<h2 class="wp-block-heading eplus-wrapper">Absurd words?</h2>

Sharon groaned. She had felt real fleshment about organising her birthday party - but her hircine stepmother was limiting her to six guests.

That was just so novercal! Steph was the most bad-tempered and antithalian person she had ever met: everything she did was infelicific. Could anything be done to abirritate her? And was there a backspang that could be used to invite more friends?

The paragraph above contains seven words most people have never come across. "Fleshment" means the excitement that comes from a promising start. "Hircine" means "smelling like a goat". "Novercal" means "to do with a stepmother".

"Antithalian" means "opposed to parties". "Infelicific" means "resulting in unhappiness". "Abirritate" means "to make less irritableEasily annoyed. ". A "backspang" is a loophole.

All these words appear on the Merriam-Webster dictionary's list of "Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words". The dictionary is based on the work of the leading 19th Century American lexicographerA person who makes dictionaries. Noah Webster.

"They're wonderful," it says of the words. "They're obscure. They're often quite pointless."

There are many other intriguingVery interesting. Something you want to know more about. words on the list. One is "ultracrepidarian", defined as "giving opinions on matters outside your knowledge".

Another is "pennyweighter", meaning someone who steals a piece of jewellery by swapping it for a fake.

One of the most beautiful is "apricitie", which was defined in 1623 as "the warmness of the Sun in winter". One of the most satisfying to say is "sloomy", meaning "sleepy or sluggish".

But are these words pointless? A good many of them actually seem very useful, and should arguably be brought back.

Take "accismus", which means "refusing something which you in fact want very badly". It is surely useful to have one word you can use instead of nine.  

Should we defend uselessness?

Yes: A world which only included useful things would be very boring indeed. The things that make life worth living are often beautiful, funny or bizarre, without any practical application.

No: We live in an age where countless things are crying out for our attention. The only way to cope efficiently is to get rid of all those which do not immediately make it easier for us to function.

Or... It is risky to call anything useless. Things that you are tempted to throw away often turn out to be exactly what you need in an unexpected situation, so it is worth keeping them just in case.

Irritable - Easily annoyed.

Lexicographer - A person who makes dictionaries.

Intriguing - Very interesting. Something you want to know more about.