The sense, the sound, the meaning, the melody – you’ve got to love these words…

Caboodle – the whole lot

Cacophonic – headachingly noisy

Cadence – the rhythmic flow of sounds, words; melodic intonation

Calligraphy – fine handwriting

Camas – bay (Gaelic)

Camino – route, track, way (Spanish)

Capricious – free, lively and impulsive; a mixture of the real and imaginery

Caravanserai – an inn for travellers

Caravel – a small highly manoeuvrable sailing ship

Cariño – affection (Spanish)

Carousel – merry-go-round

Carabosse – wicked fairy (French)

Cark – worry

Caspita – wow (Italian)

Catalpa – head with wings (Greek)

Cavort – jump and dance excitedly

Celestial – of the heavens

Chatoyant – lustrous like a cat’s eye (French)

Chirology – the art of conversing with the hands and fingers

Cholives – chilli-stuffed olives

Circumbobulation – going round and round in confused circles

Classic – good and old (℅ my son)

Clement – mild

Clinkerbell – icycle (Wessex c/o Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks)

Clonky – chocolate bars that have melted in the sun (c/o my son)

Commuovere – to be moved to tears by a story (Italian)

Compendious – concisely comprehensive

Contagerous – catchy, catching (c/o Massive Attack)

Convivial – friendly, festive, life-affirming

Cordial – heart felt, warm

Corybantic – wild, frenzied, uncontrolled

Cronky – shaky, shoddy, falling apart

Crumping – the sound of fresh snow underfoot (c/o John Clare)

Crunk – crazy and drunk (Atlanta bass hop)

Cui cui – birdsong (Japanese)

Cumsloosh – a flatterer

Cut the ham, man – hurry up (c/o Brooklyn Ben)

Daft – foolish

Daisetsu – great simplicity (Japanese)

Darshan – seeing in the round; seeing connections (Hindi)

Deft – quick and skillful; adroit

Deleterious – harmful

Despacio – slowly, gradually, happily (Spanish)

Dextrosity – extreme dexterity

Dhire dhire – slowly slowly (Bengali)

Dinglybells – decibels (c/o my daughter)

Discombobulated – uber confused

Dispiritating – dispiriting and irritating

Doldrums – low spirits

Doolally – heartily loopy

Dream holes – openings left in the walls of buildings to admit light

Dringle – laze enjoyably

Drisk – mist (Dorset c/o PJ Harvey)

Droxy – decayed wood (Cotswolds c/o Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks)

Dubh – dark (Gaelic)

Dulcify – make gentle, sweeten, soften

Dunkelflaute – a period in winter when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine (German)

Dunning – pestering

Dur dur – very hard (French)

Dusha – soul (Russian)

Earsore – an ugly sound, uneasy on the ear

Eclat – a brilliant display

En Fin Tid – a happy time (Norwegian)

Epiphany – an internal explosion of insight and emotion and goodwill to the world (c/o Tony Conrad)

Erg – an area of shifting sand dunes in the Sahara

Etincellant – sparkling (French c/o André Breton on Aragon)

Etiolate – make pale by excluding light

Euphonious – beautiful sound; happy ears

Fanfaronade – arrogant talk

Farfalla – butterfly (Italian)

Farlies – strange things, wonders

Fearious – full of fear and anger (c/o Coco)

Febrile – feverish

Fecund – fertile

Femory – a lovely food memory (c/o CHAF)

Fervent – ardent

Fêtards – revellers (French)

Flabbergasted – greatly astonished

Flamfoo – a gaudy dresser

Flim-flam – deceptive nonsense

Fogger – an underhand dealer

Folderol – nonsense

FONK – Fear Of Not Knowing

Forblissed – extremely happy

Forest bathing – taking in the forest atmosphere, for your health and well-being (Japanese: shinrin-yoku)

Frankfully – full of honesty (c/o Leonard Cohen)

Freealistic – freeform improvising, happy riffing (c/o my daughter)

Frowzy – unkempt, slovenly, musty

Fuffle – abundance

Fuggly – functional but ugly

Fula fula – very fast (c/o Konono Nº1)

Funnin’ – joshing (c/o Bette Davis)

Fuzzies – the folk with qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, analyses

Frankfully – totally honest

Gallimaufry – a jumble or medley

Galumph – see Lollop

Galvanise – rouse, energise

Gambare – be brave (Japanese)

