The English language can be an odd place, and obscure.  Some of these words go back to the 18th Century or earlier.  Please feel free to tell us your favorite “odd” word in the comments!

A good catchword can obscure analysis for fifty years. ~Wendell L. Willkie

• Abatude – Means money that’s been clipped. In the old days, the edges of gold or silver coins would be clipped off to make change. So the entire image would not be showing.  Think on today’s term with  a quarter having a nip out the corner to represent 12 cents because you don’t have  a dime and two pennies.
• Bablatrice – A female babbler.  Chaterestre is another name for talkative woman. And, leighster is a female liar.
• Camorra – A secret society (usually one that’s breaking the law somehow).
• Dendrochronology – The art of tree ring dating.
• Echopraxia – When you mimic the moves of others whether consciously or unconsciously (i.e. yawning).
• Fagin – A person who trains others in crime, esp. children.
• Gadzookery – Use of archaic words or expressions. Example is ye, thee, dost, etc.
• Ha-Ha – A sunken fence or ditch that’s between two land boundaries that divides the land without obstructing the view of the landscape of the land.