prettygoodword

approbate (AP-ruh-bayt) - v., to officially approve, sanction; to accept (a document) as valid.

The verb form of approbation. Borrowed in the 1400s as approbaten from approbatus, past participle of approbāre, to approve, from ad-, toward + probāre, to prove.

---L.

macaronic (mak-uh-RON-ik) - adj., composed in a mixture of different languages ( ... )

stannous (STAN-uhs) - adj., containing tin, esp. tin atoms in a bivalent state.

Coined in 1849 from Latin stannum, tin.

---L.

otalgia (oh-TAL-ee-juh, oh-TAL-juh) - n. (med.) earache.

The technical medical jargon for a pain in the ear. Borrowed in the 1650s from Latin, from Greek ōtalgía, from ōt-, combining form of ous, ear + -algia, from algos, pain.

---L.

thagomizer (tha-goh-MEYE-zuhr) - n. (inf.) the collection of spikes on the end of the tail of stegasaurid dinosaurs.

Coined in 1982 by Gary Larson in a The Far Side cartoon, and since adopted by many paleontologists, especially in informal contexts -- Wiktionary has a selection of citations. Ostensibly named after "the late Thag Simmons ( ... )

agley (uh-GLEE, uh-GLEY, uh-GLEYE) - adj., askew, awry, wrong.

Scots dialect, but generally known through Burns: "the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley." From a-, not + gley, to squint (from Middle English glien, possibly of Scandinavian origin), coined in the 1780s.

---L.

lek (LEK) - n., a place where male animals gather for display and courtship behavior; the act or practice of so gathering.

Also, a currency of Albania, but that's not important right now. First attested in English in 1871, probably borrowed from Swedish, from a root with a sense of "to play."

---L.

ictus (IK-tuhs) - n., (pros./mus.) a metrical or rhythmical stress as contrasted on the one hand with an unstressed syllable/note and on the other with the stress accent on words; (pros.) a mark indicating same; (physio.) the pulse; (physio.) a sudden attack, blow, stroke, or seizure ( ... )

zeitgeber (DZEYET-gey-ber) - n., an environmental cue, as the start or end of daylight, that provides the stimulus for setting or resetting a biological clock of an organism ( ... )

incunabulum (in-kyu-NAB-yu-luhm) - n., a book or broadsheet printed in Europe with moveable type before 1501; an artifact of an early period (of something ( ... )