SPRET-zah-too-rah -- (Italian n.) To do something difficult gracefully and without apparent effort. Motherhood is a role played by a...

DEE-crass-si-fa-ee -- (v.) To clean of dirt or to remove what is crass. Rescued from the shelves of linguistic oblivion (a place, itself,...

myoo-LEE-uh-bri-TEE -- (n.) A power and aura unique to feminine women. In a world where "power" embodies a certain hardness -- heavy and...

en-SOW-ul -- (v.) To endow with soul - existence transcending the mundane. The soul is the invisible force that imbues life with a...

(n.) Empty self-promoting language; wildly arrogant, baseless boasting. At its heart, fanfaronade is the lovechild of both arrogant...

lay-KOO-nuh -- (n.) A blank space, a missing part, a pit where something once was. Some pits run deep, some shallow. We encounter them,...

moo-DEE-tuh -- (n.) Finding joy in the happiness of others. A child laughs uncontrollably and without knowing what it is they're...

AH-no-rak -- (n.) A person obsessively fascinated by a boring subject. One man's passion is another man's tranquilizer. Such is the...

MEH-rah-kee -- (Greek v.) To do or create something with soul, passion, and creativity; to put something of yourself into your work. Good...

OR-fik -- (adj.) Entrancing and mysterious, beyond realms of normal understanding. To look at the world and to be enchanted by its enigma...

WOOL-gah-thur-ring -- (n.) Indulgence in daydreaming and aimless thought. Proper woolgathering is an art form. First, it takes engagement...

fil-LOW-kah-list -- (n.) A lover of beautiful things. "Beauty in things" said David Hume, "exists in the mind which contemplates them."...

mo-ROW-sis -- (n.) Ridiculously stupid -- a state of immense idiocy. Over the span of our lives, we've all had a moment of morosis --...

rah-kon-TOOS -- (n.) A woman strikingly skilled at telling a story. Few words honor that special talent of storytelling. Fewer bother to...

The human brain relies on language — a code of understanding, that, in the form of words symbolize meaning and impart thoughts and...

sock-DOLL-ah-jur -- (n.) A decisive blow or remark. You'll know it when you've delivered one of these; Sockdologers are often accompanied...

LEH-vah-ment -- (n.) The comfort and love that man finds in his wife. Words dedicated to marital bliss are rarities -- positive ones even...

WIFF-tee -- (adj.) Eccentrically silly; ditzy, scatterbrained, and unfocused. Wifty folk have a certain magnetism in their madness. If...

arr-KAY-dee-un -- (n.) Wonderfully innocent; untroubled by worry or fear. “...she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and...

rap-SKAHL-yun -- (n.) A rascal ne'er-do-well; an absolute rogue. Why yell "rascal" when you can deploy "RAPSCALLION"? Wordeby's is...