Word of the Week
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2004
In the dim dark recesses of h2g2 history before we moved lock, stock and barrel to our new BBC home there used to be a front page feature The h2g2 Word of the Day. It was a way to highlight some of the lesser occurring or largely obscurer words in the English language. Sadly this feature was discontinued.
Until now...
It's been a while but my New Year's resolution is to give you guys a new word of the week for each week of the year. So I'm back and so is word of the week.
Word for the Week
It's been a while and but not enough to make my fiancee quite into this week's word. Although a week of not shaving on my week off over Christmas may have pushed her close to the edge.
Pogonophobic
n. Someone who is afraid of beards.
The word was suggested by Downing 52482 on 3rd September 1999, for inclusion in the word of the day. This is the only occurrence in this form to appear on H2G2. Pogonophobia appears in the list of phobias.
Its sole use in a fun thread was only last month is DEATH BY SUNDRY
SQUADRON when a phobia ray gun is introduced and AK uses it to make other members of the beard suddenly scared of
prominent facial hair.
From the Archive
Seeing as we have just come through the festive season, this week's dip into the archives may be a pertinent reminder to many of my readers.
It was suggested by wsfn after an apparently drunken leaving do on 23rd August 1999.
Crapulent
adj. Of or relating to the drinking of alcohol or drunkenness.
The original suggestion includes an excellent example of usage.
I asked a co-worker how the managers' going away party (held at a bar) last Friday had gone;
'So did the bigwigs fixate in a crapulent manner?'
'Yeah', he replied, 'but you have to expect a lot of crap from the bosses, especially since they were drunk.'
Strangely the word was used the same day it was suggested for word of the day in the Journal of Lochangel to tick off Zebedee and Dr E Vibenstein but then these three researchers were renowned for that.
The word has been used in the anagram game, apparently it is part of
Rudest Elf's real name. Answers on a post card please. However, maybe it says something about the examples of unusual words and the mindset of the average H2G2 user that this word is used widely throughout conversations forums. More so than any other word I have dug out of the archives so far so I'm not going to list all its occurrences. You can use the search button and find out for yourself how crapulent our researchers can be, as if you didn't already know.
How can you contribute?
- Go and check out words in the archive to
avoid duplication. - Check out the discussion threads and nominate a word that you feel was overlooked before discontinuation.
- Suggest a new word or your forgotten word in the word of the week archive conversation.