Gelid – icy

Giddy kipper – an over-tired child going a bit doolally at the end of the day

Gigil – a sudden and uncontrollable urge to squeeze something you find irresistibly cute, such as the cheeks of a child (Philippine Tagalog)

Gimcrackery – cheap, showy, useless trifles

Gleich alles zusammen – at the same time all together (German, c/o Mozart)

Glincy – smooth, slippery

Gloomed – saddened

Glossolalia – gift of tongues

Gobbledegook – unintelligible nonsense

Godwottery – affected use of archaic language

Grace-note – an extra note as an embellishment, not essential to the harmony or melody

Gradely day – a fine/excellent day (Lancashire)

Graveritas – weighty truth

Grazioso – graceful, pretty

Griffley – grumpy

Grimoires – books of magic spells

Gusto – happy energy

Haar – a cold sea-fog on the East coast of the UK

Habibi – beloved, my love (Arabic)

Hakawati – storyteller (Arabic)

Halqa – story circle (Arabic)

Hamartia – the fatal flaw in a character

Hanami – relishing the fleeting sight and scent of blossom (Japanese)

Hangry – angry because hungry (c/o Brooklyn Ben)

Hare-brained – unsuccessfully fast (see Tortoiseful)

Harmolipi – happiness and sadness together; bittersweetness (Greek)

Harrumph – harrumph!

Haver – talk foolishly, babble

Head steam – thoughts (c/o Basil Kirchin States of Mind

Hear reading – playing music by ear (c/o my daughter)

Heaviosity – weighty power

Hearthold – an emotional foothold

Heartlifting – uplifting (c/o my daughter)

High muckamuck – a puffed up overbearing person

Higler – an itinerant haggler

Higgledy-piggledy – in confusion or disorder

Himalayas – snow dwelling (Sanskrit)

Hireth – a longing for home (Cornish). See Saudade.

Hodgepodge – hotchpotch, a jumble

Holm – an islet, especially in a river

Holophrases – one-word sentences

Honey-tongued – Shakespeare (c/o John Weever, 1599)

Honky donks – heavy boots (Suffolk c/o Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks)

Hoo-ha – commotion, uproar

Hooi – the sound of wind in the trees (New Forest dialect)

Hózhq – beauty, harmony (Navajo)

Húdié – butterfly (Chinese)

Hufflebuffs – well-worn, comfy clothes (old Scots)

Hullabaloo – a happy din, a noisy excitement

Humdinger – an exceptional example

Hurly-burly – hullabaloo

Hüzün – a kind of melancholy (Turkish)

Hwaet – listen/hark/hey – the opening word of Beowulf (Old English)

Hygge – togetherness (Danish)

Hypnopompia – dreamy dawn-state as you drift from sleeping to waking

Ikigai – the reason you get up in the morning (Japanese)

Illumed – made clear

Imbroglio – extremely confused, complicated, entangled

Immrama – wonder-voyages (c/o Robert Macfarlane’s the Old Ways)

Incatacipated – when you are trapped beneath a cat asleep on your lap (c/o Kitchen Table Lingo)

Increscent – becoming gradually greater (c/o David Byrne)

Ink-horn terms – pedantic schoolmaster’s words (Elizabethan English)

Insinuendo – insinuating inuendo

Inventorise – create with gusto

Iro – colour + lover (Japanese)

Ishy – quite (℅ my daughter)

Isumataq – a storyteller who creates the atmosphere for wisdom to reveal itself, an enlightening guide (Thule)

Izvor – wellspring (Bulgarian)

Jagga jagga – rubbish rubbish (Naija, Nigerian pidgin c/o Fela Kuti)

Jai a lai – happy game (Basque)

Jinky – elusive, quicky-movey

Jocund – cheerful, light-hearted

Joie de faire – enthusiasm for work (French)

Jogo de cintura – a flexible practical approach to life (Portuguese)

Joyeux bordel – happy mess (French)

Jumbie – wayward spirits (Caribbean)

Kaamos – the “blue moment”, before darkness begins to fall in winter (Swedish)

Kaira – peace (Mandé)

Kalos – beautiful: good and noble (Greek)

Kalpa – the passing of time on a cosmic scale (Sanskrit)

Kata – the blessing-scarf of ice crystals streaming off the summit of Everest

Kazoo – hours of fun humming

Kenning – a poetic image made by combining words (Old Norse), eg wound-hoe (sword), thrower of gold (generous ruler)

Kerfuffle – agreable fuss

Kersliver – an accursed slip and slither

Kilig – happy butterflies in your stomach (Tagalog)

