Just words

I get a “daily dose” of words sent straight to my e-mail from Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Day email. I find the words very interesting. Here are some samples of what I get, though not all definitions below are from OED.

• acquihire, noun. An act or instance of buying out a company primarily for the skills and expertise of its staff, rather than for the products or services it supplies. (Also, “acqhire”; formed by compounding “acquire” and “hire”.)
• afflatus, noun. The communication of supernatural or spiritual knowledge; divine inspiration; often used of poetic inspiration.
• badmash, noun (and adj.). A hooligan, scoundrel, rogue, miscreant, ruffian (as an adjective, naughty or bad).
• Dunstable, noun and adjective. (British) In Dunstable highway, Dunstable road, Dunstable way, the way to Dunstable, etc., as the type of something simple, straightforward, or direct.
• embiggen, verb. To make bigger or greater, to enlarge.
• falderal, noun. Mere nonsense, foolish talk or ideas, a trifle, a useless ornament or accessory (also, a nonsensical refrain in old songs).
• Honi soit qui mal y pense, phrase. Shamed be he who thinks evil of it (French maxim; motto of the British chivalric Order of the Garter).
• Nimby, noun. Objection or opposition to the siting of something they regard as undesirable in their own neighborhood (and may have an implication raising no such objections to similar developments elsewhere). Nimby is an acronym of “not in my back yard.”
• palinode, noun. An ode or song in which the author retracts something expressed in a former poem; a formal recantation or retraction.
• pleroma, noun. Plentitude; a state or condition of absolute fullness; originally that of God’s being or identity, esp. as believed to have been incarnated in Christ (cf. Colossians 2:9, where “fulness” is “πληρωμα”). Chiefly used in Theology.
• poetaster, noun. An inferior or second-rate poet; a writer of indifferent verse; one who partially resembles a poet.
• precariat, noun. With singular or plural concord. People whose employment, income, and living standards are insecure or precarious; such people considered collectively as a social class.
• puredee, adjective (and adv.), Thoroughgoing, out-and-out, complete, unmitigated (as an adverb: very, totally, completely).
• quagswagging, noun. The action of shaking to and fro.
• quot homines tot sententiae, phrase. There are as many opinions as there are men; used to express that there is considerable diversity of opinion, and the difficulty of bringing about agreement (from the Latin).
• raisonneur, noun. A thinker; a person who thinks or reasons; or, a character in a play or novel who voices the central theme, philosophy, or point of view of the work.
• scrimshaw, noun. Any of various carved or engraved articles made originally by American whalers usually from baleen or whale ivory; the art or practice of making these small articles.