On our bulletin board we've been playing around with the word agley (= awry or askew), as in, "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." So it seems appropriate to follow last week's theme, about romantic love, with a theme of words about love gone agley. We'll rely heavily on Depraved and Insulting English by Novobatzky and Shea.

imparlibidinous - pertaining to inequality of desire between two people

A state of affairs we know all too well. When you ask the woman of your dreams out on a date and she fleers at you, simply explain to your friends that the two of you were imparlibinous.

Aha, wordcrafter, we now know that you must be a man!

After all, there is the similar situation where we women wait by the phone, pining for our man to call us.

A good thought, Kalleh, but it was Novobatzky and Shea who provided that example-sentence, which I've somewhat cleaned up.

anteric - seeking vengeance for slighted love

In an anteric rage, Sarah decided that slashing the tires of her ex-boyfriend's pick-up truck just wasn't enough. So she set it ablaze and flung herself on top of it.

Our Sarah??

She never struck me as the Jim Morrison type!

anaxiphilia - the act of falling in love with the wrong person

synechthry - the state of living together in a loveless marriage

Say N&S: Yes, it has a daunting spelling, but simply knowing that there is a word out there to encapsulate an all-too-common situation is worth something, isn't it?

"Insisting that they were staying together 'for the children's sake,' the Dorchesters spent twenty-five years gritting their teeth at each other in synechthry and raised a find brood, all of whom eventually graduated to lovelless marriages of their own."

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Originally posted by C J Strolin:
Our Sarah??

She never struck me as the Jim Morrison type!

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Not me!

anagapesis - a loss of feelings for one formerly loved.

Again, I take Novobatzky and Shea's witty explanation.

This is a terrible yet useful word. Far all those who at one time or another have clumsily and ineffectually struggled to say, " I don't love you anymore," without having to actually say it, don't be fooled: "I love you, I'm just not in love with you" is a horrible thing to tell somebody. To avoid this and other clichés, it is better to tell one's ex-to-be that one has been stricken with anagapesis – then get the hell out of there before he or she reaches for the dictionary.

liffy - to seduce a woman with promises of fidelity, and then desert her

N&S: "George wanted nothing so much as to be able to liffy every woman that he met."

Here we go again--another word about men rebuking women!

I wonder if there is a word for Meg Ryan's great scene in "When Harry Met Sally". Does anyone know?

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I wonder if there is a word for Meg Ryan's great scene in "When Harry Met Sally". Does anyone know?

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Faking it?

Kalleh feels that the words offered here are slanted toward men rebuking women. She muses, "I wonder if there is a word for Meg Ryan's great scene in 'When Harry Met Sally'.",

Though there should be, I know of no such word more formal than 'faking it'. But to redress any female/male imbalance, I'll offer two words today to end this weekly theme.

artamesia – sexual dissatisfaction in a woman due to the premature climax of her partner.
It is a beautiful thing that a word exists for this all-to-common occurrence.

We all know that woman has to kiss many frogs before she finds her prince. Or shall we say that she must endure repeated amplexus?
amplexus – the mating embrace of a toad or a frog
A technical word with fine potential for figurative use

Awww, wordcrafter, thanks!

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Originally posted by wordcrafter:
_artamesia_ – sexual dissatisfaction in a woman due to the premature climax of her partner.
It is a beautiful thing that a word exists for this all-to-common occurrence.

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Speak for yourself, W.