Spooky Words of Wonder
Reader beware...
Sepulchral (adj)
[suh-puhl-kruhl]
A sepulcher is a tomb or grave.
What to do if you must walk past a graveyard: Hold your breath, whistle while you pass, do everything you can to ignore this place of death and decay.
Or better yet: Step into the cemetery and spend a quiet moment listening to the breeze, watching the trees, reflecting on your mortality.
Memento mori: A reminder of the joy of living.
Sough (n)
[sou, suhf]
When wind soughs through a hollow tree it sounds eerily human. And don’t those branches look like outstretched claws?
Eidolon (n)
[ahy-doh-luhn]
From the Greek. See also: wraith, shade, phantasm.
What’s that flutter of white in the corner of my eye? Phew—just a plastic bag.
Dayligone (n)
[dey-lee-gawn]
An archaic word for the gloaming. I found this word in a book by poet Alistair Reid—the pronunciation is my best guess.
The day will soon be gone. Let’s welcome nightfall.
Decoct (v)
[dih-kokt]
Concoct a recipe for the perfect potion. Gather the necessary ingredients. Now decoct them: boil them down to their essence. Take a sip. How does it taste? Delicious.
Lissome (adj)
[lis-uhm]
If you’re young and lissome, your joints won’t creak while you contort yourself into a too-small skeleton costume, handed down from older siblings, a relic of past Halloweens.
Flittermouse (n)
[flit-er-mous]
See also: noctule, chiropteran, Camazotz, flying fox.
Do witches have fifty words for bat?
Doppelgänger (n)
[dop-uhl-gang-er, daw-puhl-geng-er]
As a kid I read a story about a doppelgänger in a book at my grandmother’s house. The book was a collection of supposedly true tales of the paranormal. A few hours of reading gave me fodder for a lifetime of nightmares.
I’ve been haunted by the idea of meeting my doppelgänger ever since. Weird, since I have a real-life doppelganger: my identical twin brother, Gavin.
Side note: Don’t the two dots of the umlaut in doppelgänger look like evil twins?
Cortege (n)
[kawr-tezh, -teyzh]
From the French. Alternate spelling: cortège.
A funeral procession. Or a single-file journey to somewhere terrifying…
Manse (n)
[mans]
Another definition: a house occupied by a minister or parson.
Does a minister or parson live here? Or something much less holy?
Etiolated (adj)
[ee-tee-uh-leyt-id]
Ghosts don’t get out much. Perhaps that’s why they appear faded and white. Invite one outside. Maybe they’ll brighten up?
Bravado (n)
[bruh-vah-doh]
Bravado is forced bravery, exaggerated to conceal fear. Maybe every courageous action has an equal and opposite reaction: running the other way.
Telluric (adj)
[te-loor-ik]
If visitors from beyond our galaxy are extraterrestrial, are creatures who emerge from beyond the grave extratelluric?
If you’d like to read more Words of Wonder posts like this one, please comment below. I have dozens of words illustrated but haven’t gotten around to sharing most of them in newsletter form.
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"Flittermouse" is likely derived from the German for bat, "Fleidermaus".
Happy Halloween and I love learning so to enjoy your incredible images and also increase my vocabulary is a double Joy! thank you so so much