Feeling 'Nugatory' In 2018? 10 Words To Make You Sound 'Couth'

DETROIT, MI – And now, a word (well, 10 actually) from the good folks at Wayne State University's Word Warriors crew. The professors have offered their list of words in an effort to expand your vocabulary – and perhaps add a bit of couth to your dialogue.

FYI, couth, as a noun, means good mannered or refined, and is one of the 10 words in this year's list of recondite (meaning, little known) words that have been promoted by the university in an to expand everyone's vocabulary, just a smidge.

And, it's also a good way to expand our intellectual horizons, said Jerry Herron, dean of Wayne State's Irvin D. Reid Honors College and a member of the editorial board that oversees the Word Warriors web site.

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"The English language has perhaps more words in its lexicon than any other," says Jerry Herron, dean of Wayne State's Irvin D. Reid Honors College. "By making use of the repertoire available to us, we expand our ability to communicate clearly and help make our world a more interesting place."

This year's list of words:

• Insuperable – meaning, impossible to overcome. Usage: He never considered an obstacle insuperable; if a mountain were in his path, he'd simply learn to climb.

• Eucatastrophe – meaning, a sudden and favorable resolution of events in a story; a happy ending. Usage: No matter how convoluted the story gets, every romantic comedy ends in a eucatastrophe.
• Frangible – meaning, brittle. Usage: He picked up the frangible remains of the stained-glass display, which promptly fell apart in his hands.

• Couth – meaning, cultured, refined and well mannered. Usage: Her couth delivery was a relief following the blithering performance of her predecessor.

• Compunction – meaning, a feeling of guilt or moral scruple that prevents or follows the doing of something bad. Usage: He unleashed the flurry of tweets with no compunction about the bile he spewed.

• Recondite – meaning, of a subject or knowledge little known; abstruse. Usage: He couldn't pass a history quiz to save his life, but the voracious reader was a repository of facts and recondite information.

• Nugatory – meaning, of no value or importance. Usage: He rambled on for hours, his big words masking the nugatory contribution he made to the debate.
• Bilious – meaning, spiteful; bad-tempered. Usage: He was feeling bilious because the holidays were over, it was 8 degrees outside and about to get even colder.
• Littoral – meaning, elating to or situated on the shore of the sea or a lake. Usage: We drove along Michigan's west coast, passing a variety of littoral towns and villages.
• Picaresque – meaning, relating to an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero. Usage: “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is one of the most picaresque novels ever written.

Bonus words: Perhaps you're still looking for a resolution and 2018, and enhancing your vocabulary sounds like a good one to you. Visit the Word Warriors web site each week for a new word to work into your conversations.

This week's word: Denouement, meaning, the final part of a play, movie or narrative when the strands of a plot are pulled together, explained and resolved. Usage: "The film was gripping for 90 minutes and then fell apart at the rushed denouement."

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