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Visions of scripturience (say what?)

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

If you’ve ever been possessed by a violent desire to write, you may not have been able to put that feeling into words. However, there is a word for it: you were feeling scripturient.

It’s one of the rare words that have been gathered and then graphically rendered by the Project Twins, a pair of designers based in Cork City, Ireland. James and Michael Fitzgerald do design work for a number of companies and have created their own projects independently. A-Z of Unusual Words is one of those independent series.

Some of the words, like scripturience, do not appear in abridged dictionaries. But they can be found in the heftier versions, and, of course, the massive standard, the OED.

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A sampling from the Project Twins lexicon:

Acersecomic: A person whose hair has never been cut Biblioclasm: The practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media Fanfaronade: Swaggering; empty boasting; blustering manner or behavior; ostentatious display Noegenesis: Production of knowledge Pogonotrophy: The act of cultivating, or growing and grooming, a mustache, beard, sideburns or other facial hair Ultracrepidarian: A person who gives opinions and advice on matters outside of one’s knowledge Vernalagnia: A romantic mood brought on by spring Zugzwang: A position in which any decision or move will result in problems.

The words alone are charming, and the graphic images created by the Project Twins even more so. Originally displayed in 2011 at the MadArt Gallery Dublin during DesignWeek, limited edition prints from the A-Z of Unusual Words are now for sale on the Project Twins website for about $250 each. Hat tip to Design Taxi for the link.

ALSO:

Every writer’s nightmare: the wordless Web

A dictionary for warped minds

La-La Land now the dictionary definition of Los Angeles

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

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