Historicity

Used in a sentence:

• The historicity of the paper cup was without question, except by certain fundamentalist of the holy plastic utensil church.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

This is really a word. At least it is a word in Wiktionary and Wikipedia. It seriously looks like a made up word right? Even if it is, I think it deserves to be a word just because of how awesome it is. Like truthiness.

Paucity

Used in a sentence:

• Our food stores were so full of paucity, that it was just about the only in the stores we had a large amount of.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

Before you even say a word, yes it is grammatically acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition, if the preposition is required to understanding the meaning of the sentence. Yes I could re-write the sentence to say something like ‘in large amounts’ but that wouldn’t let me rant about it!

Ahem.

Paucity isn’t so weird a word. I think it is used in Dickens books, which means it’s heard by modern ears about once a life time or so. But I like it anyway because it reminds me of paws and city, which makes me think of a city of cats (or dogs if that is your fancy).

Vim

Used in a sentence:

• What our hero did not know was how much vim her opponent kept in reserve, ready to forestall any punishment she could unleash.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

So the old cliché Vim and Vigor is equivalent to saying ATM machine, or Windows NT Technology. Probably just survived this obvious inefficiency by being alliterative. Will I say it is high time we broke vim away from it’s repeative existence and start using it solo. Give vim back some of its vim, as one might say!

Turpitude

Used in a sentence:

• It was a turpitude of the highest order; the cookie jar was empty!

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

Okay so I completely fudged that sentence, sorry. Still this is a word that strikes me as an adjective, not a noun. It is also another of our weird words that is fun to say.  Otherwise I’m not sure I’d use this word very often. The words in its first definition are much more interesting and fun to say. I suppose I might add it if I wanted my depravity to sound a little silly as well.

Shrift

Used in a sentence:

• He kept the shrift was short and sweet; he did have enough time and it was likely before this was over, he’d have plenty of time to discuss his sins with whatever god got their hands on him first.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

Here’s a word for a word we already have. Most of us know was a confession is but you can confess to anyone,. If you really need to be specific, in a content of religion, then shrift is the word for you. Sadly it doesn’t seem roll off the tongue very well, or onto the page for that matter. On the other hand its meaning is not specific to a particular religion, making it a great fantasy word.

Petard

Used in a sentence:

• “No, one does not place a petard on their head and call it the latest fashion!”  he growled, grabbing the explosive from the man’s head and attaching it to the wall. “One uses it to redecorate.”

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

Some of us may be familiar with the phrase ”To be hoist by one’s own petard,” which was invented by Shakespeare for his play Hamlet. Shakespeare had it awesome simply because English was in such flux at the time that it was very easy to sneak in new words and so he did it all the time. Petard is actually a french word, if you couldn’t guess, and its historic meaning is the same in French as it is in English: A door or wall breaching explosive. Thanks to Shakespeare, and the above phrase, in English it has its second meaning: To blow one self up with their own bomb. It can easily be assumed that he coined the phrase from a French anecdote about the people who accidentally blew themselves up with their own petard. Not that I”m saying such a thing existed. Vive la résistance!

Neap

Used in a sentence:

• The neapest tide the sailor had ever seen had in the bay firmly neaped his ship, requiring the tug which consisted of, a cart, neap, and two bulls, to pull it to the dock.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

Do I get a gold star for using all three forms of the word in one sentence? Please? So continuing our weird words with lots of different meanings, here is a word with three different forms, except that the noun form has an extra meaning in no way associated with tides or water. Apparently cart craftsmen and seamen never got around to discussing the technical languages of their professions much. If they did they might be a little confused.

Fettle

Used in a sentence:

• The armor was far from fettle, with scrapes and dints covering it like a second skin, but they could fettle it for what they had in mind.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

Here’s a word who has so many different meanings it is rather odd. Context must more or less always be required. The last meaning as a noun is exclusive to ceramic use. The final meaning as a verb is archaic. There are other slang meanings I decided not to include. You’d think with all the letters of the alphabet, we’d come up with new words!

Dint

Used in a sentence:

• The dint of his punch didn’t even put a dent in the armor but then, it didn’t have to.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

Dint means dent. It is a fairly old world that has obviously fallen out of use so much that it doesn’t really have a good use. Using it to mean force or power would more likely to confusion. It also doesn’t sound all that powerful, so I suppose you might use it to suggest a weak amount of power.

Pastiche

Used in a sentence:

• The song used in that particular episode was not just a pastiche but, at least to most of the internet’s ears, a blantant rip-off of the artist’s song, with no obvious credit.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

While it was awhile ago, some of you might know the source of today’s sentence. If not, don’t worry about it! Just keep in mind that a Pastiche is not exactly a cover or copy but a re-imagining of the original art in another medium that is also its own. Actually I imagine most fan work that is attempting to imitate their favorite creative person falls under this. Maybe.