_

15 January 2016

10 Words To Do With Firsts

It’s been a long time coming, but HaggardHawks has finally flown over to YouTube!

Throughout 2016—as part of a new project we’re calling #500Words—we’ll be posting a new video to the Haggard Hawks YouTube channel every Thursday at 8pm (GMT). Each video will look at 10 words with something different in common, from words coined by Shakespeare to words derived from numbers, to the origins of curse words. So, 50 weeks. 50 videos. 500 words.

The first video went online yesterday, and you can find out about 10 Words To Do With Firsts (and hear some terrible, terrible puns—sorry about that) below.




Remember to subscribe to the channel to make sure you don’t miss out on any videos in the series—and of course keep an eye on Twitter, Facebook and here on the blog for more details to come...


Posted by at 1 comment:

4 January 2016

100 words worth knowing

Typical. You wait months for a milestone to come along, and then two come along at once. 

 Just two days after reaching the 15,000 followers mark, the @HaggardHawks Twitter feed tweeted its 10,000th tweet in the early hours of Monday morning. If you’ve been with us since the start (and some of you certainly have), that’s 10,000 obscure and unusual words you’ve potentially added to your vocabulary. So apologies for fuelling your lexiphanic tendencies—you may well be guilty of gadzookery, but at least you can now consider yourself a logodaedalus.

But for those of you who have joined us more recently—or for those of you who might have forgotten some of the best HH words (which would make two of us...)—not to worry. To mark our 10,000th tweet, and to refresh our collective memory, here are 100 HaggardHawks words that are well worth remembering, each linked to its original tweet should you want to read or share it over on Twitter.

Thanks again everyone for following, and stay tuned for another development very soon…



  1. The pleasant feeling that follows a nice dream is euneirophrenia. 
  2. Bomphiologia is boastful, self-aggrandizing language. 
  3. To famgrasp is to shake someone’s hand...
  4. ...while kissing a woman’s hand on meeting her is called a baisemain. 
  5. To unhappen something is to make it look like it never took place. 
  6. A growlery is somewhere you like to retire to when you’re ill or in a bad mood. 
  7. If you’re comfoozled then you’re utterly exhausted. 
  8. An autohagiography is an autobiography that makes its subject look better than they are. 
  9. A ridibundal person is prone to laugh at things. 
  10. A hangy-bangy is a good-for-nothing. 
  11. An ohnosecond is a moment between doing something and realising you shouldn’t have done it.
  12. Jamais-vu is the opposite of déjà-vu...
  13. ...and a eucatastrophe is the opposite of a catastrophe.
  14. If you’re noctivagant then you like to wander around at night. 
  15. A gowkthropple is someone who frequently uses bad language.
  16. To jirble is to spill liquid while pouring it with shaking hands. 
  17. Old women who gossip over tea and cakes? They’re muffin-wallopers.
  18. Huckmuck is the feeling of confusion caused by things not being in the right place.
  19. A bessybab is an adult that likes childish things. 
  20. To dacker is to deliberately spin out a simple task just to fill up a day’s work.
  21. Killing time is temporicide. 
  22. To do something lickfaladity is to do it with full force. 
  23. A miscomhap is a stroke of bad luck. 
  24. Infucation is the process of applying makeup. 
  25. A sudden feeling of grief when you remember a loss is a stound. 
  26. If you’re parvipotent then you have very little power. 
  27. A buccula is a double chin. 
  28. Shivviness is the uncomfortable feeling caused by wearing new underwear.
  29. A muck-robin is a child who likes deliberately annoying adults. 
  30. To goufter is to laugh heartily. 
  31. Looking younger than your age is called agerasia. 
  32. Posing a question and then immediately answering it yourself? That’s sermocination.
  33. An ichnogram is a footprint. 
  34. Talking in your sleep is somniloquy. 
  35. An aquabib is someone who drinks water, not alcohol. 
  36. To honeyfuggle someone is to trick or deceive them. 
  37. A zwodder is a drowsy, stupid state of mind. 
  38. A callomaniac is someone who believes they’re more beautiful than they really are. 
  39. To walk in shoes that are too big for your feet is to clomph. 
  40. Cats that like to climb along high shelves are climb-tacks. 
  41. To titty-toit is to tidy up. 
  42. Aimlessly wandering the streets is vicambulation. 
  43. If you’re ludibrious, then you’re the butt of the joke. 
  44. A compulsion to look at awful things, like horror movies, is called cacospectomania.
  45. A mouse-nook is a hard-to-reach, hard-to-clean corner of a room. 
  46. Mogshade is the shade provided by trees. 
  47. A puckfist is someone who braggingly dominates a conversation. 
  48. To constantly repeat something so that it loses all meaning is to battologize. 
  49. The drops of food or drink that fall down your chin when eating are your lebber-beard. 
  50. To sklute is to fall into something wet or muddy. 
  51. An onomasticon is a list of names. 
  52. Speaking through gritted teeth is dentiloquy. 
  53. If you’re pawp-footed, then you’re prone to walk into things. 
  54. To dedoleate is to cease being upset. 
  55. Your opisthenar is the back of your hand. 
  56. The drops of rain that drip from things after it’s stopped raining are the easing-drops.  
  57. If something is xyresic then it’s razor-sharp. 
  58. Making mistakes at work because you’re so tired or bored? That’s fauchling. 
  59. To scurryfunge is to hastily tidy a house. 
  60. Using a fan to cool yourself down is flabellation. 
  61. A crinkie-winkie is a fuss over nothing, or a pointless reason for not doing something. 
  62. The boredom that comes with being unwell is alysm. 
  63. Oysterhood is unsociableness or an overwhelming desire to stay at home. 
  64. A nonty-niddlety is a fool. 
  65. A zoilist is an unfair critic, or someone who loves complaining or finding fault.
  66. A spinkie-den is a woodland clearing full of flowers. 
  67. Trinkgeld is money intended only to be spent on drink. 
  68. A fyoag is a loud, cheerful laugh. 
  69. Anything that is hoozy-poozy is done just to pass the time. 
  70. A brother-chip is someone who does the same job as you...
  71. ...while a nameling is someone with the same name as you. 
  72. Something that is isochroöus is the same colour outside and throughout. 
  73. Untidy or unpleasant work is vargling. 
  74. If you’re floby-mobly, then you’re not unwell, but still not quite feeling your best.
  75. The stiffness in your legs after a long walk is called hansper. 
  76. Eating your words is autologophagy. 
  77. A lennochmore is a larger-than-average baby. 
  78. Glutching is trying to stifle sobs or cries. 
  79. A scliff is an old, worn out shoe. 
  80. The loose feathers that fall out of cushions and pillows is called culf. 
  81. To bang-a-bonk is to sit lazily on a riverbank. 
  82. Armogan is the perfect weather for travelling...
  83. ...while hurling-weather is the perfect weather for drying clothes... 
  84. ...and if the weather flenches, then it looks like it might improve but never does.
  85. An adoxography is a great work written about a pointless subject. 
  86. Crockans are bits of food that shrivel up during cooking. 
  87. Hanging around with nothing to do? That’s lobbeting. 
  88. Saturday-wit is dirty jokes. 
  89. A waffle-frolic is a sumptuous meal or feast. 
  90. To twankle is to idly play a musical instrument. 
  91. Superalimentation is eating too much food. 
  92. The process of taking off your shoes? That’s discalceation. 
  93. A scripturient person has a constant desire to write. 
  94. Trying to cover up the fact that you’re laughing is kneistering. 
  95. An ocnophil is someone who clutches onto familiar things when upset. 
  96. To penelopize is to restart a piece of work just to waste time. 
  97. A dildram is a strange or improbable story. 
  98. All the facial features that make someone recognisable comprise their headmark.
  99. To jakes is to walk mud into a house. 
  100. If you’re linguipotent, then you have great skill with languages. 
Posted by at 1 comment:

