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Even if you don’t know Hawaiian, you’ve probably heard the word ‘aloha’ and know it is used as both ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’. The Italian ‘ciao’ is similar. In Hindi, ‘kal’ can mean either yesterday or tomorrow, which probably goes a long way in explaining Indian attitudes towards deadlines. Such words with two opposite meanings are known as contranyms. Leave a comment if you can think of any that are missing from our list below!

Sanction: You can impose sanctions (penalties) if someone does something that is not allowed, or you can sanction (allow) their behavior. Okkkkkaaaayyyyy then.

Left: Suppose there are 10 people at a party. After four of them have left (departed), how many are left (remaining)? This is not a math problem. It’s an English problem.

Seed: When you seed a field, you put seeds in it. But when you seed a fruit, you remove the seeds from it – what?

Consult: Why do we have the same word for ‘giving advice’ and ‘seeking advice’? There are so many words, and if we need we can even make up a new one for free!

Oversight: This can either mean ‘watch with care’ or ‘a careless mistake’. So the lack of oversight could result in an oversight.

By: BrainGain Magazine Staff Writer

Want to read more about the quirks of English? Check out these links!
An English-speaker’s guide to funny Americanisms
5 Hinglish words that don’t travel well
Why is spam called spam?
5 weird words heard at Wimbledon
9 whacky and wonderful words to describe people

Language and history often go hand in hand. The words we use – or don’t use – often contain fascinating stories within them that carry a good deal of meaning beyond the dictionary definition. Here are a few – feel free to add some of your own in the comments!

Martin Luther King, Jr., US civil rights leader and proponent of non-violent resistance, gives his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech in 1963, cheered on by supporters in Gandhi caps (still from this video)

1. Ahimsa

This Sanskrit word literally means ‘without injury’. In English, it refers to the doctrine of non-violence, a defining characteristic of India’s freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi, and later, of the civil rights struggle in the US led by Martin Luther King, Jr. The earliest known references to the word in English date back to well before Gandhi’s political activism. Oxford University professor of Sanskrit Monier Monier-Williams mentioned it in his 1875 book Indian Wisdom. In 1936, British author Aldous Huxley wrote in Eyeless in Gaza, “How foolish of Satan to tempt a, by definition, ahimsa-practising Messiah with fame, dominion, ambition.”

The banyan at Howrah Botanical Gardens in Kolkata has a canopy of some 1.5 hectares and nearly 3,000 prop roots (photo by McKay Savage, used under CC license)

2. Banyan

This is the common English name for India’s national tree, which many Hindus regard as a symbol of knowledge. The name is derived from the word bania, meaning trader. The banyan (Ficus benghalensis) is one of several “strangler fig” species, which grow on host trees and sometimes kill them. Older banyans have aerial prop roots that grow down and become “trunks”, extending the canopy across a wide area.

The wide canopy makes this tree a great meeting place, and the name banyan was given to it by Europeans who observed Gujarati merchants gather under one such tree in a Persian Gulf town. In 1634, the English traveler Thomas Herbert wrote in his book Some Yeares Travels into Africa and Asia the Great: “A Tree (or rather twenty Trees, the boughs rooting and springing up a whole aker together) named by us the Bannyan Tree, from their adorning and adoring it with ribbons and streamers of varicoloured Taffata.”

Tibetan Buddhist temple in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (photo by Eder Santos, used under CC license)

3. Dharma

This word comes from Sanskrit, and means decree, custom, or righteous behavior. In the context of Buddhism and Hinduism, it can refer to moral law. The first known English reference is from 1796, by William Jones, the British lawyer and scholar who knew not only English and Welsh, but also Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and some Chinese. Jones referred to it in Institutes of Hindu Law, noting that “Dhermasastra” was in a collective sense a “Body of Law”.

