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!

Matriculate

• He told them that he was matriculated at the age of fifteen, to which his uncle patted him on the back and told him that it happens to some guys even into their thirties.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary: 

Man if I hadn’t already given you the definition I totally would have asked you to guess. Matriculate is another word that I have no idea what it actually means till I look it up. I liken it to masticate but it obviously is nothing like that. This is instead one of those words you use for your underage overachieving genius who needs to sound overly educated in his diction. This word is all but perfect for that.

Conflate

• The two machines conflated, first by sharing consciousness via an external wireless link, then by allowing their chassis to lock together and sharing internal components, until there was only being left alive.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

Conflate is one of those words that I think I know the meaning of, and then I look it up, and it totally isn’t the word I thought it was. Probably because I want to relate it more closely to inflate. Conflate also falls into one of those interesting to say words. Say it enough and it starts to sound a little funny. Go ahead. Try it.

Woggle

Used in a sentence:

• “Why back in those days, we wore woggles on our fingers instead of gold or silver, and we liked it!” said the strange old frog.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

Astute readers of last week’s Weird Word might have noticed that one of the meanings behind the word boondoggle was a woggle. Well this is what a woggle is! A woggle is a boondoggle. They’re the exact same thing, except that the word woggle likely existed prior to boondoggle, or the U.S. Boy Scouts. And here I thought it was just another slang term for male genitalia. It also fits into our category of fun words to say, which is good because I really can’t see a reason to work this word into any conversation other than talking about the uniforms of boy scouts and the odd couture fashion craze.

Castigate

Used in a sentence:

• I felt castigated but it was really my manuscript that had gone to through the editor’s whips and chains.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

For all you authors out there, here is a great word for what happens when you put your works out there for the world to see, and then go read Amazon’s reviews. Really though this word is so close to another word, castrate, that it makes me shiver, being male and all. I doubt the two are similar from an etymological standpoint however. Still it’s an otherwise great word. You can use it next time you offer your work to a proof reader. “Please don’t castigate me,” and watch the sexual harassment notices fly.

Arrogate

Used in a sentence:

• While one might contend that the law of gravity has the up most claim in any argument, I still hold that it arrogated the ground out from under mean in a most unseemly fashion.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

Want to confuse a would-be thief? Arrogate! It sounds both futuristic and archaic at the exact same time. Alternatively you might use it to confuse would be theft victims by making them think you’re visiting their house in order to perform some type of maintenance involving air, or gates, or both, when in fact you are there to arrogate their property. Sneaky sneaky!

Kvetch

Used in a sentence:

• The kvetcher would simply not shut their mouth and it was getting on my nerves, kvetching about the wait, food, prices, and anything else that caught their attention.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

Yes this is an English word, no doubt stolen from Yiddish or German and unaltered through the years. This is one of those weird words that I don’t think I’ve ever heard before with my own ear, which makes me excited. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed how to spell it based upon how it sounds, or vice versa for that matter.

Grok

Used in a sentence:

• When it comes to walking, in a simple manner, into it, you can not grok how, when it comes to the lands of Mordor, it is not done.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

I hope you enjoyed that sentence. I’m pretty sure I broke something. Grok is a word, most certainly, but there is probably an argument for it not being an English word. It is most certainly slang, popularized by science fiction books since the nineteen sixties. It is primarily used by geeks but I imagine it could make it into mainstream dictionaries thanks to the internet, if we give it a try. Since it is primarily used by geeks, I figured I’d steal the One Does Not Simply Walk into Mordor meme for the sentence. Hope you enjoyed!