2 January 2016

15,000 followers!

A very Happy New Year, everyone!

Well, what a way to start 2016. The @HaggardHawks Twitter feed added its 15,000th follower over the Christmas break, which, if you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll know can only mean one thing—it’s time for a brand new Haggard Hawks Quiz...

Same rules as always: no time limit, just 20 fiendishly difficult Haggard Hawks language questions to pit your wits against, this time covering everything from 17th century slang to the names of the United States. Feel free to share your scores in the comments below or over on Twitter—and, as always, good luck!



Posted by at 1 comment:

29 December 2015

Top 10 Tweets 2015

Well, it’s been a grand old year for HaggardHawks. First, there was the fact book (stay tuned US followers, your edition is on its way...). Then there was the 10K milestone. And now, at the tail end of 2015, we’re well on course to tweet our 10,000th tweet and welcome our 15,000th follower early in 2016. 

Along the way, we’ve learnt what to call a flock of flamingos, why you would never want to sit next to a Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas, what happens when a ship sinks and the ship’s cat survives (still my personal favourite fact—ever), and why you might spot a lady-with-the-twelve-flounces on your bird table. But as great as all those tidbits of trivia are, not one of them made this year’s top 10. Nor did the best Latin palindrome you’ll probably ever come across, nor that fantastic old Scots expression that serves as a warning to daydreamers. 

So, brace yourselves arithmomaniacs, and get ready to dactylonomize—from 10 down to 1, here are @HaggardHawk’s Top 10 Tweets of 2015…

10. MUFFLEMENTS
Moble your mufflements, people, it’s cold outside. When a word not only sounds great but has the potential to prove eminently useful, it’s onto a winner. 


9. OBDORMITION
You can also use that one for the act of falling asleep generally. And the very moment you fall asleep? That’s the overgoing.
8. VULPECULATED
You can provide your own example...
7. COLD COFFEE
Jettatores unite—while you’re meeting the cat, feel free to also call bad luck wanhap, miscasualty, or unfortunacy. 
6. POTOOOOOOOO
Probably the best tweet combining racehorses, root vegetables, and a terrible pun that you’ll see this (or indeed any) year.


 5. JANUARY
Everyone loves a good etymological story, and it doesn’t come much better than one about two-faced Roman gods. One face was said to look back at the year just gone, and the other forward to the year that was ahead, in case you were wondering…


 4. CLATTERFART
Best. Word. Ever. 
3. PIJARALIVUQ
As well as having 50 words for snow, it appears the Inuit (or the Inuktitut, to be entirely accurate here) seemingly have a word for everything else. Bonus fact: the Sami people have 1000 words for reindeer. 
2. JACHELT
If you’ve been following @HaggardHawks for a while, you’ll likely have worked out by now that Scots dialect dictionaries contain their fair share of linguistic gems—of which jachelt (derived from dackle, an even earlier dialect word meaning “to impede”) is just one.
1. APHERCOTROPISM
The clear winner by far. And with a picture like that, who could resist? As well as being this year’s top tweet, the explanation of just how this fantastic word came about has also rounded out the year as one of HaggardHawks’s most popular blog posts—you can read more about that here, or else just enjoy that brilliant picture in all its glory.

And that’s that—except, of course, that it isn’t. There’s a lot more to come in 2016, so keep an eye on the Twitter page for some big developments coming soon. Until then all that’s left to say is thank you, everyone, for following, commenting, favouriting, RTing, and just generally helping make @HaggardHawks what it is. It really is very much appreciated.

And a very Happy New Year!







Posted by at 1 comment:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)