In 1958, American writer Jack Kerouac published his novel The Dharma Bums, exploring the duality of his life of urban hedonism and trekking the great outdoors. Kerouac was influenced by Buddhism, and his novel in turn influenced the hippie counterculture of the 1960s. In it Kerouac wrote, “I really believed in the reality of charity and kindness and humility and zeal and neutral tranquility and wisdom and ecstasy, and I believed that I was an oldtime bhikku in modern clothes wandering the world (usually the immense triangular arc of New York to Mexico City to San Francisco) in order to turn the wheel of the True Meaning, or Dharma…”

The Hindu deities Baldev, Subhadra, and Jagannath (photo by Hary Das Cuellar, used under CC license)

4. Juggernaut

In Sanskrit, jagat means world, and nath means lord. Some Hindus consider the deity Jagannath a representation of Kṛishṇa, an avatar of Vishṇu, while others regard him as a form of Shiva. Some Buddhists and Jains revere Jagannath too. Once a year, the three idols of the Jagannath temple in Puri, Odisha, are placed on massive, ornate wooden chariots and taken through the town streets. In 1321, Italian friar and explorer Odorico Mattiuzzi visited Puri and wrote perhaps the earliest western account of the chariot festival.

In the 1820s, historian Andrew Stirling referred to “That excess of fanaticism which formerly prompted the pilgrims to court death by throwing themselves in crowds under the wheels of the car of Jagannáth”, and added that the practice had “happily long ceased”. In 1827, English lawyer and theological writer John Poynder noted, “About the year 1790, no fewer than twenty-eight Hindoos were crushed to death under the wheels of Juggernaut.” As a result of such accounts, the English word “juggernaut” came to mean an overwhelming force. Thus, for example in 1878, American inventor and businessman Thomas Edison referred to “that remorseless Juggernaut, the needs of man”.

One of the ‘Peaceable Kingdom’ series of paintings by American artist Edward Hicks. A Pennsylvania Quaker, Hicks was influenced by his faith’s concept of ‘the Inner Light’ (the divine within us) and depicted humans and animals overcoming barriers and coexisting in peace.

5. Love

OK, strictly speaking, this word is not India’s gift to English, but rather, the shared heritage of many languages around the world. ‘Love’ comes from the Old English word lufu, which is of Germanic origin and comes from an Indo-European root that is shared with the Sanskrit verb lubhyati (desires), and Latin libet (‘it is pleasing’) and libido (‘desire’).

Buddhist monks create a sand mandala (image by S C Hargis, used under CC license)

6. Mandala

This Sanskrit word meaning ‘disc’ or ‘circle’ usually refers to a symbolic representation of the universe in some Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The German philologist Max Müller referred to it in 1859 in his A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung was keenly interested in Asian religions, and visited India in 1937. The following year, he wrote in Psychology and Religion, “Historically the mandala served as a symbol in order to clarify the nature of the deity philosophically.” In Jungian psychology, a similar circle visualized in dreams can be interpreted as symbolizing the dreamer’s striving for unity of self and completeness.

Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, New York

7. Zen

This Japanese word comes from the Chinese chan, meaning quietude, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit dhyaana, meaning meditation. A school of Mahayana Buddhism that emphasized meditation and personal awareness became influential in Japan from the 13th century, after being introduced via China. The word appeared in English in 1727 in The History of Japan: together with a description of the Kingdom of Siam, 1690-92, a translation of the writings of German explorer and writer Engelbert Kaempfer by the Swiss scholar Johann Caspar Scheuchzer.

By Uma Asher

For more language-related posts, click below!
An English-speaker’s guide to funny Americanisms
Everyone speaks Farsi
6 easy tricks to pronounce Italian words correctly
Paneer, cottage cheese, and the vocabulary of diversity
5 words to help you brag about your beautiful campus

By now, many Americanisms have crept into English around the world, thanks to pop culture and Microsoft Word. Perhaps you say ‘restroom’ for ‘toilet’. Or you may be one of those people who say ‘from left field’ even though they’ve never played baseball. And you probably know that a ‘cheeseburger’ is a mere shadow of its true self if it contains no beef.

