saying that he was to get up, that Father Minister had said he was to get up and dress and go to the infirmary. And while he was dressing himself as quickly as he could the prefect said: / ― We must pack off to Brother Michael because we have the collywobbles!

1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter I, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 20:

"D'ye hear, Richard? Now's your chance," repeated Ned, not to be done. "There's a pot o' money in it. A very different thing this, I can tell you, from running round dosing people for the collywobbles. I know men who are raising the splosh to get in, any way they can."

1917, Henry Handel Richardson, chapter V, in Australia Felix, part III, New York, N.Y.: W[illiam] W[arder] Norton & Co., →OCLC, page 260:

Often preceded by the: a stomach ache or an upset stomach.

mahanpuru

(informal, chiefly humorous) stomachache or an upset stomach

I don’t like walking through the forest at night. It gives me the collywobbles.

This business of getting Bill educated has just about given me the collywobbles. You wouldn't think to look at the boy, that he could possibly be such a tragic misfit in school.

1943, Mary Ruth Sandifer, American Lay Opinion of the Progressive School, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, →OCLC, page 21:

(by extension) Often preceded by the: anxiety, fear, uneasiness.

mahanpuru

(informal, chiefly humorous) anxiety, fear, uneasiness


bum out

bum out (third-person singular simple present bums out, present participle bumming out, simple past and past participle bummed out)

bums out (present singular third-person)
bumming out (participle present)
bummed out (participle past)
bummed out (past)

“It bums me out that I can’t play, but I’m glad my brother has the opportunity,” Austin Baker said.

2008 March 5, Rick Weegman, “Cloquet-Esko-Carlton: childhood dreams come true”, in Duluth News Tribune:

(slang, transitive) To cause a person to be depressed or disappointed.


cry all the way to the bank

cry all the way to the bank (third-person singular simple present cries all the way to the bank, present participle crying all the way to the bank, simple past and past participle cried all the way to the bank)

cries all the way to the bank (present singular third-person)
crying all the way to the bank (participle present)
cried all the way to the bank (participle past)
cried all the way to the bank (past)

When his rich aunt died, he was crying all the way to the bank.

(idiomatic) To be happy due to the receipt of money, but sad about the cause.


laugh all the way to the bank

laugh all the way to the bank (third-person singular simple present laughs all the way to the bank, present participle laughing all the way to the bank, simple past and past participle laughed all the way to the bank)

laughs all the way to the bank (present singular third-person)
laughing all the way to the bank (participle present)
laughed all the way to the bank (participle past)
laughed all the way to the bank (past)

Ivan Boesky laughed all the way to the bank, as did Milken, as do most people who commit clever, non-violent crimes and fraudulently enrich themselves.

1994, Taki, Nothing to Declare: A Memoir, →ISBN, page 212:

Who cares if he's not funny? The venture capitalists behind Twitter will be laughing all the way to the bank.

2009 September 16, “Twitter's Popularity: Users Love Stupid Content”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2015-04-13:

George Bancroft stars as ruthless stock manipulator Jim Bradford, who plays his customers for suckers and laughs all the way to the bank.

2010, Hal Erickson, “The Wolf of Wall Street (1929)”, in New York Times: Movies, retrieved 2015-04-13:

(intransitive, idiomatic) To make a large income easily, especially at the expense of others or by doing something that lacks significant merit.


knee-slapping

The action of striking one's own knee with the hand, associated with hearty laughter.


gay

en-adj

gay (comparative gayer, superlative gayest)

gayer (comparative)
gayest (superlative)

→ Cantonese: 基 (gei¹)

→ Mandarin: 基 (jī)

→ Catalan: gai

→ Esperanto: geja

→ French: gay

→ German: gay

→ Greek: γκέι (gkéi)

→ Irish: aerach (calque)

→ Italian: gay

→ Japanese: ゲイ (gei)

→ Mandarin: gay (gèi)

→ Portuguese: gay

→ Romanian: gay

→ Spanish: gay

→ Telugu: గే (gē)

→ Thai: เกย์ (gee)

→ Turkish: gey

Brill Publishers
Gertrude Stein
gay (term)

From Middle English gay, from Old French gai (“joyful, laughing, merry”), usually thought to be a borrowing of Old Occitan gai (“impetuous, lively”), from Gothic *𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃 (*gaheis, “impetuous”), merging with earlier Old French jai ("merry"; see jay), from Frankish *gāhi; both from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden”). This is possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- (“to stride, step”), from *ǵʰēy- (“to go”), but Kroonen rejects this derivation and treats the Germanic word as having no known etymology.
cognates and sense derivation
Cognate with Dutch gauw (“fast, quickly”), Westphalian Low German gau, gai (“fast, quick”), German jäh (“abrupt, sudden”).
Anatoly Liberman, following Frank Chance and Harri Meier, believes Old French gai was instead a native development from Latin vagus (“wandering, inconstant, flighty”), with *[w] > [g] as in French gaine.
The sense of homosexual (first recorded no later than 1937 by Cary Grant in the film Bringing Up Baby, and possibly earlier in 1922 in the poem "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" by Gertrude Stein) was shortened from earlier gay cat ("homosexual boy") in underworld and prison slang, itself first attested about 1935, but used earlier for a young tramp or hobo attached to an older one.
Pejorative usage is probably due to hostility towards homosexuality.
The sense of ‘upright’, used in reference to a dog’s tail, probably derives from the ‘happy’ sense of the word.

gay

homosexual — see also homosexual, lesbian

verwijfd

behaving in a way associated with females

Coordinate term: LGBTQ

(colloquial) Not heterosexual, or not cisgender: homosexual, bisexual, asexual, transgender, etc.

[…] the pirates, who are obviously totally gay for each other […]

2014 December 6, Ej Dickson, “The 7 worst things about NBC's "Peter Pan Live!"”, in Salon.com:

Being gay for Brad, even a teensy bit, is at the very least being able to imagine the potential for queerness. In a sense, like the recent popular and critical furor over men who are gay-for-pay, being gay for Brad is what Jeffrey Escoffier defines as "situational homosexuality," or other forms of man-on-man behavior […] In other words, rather than worry over whether or not men who are queer for Brad can easily be labeled as straight or gay, […]

2014, Christopher Schaberg, Robert Bennett, Deconstructing Brad Pitt, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 211:

[…] it’s now pretty popular among progressives to paint the US and Russian presidents as being gay for each other.

2017 May 2, German Lopez, “Stephen Colbert tried to insult Donald Trump. He made a homophobic comment instead.”, in Vox:

(slang, with for) Homosexually in love with someone.

Homosexual:
Homosexually in love with someone.


child pornography

Pornographic material depicting minors; sexually explicit (or suggestive) images of children.


flip one's lid

en-verb

flip one's lid (third-person singular simple present flips one's lid, present participle flipping one's lid, simple past and past participle flipped one's lid)

flips one's lid (present singular third-person)
flipping one's lid (participle present)
flipped one's lid (participle past)
flipped one's lid (past)

Originally an Americanism; from the analogy of a boiling pot explosively popping off its lid due to built-up internal pressure.

Wait, you'll see. Three hours on a night like this is enough to make you flip your lid.

1948, Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead, New York, Toronto: Rinehart & Company, page 113:

Drag him out your window / Dragging out the dead / Singing "I miss you" / Snakes and ladders / Flip the lid

2003, Radiohead (lyrics and music), “A Wolf at the Door”, in Hail to the Thief, performed by Thom Yorke:

His parents flipped their lids when the two lovebugs got hitched. Jonnie couldn't stand the fact that her beautiful young son, gone so long over seas, had now tangled up with an older woman, and even worse, an older divorced woman […]

2009, Dee Kassabian, My Four Fathers and Other Short Stories, page 45:

(idiomatic, informal) To become explosively angry, to lose one's temper.


kick up

kick up (third-person singular simple present kicks up, present participle kicking up, simple past and past participle kicked up)

kicks up (present singular third-person)
kicking up (participle present)
kicked up (participle past)
kicked up (past)

He kicked up about it when they told him the train had been cancelled.

But, you have kicked up about that a few times. I've got used to it, though. What I am not used to is how you are now. Very quiet, philosophical, and acquiescent.

2005, Tony Gant, Sunrise Sandwiches, page 517:

(informal, intransitive) To show anger (about something).

Coordinate term: act up

The car is kicking up.

My ADHD is kicking up again.

2006, Thomas E. Brown, Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults, page 153:

(informal, intransitive, US) To function improperly; to show signs of disorder; (of an illness) to flare up.

You have to kick up some money to the boss.

Let me kick your offer up and see what the execs say.

(slang) To pass (something, such as a proposal or a share of a bribe) up a hierarchy or chain of command.


belly laugh

The consistency of characterization that allows Fredricks to move from belly laughs to really serious moments within a matter of a few moments.

1979 December 22, Michael Bronski, “Small Lives in a Small Town”, in Gay Community News, volume 2, number 22, page 17:

The classic episode “Mr. Plow” has more than its share of belly laughs and unforgettable moments but my favorite moment in it is so small and subtle that it’s easy to miss.

2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):


love interest

Many people are involved in relationships in which they do not know how their love interest feels about them. […] They may also fear knowing the truth, which may be that their love interest isn't truly interested enough in them to make a commitment to the relationship.

2012, Barbara R. Cohl, “What Unhappy Couples Can Teach Us”, in Success for Modern Day Relationships: Working with Dating, Engaged, and Married Couples, Lanham, Md., Plymouth, Devon: Jason Aronson, →ISBN, page 82:

Items from the "Love Styles" scale (Grote & Frieze, 1994) and the Hatfield and Rapson "Passionate Love" scale (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986) were used to assess the type of love felt for the other person. One love style measured was eros, or passionate love (Lee, 1976). […] Items were: "I was physically attracted to my love interest"; "I felt we had the right physical chemistry between us"; "Just seeing my love interest excited me"; "I felt that I knew and really understood my love interest"; […]

2015, H. Colleen Sinclair, Irene Hanson Frieze, “Initial Courtship Behavior and Stalking: How Should We Draw the Line?”, in Roland D. Maiuro, editor, Perspectives on Stalking: Victims, Perpetrators, and Cyberstalking, New York, N.Y.: Springer Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 61:

Naturally, Fallout also plays to [Tom] Cruise’s waning appeal as a romantic leading man, supplying him with no less than three potential love interests.

