Grown-up Words

Moving on, moving up, moving out...here is a somewhat lengthy list of words to savor (or to use in your next game of Scrabble).  No, they aren't all in my everyday vocabulary.  They are all legitimate, though; I verified them all in the OED (although not all of the definitions are Oxonian).

You can have the first half today, and some more tomorrow.

aglet: I know, I know.  It's just a warm-up.  But isn't it strange that we have words for such specific things as the ends of shoelaces?  And did you know that an aglet technically ought to be made of metal?  And! did you know there's a verb aglet, 'to put a tag on a point'...what does that even mean?

amaranthine: of or pertaining to mythological flowers that never fade; also, this color.

ameliorate: I think I like this one because it sounds like my name.  Sure, call me vain...it means to make, become, or grow better; to improve.
 
aplomb: confidence, self-possession.  Oh, you knew it already?  But did you know it's related to plumbers?  Yes, plumbers and plumb-lines (apparently steadfast little articles that invariably know the perpendicular) have lead - that is, Pb - in common, and some semantic extension does the rest.  Whatever, next word!
 
callipygian: of, pertaining to, or having well-shaped or finely developed buttocks.  Sometimes the OED just says it best.
 
cleave: I've already been over this one earlier in the year, but I'm just maintaining my position here that I like how it can mean either to cling together or to be forced apart.
 
cripes: it seems this one is a 'vulgar perversion of Christ'...but I do love all of these antiquated profanities... zounds (God's wounds), egad (a/by God), gadzooks (God's ??? no one has any clue), jeepers (Jesus), etc.
 
dandiprat: basically what you'd think - a little urchin boy, a contemptible fellow...or a dwarf, or a small coin - yeah, so it's what you'd think.  basically.

defenestrate: to throw out of a window.  You probably know this one, too, but it's a classic and I don't think we should exclude it just for the sake of familiarity.  For some reason, this word reminds me of babies, bathwater, and Falstaff.  I'm not sure why.
 
erinaceous: like a hedgehog.  Enough said.
 
exsibilation: hissing a person off of a stage, which is different from one person on a stage hissing to another...as Medea would have to Jason - "esosa se esosa hos issasi hosoi"...either way, good solid onomatopoeic alliteration. 
 
facetious: me.  No, really...so in the original French, this one means witty and pleasant.  These days, it's got slightly more of a negative spin - there's a feeling of flippancy that hasn't been there in the past.  The evolution of language, eh?

gamine: another one of those French-turned-English words, so much so that it's got two forms - gamin for boys and gamine for girls.  The two forms, strangely, have slightly separate meanings...gamine connotes an 'attractively pert', slim, mischevious, and generally elfin girl or young woman; a gamin isn't so much a Puck but rather an Oliver Twist.

ginglyform: hinge-shaped!  Isn't that fabulous?