But there’s always some stray expression that catches you off guard. Depending on the situation, you may or may not have the opportunity to clarify what the speaker means. We picked out a few that are not commonly heard in many other parts of the world – check out how many of you know!

Gas: Like anywhere else in the English-speaking world, it can refer to an air-like fluid substance which expands freely to fill any space available. But when Americans talk about cars, gas is not CNG – it’s short for gasoline, which the rest of the world calls petrol.

Stick: Speaking of cars, you might hear some Americans say they can drive a ‘stick’. No, they don’t play Quidditch. ‘Stick’ is short for ‘stick shift’ (because Americans like to reduce words to monosyllables when possible) and refers to a car with a manual transmission, as opposed to an automatic one.

Wedgie: People from India and some other countries do not distinguish between V and W when speaking. A ‘w’ sound is produced by rounding your lips, almost as if you’re about to whistle, and a ‘v’ sound is produced by placing your front teeth on your lower lip. If you’re asking for vegetables, be careful not to confuse ‘veggies’ with a juvenile prank.

Bus: While the usual meaning – a large passenger vehicle – applies in North America as it does anywhere else in the English-speaking world, Americans also use ‘bus’ as a verb. One meaning of this is related to transportation, and therefore obvious (for example, ‘The children were bussed to school’). But ‘bus’ can also mean ‘clear dirty dishes from’ a table. So if you see a sign in a cafeteria or food court asking you to bus your own table, don’t forget to leave it nice and clean for the next customer.

I don’t care: If you offer someone alternatives and hear ‘I don’t care’ in response, don’t assume it’s rude. Sometimes people say it when they mean they have no strong preference for one alternative. It’s just a way of saying ‘It’s OK with me’ or ‘I have no objection’. Unless, of course, it means ‘I don’t give a damn’. Context, intonation, and body language are everything.

Interesting: You want to pay close attention when someone says this to you. More often than not, it means ‘I don’t like it’, or ‘I have no clue what you’re talking about’, or ‘I don’t give a damn’. If your listener is actually interested, they will usually continue the discussion by asking you questions or sharing information. Again, you need to watch your listener’s intonation and body language.

Biscuit: You may think you understand conversations about food, but you could be getting everything wrong without even realizing it. In much of the English-speaking world, a biscuit is what Americans call a cookie – not something a normal person would want to eat with gravy (and if you’re a fastidious vegetarian, you need to check what’s in the gravy). In the US, a biscuit is a kind of bread roll. And good luck finding ‘coriander’ or ‘spring onions’ at the grocery store – you’ll be more successful if you look for ‘cilantro’ and ‘scallions’. Also, don’t be disgusted if someone offers you ‘hush puppies’ to eat – they are made of corn, not leather.

We would love to hear about your adventures in American English – leave a comment below, or email us!.

As for that first semester, give it all you’ve got! Hit it out of the park! Break a leg!

Want to read more Word Nerd posts? Click here.

By: BrainGain Magazine Staff Writer

First semester in North America? Check out the links below!
#SmartStudent: 5 tips on dating when you’re studying abroad
How to write an email to your professor
Book Review: The Naked Roommate
An engineer’s guide to surviving grad school
How to nurture your child’s passion – advice for parents
Libraries infuse magic into studying abroad
8 tips to party safely when you’re studying abroad
Surviving winter on a North American campus
My first semester at Northeastern University
How universities accommodate students with disabilities

If you’re an English-speaking Indian, there are bound to be some words that you fully believe are English. And with good reason: they can be found in an English dictionary. But to someone from another English-speaking country, their peculiarly Indian usage can be a head-scratcher. And that’s the best-case scenario – in the worst case, you could end up on the wrong side of a visa or immigration officer. Read on to find out how.