2018 July 25, A. A. Dowd, “Fallout may be the Most Breathlessly Intense Mission: Impossible Adventure Yet”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-07-31:

(film, literature) One who is of interest as a (potential) partner in love.

vlam

one of interest as a (potential) partner in love

They part mutually enchanted; he with her bouquet; she with his honeyed words hoarded in the cells of her excited soul. Their acquaintance is speedily matured, till it becomes evident to all spectators that a love interest has fairly begun.

1858 October, Grace Thalmon, “Choice of a Husband”, in D[avis] W[asgatt] Clark, editor, The Ladies’ Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature and Religion, volume XVIII, number 37, Cincinnati, Oh.: L. Swormstedt and A. Poe [et al.], →OCLC, page 598, column 2:

Some of the greatest and most widely-appreciated literary achievements have been wholly or mainly independent of love-interest or love-inspiration. Religious fervour, zeal for liberty, admiration of abstract virtue, philanthropy, desire to search the heart of man, and contemplation of the beauties and splendours of the outward world,—all these prove to be motives as capable of firing and exalting the imagination as the more directly personal stimulus of love.

1875 July, “the London Hermit” [pseudonym], “Essays and Sketches. On Love in Fiction.”, in Dublin University Magazine. A Literary and Political Journal, volume LXXXVI, number DXI, Dublin: George Herbert, […], London: Hurst & Blackett, Melbourne, Vic.: George Robertson, →OCLC, page 113, column 1:

"The Hand of Peril" is subtitled by its author, Mr. Arthur Stringer, "a novel of adventure," whereas I should label it a six-cylinder detective story. […] Incidentally, the ligament that holds these six morsels together is, of course, a "love-interest" between the detective and the chief criminal's putative daughter and assistant.

1915 September, Henry Brinsley, “Latest News from the Literary Trenches”, in Frank Crowninshield, editor, Vanity Fair, volume 5, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Vanity Fair Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 94, column 1:

The love interest is supplied by the Colonel's grandson and the daughter of the inventor of a horseless wagon.

1926 December, [Arthur Hornblow, Sr.], “Mr. Hornblow Goes to the Play”, in F. E. Allardt, editor, Theatre Magazine: For the Lovers of the Stage and the Screen, volume XLIV, number 309, New York, N.Y.: Theatre Magazine Company, →OCLC, page 72, column 2:

(film, literature) A romantic plot or subplot in a film or book.


galge

Borrowed from Japanese ギャルゲー (gyarugē), a shortening of ギャルゲーム (gyaru gēmu), a wasei-eigo derived from English gal + game.

(video games) A video game centered around interactions with attractive anime-style girls.


fley

fley (third-person singular simple present fleys, present participle fleying, simple past and past participle fleyed)

fleys (present singular third-person)
fleying (participle present)
fleyed (participle past)
fleyed (past)

From Middle English fleien, from Old English flēgan.

The Jack O'Lanthron was among the reeds again last night, and some of my neighbours are sore fleyed.

1860, James Phillips Kay, Scarsdale; or, Life on the Lancashire and Yorkshire border:

(obsolete, intransitive) To be frightened.


epicaricacy

/ˌɛpɪˈkæɹɪkəsi/

From Ancient Greek ἐπιχαιρεκακία (epikhairekakía, “joy upon evil”).
The word appears in most of the editions of Nathaniel Bailey's dictionary and many dictionaries that came after. Linguist Joseph T. Shipley included it in his Dictionary of Early English (1963), citing Bailey. Evidence of actual usage seems scant until it was picked up by various "interesting word" websites around the turn of the twenty-first century.

der

ἐπιχαιρεκακία

(rare) Rejoicing at or deriving pleasure from the misfortunes of others.


batrachophobia

From Ancient Greek βάτραχος (bátrakhos, “frog”) + -phobia.


dendrophobia

/ˌdɛndɹəˈfəʊbɪə/


myrmecophobia

Ants are a special kind of bug. I think they are easily squashed by the foot; I'm sure I've unintentionally squashed a number of them with my feet in my adult life, and when I was a young child I believe I used to squash an occasional ant either for sport or more likely as a reaction to some feeling of myrmecophobia.

2001 January 30, R Fontana, “Re: nat”, in alt.usage.english (Usenet):

Possibly it was fear of ants, which by the way, is myrmecophobia.

2007, Claire Cook, Life's a Beach, Hyperion, →ISBN, page 134:

My wife suffers from myrmecophobia. I've spread enough toxic substances to turn our property into a superfund site.

2011 July 9, Max, “Re: Reviews On Roadtrek Motorhomes?”, in rec.outdoors.rv-travel (Usenet):


chronophobia

From Ancient Greek χρόνος (khrónos, “time”) + φοβος (phobos, “fear”).

Fear of the passing of time, or more generally of time itself.


gamophobia

He has on him a perpetual gamophobia, and an instinctive antipathy to births and marriages, which makes him carefully avoid that part of the newspapers in which they so constantly appear.

1808, Edward Dubois, Fashionable Biography; or, Specimens of Public Characters by a Connoisseur, W. Lewis (1808), page xlv

"I've got gamophobia," Anne said. "That's fear of marriage. I should've gotten it a lot sooner. My marriages had the shelf life of buttermilk."

1997, Joseph Wambaugh, Floaters, Random House, published 1997, →ISBN, page 243:

He explained that a recent University of Indiana study indicated that almost twice as many men as women had gamophobia, fear of marriage, but that almost twice as many women as men had genophobia, fear of sex.

2005, C. L. McGranaghan, The Analyst, a Corporate Novel, →ISBN, page 57:


peladophobia

Mention may also be made here to peladophobia, fear of baldness, particularly manifested in men. In the more severe cases of peladophobia, the social intercourse of the patient is much restricted, developing into what is virtually a phobia of society.

1925, Transactions of the Section on Dermatology and Syphilology of the American Medical Association at the Annual Session, page 190:

Andrew fears bald people (peladophobia). As a child, he inadvertently insulted a bald man in a grocery store and was promptly clapped on the ears by the old man and screamed at.

2008, James Garner, Arthur H. Bell, Phobias and How to Overcome Them: Understanding and Beating Your Fears, Castle Books, →ISBN, page 105:

You can have pluviophobia, the fear of being rained on, or peladophobia, the fear of bald people, but there is no medical term for the fear of doors.

2010, Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo, Gotham Books, →ISBN:


aurophobia

If this be true, it certainly shows the power of suggestion, idiosyncrasy or aurophobia to an extent scarcely equaled by Mr. Bryan himself, who was said to be sorely distressed a short time ago on account of finding gold in his well.

1898, Western Druggist, volume 20, page 258:

Slaves are we then to a superstition — aurophobia — for there is never enough; fear of insecurity will not be remedied by any amount, whether counted in hundreds of thousands or millions.

1961, Morris Goldstein, Lift Up Your Life: A Personal Philosophy for Our Times, Philosophical Library, published 1961, page 87:

The other main reason for the aurophobia that prevails in many quarters is that the monetary use of gold implies fixed parities, […]

1972, Paul Einzig, A Textbook on Monetary Policy, Macmillan, page 223:

The fear of gold; by extension, the fear of wealth.


hagiophobia

As regards Michael Zilk, Father Aurelian was perfectly justified in assuming that he was possessed with a devil, since all the signs favored this presumption, such as sudden paroxysms, abnormal bodily strength, hagiophobia, or strange dread of holy things, and demoniac ecstasy.

1895 November, E. P. Evans, “Recent Recrudescence of Superstition”, in The Popular Science Monthly, page 73:

Perhaps they are afraid that veneration of the saints may lead to putting them in the place of God as objects of worship. If they ever outgrow this hagiophobia they may some day venerate the Gloomy Dean as a saint.

1930, Selden Peabody Delany, Why Rome, The Dial Press, page 54:

When in the midst of the growing antagonism pusillanimous purveyors recite segments from hagiology and incite the masses with hagiophobia the violence may become uncontrollable since its cause becomes a virtual crusade.

1970, Julian A. Joffe, Studies in the History of Civilization, Philosophical Library, published 1970, page 70:

The fear, dislike, or hatred of holiness and/or of holy things.


peniaphobia

From Ancient Greek πενία (penía, “poverty”) + -phobia. Related to Latin penuria (“poverty”).

Piggy banks are helpful for persons with "peniaphobia," an abnormal fear of poverty.

1994, Charlotte Foltz Jones, Mistakes That Worked, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 38:

Maybe you have peniaphobia, but God wants you live among and minister to the poor […]

1998, Brian Shipman, WWJD: Daily Time with Jesus, B & H Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 358:

Our strategy is not driven by brobdingnagian principles: it is quite simply to excel in whatever we do and my personal optimism for the future stems from the knowledge that our entrepreneurial Agencies are driven to achieve. Perhaps this is due to peniaphobia but more likely it stems from a passion to establish the mission™ as the most respected and regarded Agency group in the UK.

2013, The Mission Marketing Group PLC, Interim Report 2013: For the Six Months Ended 30 June 2013, page 6:


arithmophobia

The irrational fear of numbers or arithmetic.


auroraphobia

He cured one white school teacher of acarophobia, or the fear of insects, and another of auroraphobia, or fear of the northern lights.

1981, Gerald Robert Vizenor, Earthdivers: tribal narratives on mixed descent, page 150:


pupaphobia

From Latin pūpa (“doll, puppet”) + -phobia.

Adie watched in horror: shadowy lives playing against living shadows. A sudden pupaphobia overtook her as she watched the boy volley, step out, recompile a few new lines of code, step back in and volley again.

2000, Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark: A Novel, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page unknown:

I explain to Brian—and Megan and her roommate Darren, who are also listening—that I ran into A. at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, where we’d just seen a puppet show. I’d confessed to A. that I had a mild, though not very committed, case of pupaphobia when he asked me how I liked the show.

2010 Summer, Jill Margo, “Getting Textual”, in Geist, volume 19, number 77, →ISSN, page 25:

When I first heard of pupaphobia, I thought it was a joke. Billy is the first and only pupaphobic that I have ever encountered in my life. That's why Billy makes frequent references to "sock puppets", because he's scared of them all.

