Wayne State releases annual list of words worth reviving

By Jason Carr
Fox 2 News

DETROIT (WJBK) -- In our everyday speech, we use very little of the firepower in the English language.  However, Wayne State wants you to festoon your everyday lexicon with ten multisyllabic ornaments.

Included on this year's Word Warriors list are buncombe, cerulean, chelonian, dragoon, fantods, mawkish, natter, persiflage, troglodyte and winkle.

"A panel of experts convenes every year right after the first of January and picks the ten best based on public response," said Jerry Herron, dean of Wayne State's Honors College.

How would you use the word winkle?

"Winkle.  That's one that comes in a buncombe-driven kind of political season.  You can't seem to winkle the truth out of people.  Every once in a while they get on TV and you know that they've got something they want to tell you, but they don't want to tell you, so you try to winkle or pry it out of them and all you get is so much persiflage," Herron said.

As for chelonian, Herrson explained it means "turtle-like -- proceeding at this slow, turtle-like, lazy pace."

To peruse the Wayne State's Word Warriors list, traverse the Internet to wordwarriors.wayne.edu/2013/index.php.