Kilkenny cats – people who fight relentlessly to their end

Kirtan – telling, narrating, reciting, describing an idea or story; to cut through (Sanskrit)

Kizuna – the bonds of friendship (Japanese)

Kleos – story, fame, honour and glory (c/o Homer)

Kohl – a black powder

Komorebi – the sunlight that filters through the leaves of the trees (Japanese)

Kultur – things done and not done (c/o Moses Mendelssohn)

Kunstkammer – a collection of curiosities and wonders (Russian)

Kwump – the sound of a heavy object falling to the floor (c/o Chris Ware’s Building Stories)

Kyara – character (Japanese)

Lackadaisical – unenthusiastic, feeble

Lagom – not too much and not too little; a happy middle (Swedish)

Lambent – playing on the surface with a soft radiance

Lapidary – concerned with stones; dignified and concise; worthy of inscriptions

Lapis lazuli – ultramarine azure blue

Larrikin – mischievous character (Australian)

Lashigillavery – plenty of meat and drink

Lenta lenta – slowly slowly (Italian) (see also, Leve leve and Siga siga)

Lepidopteran – delicate, insectual; of butterflies and the like

Leporellos – accordion-folded books

Leve leve – slowly slowly (Portuguese) (see also, Siga siga)

Lila – night (Arabic)

Liminal – an ambiguous, open state

Limn – to depict, describe, outline with light

Limpid – clear, easily comprehended

Ling di long – lackadaisical (Welsh)

Liquid stone – concrete (c/o Paulo Mendes da Rocha)

Lollygag/lallygog – loiter, idle

Lollop – to move along in an ungainly way

Looby – an awkward, clumsy fellow

Loon-hearted – brave (c/o The Song of Hiawatha, Longfellow)

Löyly – the steam that rises from a stove (Finnish)

Ludic – playful, sporting

Lullsome – calming

Lupsup – garbage (Chinese)

Lykkeland – state of happiness (Norwegian)

Lymph – pure water

Lyrical – expressing emotions in a songlike way

Majestical – truly majestic (c/o Hunt for the Wilderpeople)

Makar – poet/bard (Scottish)

Mandalas – hand-heart drawings

Maqam – place, situation, music, mood, emotion (Arabic)

Marifa – intuitive knowledge (Arabic)

Mariposa – butterfly (Spanish)

Mazy – labrynthine, bewildering

Mbari – creation (Igbo)

Mbari mbayo – ‘when we see it, we are happy’ (Igbo)

Mela – festival, social celebration (Sanskrit)

Melliferous – yielding honey

Mellifluous – musical, flowing

Melomane – music lover (French)

Me ola – with all the trimmings (Greek)

Meraki – pouring yourself wholeheartedly into an endeavour (Greek)

Mesmerise – spellbind

Metta – loving kindness (Buddhist)

Mezzo marito – hot water bottle, half a husband (Italian)

Mindjack – to stick in someone’s mind (c/o The Mighty Dead, Why Homer Matters, Adam Nicholson)

Micromeria – small portions (Greek)

Mien – a person’s look or bearing, revealing their character

Milky possets – hot milk and ale, an old English cold remedy

Milquetoast – The Timid Soul

Mirador – vantage point (Spanish)

Mirai – future (Japanese, c/o Toyota’s new fuel-cell car)

Mizzle – misty drizzle (c/o Allbirds)

Moai – meeting for a common purpose (Japanese)

Momo – offspring (Maori)

Moon of Bright Nights – April (c/o The Song of Hiawatha, Longfellow)

Mozzafiato – breathtaking (Italian)

Mouchous – kiss (Basque)

Mukamuka – so angry, you feel like throwing up (Japanese)

Mulligrubs – low spirits, ill-tempered

Multiscient – knowing many things (c/o Philip Pullman’s Daemon Voices)

Mussy – messy

Nighthawks – recurring thoughts that only seem to strike you late at night (c/o John Koenig’s The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows)

Nincompoop – a simpleton, fool

Nuannaarpoq – taking extravagant pleasure in being alive (Eskimo)

Obby oss – hobby horse (Cornish folk)

Ocarina – little goose, ancient wind instrument found all over the world (Italian)

Oddkin – unexpected collaborations and combinations (c/o Donna Haraway)

Ofenkartoffel – baked potato (German)

Old skill – old skool skill

Oom-pah-pah – the heartbeat of folk music

Oomph – energy, enthusiasm

Opulent – luxurious, abundant

Orchestral – combined for maximum effect

Un original – a strong character (French)