2013 April 16, Benny4urThoughts, “Re: Typical Leftists: Party to celebrate Thatcher's death.”, in tx.guns (Usenet):

For anyone with coulrophobia (fear of clowns), pupaphobia (fear of puppets) or who merely wants a nights-are-getting-longer novel, here's one that'll chill you good. For you, “The Motion of Puppets” is a book to move on.

2016 October 15, Terri Schlichenmeyer, “New novel tells creepy tale of horror”, in Daily Corinthian, volume 120, number 249, page 5:

Hey kids, the word of the week is "pupaphobia"! Others may enjoy being frightened by chainsaw-wielding maniacs and cannibal clowns, but my Halloween is never complete without a murderous Muppet or two. Thankfully, a pair of events last Friday the 13th provided a perfect double feature of puppet perversity.

[2017 October 18, Seth Kubersky, “A weekend full of puppetry-themed entertainment is just the ticket, unless you’re pupaphobic”, in Orlando Weekly:


motorphobia

As a child with motorphobia, she used to grab her father's hand at the slightest sound of an approaching vehicle.

Fear or dislike of automobiles or riding in one.


wuss out

en-verb

wuss out (third-person singular simple present wusses out, present participle wussing out, simple past and past participle wussed out)

wusses out (present singular third-person)
wussing out (participle present)
wussed out (participle past)
wussed out (past)

He said he was going to climb that tree, but he wussed out at the last moment.

(intransitive, slang) To fail to do something because of cowardice.


bust a gasket

bust a gasket (third-person singular simple present busts a gasket, present participle busting a gasket, simple past and past participle busted a gasket or bust a gasket)

busts a gasket (present singular third-person)
busting a gasket (participle present)
busted a gasket (participle past)
busted a gasket (past)
bust a gasket (participle past)
bust a gasket (past)

If she finds out I'm investigating Eler, she'll bust a gasket.

2014, Dianne Post, Blood and Honor: A Mother’s Heritage, A Daughter’s Revenge:


vent one's spleen

vent one's spleen (third-person singular simple present vents one's spleen, present participle venting one's spleen, simple past and past participle vented one's spleen)

vents one's spleen (present singular third-person)
venting one's spleen (participle present)
vented one's spleen (participle past)
vented one's spleen (past)

To openly express pent-up anger, often on an unrelated matter or person.

seine schlechte Laune an jmdm. auslassen

срыва́ть злость (sryvátʹ zlostʹ) (на ком-либо/чём-либо, prepositional case)


ILY

Alternative form: ily

(Internet slang, text messaging) Initialism of I love you.


do someone proud

do someone proud (third-person singular simple present does someone proud, present participle doing someone proud, simple past did someone proud, past participle done someone proud)

does someone proud (present singular third-person)
doing someone proud (participle present)
did someone proud (past)
done someone proud (participle past)

He very politely assured her that she would ‘do him proud’, whenever she might please to call at Hook Court.

1867, Anthony Trollope, chapter 75, in The Last Chronicle of Barset:

"Well, honest to God, it does me proud to meet you," he blurted out. "Shake hands."

1913, Jack London, chapter 7, in The Valley of the Moon:

I was absolutely delighted with the way we competed and the players did me proud.

2008 May 13, “Calderwood praises character”, in www.sportinglife.com, UK, retrieved 2008-06-18:

(transitive, informal) To cause someone to feel pride, admiration, or satisfaction.


maniaphobia

An abnormal fear of being distraught or mentally ill.


child porn

The police raid uncovered a large quantity of child porn on the teacher's laptop.

child pornography
child pornography#English


drive someone up the wall

drive<,,drove,driven> someone up the wall

drive someone up the wall (third-person singular simple present drives someone up the wall, present participle driving someone up the wall, simple past drove someone up the wall, past participle driven someone up the wall)

drives someone up the wall (present singular third-person)
driving someone up the wall (participle present)
drove someone up the wall (past)
driven someone up the wall (participle past)

Her persistent nagging and constant bickering with me nearly drove me up the wall.

There is nothing and no one that's going to shut him up. That's what makes [Chris] Tucker funny. It's also what can drive you up the wall about him.

1998 September 18, Charles Taylor, “Hong Kong Hollywood”, in Salon, archived from the original on 2008-05-06:

(idiomatic) To make a person very angry or frustrated; to infuriate.


lose one's mind

lose one's mind (third-person singular simple present loses one's mind, present participle losing one's mind, simple past and past participle lost one's mind)

loses one's mind (present singular third-person)
losing one's mind (participle present)
lost one's mind (participle past)
lost one's mind (past)

(idiomatic) To become frustrated, angry.


be still my heart

How strange, how hellish (God forgive me for saying so!) it seems that she should love him. But, does she love him? Can she love him? Could she love him if she knew all? Know him she shall before she marries him. For the present, be still, my heart.

1868, Charles Reade, chapter 8, in Foul Play:

Roll tape! Action!
"I can't feel a pulse!" shouts Ms. Brunette Beauty, RN.
"Call a code!" commands Blue-Eyed Hunk, MD. . . .
He's talking to me. Be still my heart.

1986, Priscilla Scherer, “Reflections: Daytime Drama,”, in The American Journal of Nursing, volume 86, number 1, page 106:

Calling her installation "information as art," Hesh will have 28 separate documents and artifacts on view, one of which is—be still my heart—a stack of old newspapers.

2004 December 10, Michael O'Sullivan, “In Baltimore, Seeing the '(In)visible'”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2008-07-15:

(idiomatic) An admonition to oneself to calm down when overly excited, especially in terms of romantic attraction.


technophilia

en-noun

technophilia (usually uncountable, plural technophilias)


chrematophobia

From Ancient Greek χρῆμα (khrêma, “money”) + -phobia.

In other words, they are "cheap," and if fear of spending small amounts of money is a form of chrematophobia, then phobias abound in the world.

1999, David L. Weiner, Gilbert M. Hefter, Battling the Inner Dummy: The Craziness of Apparently Normal People, Prometheus Books, →ISBN, page 194:

While most would take wealth if it were offered, and chrematophobia (a morbid fear of money) is practically unheard of, most people limit their rise to riches by both their emotional immaturities and their sensibilities and humanness.

2001, Ron Jarrett, Discovering the Millionaire in Every Child: Mastering the Decisions That Define Your Life, Word Association Publishing, →ISBN, page 65:

The fear of money, clinically named chrematophobia, is perhaps the most widely known financial fear. At its extreme, chrematophobia produces symptoms such as dizziness, perspiration, loss of breath, nausea, dry mouth, heart palpitations, and the inability to think clearly.

2006, Kelvin E. Boston, Who's Afraid to Be a Millionaire?: Mastering Financial and Emotional Success, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 15:

The fear of money, spending money, or having too much or not enough money.


retrogamer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-retrogamer.wav


angsty

en-adj

angsty (comparative angstier, superlative angstiest)

angstier (comparative)
angstiest (superlative)

Jackson said industrial relations felt "angsty" at a national level.

2024 February 7, Philip Haigh, “Network News: TPE MD: consider impact of strikes on passengers”, in RAIL, number 1002, page 11:


lylab

(slang) Acronym of love you like a brother (or like a bro).


cranked up

cranked up (comparative more cranked up, superlative most cranked up)

more cranked up (comparative)
most cranked up (superlative)

Now, I mean this turkey was cranked up good. He had been gobbling at the slightest sound of my hen calls earlier.

1984, Ken Warner, Gun Digest, 1985, page 16:

She thought I'd had too much to drink, which, of course, I had. But now I felt cranked up and wide awake.

2009, Nellis Boyer, Hancock House, page 63:

Birdy especially got cranked up about home burial.

2013, Seedy Buckberry, A Windfall Homestead:

If I was cranked up on caffeine, it was harder to relax and get aroused.


spheksophobia

From Ancient Greek σφήξ (sphḗx, “wasp”) + -phobia.

A few episodes of harvesting ripe peaches and plums and getting viciously stung by the winged insects hiding inside the splitting fruit is more than sufficient to trigger a bout of spheksophobia, the fear of wasps.

2006, Des Kennedy, The Passionate Gardener: Adventures of an Ardent Green Thumb, page 211:

I want to hear from others who are scared of being stung so they stay away from fun occasions to avoid the possibility.

2006 December 7, A MUZEing.., “It's nearly summer.. spheksophobia season!”, in Plenty Of Fish (Usenet), retrieved 2010-06-28:


there are plenty of fish in the sea

There are many more potential opportunities available.

échei ki alloú portokaliés pou kánoun portokália

έχει κι αλλού πορτοκαλιές που κάνουν πορτοκάλια

the odds are good, but the goods are odd


bibliophobia

[…] yet even he could not stand against that sin when temporarily infected with the poison of Bibliophobia.

1818, Religio Christiani, a Churchman's Answer to Religio Clerici, quoted in The Gentleman's Magazine, October 1818, page 345:

What a tragic illness bibliophobia is!

1963, John B. Nicholson, “A Disease Known as Bibliophobia”, in Reading and the Art of Librarianship, published 1986, →ISBN, page 10:

E-literacy derives not from bibliophobia, then, but from the miraculous and evolving advent of digital technology, the Information Age and the Electronic Word.

2008, Mark Bauerlein, The Dumbest Generation, →ISBN, page 67:


ovant

ovant (comparative more ovant, superlative most ovant)

more ovant (comparative)
most ovant (superlative)

From Latin ovans (“triumphant”), present participle of ovare (“to exult”).

A Generall was said to enter Ovant into the citie, when ordinarily without his armie following him, he went on foot, or rode on horsebacke only, and the people in their Acclamations for joy, redoubled Ohe, or Oho.

1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book IV]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC:


amay

en-verb

amay (third-person singular simple present amays, present participle amaying, simple past and past participle amayed)

amays (present singular third-person)
amaying (participle present)
amayed (participle past)
amayed (past)

Inherited from Middle English amayen, from Old French amaier, esmaier (“to dismay”).

(transitive and intransitive, obsolete) to dismay; confound; be dismayed


kiddy fiddler

According to Gus, the main enemies of hackers are not the media ("stupid, harmless"), the government or the police ("who are more interested in kiddy fiddlers").

