Grown-Up (Part Deux)

Here's the next bit...hopefully you aren't finding this (my penchant for wordsmithing) tedious?

Goodness.

Did you know that, although it is impossible to count the number of words in the English language, there are - at a conservative minimum - over 250,000 distinct entries?

interrobang: ahh okay so this one actually isn't in the OED...but Oxford isn't right absolutely all of the time (hmph) and occasionally we leet individuals just have to take defining the world into our own hands.  This is an interrobang.  Note: not to be confused with an irony mark.
 
limerence: there once was a man from Nantucket...hm?  Oh sorry...this one means 'the state of being romantically infatuated or obsessed with another person, typically experienced involuntarily and characterized by a strong desire for reciprocation of one's feelings but not primarily for a sexual relationship.'  Leaving college means leaving words like 'crush' behind, apparently.
 
mallemaroking: if I can once use this word in context in my lifetime, I will be able to die happy.  It refers to the boisterous and drunken carousing of sailors aboard whaling ships near Greenland (or other extreme northern waters).  Take that, aglet.
 
obstreperous: clamorous, boisterous, vociferous.  Noisy and difficult to control.  I like the feel of this one in my mouth.

petrichor: oh, this is the word you never knew you always needed; it is the term which describes the pleasant smell of fresh rain after warm weather.
 
pogonotrophy: hint 1 - the one thing that Sidney Crosby fails at...hint 2 - it's a Greek word.  Yes, pogonotrophy is the cultivation or growing of a beard.  (It's playoff season, baby!)
 
qualtagh: the first person one meets after leaving home.  Traditionally, the first person one meets after leaving home on a special occasion (Christmas, New Years), but any sort of occasion works these days.  Also, I believe this just might be the first word with Celtic roots on my list!
 
runcible: If you know Edward Leary, you will be familiar with runcible spoons.  Somehow, my five-year-old brain thought runcible had something to do with those pointy grapefruit utensils, but the truth is rather stranger.  These days, 'runcible' is most commonly used in connection with 'spoon', which is in fact a specialized utensil...you guessed it, a spork.  However, Mr Leary most likely coined this useful word by altering 'rouncival', which means anything from a type of pea (the veggie, yes), to a type of wart, to a heavy fall, to a type of alliterative verse, to a woman of large build and boisterous or loose manners.  A dangerous sort of word.
 
schadenfreude: Oh, the Germans.  If anyone could have more words than us English-speakers, it's them, with their lovely habit of compounding.  Anyway, we English-speakers have borrowed schadenfreude - as I am sure you know - in order to describe the malicious enjoyment of the misfortune of others. 

spanghew: transcribing directly from the dictionary...to throw or jerk violently; to cause (a toad or frog) to fly into the air.  You read that right, we've got a special word for amphibian-tossing.  Hooray!
 
syzygy: this one's got mathematical, biological, astronomical, theological, and poetic definitions, which makes things a little confusing.  I had a professor tell me though that it essentially connotes a union in which the sum exceeds the parts.  Which I like.  Plus, three y's!
 
tmesis: at last, a word to describe words!  Sadly, in English we don't do this so much...add infixes, I mean.  In fact, the only two instances of tmesis I can think of at the moment are abso-bloody-lutely and in-f***ing-credible. 
 
tyromancy: not a typo!  You are going to love this one, though - divination by means of cheese.  I know, but it's not a joke...it's in the dictionary!  Sadly, it's now a bit obsolete...we must bring it back.  Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and fondue-pot bubble? 

ultracrepidarian: everyone knows one.  Here we have the official term for a know-nothing know-it-all.  Throw this word at them next time and see how they react, I dare you.

zugunruhe: I'm ending on this one because, well, it's the only word I've got that starts with the letter z, but also because of context...it means, quite succinctly, migratory restlessness.  At the end of my university career, with nowhere particular to go, it's what I'm feeling.  Back to Pittsburgh tomorrow!