Orotond – a full, round, imposing voice

Orto – your own vegetable patch for growing beans, greens, onions and herbs (Italian c/o Pasta Grannies)

Ostinato – a persistent phrase or rhythm

Oto – music (Japanese)

Owl-light – twilight (North Lancashire c/o Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks)

Panoply – a full and splendid array

Pantechnicon – a large van for transporting furniture

Paladin – a champion

Palombella – wood pigeon (Italian)

Paludal – swampy, marshy

Pantaloon – a foolish old man, baggy trousers

Papillon – butterfly (French)

Paraphernalia – assorted bits and bobs

Parisology – the use of equivocal or ambiguous language

Patati-patata – nonsense, noise, bluff and bluster (French)

Pelf – rubbish

Pellucid – transparent, clear

Pettifoger – a rascally practitioner

Peregrinations – travels, flights of discovery

Perlerorneq – the weight of life (Eskimo)

Phatic – communication designed to create a good social atmosphere rather than convey a specific message: “Hi, how are yous?” and the like

Piano piano – slowly slowly (Italian)

Picaresque – dealing with the episodic adventures of rogues

Picayune – of little value, petty

Pingelig – fussy, picky (German)

Pilipala – butterfly (Welsh)

Pipaluk – little one (Greenlandic)

Plimpplamppletteren – skimming stones across water (Dutch)

Plisky – a mischievous escapade

Plus flou – hazier (French c/o Debussy)

Plumptious – deliciously plump

Poltroon – a spiritless coward

Pompasetting – showing off (Bajan)

Pompierisme – pompous pedantry

Pono – essence, beginning (Hawaiian c/o Neil Young)

Prolix – lengthy, tedious speech

Pulelehua – butterfly (Hawaiian)

Purfle – beautify

Quiddity – the essential quirk of a person or thing

Quiddling – busying oneself with unimportant tasks

Quixotic – in love with the lofty but unattainable

Quviannikumut – to feel deeply happy (Eskimo)

Rainsong – the sound of rain landing

Rambunctious – uncontrollably exuberant, boisterous; a rambunctious tyke

Rampallions – rapscallions

Ramshackle – tumbledown, rickety

Rapscallions – rascals, scamps, rogues

Ratatatat – ratatatat!

Razzamatazz – razzle dazzle pzazz

Reiwa – good harmony (Japanese)

Resfeber – the restless beat of a traveller’s heart before a journey begins, a mixture of anxiety and anticipation (Swedish)

Revivivive – bring back to life, stronger (riff on revive and revivify)

Ricik ricik – the sound of light rain (Indonesian)

Rigmarole – lengthy, complicated rambling process

Ristodisco – dinner and dance joint (Italian)

Roman-fleuve – river novel, a leisurely depiction of lives

Roundelay – a short simple song with a refrain

Rubato – performed with a flexible tempo

Rumbud – ruddy grog blossom

Ruthful – full of empathy and compassion

Salacious – lustful

Salubrious – healthy, pleasant

Samar – staying up with friends till the early hours (Arabic)

Samara – tranquil (origin of Somme) (Celtic)

Samsara – wandering, flowing (Sanskrit)

Sangha – community of the enlightened (Sanskrit)

Sanuk – the importance of enjoying life (Thai)

Saravah – good wishes (Brazil)

Sarha – to wander freely (Arabic)

Satyagraha – truth force (Sanskrit)

Saudade – a longing for home (Portuguese). See Hireth.

Sbagliato – bungled (Italian). As in Negroni Sbagliato.

Scrample – to tear up paper into little pieces (c/o my daughter)

Scroodley – scribbly doodle c/o my son)

Serafi – lovely (origin of giraffe) (Arabic)

Scooch – move on from, swipe away

Selah – as good a light as you could hope for (Hebrew)

Semanteme – a fundamental element expressing an idea or image

Sensei – teacher (Japanese)

Sensical – making sense

Serendipity – happy accidents, accidental happiness

Serene – calm, peaceful, untroubled

Serrez – push on (French c/o Debussy)

Sesquipedalian – long-winded, polysyllabic

Sfumato – allowing colours to blend gradually into each other to create softened outlines or hazy forms (Italian)

Shang-ri-la – heart-sun-moon, harmony

Sharooshed – surprised, disappointed

Sheh-gah – beautiful (Sumerian)

Shenanigans – enjoyable mischief

Sho and ‘im – she (the sea) and him (the land) (Shetland c/o Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks)