2002 August, John Leyden, “The hacker's worst enemy? Another hacker”, in The Register:

(slang, derogatory) A pedophile or a child molester.


quakebuttock

From quake + buttock. The word was rare before the 20th century but appears to have experienced a revival.

See what theſe times are grown to, before twenty / I ruſh'd into the world, which is indeed / Much like the Art of ſwiming, he that will attain to't / Muſt fall plump, and duck himſelf at firſt, / And that will make him hardy and advent'rous, / And not ſtand putting in one foot, and ſhiver, / And then draw t'other after, like a quake-buttock; [...]

c. 1613, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, “Wit at Several Weapons. A Comedy.”, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies. […], [part 2], London: […] J[ohn] Macock [and H. Hills], for John Martyn, Henry Herringman, and Richard Marriot, published 1679, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 358:

Not fitting speech, Kor. Quakebuttock, some would have called him. Coward. But I knew he was no coward, and though I wanted to rail at him in anger, heartache would not let me. Not yet.

1987, Nancy Springer, chapter 14, in Mindbond (A TOR Book), New York, N.Y.: Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN; republished as Mindbond (Sea King Trilogy; 2), New York, N.Y.: Open Road Integrated Media, 2014, →ISBN:

From hurtful facts I fain won't hide / (I'm not that quakebuttock, weak type who'd / Turn face from fear: I never shied / From vulgar verities others shooed), [...]

1993 fall, Mike Wenthe, “‘Song of Prude: You and I’ in the Key of F-flat”, in Deborah Forbes, Josh May, editors, The Archive, volume 106, number 1, Durham, N.C.: Undergraduate Publications, Duke University, →OCLC, page 36:

And looking back, it seemed to Jim that he had never prayed for himself at all but for this other boy that his mind's eye watched, a rawney-looking molly of a boy, the son of a quakebuttock, a coward himself, praying that he should hear his calling and join the brothers like Our Lady wished and not to be so inconsiderate.

2001, Jamie O'Neill, chapter 6, in At Swim, Two Boys, London: Scribner, →ISBN, page 147:

Have pity on we poor wretched sinners / We blatherskites and lopdoodles / Lickspiggots and clinchpoops / Quibberdicks and Quakebuttocks.

2006, Roger McGough, “Prayer to Saint Grobianos, the Patron Saint of Coarse People”, in Selected Poems, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 152:

'You really do look like you're going to cry,' Em replied (with her mouth). 'Are you sure you're all right?' / 'Yes!' I insisted. 'I'm not a complete quakebuttock, you know!' / Yes! (Quakebuttock is a new word I learned weeks ago and have been meaning to slip into conversation ever since.)

2011, Tom Clempson, “Registration”, in One Seriously Messed-up Week in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Sam Taylor Jack Samsonite, London: Atom, →ISBN:

(obsolete, rare, now humorous) A coward.


mysophobia

An abnormal fear of uncleanliness, dirt, or contamination.


red rag

Collins dictionaries has announced that the inclusion of 2,000 new words in its forthcoming new edition means that some of the dustier corners of its lexicon will have to be swept into the semantic dustbin. Farewell embranglement, recrement, fusby and numerous others. This will be a red rag to books bloggers everywhere.

2008 September 24, Lindesay Irvine, “Collins, we're lost for words: let's call your bluff”, in guardian.co.uk:

(figurative) Something that will enrage another particular person.

punainen vaate

something that will enrage another particular person

For well I know by your glib tongue, / To what fine country you belong, / And if your red rag did not shew it, / By your queer fancies I should know it.

1869, William Combe, Thomas Rolandson, The Three Tours of Doctor Syntax, page 194:

(obsolete, slang, derogatory) A person's tongue.


long face

Why the long face? Is something wrong?

Come on, don't look so worried! Now, Chewy is not gonna want to come to a house of long faces, is he? Come on Malla, let's see a little smile. There that's better.

1978 November 17, 14:01 from the start, in The Star Wars Holiday Special (Science Fiction), spoken by Mark Hamill, →OCLC:

An expression of sadness and disappointment or gloom.


deipnophobia

People who heartily sympathise with the ‘deipnophobia’ of Gordon.

For those of us with deipnophobia—a fear of dining and dinner conversations—literally anything is more pleasant than a meal with friends.

2018 February 8, “'I Have A Severe Phobia—Here's What It's Like'”, in Women's Health:

For Krissy, the deipnophobia did not start after experiencing a traumatizing moment, but it was rather made by an accumulation of different experiences.

2018 April, “What It’s Like to Live with Deipnophobia”, in Best Womens Mag:

(rare) A fear of banquets or dinner parties.


polysexuality

(LGBT) A sexual orientation characterized by an attraction to people of many, but not all, genders.


polysexual

en-adj

polysexual (comparative more polysexual, superlative most polysexual)

more polysexual (comparative)
most polysexual (superlative)

Of or pertaining to multiple types of sexuality.

(LGBT) Sexually attracted to many (sometimes specifically multiple but not all) genders.

Some queer relationships are monogamous (married/committed couple), some agree to polyfidelity (married/committed group), some are polysexual (open sexually), and others are polyamorous (open romantically).

2020, Alex Stitt, ACT for Gender Identity: The Comprehensive Guide, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 359:

Sexually polyamorous; that is, having multiple sexual relationships.


caligynephobia

From Ancient Greek καλλι- (kalli-, “beautiful”) + Ancient Greek γυνή (gunḗ, “female”) + New Latin -phobia, from Latin, from Ancient Greek φόβος (phóbos, “fear”).

uder

[...] He looks over at me. “Whoa! Nice hair.” ¶ I pull down the visor and try not to laugh. My hair looks like I’ve stuck my finger in an electrical outlet. “Jake Jackson, you must get over your caligynephobia.” ¶ Jake raises his eyebrows. ¶ “Fear of beautiful women.” ¶ “I’m planning on working hard on that one in California. [...]”

2005, Dandi Daley Mackall, Love Rules, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,, →ISBN, page 27:

In contrast, if we consider the example of somebody who has a fear of beautiful women (caligynephobia!), then it does not seem outrageous to argue that this fear of beautiful women is somehow an inappropriate emotional reaction or even an emotional disorder.

2008, Mick Power, Tim Dalglesih, Cognition and Emotion: From Order to Disorder, Psychology Press, published 2008, →ISBN, page 54:

Loveshyness is certainly not gynophobia, a fear of women in general, nor is it caligynephobia, a fear of beautiful women.

2009, Talmer Shockley, The Love-Shy Survival Guide, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, published 2009, →ISBN, page 19:


down in the mouth

en-adj

down in the mouth (comparative more down in the mouth, superlative most down in the mouth)

more down in the mouth (comparative)
most down in the mouth (superlative)

"Is the old 'un here?" asked the robber. "Yes," replied the voice, "and precious down in the mouth he has been."

1839, Charles Dickens, chapter 16, in Oliver Twist:

Said Chrysler's tough, dynamic boss, K. T. Keller: "Don't get down in the mouth about business in this country. There is going to be a lot of money spent here."

"He was down in the mouth and low on self-confidence," says his mother, Nina Engel.

2006 October 26, Howard Kurtz, “In Iraq, Journalist Richard Engel Sticks to the Story”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2008-11-03:

(idiomatic) Sad or discouraged, especially as indicated by one's facial appearance.


boylove

Coordinate term: girllove

In another offering, Better Life Monthly was advertised as a "paper with articles, photos, poems, etc. relating to the subject of boylove."

(euphemistic) Paedophilic, hebephilic, or ephebophilic love towards boys.


childlove

From child + love, a calque of Ancient Greek παιδοφιλίᾱ (paidophilíā).

clq

The purpose of the website, according to Ashford, is to "explain my ideal of consensual childlove".

2008, Nancy Billias, Territories of Evil:

(euphemistic) Paedophilic or hebephilic love toward children; paedophilia or hebephilia.


girllove

Coordinate term: boylove

Now, it is unlikely, had a large number of professional men in Boston been charged with sexual conduct with fourteen-year-old girls, that people would have rallied to their support waving the banner of "girllove".

1981, Burton M Leiser, Values in conflict: life, liberty, and the rule of law:

I believe that the vast majority of heterosexual men have an attraction to prepubescent and pubescent girls, they just cannot bring themselves to accept it. Girllove has always been common, just look at Japan and the girl modeling industry in eastern europe.

2009, "Ignored By The Liberal Mass Media", The Duke University Child Rape Case Proves Pedophilia Isn't an "Orientation" (on Usenet newsgroup alt.politics.homosexuality)

Just highlighting it is an issue of boylove, not girllove.

2012, "Nigel Oldfield", Re: After Savile, every British man should worry about his past (on Usenet newsgroup uk.legal)

(euphemistic) Paedophilic, hebephilic, or ephebophilic love towards girls.


-gasm

Clipping of orgasm (“climax or peak of sexual pleasure”).

clipping

nipple + -gasm → nipplegasm

(informal) Forms nouns for a method of orgasm.

ear + -gasm → eargasm

(informal, figuratively) Forms nouns for an intensely "explosive" or pleasurable experience.


transphobia

en-noun

transphobia (usually uncountable, plural transphobias)

From trans- + -phobia or trans + -phobia.

This unusual reactivity and the selectivity observed can be explained as a consequence of the high transphobia of aryl and P-donor ligands […]

2002 December 2, José Vicente, Aurelia Arcas, Delia Bautista, M. Carmen Ramı́rez de Arellano, Mono- and di-nuclear complexes of ortho-palladated and -platinated 4,4′-dimethylazobenzene with bis(diphenylphosphino)methane. More data on transphobia. in the Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, volume 663, issues 1-2, pages 164–172

The reactions of trans-[Pt(Mef)Br(PPh₃)₂] with AgBF₄ and Ph₃ECHC(O)R (E = P, R = Me, OMe, Ph; E = As, R = Me) afford only trans-[Pt(Mef){OC(=CHEPh₃)R}(PPh₃)₂] because the C-alkyl/C-ylide transphobia is greater than the C-alkyl/O-ylide transphobia and also because of the lower steric requirement of the O-ylide ligand.