1. Tetchy: The Oxford Dictionary defines this world as “irritable and bad tempered”. But in some parts of India, this refers to a suitcase. “Tetchy” is the shortened version of a mispronunciation of attaché, which is short for “attaché case”, a small, rigid rectangular case for carrying documents. And an attaché case is by definition not a suitcase.

2. Strolly: This is by no means a generic term for a carry-on bag with wheels. It’s a brand name, like Rollaboard, and if you use it do describe a small suitcase with wheels, people from places where the brand is not available will have no idea what you’re, um, carrying on about. Baggage has its own baggage, after all.

3. Air hostess: Some airlines continue to hire only young women as cabin crew, even in the 21st century. But many airlines hire people of diverse ages and genders. So while no one may bat an eyelid on hearing “air hostess” in markets where sexist hiring practices are the norm, calling a flight attendant an “air hostess” in other parts of the world might result in you coming off as sexist. “Air hostesses” aren’t just there to serve you food and beverages (and need we point out that it’s advisable not to upset anyone who brings you your meals); they are trained first responders in case of an emergency. It’s more evolved and gender-neutral to say “cabin crew”, “cabin staff”, or “flight attendant”.

4. STD: In India, this abbreviation stands for “subscriber trunk dialing”, because back when phone calls were horribly expensive in India, the government-run phone company would only let you make long-distance calls if you paid a hefty advance (otherwise you had to call an operator, book a call, and then hang up and wait until they connected you). In the rest of the world, STD stands for “sexually transmitted diseases”, so if you were to ask your phone company for STD, or tell your colleagues you have STD, you might find that no one wants to talk to you.

5. Brother/sister: In English, “brother” and “sister” refers to someone born of the same parents as you. Many Indian languages have no word for cousin, so we refer to our cousins as brothers and sisters, and this spills over into English as well. That’s fine when you’re talking to a colleague, classmate, or friend. Not so much if you’re talking to a visa or immigration officer. Sometimes these officers ask you about immediate relatives in your destination country, because they want to assess your potential for seeking to emigrate, and an actual brother/sister could be a potential sponsor for permanent residency. If the official thinks you are lying or concealing information, they could deny you entry or a visa.

Can you think of other words that don’t travel well? Email us or leave a comment below.

Read more Word Nerd posts here!

By: BrainGain Magazine Staff Writer

Interested in travel? Check out these links!
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Travel to Learn
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Lessons learnt from the first foray abroad

It is well known that the passive voice should be avoided. The question is, who does the well-knowing and the avoiding? The answer, of course, is you and me. But it’s not always that obvious.

When to use the passive voice

First, without getting bogged down in a yawn-inducing grammar lesson, let’s look at what the passive voice really is. It’s a way of emphasizing the action, rather than the person who is doing the action. By contrast, the active voice forefronts the doer, rather than the action.

So if we use the passive voice (“Jerry was chased”), we are assuming that people are familiar enough with the mouse’s career to understand the unspoken “by Tom” at the end. But if we want to say this in the active voice, we have to name the cat: “Tom chased Jerry.”

We need to use the passive voice when we don’t know who did (or does) the action. For example, “My pizza was stolen.”

The passive voice is also useful when the action is more important than the doer. A “Help wanted” sign in a store window is a common example (it would be odd to post a sign saying, “We want help” or “You help us”, right?)

When not to use the passive voice

Probably the most important reason to avoid the passive voice is that it conceals responsibility. Don’t you just hate “The inconvenience is regretted”?

Obviously, as passengers whose flight is canceled at the last minute, we regret it that our airline failed to do what it charged us money for. But wouldn’t it be nice for us to hear that the airline regrets it? “We regret the inconvenience” sounds so much more contrite than “the inconvenience is regretted”!

Sometimes, the passive voice conceals the responsibility for achievements too, not just failures. “The battle was won” sounds like a real waste of heroic effort by someone who never gets the credit for it. Why not just say who won it?

