The last theme was serious, so this one will be playful: a game. Your task is to guess the theme. Since it takes at least two items to make a pattern, I’ll give you two for a start.

crapulous; crapulent – over-indulging in food or drink; also, sick from doing so

quote:

---

Said a man to a crapulent youth: "I thought
You a total abstainer, my son."
"So I am, so I am," said the scrapgrace caught --
"But not, sir, a bigoted one."
-- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

---

interbastation – patchwork (this word was already obsolete two centuries ago)

Mr. Chris Addison, his tongue squarely in his cheek, published in The Guardian a remarkable letter which he purports to have received from the the British taxman. You will find "crapulent" used there, albeit improperly.

Words that sound "dirty"?

Words that sound dirty...but aren't? Like power-shower?

Keeping a secret from some people is like trying to smuggle daylight past a rooster. Well done, you two.

titubate – to stumble or stagger; also, to rock or reel, as would a curved-bottom bowl on a table

Almost no one uses this word except Jack London*. London uses it repeatedly, typically for a drunken stagger. From London’s works (respectively Jerry of the Islands, ch.VI; First Aid to Rising Authors; Michael, Brother of Jerry, ch. 3; Burning Daylight, pt. 1 ch. 3; Jan, the Unrepentant; and The Passing of Marcus O'Brien):

Thus, the balance, on which his life titubated, was inclined in his favour by the blunder of a black steersman.

Then, again, there is another class of fiction to avoid, especially perilous to those [authors] of us who titubate between Grub Street and a country house flung about with twenty woodland acres. This consists of the inanely vapid sort which amuses the commonplace souls of the commonplace public.

And for the rest of the way to the steamer, Dag Daughtry grinned and chuckled at sight of his plunder and at sight of Kwaque, who fantastically titubated and ambled along, barrel-like, on his pipe-stems.

Bettles ... ceased from his drunken lay of the "Sassafras Root," and titubated over to congratulate Daylight. But in the midst of it he felt impelled to make a speech, and raised his voice oratorically.

The horror in Jan's voice caused the rest to desist. The fallen tent had uprisen, and in the gathering twilight it flapped ghostly arms about and titubated toward them drunkenly.

Curly Jim sweated and fumed and poured out the whisky. … at two in the morning … he led his helpless guests across the kitchen floor and thrust them outside. O'Brien came last, and the three, with arms locked for mutual aid, titubated gravely on the stoop.

---

*Apart from a neurological sense for titubation: the staggering or stumbling gait characteristic of certain nervous disorders.

infucation – the act of painting or staining, esp. face-painting. In other words, putting on makeup.*

I am at a loss to understand why so useful a word is not in frequent use, as in, "With only minutes before her date arrived, Louise had no time for her usual thorough infucation." I urge the ladies to take up infucation.

---

*I'm unable to find any formal dictionary (OED being unavailable) that specifically mentions 'makeup' for this word. However, Erin McKean of OED, in her book More Weird and Wonderful Words, defines 'infucate' as "to use makeup".

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter,

The next time I am at a restaurant, I will turn to the lady next to me and say, "Would you like to join me in the bathroom to infucate?

jaculate – to throw out cast or hurl, as a dart or javelin; to emit
[jaculable – fit for throwing]

The press could make good use this term in covering track and field in the upcoming summer Olympics. But I somehow doubt that it will be used.

Grandfather Smallweed immediately throws the cushion at her. 'Drat you, be quiet!' says the good old man. The effect of this act of jaculation is twofold. It not only doubles up Mrs Smallweed's head against the side of her porter's chair ..., but the necessary exertion recoils on Mr Smallweed himself, whom it throws back into his porter’s chair, like a broken puppet.
– Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ch. XXI

The bottoms of the mountains upward turned ... / The rest in imitation to like arms / Betook them, the neighboring hills uptore; / So hills amid the air encountered hills, / Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire
– John Milton, Paradise Lost, ch. VI

... a jaculation from the garden of the soul. – James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

Eschatological words or more properly - words that appear to be "sex" related but are not.

VG

Eschatological words or more properly - words that appear to be "sex" related but are not.

Eschatology is the study of the end of the world. It's a branch of theology. From Gk eskhatos 'outermost, last'. See also chiliasm, millenarianism.

Scatology has to do with obscene language or literature. It's a branch of ethics. From Gk skatos 'feces, excrement', cognate with English shit.

Pleased to confirm for wordcrafter I've made a "close" inspection of the OED. (Being near sighted, I got the microscopic print version, which is easy for me to read, no lens needed.)

The OED defines infucate as a form of fucate, meaning "to paint, rouge," and cites the derivation from Latin "fucus" or rock lichen, a source of red dye.


Even better without the "in," eh, kalleh?

quote:

---

words that appear to be "sex" related but are not.

---

That would exclude the first word given: crapulous; crapulent. Apparent "dirty" words (with the inverted commas/quotes) is a better definition in my opinion.

Well done, neveu and (slightly less accurately) arnie! The theme is indeed "Words that Sound Dirty, but Aren’t."

Some have thought it was "Words that Sound Sexual, but Aren't," but our first word, 'crapulent', would not fit within that theme. I must admit it would have been a good theme, and I'll use it in the future. Here are two more within the former theme but not the later.

turdine – pertaining to thrushes (in the nature of canine, feline, etc.)

schist – any of a group of rocks which can be easily split into flat parallel layers
[From the same root, I presume, as schizophrenia, split personality.]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kalleh:
The next time I am at a restaurant, I will turn to the lady next to me and say, "Would you like to join me in the bathroom to _infucate?_

---

I'm with you, Kalleh. Any time you want company when you infucate, give me a call.

Another thread turns on figuring in what years "That 70s Show" is set. Research disclosed that it is in the days when Farrah Fawcett was the top pin-up girl. Further research on her career, to pin down that pin-up's date, revealed this:

quote:

Farrah Fawcett played Jill Munroe in the original cast of the TV show Charlie's Angels, joining Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith in the titular trio of distaff detectives. The show made Fawcett a star and she briefly became America's hottest pinup ...

I trust all understand how this quote is relevant to this thread.