Beware of the pedantic quibbull!
The Dictionary of New Words: Q, from Quacknowledgement to Qwrty
New words are appearing every day. For June 2017 alone, the Oxford english Dictionary lists well over a hundred, from Arribada, meaning the nesting behaviour of a particular type of sea turtle, to Zyzzyva, meaning a species of tropical weevil.
But how long will it be before they take these useful new words on board?
QUACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Recognition by one duck of a greeting by another.
QUIFFY: Uncertain male hair-do. ‘Tintin may have been a great reporter, but I always found his hair a little bit quiffy.’
QUAIN’T: Something that is not quite as charmingly old-fashioned as its owner thinks it is. QUALITUT-TUTIVE: describing something with an air of disapproval. ‘He made a qualitut-tutive judgement on her collection of cabbage-patch dolls.’
QUALMSHOUSE: Accommodation for the less well off, provided by charities with slight misgivings.
QUARANTEEN: Isolation imposed on those between the ages of 13 and 19, so that others might not be exposed to their symptoms of moodiness and disaffection. ‘I see the Robinsons, next door but one, have put their children into quaranteen after that unfortunate incident with the bottle of brandy and the fire-extinguisher.’
QUARREAL: A confrontation or altercation between two individuals based not on prejudice or supposition but on factual evidence.
QUARRELSUM: The total number of arguments a couple have had over the course of a given year, subtracted from the number of short-term reconciliations.
QUASIMODISH: Short-lived fashion for placing a cushion under one’s jacket or shirt, halfway up one’s lower spine.
QUATE: Polite agreement expressed at a middle-class Home Counties tea-party. ‘I must say, these cucumber sandwiches are cut beautifully thin.’ ‘Oh, quate!’ QUAVERSION: Forceful dislike of a curly cheese-flavoured snack.
QUEASYJET: An airline renowned for its ups and downs. ‘Queasyjet encourages all passengers to carry a minimum of two empty paperbags.’
QUEASYLISTENING: Middle-ofthe-road music that can have the effect of making listeners turn pale and feel sick. ‘As I entered the room, I heard Demis Roussos on the sound-system. It was then that I turned green and began to sweat profusely. I had been hit by an unexpected bout of queasylistening.’
QUEERY: Odd or unusual question. ‘when she asked him whether frogs ate cheese, he considered it a queery.’
QUEUEUEUE: excessively long queue. ‘The queueueue at immigration was the longest he’d ever seen.’
QUIBBULL: A bull that is prone to picking fights for pedantic reasons. QUICCUPS: Very fast gulping sounds from the throat. QUID PRO WHOAH: Sudden decision to stop giving gifts in return for a favour. QUIDDITTY: The essence of a person or a thing, told in silly rhyme, eg ‘Doris Stokes/ was in touch with all folks/ She spoke to anyone who’d let her/ The deader, the better.’
QUINOARRRGGHH: Unpleasant but fashionable and unavoidable grain. ‘The menu in the wholefood restaurant seemed to have a handful of quinoarrrgghh in every starter, main course and sweet. You couldn’t escape it.’ QUINTAT: Five similar pieces of worthless junk.
QUIRK-SHY: Someone who can’t be bothered to be eccentric. ‘Geoffrey wears a suit and sensible shoes, reads The economist and named his children George and Mary. He cheerfully admits to being quirk-shy.’ QUIZZICULL: Attempt to reduce the numbers of the perplexed.
QUIZZZZZZZ: Late-night radio programme in which ordinary members of the public are asked to name the longest rivers and tallest buildings in littleknown countries.
QUOTIDIANA: Daily news output about Princess Diana, twenty-five years on. QWRTY: Any keyboard that happens to be missing a vital letter.