2009, José Vicente, “Coordination chemistry of metal enolato complexes”, in Jacob Zabicky, editor, The chemistry of metal enolates, page 316:

In the symbiotic effect, a hard ligand tends to form ionic M-L bonds in which L retains more negative charge than in a soft ligand case, letting the metal ion keep more of its positive charge and hence attract additional hard ligands, […]. The antisymbiotic effect, also called transphobia, applies to pairs of high trans effect, soft ligands on a soft metal. Where a choice exists, there is a strong tendency for such ligands to avoid being mutually trans by becoming cis and preferring to have low trans effect, hard ligands trans to themselves.

2014, Robert H. Crabtree, The Organometallic Chemistry of the Transition Metals, →ISBN, page 78:

(chemistry) The preference of pairs of high-trans effect soft ligands to avoid being mutually trans by becoming cis and having other low-trans effect hard ligands trans to themselves.


glooming

What devil, woman! pluck up your heart, and leave off all this glooming.

c. 1553, anonymous author, Gammer Gurton's Needle, London: Gibbings & Co. for the Early English Drama Society, published 1906, act 3, scene 3, page 35:


retrocomputing

A hobby involving the collecting, maintenance, and use of obsolete computer equipment.


fearmonger

/ˈfɪə(ɹ)ˌmʌŋɡə(ɹ)/

I worry that, in time, a clever fearmonger could manipulate popular opinion into an electoral mandate.

2010 December 4, Evan Thomas, “Why It's Time to Worry”, in Newsweek:


religiophobia

From Latin religiō (“moral obligation, worship”) and Ancient Greek φόβος (phóbos, “fear”).

uder

Hence it is not necessary for the scientists to develop a sort of religiophobia nor is it necessary for the religious man to develop an attitude of suspicion against science.

1937, A Chakravarti, Humanism and Indian Thought, G.S. Press, page 2

Racial groupthink and "religiophobia"...

In fact he reverses the issue of religiophobia by stating flatly that those who are not against him are for him!

A fear or hatred of religion, religious faith, religious people or religious organisations.


computerphobia

en-noun

computerphobia (usually uncountable, plural computerphobias)

As to the Internetphobia from your shop owner, I wonder if it is a fear of losing business to Internet merchants? OTOH, it could be just an extension of the computerphobia many people have.

1996 April 24, OneMTHead, “Re: Local Store Upset”, in rec.crafts.textiles.needlework (Usenet), message-ID <4llq1q$hse@newsbf02.news.aol.com>:

Fear or irrational dislike of computers; cyberphobia.


panphilia

A state of loving or accepting all things.


tickle pink

en-verb

tickle pink (third-person singular simple present tickles pink, present participle tickling pink, simple past and past participle tickled pink)

tickles pink (present singular third-person)
tickling pink (participle present)
tickled pink (participle past)
tickled pink (past)

It tickles me pink that they chose me for the award.

(transitive, idiomatic) To thoroughly delight or amuse; to elate.


ashen-faced

en-adj

ashen-faced (comparative more ashen-faced, superlative most ashen-faced)

more ashen-faced (comparative)
most ashen-faced (superlative)

Having a pallor (pale face) due to fear or similar emotion


flip out

en-verb

flip out (third-person singular simple present flips out, present participle flipping out, simple past and past participle flipped out)

flips out (present singular third-person)
flipping out (participle present)
flipped out (participle past)
flipped out (past)

When I failed the test, I flipped out.

(idiomatic, intransitive, slang) To become very angry or upset.

surtar (optionally used with "com raiva")

The audience flipped out when he played his hit songs.

(idiomatic, intransitive, slang) To become overly excited, joyous or delighted.


musophobia

From Latin mūs (“mouse”) or Ancient Greek μῦς (mûs, “mouse”) + -phobia.


mechaphilia

a sexual desire for a mechanical inanimate object.


scaremongering

The actions of scaremongers in spreading frightening or ominous reports or rumours.


fearmongering

en-noun

fearmongering (usually uncountable, plural fearmongerings)

Recent polling shows it’s the second most important issue among Americans. But a big reason for that is the relentless, bad-faith fearmongering around the issue by the Republican party themselves, perhaps best summed up by the startling growth this year of the toxic phrase ‘migrant crime’.

2024, John Oliver, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 11, episode 17:

The act of spreading needless fear; exaggerating purported threats in order to incite fear.


hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

/hɛl hæθ nəʊ ˈfjʊəɹi laɪk ə ˈwʊmən skɔːnd/

/hɛl hæθ noʊ ˈfjʊɹi laɪk ə ˈwʊmən skɔɹnd/

En-us-hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.oga

First written as "Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd." in the 1697 play The Mourning Bride (Act III Scene 2) by William Congreve. The "hath" is a hypercorrection based on false chronological assumption and perception that the saying is ancient, dating to at least the grammar of Early Modern English (which the time of writing would be at the end of); this is also reinforced by the phrase often being falsely attributed to Shakespeare or the King James Bible.

A woman will make someone suffer if they hurt her.

L’enfer n’a pas de fureur comme une femme méprisée

Selbst die Hölle hat nicht den Zorn einer geschmähten Frau.


nostalgist

When I was a little girl, if they ever called me a backward child they must have meant a looking-backward child; for I grew up to claim the proud title of the world’s champion nostalgist.

1944, Gladys Bronwyn Stern, Trumpet Voluntary, page 32:

The railroad also hears from nostalgists with fond memories of the station, buffs, who ask for such items as clocks and train gates and small boys who write in all the time asking for pieces of the floor.

1964 June 20, “Souvenir Seekers Eye Penn Station”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

After a seven-year interlude […] she has brought back the sweetly madcap nostalgist of her fondly remembered 2001 show, which opened at Arci’s Place, now defunct, on lower Park Avenue.

2009 January 23, Stephen Holden, “She's Back, and the Timing Is Uncanny”, in New York Times:

Of the possible postpandemic identities one can assume, there’s the early 2000s nostalgist in ironic Juicy Couture sweats, […]

2021 June 10, Isabel Slone, “There Are No Fashion Rules Anymore”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


kenophobia

From Ancient Greek κενός (kenós, “empty”) + -phobia.

"You're not taking this seriously," Cuneo complained. "Just imagine if the love of your life turned out to be an illusion. With a horse's backside, a horse's teeth and a brain that was presumably reeling from kenophobia."

2015, Nina George, translated by Simon Pare, The Little Paris Bookshop, page 209:


ephebophile

From Ancient Greek ἔφηβος (éphēbos, “adolescent”) + -phile.

der

According to the age of the attracting person homosexuals are divisible into ephebophiles (lovers of youths, 14-21), androphiles (grown men up to the period of old age), gerontophiles (lovers of the aged) and pedophiles (lovers of small boys). The two latter are not as conspicuous as the two former, which compromise 45 per cent of the whole. The corresponding divisions in women are parthenophiles (lovers of young women, virgins), gynecophiles (lovers of adult women), grasphiles (lovers of old women), and korophiles (lovers of undeveloped girls).

1914, State Hospital Bulletin, volume 7, pages 351-352:

The hebephile sees the female adolescent as having adult development but vulnerability. There may also be a sense of safety from rejection because the hebephile may have had actual or perceived poor sexual performance with adult partners. The ephebophile is even more likely to reflect the emphasis on youth in society; in this case, the gay culture's emphasis on youthful appearance.

1989 Intervention Strategies for Sexual Abuse page 94 (and also page 97 of Tough Customers: Counseling Unwilling Clients)

The term ephebophilia seems to have been coined by Magnus Hirschfeld in his Wesen der Liebe (1906), where he applied to sexually mature youths from puberty up to the age of 20; in his 1914 magnum opus, Die Homosexualitat des Mannes und des Weibes, Hirschfeld specified the range of love objects as from "the beginning to the completion of maturity, so approximately ages 14-21." The German research estimated that 45 of all homosexuals were ephebophiles. For women, he used the term "parthenophiles."

2016, Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, page 361:


all's fair in love and war

Unpleasant behavior is acceptable during love and conflict.

كل شيء مباح في الحب والحرب

unpleasant behavior is acceptable during love or conflict

可以不择手段

zhǐyào mùdì zhèngdàng, kěyǐ bùzéshǒuduàn

sodassa ja rakkaudessa kaikki on sallittua

en amour comme à la guerre, tous les coups sont permis

in der Liebe und im Krieg ist alles erlaubt

with the right strategy you can wage war

כִּי בְתַחְבֻּלוֹת תַּעֲשֶׂה-לְּךָ מִלְחָמָה

恋愛と戦争では手段を選ばない

れんあいとせんそうではしゅだんをえらばない

in love and war you don't choose the means

mu mukwano ne mu lutalo byonna byejeerezebwa.

orang sedang bercinta, yang dibuat betul belaka

w miłości i na wojnie wszystko jest dozwolone

в любви́ и на войне́ все сре́дства хороши́

muḥabbat aur jang meṉ sab kuch jā'iz hai

مُحَبَّت اَوْر جَنگ میں سَب کُچھ جائز ہَے


scotophobia

He also suffered from hypsophobia, a certain fear of elevated places, and the typical scotophobia and phasmophobia associated with churches, graveyards and solitary places in the dark of night.

2008, E a Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, volume 2, page 55:


sesquipedalophobia

But sesquipedalophobia ('hatred or fear of big words,' aptly enough) has prevailed, even among men of learning.

That hasn't helped my sesquipedalophobia one bit...

2002 March 6, derm, “Re: Are You Somebody? by O'Faolaint”, in soc.culture.irish (Usenet):

Ayesha was like a walking dictionary of phobias. She believed that I had sesquipedalophobia – the fear of long words.

2008, Abhijit Bhaduri, Married But Available, HarperCollins (2012), →ISBN:


loli

From Japanese ロリ or a clipping of lolicon.

(fandom slang, chiefly anime and manga) A childlike female character, particularly in the lolicon genre.


herpetophobia

From Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν (herpetón, “creeping animal”) + -phobia.

Fear of reptiles, amphibians, and similar animals.


vermiphobia

From Latin vermis (“worm”) + -phobia: Ancient Greek φόβος (phóbos, “fear”).