How the passive voice can hurt your college application

First of all, the passive voice is verbose: “I did this” has 40% less words than “This was done by me”. Now imagine an entire essay riddled with the passive voice. If you have a limit of, say, 600 words, and you waste words on the passive voice, that leaves you with that much less to properly describe your interests and achievements. Why do that to yourself?

Secondly, in addition to saving words, using the active voice will help you shine a brighter light on your achievement. For example, if some of your achievements were part of a team effort, the active voice could help highlight your contribution. Using the passive voice will make it harder for your reader to understand what you did, as opposed to what got done (or what happened).

And thirdly, the active voice makes for a faster-paced, more engaging, and more powerful narrative.

So take a look at your resume and essay drafts, and see if they’re “active” enough. Go over the drafts a couple times just to see where you can change the passive voice to the active voice. This will help you highlight your achievements quietly throughout your application, without the need to sound like you’re bragging, which could come off as a little desperate.

Got any questions, funny examples, or suggestions? Leave a comment below, or email us!

Read more Word Nerd posts here.

By: Uma Asher

For more on writing, check out these links!
3 steps to writing a good paragraph
How to craft a compelling personal statement
4 Secrets to writing a good sentence
How a great essay got a high-school senior into 5 Ivy League schools and Stanford
How to weaken your writing
5 hilarious Hinglish habits and how to drop them
How to write an email to your professor
6 resume mistakes that can make you look like a joke

They don’t make buildings like they used to any more. No, really, they literally don’t. That’s why most of us have no idea what to call those little decorative thingies. You know, those fussy-looking thingummyjigs above the whatchamacallit. Problem is, unless we have a particular interest in historical architecture, we are unlikely to know the words to describe the beauty that we see.

But if you plan to go abroad to study, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be surrounded by centuries-old buildings with gables and gargoyles and whatnot. So here are a few words you can use when you brag about your beautiful campus to friends back home. Toss one of these words casually into the conversation, and then enjoy watching your friends react like this:

1. Quoin. This refers to an angle on a building’s exterior. Quoins can be accented with paint or simply the natural color contrast of the building materials. Quoins make buildings look more interesting.

2. Oriel. An oriel is a large, protruding upper-storey window. Like any window, it lets in light, but unlike ordinary windows, it beautifies the exterior.

Quoins and an oriel on a building of the University of Pennsylvania

3. Vaulted ceiling. Flat ceilings do their job of preventing the sky from falling on your head, but they look boring. That’s why the grandest, fanciest buildings have vaulted ceilings that create a ton of headroom. It’s not the most energy-efficient feature, but then people in previous centuries didn’t have to worry about climate change as we do. And vaulted ceilings are nothing if not beautiful.

Vaulted ceiling at the University of Sydney (photo by Jason Tong, used under CC license)

4. Mullioned window. A mullion is a vertical division between parts of a window (or a door, or a screen). Mullions are usually a decorative way of providing support while letting in more light. Without them, windows would be smaller, especially in old buildings with heavy masonry.

Building with mullioned windows on the University of Pennsylvania campus

5. Nave. Not to be confused with knaves found in the world outside, naves are found in cruciform churches (‘cruciform’ means built in the shape of a cross). The nave is the long central part of the church where worshippers sit. Straight ahead is the apse, the semicircular ‘top’ of the cross shape, where the altar is. Going off at right angles on either side are two short transepts.

A Google Maps 3D view of the cross-shaped Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame University. The apse is on the  left, and the nave, going off to the right, ends in a tall steeple

The vaulted ceiling of the nave of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame University (photo by Eccekevin, used under CC license)

Are you looking for a word to describe a building? Email us a photo, or just share a link to one in the comments below!

Want to expand your vocabulary? Check out more of our Word Nerd posts!

By: BrainGain Magazine Staff Writer

Check out these links!

A unique college for the Building Arts
Become an Architect, Italian Style
How to be a good architect – Q&A with Prof. Helen Lochhead, University of New South Wales
How a good vocabulary makes you smarter
5 zany words with a Z that will expand your vocabulary
Why is spam called spam?

Z is the 26^th and final letter of the English alphabet. Not a whole lot of words start with a z, only about 0.45%. But that’s no reason to miss out on this exclusive tribe of words.

For this week’s edition of Word Nerd, we bring you 5 words that start with the last letter of the English alphabet. Enjoy!

• Zany: The word means unconventional or idiosyncratic. It comes from the French or Italian form of John – ‘Giovanni’. This was a stock name for servants in Italian plays, who were the clowns.
• Zephyr: This has two meanings – a) a soft, gentle breeze and b) a light article of clothing, generally of cotton.
  The Greeks called the west wind ‘zephuros’ which became the Old English ‘zefferus’.
• Zeugma: A word which can apply to other words in a sentence, but with different meanings.
  One of our favourite examples is from a 17^th century poem ‘The Rape of the Lock’, “Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey. Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea”
  Take is the zeugma, and applies differently to counsel and tea.
• Zho or Dzo: A cross between a cow and a yak.
  Very useful if you’re travelling in Tibet, and more so if you live there. Not sure where else you would use it. Let us know.
• Zoanthropy: A delusion that one is an animal.
  For example, if you were travelling in Tibet and offered people a ride across the plateau because you thought you were a dzo.We’d recommend immediate medical attention if you did, though.

Any other interesting z-words you’d like to share with is? Email us or leave a comment below.

Read other Word Nerd columns here.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was LOL, and from it, all memes were made.

First came the cat jokes. They soon became so popular that even this €5.6 billion telecom company felt that this was a good way to impress people:

The story goes back to 2006, when a Hawaii-based software programmer named Eric Nakagawa had a lousy day at work. He asked his friend Kari Unebasami, a web editor, to send him a funny picture to cheer him up, and she sent him this one that she found somewhere online:

Nakagawa found the picture so hilarious that he created a website, icanhascheezburger.com, and put it up there. It was just a private joke between friends, so they did not promote the site, but, to their surprise, it started getting hits from strangers. Long story short: traffic quickly exploded, user-generated memes poured in, and they sold the site in 2007 for $2 million.

The website contributed to the evolution of a pidgin language that came to be known as “LOLcat”. It seemingly had an unwritten rule that if you could misspell a word, you had to. Even “the” was frequently spelled “teh”. Words were often distorted deliberately – for instance, “kitty” was usually “kitteh”.

The language, which drew from pop culture, gaming lingo and common typing errors, was too silly for serious trolling, and contributed to the emergence of a relatively benign subculture that received the attention of even serious media, not to mention countless blogs. Cats dominated this subculture.

But things have changed. The saying “Cats rule, dogs drool” is outdated, as dogs too have found their own silly voice, known as “DoggoLingo”.

The Oxford Dictionaries blog notes that, like LOLCat, DoggoLingo reflects how we imagine what goes on in a dog’s brain – it’s “upbeat, joyful, and clueless in a relentlessly friendly way”.

DoggoLingo relies heavily on onomatopoeic expressions such as “mlem” or “blep” (tip of the tongue hanging out) and “bork” (obvious), and distorted words, such as “raspber” for “raspberry”, or “fren” for “friend”.

And now all the barriers have fallen. Any animal can rule the internet, even Snek, a.k.a “danger noodle”:

Got a favorite kitteh, doggo or other animal meme to share? Leave a comment below!

Read more Word Nerd posts here! Do let us know if you’d like us to cover a topic that you can’t find.

By BrainGain Magazine Staff Writer

More silliness:

Do Korean cats mew?
Why is spam called spam?
9 whacky and wonderful words to describe people
5 funny poets you need to read
#SmartStudent: How to be funny when you’re studying abroad

K, you will be surprised to note, is considered the funniest sound in the English language by comedians. It is also not a popular choice as an alphabet to begin words. Only 0.45% words start with a k.