An abnormal or irrational fear of worms or being infected by worms.


diaper lover

(sexuality, ABDL) A person who wears diapers for pleasure or a fetish rather than necessity.


lovelessness

The state or condition of being loveless; lack of love.


do one's nut

en-verb

do one's nut (third-person singular simple present does one's nut, present participle doing one's nut, simple past did one's nut, past participle done one's nut)

does one's nut (present singular third-person)
doing one's nut (participle present)
did one's nut (past)
done one's nut (participle past)

Mum did her nut after we stayed out all night without calling her.

(intransitive, slang) To become stridently angry, especially from worry.


dronkverdriet

From Afrikaans dronk (“drunken”) + verdriet (“grief, chagrin, sorrow”).

(South Africa) Depression caused by drunkenness.


verklempt

en-adj

verklempt (comparative more verklempt, superlative most verklempt)

more verklempt (comparative)
most verklempt (superlative)

Borrowed from Yiddish פֿאַרקלעמט (farklemt, “depressed, distraught; choked up”), cognate to German verklemmt (“inhibited; hemmed in, squeezed”).

cog

Ferklempt Without You—Very pretty, sexy, fun, active, Jewish, 35, ad exec seeks handsome, funny guy for love and happiness. It'll be like buttah!

1994 July 25, “Strictly Personals”, in Kurt Andersen, editor, New York, volume 27, number 29, New York, N.Y.: K-III Magazine Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 101, column 4:

I've grown very tired of everyone saying freedom isn't free. The reason is, well, it's because I don't know where it came from and quite frankly, I think that some guy named Sal could be responsible, like maybe he started the whole thing after one too many beers at a picnic a few years back and all of a sudden it's become our unofficial national freedom slogan and it's in our songs and on our bumper stickers and tee shirts and it causes us all to get a little verklempt, like we're supposed to somehow get it if we say it.

2006, Jeff Jacobson, “Everything Unfettered and Free”, in So I Go Now: Following after the Jesus of Our Day, [Victoria, B.C.]: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, part 6 (We are Not the Author):

Aunt Tilly had told her of our tradition, and it made me split between farklempt, and being overwhelmed with delight.

2006, J. Lee Kline, chapter 1, in Bramble Days: On the Road of Life, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 15:

"Hey Dad," says Ray [in the film Field of Dreams]. "You wanna have a catch?" / We're welling up at this point. / "I'd like that," says John, as the music nears crescendo. / Ray picks up his glove, and we're totally verklempt. Searching for Kleenex in the pocket.

2009, Ray Didinger, Glen Macnow, The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies: Featuring the 100 Greatest Sports Films of All Time, Philadelphia, Pa.: Running Press Book Publishers, →ISBN, page 63, column 1:

Oh like you, I got all farklempt when I watched her [Michelle Obama] in that dazzling one-shouldered gown dancing cheek-to-cheek with President [Barack] Obama.

2009 January 23, Antonia Zerbisias, “Tricks up her sleeveless gown”, in Toronto Star, Toronto, Ont., archived from the original on 2019-03-30:

I was silent, perhaps even verklempt. I hugged Gerry and kissed him. We all know how I get when I am the least bit emotional and soon Gerry and I were sliding down the slippery slope toward making out like teenagers, […]

2011 August, Karen H. Vaughan, chapter 19, in Over Her Dead Body, Victoria, B.C.: FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 90:

"It was wonderful of you to go to such trouble. I want you to know how much it meant to me." / "Stop," she waved her hands in front of her eyes, trying to divert the conversation away from the uncomfortable road it was heading down, "you're making me all faklempt."

2012, Julie Ann Walker, chapter 6, in In Rides Trouble, Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks Casablanca, →ISBN; republished in Black Knights Inc. Boxed Set: Volumes 1–3 (Black Knights Inc.; 2), Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks Casablanca, 2013, →ISBN, page 93:

(US, colloquial) Overcome with emotion, choked up.

meeleliigutuses

overcome with emotion — see also choked up


lose one's shit

en-verb

lose one's shit (third-person singular simple present loses one's shit, present participle losing one's shit, simple past and past participle lost one's shit)

loses one's shit (present singular third-person)
losing one's shit (participle present)
lost one's shit (participle past)
lost one's shit (past)


slow burn

Another familiar trope, the slow burn, teases the reader as characters secretly pine for one another . . . for a long time.

2018, Francesca DiPiazza, Fandom: Fic Writers, Vidders, Gamers, Artists, and Cosplayers, page 30:

Slow burns are torture. Why wait? I want my characters getting down and dirty ASAP, and there's nothing wrong with that.

2019, Robinwritesallthethings, “porn with plot”, in Lemon, page 62:

On some nights, I want a good long, juicy 70k word slowburn, mutual pining, angst (with a happy ending, of course, I'm not a monster).

2021, Aditi Dubey, “Considering Fanfic”, in Rabbit Hole, number 1, Australian National University, page 33:

(idiomatic) Something that emerges or unfolds slowly or gradually.

(fiction) A work of fiction with a slow-paced plot; also, such a storyline.

(fiction, fandom slang) A romantic story (especially a work of fan fiction) in which the central relationship develops slowly.


distraughtly

en-adv

distraughtly (comparative more distraughtly, superlative most distraughtly)

more distraughtly (comparative)
most distraughtly (superlative)

Jack French looked distraughtly at the agenda notes.

2005, Zadie Smith, On Beauty, Penguin Books (2006), page 330:


hardy har har

/ˈhɑɹdiˈhɑɹˈhɑɹ/

/ˈhɑɹɾiˈhɑɹˈhɑɹ/


nosophobia

en-noun

nosophobia (usually uncountable, plural nosophobias)

pulmonary tuberculosis
pulmonary tuberculosis

An excessive or irrational fear of contracting a disease, such as: HIV/AIDS, pulmonary tuberculosis, venereal diseases, cancer, and heart diseases.


loveworthy

en-adj

loveworthy (comparative more loveworthy, superlative most loveworthy)

more loveworthy (comparative)
most loveworthy (superlative)


grit one's teeth

en-verb

grit one's teeth (third-person singular simple present grits one's teeth, present participle gritting one's teeth, simple past and past participle gritted one's teeth or (nonstandard) grit one's teeth)

grits one's teeth (present singular third-person)
gritting one's teeth (participle present)
gritted one's teeth (participle past)
gritted one's teeth (past)
grit one's teeth (nonstandard participle past)
grit one's teeth (nonstandard past)

[Shield Knight] LOOKED WITH DREAD THROUGH THE EYES OF THE ENCHANTRESS. SHE WAS TRAPPED AGAIN! SHIELD KNIGHT GRIT HER TEETH. SHOVEL KNIGHT WOULDN'T GIVE UP, AND NEITHER WOULD SHE.

2019 December 10, Yacht Club Games, "Story" (Shield Knight), in Shovel Knight Showdown (version 4.1), Nintendo Switch, scene: ending

To clench one's teeth together tightly because of pain, anger, frustration, or self-assurance.


scare the bejeebers out of

scare the bejeebers out of (third-person singular simple present scares the bejeebers out of, present participle scaring the bejeebers out of, simple past and past participle scared the bejeebers out of)

scares the bejeebers out of (present singular third-person)
scaring the bejeebers out of (participle present)
scared the bejeebers out of (participle past)
scared the bejeebers out of (past)

(slang, transitive) To terrify thoroughly.


fraidy

en-adj

fraidy (comparative fraidier, superlative fraidiest)

fraidier (comparative)
fraidiest (superlative)


nomophobia

The persons of whom I speak have a terror of the very name and mention of the law. They are the morbid subjects of a kind of nomophobia, being in danger of going into fits at every allusion to it[...].

1857, Ralph Wardlaw, James R. Campbell, Systematic theology, volume 3, page 180:

Seen in this light, his antisemitism appears in its ultimate essence as a nomophobia, a revolt against the divinely sanctioned moral law or, religiously speaking, a revolt against God.

1985, Edward H. Flannery, The anguish of the Jews: twenty-three centuries of antisemitism, →ISBN, page 292:

Despite the danger of the narrowing of discipleship to activism of some kind, the end result here is not acquiescence into Enlightenment autonomy. It is not what may be termed 'nomophobia' (neurotic fear of law or command) though much of that is about.

2002, Stanley E. Porter, Anthony R. Cross, Dimensions of baptism: biblical and theological studies, →ISBN, page 247:


nomophobia

From a contraction of no mobile + -phobia, possibly a pun on homophobia.

There was a second article saying that people apparently suffered from Nomophobia – the fear of not having your mobile turned on – which in the Professor's opinion simply proved that they needed to get a life.

2008, Peter Armstrong, Cell-out, page 14:

Alektorophobia, like metrophobia (the fear of poetry) or the disorder nomophobia (the fear of being out of cell-phone contact), is completely irrational.

2014, Blythe Woolston, edited by Leah Wilson, Divergent Thinking: YA Authors on Veronica Roth's Divergent Trilogy, page 115:

AT&T, for example, has sought to turn “nomophobia”—a fear of being unable to communicate for lack of a cell phone—into a vehicle for sales; see Geoff Colvin, “Building a Super‐Brand— Superfast: What's the Secret of Survival These Days? Change Quickly, Says AT&T's Marketing Chief, Along with Your Customer," Fortune September 3, 2012, 60-64.

2014, Luis Suarez-Villa, Corporate Power, Oligopolies, and the Crisis of the State, footnote, page 260:

(colloquial) The fear of not having a functioning mobile phone.


lose one's cool

en-verb

lose one's cool (third-person singular simple present loses one's cool, present participle losing one's cool, simple past and past participle lost one's cool)

loses one's cool (present singular third-person)
losing one's cool (participle present)
lost one's cool (participle past)
lost one's cool (past)

But in his final singles match against Mandarino, the Menace lost his cool. Visibly rattled by noisy spectators, who chanted "Brasil! Bra-sil!" from the third set onward, he collapsed completely in the fifth set.

1966 November 18, “To the Ludicrous”, in Time:

The fiery femme fatale is notorious for losing her cool, and was once accused of hitting her secretary with a telephone and threatening to throw her from a moving car.

2006 April 28, Stefanie Cohen, “Naomi Campbell Accused of Attacking Maid in Fit Over Jeans”, in FOXNews.com, retrieved 2009-06-03:

(idiomatic) To become upset or disconcerted; to lose one's temper.


regretfulness

Mervyn thought that he could detect a certain regretfulness in his companion's voice.

The state or condition of being regretful.


toonophile

Some toonophiles are furry lifestylers. Not all lifestylers are toonophiles.

1999, David Cooke, “Something that need to be asked”, in alt.lifestyle.furry (Usenet):

(informal) A person who is physically attracted to cartoon characters.


tickle someone's fancy

tickle someone's fancy (third-person singular simple present tickles someone's fancy, present participle tickling someone's fancy, simple past and past participle tickled someone's fancy)

tickles someone's fancy (present singular third-person)
tickling someone's fancy (participle present)
tickled someone's fancy (participle past)
tickled someone's fancy (past)

But the notion of Ralph Nickleby having directed it to be done, tickled his fancy so much, that he could not refrain from cracking all his ten fingers in succession.

1839, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Nicholas Nickleby:

Mr. Adams, who loves a joke, and is not a lunatic, notwithstanding his opening words, tickled their fancy for an hour with quotations from Shakespeare and the editorial columns of The Brooklyn Eagle.

1895 October 1, “‘The People’ Name Judge Gaynor”, in New York Times, retrieved 2009-07-29, page 2:

There will not be any Nancy to tickle my fancy in a kitchen full of handerkerchiefs and beckoning, unmade beds.

1969, Dylan Thomas, Adventures in the Skin Trade, →ISBN, page 16:

If you’re looking for something that tickles your fancy, and now and then even stirs your soul, this just might hit the G-spot.

2005 April 9, Sam Marlowe, "Vagina Monologues" (theatre review), Times Online (UK) (retrieved 29 July 2009)

To amuse, entertain, or appeal to someone; to stimulate someone's imagination in a favorable manner.


hauntingness

The state or condition of being haunting.


carry a torch

carry a torch (third-person singular simple present carries a torch, present participle carrying a torch, simple past and past participle carried a torch)

carries a torch (present singular third-person)
carrying a torch (participle present)
carried a torch (participle past)
carried a torch (past)

From the metaphor of a burning flame, to keep a fire burning. The association of a torch with love may date to the Greek and Roman tradition of a
wedding torch, lit in the bride’s hearth on her wedding night, then used to light the hearth in her new home. Such a torch is associated with the Greek god of marriage Hymenaios.

Someday, I know that Jim will up and leave me / But even if he does you can believe me / I'll go on carryin' the torch for Jim / I'll go on lovin' my Jim

1941, “Jim”, Nelson Shawn (lyrics), James Caesar Petrillo and Edward Ross (music):

Brunhilde, a kind of earth-mother goddess, carries a torch for her lost love.

1955 June 6, “Books: Mixed Fiction (review of The Twelve Pictures by Edith Simon)”, in Time, archived from the original on 2013-03-15:

Lachey, for his part, seems to still carry a torch for his estranged wife.

2006 April 20, Jeannette Walls, “Are Simpson and Lachey still in love?”, in msnbc.com, archived from the original on 2006-04-23:

(idiomatic) To love or to be romantically infatuated with, especially when such feelings are not reciprocated.


hebephile

As can be noted in the Flow Chart 122 men actually fit the definition of hebephile in that they had committed a sexual offense against a female between the ages of 12 and 17.

1966, Hebephiles: characteristics and offenses of hebephiles committed to Atascadero State Hospital, Atascadero, California, page 7/46:

The hebephile sees the female adolescent as having adult development but vulnerability. There may also be a sense of safety from rejection because the hebephile may have had actual or perceived poor sexual performance with adult partners. The ephebophile is even more likely to reflect the emphasis on youth in society; in this case, the gay culture's emphasis on youthful appearance.

1989 Intervention Strategies for Sexual Abuse page 94 (and also page 97 of Tough Customers: Counseling Unwilling Clients)


woodness

From Middle English woodnesse, wodnesse, from Old English wōdnes, corresponding to wood (“mad, insane”) + -ness.

[…] This sodaine chaunge from feasting vnto fray
Might well be likened to the Sea: whych standing at a stay
The woodnesse of the windes makes rough by raising of the waue.

1567, Ovid, “The Fyft Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC:

[…] with fell woodnes he effierced was,
And wilfully him throwing on the gras
Did beat and bounse his head and brest ful sore […].

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 567:


friend zone

→ Italian: friendzone

Popularized by a 1994 episode of the American sitcom Friends.

Every platonic friend I got is some woman I was tryin' to fuck, I made a wrong turn somewhere, and ended up in the friend zone.

1996, Chris Rock: Bring the Pain, Chris Rock (actor):

Once in a while, you will find yourself stuck in the friend zone. Don't panic, you are not alone.

“Stuck in the Friend Zone,” said Sasha wisely, although I don't think she's dipped a toe in the Friend Zone in her life.

2007, Helen Salter, Does Snogging Count as Exercise?:

(slang) The situation in which one is viewed by a potential partner as a platonic friend, which complicates the initiation of a romantic relationship.


friend zone

friend zone (third-person singular simple present friend zones, present participle friend zoning, simple past and past participle friend zoned)

friend zones (present singular third-person)
friend zoning (participle present)
friend zoned (participle past)
friend zoned (past)

→ Italian: friendzonare

The bloke tries to get her attention back, but I've friendzoned him. Poor guy. I do feel bad for the ones who have to try so hard.

2015, Wendy Higgins, chapter 1, in Sweet Temptation, HarperCollins, →ISBN:

While being friendzoned is not a problem, what can be a problem is if it's not clear to both people that ONLY friendship and nothing more is on offer.

2019, Ira Trivedi, Sachin Bhatia, chapter 1, in The Desi Guide to Dating, Harper Collins, →ISBN:

(slang, transitive) To classify as a friend, without any possibility of a romantic relationship.

發朋友卡

to classify as a friend with no possibility of a romantic relationship


overwound

en-adj

overwound (comparative more overwound, superlative most overwound)

more overwound (comparative)
most overwound (superlative)

Everyone else Christian had had anything to do with, ever since the bad night outside Alexandria, had seemed to be overwound, jumpy, bitter, hysterical, overtired...

He has left his class, at least in spirit, by being in certain ways unusual; and he is still unusual in another class, too tense and overwound.

1957, Richard Hoggart, The Uses Of Literacy:

Eric's boss had accused him more than once of being a worrier, but Eric hadn't felt this overwound since his previous employer's stock underwent a dot-bomb implosion.

2004, Emma Holly, Strange Attractions, →ISBN, page 23:

He [Cheney] could only exist with a chief executive self-absorbed in his resentments, narrow in experience and intellectual scope, and who does not hold his vice president accountable; an incompetent national security advisor, overwound in her eagerness to please; and a secretary of state who never presses his advantages but accepts his internal defeats, playing the good soldier.

2004 October 6, Sidney Blumenthal, “The master of Washington vs. the fox”, in Salon.com, archived from the original on 2008-03-07:

(figuratively, uncommon) Nervous, tense, jumpy.


apotemnophilia

Coined in a 1977 paper by J. Money et al. in the Journal of Sex Research,http://www.jstor.org/pss/3811894, from Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó, “away”) + τέμνω (témnō, “cut”) + -philia.

(psychology) A psychological disorder characterized by the intense and long-standing desire for amputation of a specific limb.


hee-hee

(onomatopoeia) A sound of high-pitched laughter


for old times' sake

When gang leader Chen Xinfu was apprehended in Haikou, capital of south China’s island province of Hainan, earlier this month he told his arresting officers: “Guys, take good care of me, for old times’ sake.”
Unlike the hundreds of other mob bosses who have been rounded up in recent months, Chen has a special relationship with the police: before his descent into the criminal underworld, he was deputy head of the public security bureau in the city’s Xiuying district.

2019 April 14, Guo Rui, “China’s war on organised crime, corrupt officials sees 79,000 people detained”, in South China Morning Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-04-14, Politics:

(idiomatic) An appeal to the nostalgia of prior experiences to convince someone to do something.


open book

open book decomposition
open book decomposition

(mathematics, topology) An open book decomposition.


tabanca

(Caribbean) melancholy, or a painful feeling of unrequited love


dither

en-noun

dither (countable and uncountable, plural dithers)

Variant of didder, from Middle English dideren (“to tremble”). Compare Middle English bididren, bididdren (“to seduce, deceive”), from Old English bedidrian, bedyderian (“to deceive, trick”).
Alternatively, perhaps with expressive voicing from *titeren, from Proto-Germanic *titrōną. If so a doublet of teeter and cognate with Old High German zittarōn (German zittern) and Old Norse titra (Faroese titra, Icelandic titra). Alternatively an unrelated reduplicative onomatopoeia.

Everyone was in a dither; either in it or about to get in it or just climbing out of it. Naturally, the Madam was not in a dither. Dither was a foreign concept to her.

2002, Thomas P. Glynn, A Child's Christmas In Chicago, page 59:


omnisexual

This omnisexual libertine who shuttles between his whore and his catamite (with equally regular visits to his tailor) has no classical prototype since aggressive bisexuality was completely acceptable as ‘masculine’ behaviour in ancient Greek society.

1988 August, Susan C. Shapiro, “‘Yon Plumed Dandebrat’: Male ‘Effeminacy’ in English Satire and Criticism”, in The Review of English Studies, volume 39, number 155, →JSTOR, page 411:

There was something in this that made our relationship more than homosexual, and more than heterosexual. Perhaps it could be called an omnisexual relationship.

1996 July 24, Ferdinando Camon with John Shepley, The Sickness Called Man, Marlboro Press, →ISBN, page 9:

In short, all readers can share, consciously and/or unconsciously, Whitman’s omnisexual vision—omnisexual in the all-encompassing sense of embracing auto-, homo-, and heteroerotic impulses.

1998 August 1, James E. Miller, Jr., “Sex and Sexuality”, in J. R. LeMaster, Donald D. Kummings, editors, Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, →ISBN, →OL, page 631:

These Oedipal tensions are mirrored by a structural conflict between the [new Doctor Who] series’ tacit multiculturalism—captured by omnisexual Captain Jack Harkness, who exemplifies an exogamous future humankind that goes to the stars to “dance” with every species they meet—and the drive to reunite the nuclear family […]

2008 May 2, Mark Bould, “Science Fiction Television in the United Kingdom”, in J. P. Telotte, editor, The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 225:

Being attracted to all genders (sometimes distinguished from pansexual by saying omnisexual attraction may still take account of gender or prefer particular genders).