That’s no reason to not include the following words in your vocabulary. So here are 7 weird, wonderful, nerdy words that start with a K. Enjoy!

1. Kakidrosis: body odour.
Or, to be more specific, sweat which smells. To be honest, the word makes the condition sound way more serious than it is. Another example being halitosis or bad breath, a word invented by oral care companies.

2. Kakistocracy: government by the worst.
Particularly relevant to our times, the Greek word ‘kakistos’ (worst) combines with -cracy (government rule, inspiration) to define the American government (sorry, we couldn’t resist).

3. Kakorraphiophobia: fear of failure.
Well, if you get over the fear of bungling up the pronunciation of this word, you will be able to intelligently explain away several no-show moments.

4. Kalology: study of beauty.
Thanks to the Greeks for this one too. ‘Kalo’ means beauty and ‘logo’ means ‘study of.’ It’s what Angelina Jolie compels us all to.

5. Keck: To retch; to feel disgust.
Sounds almost onomatopoeic.

6. Killcow: bully, swaggerer.
We’re not sure what the killing of cows has to do with being a bully but here’s another word to you can use for unpleasant people.

7. Koan: a question for students of Zen Buddhism, which demonstrates the futility of logical reasoning.
We thought this both a unique word and practice. The koan can be a story, dialogue, question, or riddle without solution. Students contemplate them to understand that logic cannot explain everything. We guess now they just use Donald Trump’s tweets.

 If there are any other interesting words with a K, let us know. Email us or leave a comment below.

Think of a word that begins with q (queen, queue, quintessential, querulous). Chances are you’ll flounder and fumble after you’ve listed 4-5. And you’re not alone. Q is one of the least popular initial letters in the English language. Approximately only 0.22% words start with an q. Keeping it company are the alphabets k (0.45%), x (0.45%) and z (0.45%).

But that’s no reason to neglect the letter. In this week’s Word Nerd, we bring you 10 queer words that begin with q. Expand your vocabulary and enjoy!

1. Quatsch or Quatch: Nonsense or rubbish.
According to the Oxford dictionary, the word comes from the German quatschen which is the sound made by a foot stepping on to wet mud. If that’s what someone sounds like when they talk, then they talk quatch!

2. Quicquidlibet: Whatever one pleases; anything whatsoever.
If you were looking for a fancy Latin way to say “whatever”, look no further. Once you can wrap your tongue around these four fancy syllables, you will be able to dismiss anyone with ease and élan.

3. Quixotic: Extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.
We hope you’ve read the novel by Cervantes. The word comes from the lead character who tilts at windmills, and decides that a peasant woman is his lady love, because too many romance novels have addled his brain.

4. Quod: Prison.
An interesting synonym which originated in the 17^th century. Not to be confused with quoth or quad.

5. Quidam: An unknown individual; somebody.
Again a Latinate term. It is also the name of a Cirque du Soleil show. “Who was that at Bigby’s corner? Quidam.”

6. Quiddle: To fiddle or play about; to quibble or fuss excessively.
This word is easy to remember – too much quibble makes a quiddle.

7. Quotatious: Fond of using quotations; characterized by frequent quotations.
All literature students are quotatious. We maintain that it’s alright to use quotations if you can make each one do some heavy weight-lifting.

8. Quagswag: Someone who loves to be crazy & silly.
We love this word. Everyone needs a bit of quagswagger in their lives. Remember St. Thomas Aquinas said, “Unmitigated seriousness displays a lack of virtue.”

9. Quoz: An odd or ridiculous person or thing.
A pretty cute way to insult someone. We like coming up with those.

10. Quotidian: Occurring every day or commonplace.
This word sounds too fancy for describing something commonplace but that’s how it is. Definitely a word you can use to spruce up conversations and letters.

Any other q-words you would like to share with us? Or do you have an alphabet to recommend for a word list? Email us or leave a comment below.

Read other Word Nerd blogs here.