Psyche’s participation in the archetypical patterns of heroic action logically implies that heroism itself is an asexual or omnisexual archetype.

1979 Autumn, Lee R. Edwards, “The Labors of Psyche: Toward a Theory of Female Heroism”, in Critical Inquiry, volume 6, number 1, →JSTOR, page 44:

Historically, sameness sexism marks the disappearance of conditions in which goddess religions flourished: prepatriarchal conditions in which men imagined women as awesome, omnipotent birth-givers, omnisexual creatures with both big breasts and penises.

1998, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, The Anatomy of Prejudices, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →OL:

Androgynous, exhibiting traits of all sexes.

Both Queen Victoria and Sigmund Freud have, however, become common adjectives in our time, one describing the Dark Ages of sexual repression, the other an omnisexual world in which everything has sexual significance.

1982 April, Sterling Fishman, “The History of Childhood Sexuality”, in Journal of Contemporary History, volume 17, number 2, →JSTOR, page 279:

To be a virgin in high school wasn't, even in the omnisexual milieu of the Pioneer Valley, such a social black spot.

2009, Jean Hanff Korelitz, Admission, New York: Grand Central Publishing, →ISBN, →OL:

Having or exhibiting sexuality everywhere.


adrenalise

en-verb

adrenalise (third-person singular simple present adrenalises, present participle adrenalising, simple past and past participle adrenalised)

adrenalises (present singular third-person)
adrenalising (participle present)
adrenalised (participle past)
adrenalised (past)

It was the only thing open. By the time I got there I realised I was so adrenalised by Adrian's call that I wouldn't be able to sleep.

2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 258:

I was so adrenalised I couldn't sleep.

2009 October 4, David Mitchell, “I don't go to restaurants to tell the truth”, in Guardian:

(British spelling, transitive, intransitive) To render frightening or thrilling, such as to stimulate the production of adrenalin.


sonder

Coined by American author and neologist John Koenig in 2012, whose project, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, aims to come up with new words for emotions that currently lack words. Inspired by German sonder- (“special”) and French sonder (“to probe”).

coin

I had a sonder, a realization that the random girl sitting next to me inside of Starbucks might have a fantastic life or she might be dealing with a very ill family member.

2012 December, John Buysse, “On 2nd thought, we do have linked lives”, in The Daily Illini, volume 142, number 68,5, University of Illinois, page 4A:

We need to have a "sonder" moment, where we realize that we aren't the only ones with feelings, dreams, regrets and hopes.

2013, Annie Cohen, "A Deeper Understanding", Panorama (Ladue Horton Watkins High School, St. Louis, Missouri), Volume 62, Issue 3, 14 October 2013, page 14

I knew the feeling of sonder my whole life. […] Every time I stopped what I was doing and just watched people, this feeling of breathlessness would wash over me.

2015, Emily Neiman, Sonder: Clara's Story, iUniverse, →ISBN:

(neologism) The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it.


old flame

There once lived, in a sequestered part of the county of Devonshire, one Mr Godfrey Nickleby: a worthy gentleman, who, taking it into his head rather late in life that he must get married, and not being young enough or rich enough to aspire to the hand of a lady of fortune, had wedded an old flame out of mere attachment.

1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC:

"Edith Bradin's coming," said some one to Gordon. "Didn't she used to be an old flame of yours? Aren't you both from Harrisburg?"

1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “(please specify the page)”, in Tales of the Jazz Age, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

But Philip still yearns for an old flame: Schiffer, an Oscar-winning actress.

2008 September 25, Lev Grossman, “Text and the City”, in Time:

(idiomatic) A previous boyfriend or girlfriend; a former romantic partner, especially one for whom one still has romantic feelings.


monophobia

en-noun

monophobia (countable and uncountable, plural monophobias)

Any phobia relating to a single specific thing, such as spiders or heights.


retrofashion

retrofashion (countable and uncountable, plural retrofashions)

Any fashion characterized by clothes associated with a previous era.


days of yore

(idiomatic, nostalgic) The past; bygone days.


nosocomephobia

From Ancient Greek νοσοκομεῖον (nosokomeîon, “hospital”) + -phobia.

der

(medicine) An abnormal fear of hospitals.


M/S

(nautical) Initialism of motor ship. – a ship propelled by an internal combustion engine, such as a diesel engine, in contrast to sailing ships and steamships


umbrageous

en-adj

umbrageous (comparative more umbrageous, superlative most umbrageous)

more umbrageous (comparative)
most umbrageous (superlative)

From Middle French ombrageux, or from umbrage + -ous.


raging agreement

In fact, both are in raging agreement that passive defense is never appropriate.

1988, U.S. Army Command, General Staff College, Military review, Volume 68, page 75:

I think there is absolute raging agreement between the FAA and the NTSB on that matter.

2001, Subcommittee on Aviation of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Issues arising out of the Egypt Air [i.e. EgyptAir] crash, page 26:

Listeners' faces lighted up as they realized that they were, as a community mostly in raging agreement about the direction and outcome they desired

2003, David A. Schmaltz, The Blind Men and the Elephant: Mastering Project Work, page 115:

(rare) A state in which people are arguing despite having similar opinions.


love hotel

→ Thai: เลิฟโฮเต็ล (lə́əf-hoo-dtel)

Calque of Japanese ラブホテル (rabu hoteru), from English love + hotel, probably after the rotating sign of the Hotel Love, an early love hotel in Osaka, Japan.

A short-stay hotel found in Japan and elsewhere, operated primarily for the purpose of allowing lovers privacy to have sexual intercourse.


sinking feeling

en-noun

sinking feeling (plural sinking feelings)

/ˌsɪŋkɪŋ ˈfiːlɪŋ/

/ˌsɪŋkɪŋ ˈfilɪŋ/

From sinking (noun) + feeling (noun), from the physical sensation.

I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Appetite craving, but feels no better for the food which he eats, having always a sinking feeling at the stomach— […]

1818, Joseph Ayre, “Cases. Section III. [Case I. Thomas Jackson, Aged 37, from the Country, Admitted March 30th a Patient of the Dispensary.]”, in Practical Observations on the Nature and Treatment of Marasmus, […], London: […] [W. Ross] for Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, […], →OCLC, page 245:

The danger was over, and Annabel, though dreadfully weak and reduced, was pronounced out of danger, and in a fair way of recovery, though her sinking feelings and wretched mind led her to suppose she should soon be no more—nor did the assurances of those who attended her serve, in any measure, to convince her she was safe.

1830, Miss M‘Leod [i.e., E. H. Macleod], chapter IX, in Belmont’s Daughter. […], volume III, London: […] [J. Darling] for A. K. Newman and Co., →OCLC, page 151:

I cannot tell them what a sickening, sinking feeling came over me when I saw men, my fellow-men bought and sold like horses: […]

1834, Thy Kingdom Come (Religious Tracts; no. 105), Philadelphia, Pa.: […] William Stavely, […] [for the Episcopal Female Tract Society of Philadelphia for the Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the Advancement of Christianity in Philadelphia], →OCLC, page 2:

She had dragging pains in the loins; general weakness, especially in the back; sinking feelings in the stomach, and a craving for food, without appetite; her bowels are sluggish; tongue pale and flabby.

1840 January–July, Alfred Hudson, “[Article] 31.—On the Use of Nitrate of Silver in Some Affections of the Mucous Membrane.”, in W[illiam] Braithwaite, editor, The Retrospect of Practical Medicine and Surgery, […], 2nd American edition, number I, New York, N.Y.: Adee & Estabrook, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 75:

Both were silent, for their hearts were full, and overcome with the sinking feeling of depression accompanying all associations with that melancholy word farewell!

1845, [anonymous; attributed to Richard Williams Morgan], chapter VIII, in The Fortunes of Roger de Flor; or, The Alumgavars, volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 145:

A person, in an attack of this fever [i.e., “slow fever”], commonly feels a loss of strength, a loss of appetite, and a loss of mental activity. He realizes a heavy, indescribable, sinking feeling at the pit of the stomach.

[1846, George Capron, assisted by David B. Slack, “FEVER, CONTINUED”, in New England Popular Medicine: […], Providence, R.I.: J. F. Moore, […], →OCLC, page 260:

He dressed moodily, and left the room to go down to breakfast. Breakfast would at least alleviate this sinking feeling which was unmanning him.

1919 May 17, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “A Damsel in Distress”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 191, number 46, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, chapter V, page 89, columns 2–3:

With a sinking feeling I realized it would be past midnight before we saw our bedding.

[1938], Rajput [pseudonym; Arthur John Eardley Dawson], chapter 8, in Khyber Calling!, London: Hurst & Blackett, →OCLC, section 6, page 129:

At one time or another, all of us have experienced butterflies in the stomach while approaching a challenging task like an interview for employment, or when one's name is announced for the stage as the next speaker. Such fluttering sensations of nervousness or sinking feelings of fear are also felt in the stomach when one has to face something ominous. Has it ever surprised us that though our brain is in the head, such feelings are felt in our stomach?

2007, Rajnish Roy, “A Second Brain and Anxieties”, in Rewiring the Brain: Living without Stress and Anxiety through the Power of Consciousness, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 208:

Dr. Weiss's voice was understanding and kind, but that didn't stop the sinking feeling in Megan's stomach. "I think you should take some time off until it does [i.e., an incident blows over]." The sinking feeling became a twenty-story drop. "What?"

2011, Kimberly Lang, chapter 1, in Girls’ Guide to Flirting with Danger, Richmond, Surrey: Harlequin Mills & Boon, →ISBN, page 10:

An unpleasant feeling in the abdomen caused by hunger or, especially, apprehension or uneasiness.


trypanophobia

From Ancient Greek τρῡ́πανον (trū́panon, “borer, trepan”) + -phobia. By surface analysis, trypano- + -phobia.

af

An irrational fear of medical procedures (such as injection) using needles.