Shoogmadoodle – nonsense (c/o Kojo Laing)

Sigá sigá – slowly slowly (Greek) (see also, Lenta lenta and Leve leve)

Sillabub – happy belly

Silverise – cover in silver

Simmer dim – summer twilight (Orcadian)

Simpatico – likeable, in tune with (Italian)

Simsimiyya – Nile Delta lyre

Skewiff – askew

Sky – to lie on your back and study the clouds (c/o John Constable by way of Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks)

Slomp – to walk heavily, noisily (Essex c/o Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks)

Sloom – to sleep heavily and soundly

Smaoineamh álainn – beautiful thought (Gaelic)

Smokefall – a mist descending at dusk (c/o TS Eliot)

Snake out – to undermine, be disloyal, snitch (c/o my son and his peers)

Snowbird – someone who moves to a warmer climate for the winter

Snow-bones – patches of snow stretching along ridges, in ruts or in furrows after a partial thaw (Yorkshire c/o Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks)

Somo somo – double trouble (Lingala)

Sonorous – deep, resonant

Sonsy – plump, of cheerful disposition, bringing good fortune

Sossegado – quiet (Portuguese). See Susegad.

Sousaphone – wrap-around tuba, hélicon

Sprezzatura – graceful conduct without apparent effort (Italian)

Squigglature – a squiggled signature (ref signing for an Amazon delivery)

Squigglish/Squingglish – squiggly handwritten English (c/o my daughter)

Steezy – effortlessly stylish

Storied – celebrated, famous

Stramash – the boiling effect where ocean currents meet and mix (c/o Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways)

Strollography – the art of strolling and recording what you discover

Stupiosity – necessary unseriousness (c/o Billie Eilish)

Stushie – an uproar, commotion or brawl (Scots)

Summer colt – when the air on a hot calm day appears to shimmer close to the ground

Sun-kissed – gently warmed by the sun

Sun-scald – patch of bright sunlight on the surface of water (Sussex c/o Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks)

Sunsum – soul, spirit (Ghanaian)

Super-gau – a disaster beyond all expectations (German)

Susegad – relaxed way of life (Goan). See Sossegado.

Sylva – a collection of poems, a wood

Sylvan – of the woods, of poetry

Symphony – sounding together

Tarab – musical enchantment (Arabic)

Tarantella – a dance similar to the frenzy produced by the bite of a spider or of falling in love

Tatterdemalion – raggedy, tattered, scruffy ragamuffin

Tenderfoot – a newcomer, novice

Thunderplump – a sudden downpour of rain that comes out of nowhere

Thyme – one hundred miles fragrant (Chinese)

Tiam – the twinkle in your eye when you first meet someone (Farsi)

Tianma – heavenly horses (Chinese)

Timbre – the distinctive character of a musical sound or voice apart from its pitch and intensity

Ting-yin – a touch that uses only the bloodstream to alter the timbre of a note played on the seven-silk-stringed Chinese zither, the ch’in. The slightest of intense touches.

Tintinnabulation – a ringing of bells

Tiramisù – lift me up (Italian)

Toccasana – a cure-all (Neapolitan)

Tölva – computer/number prophetess (Icelandic)

Tomato – edible wolf’s peach (Lycopersicon esculentum) AKA love apple – pomme d’amour

Tombola – fun fair raffle; way station for unwanted bottles of pop and wine

Tomo – companion, friend (Japanese)

Torrid – hot, passionate

Tortoiseful – successfully slow (see Hare-brained)

Tüchtig – good, hearty (German)

Tulle – a soft fine silk

Tracasserie – petty quarrel

Trumblin’ – a tummy rumbling from terrible hunger (c/o my daughter)

Trumpery – worthless finery

Ubuntu – humanity to others (Bantu)

Umami – deliciousness (Japanese)

Uta – song/poem (Japanese)

Vafri – web browser (Icelandic, from the verb to wander)

Vaguen – take out detail in order to distil and deepen characterisation (c/o Samuel Beckett)

Verve – vim, vigour, va va voom

Villanelle – rural, rustic

Vorglühen – pre-glowing: meeting at home for a few drinks before going out (German)

Wabi-sabi – beauty in imperfection (Japanese)

Whiffle-minded – vacillating

Wigwag – move lightly to and fro

Wiki – quick (Hawaiian)

Wow-tin – fisherman’s lunch tin (North Sea coast c/o Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks)

Wunderkammer – a wonder chamber

Xebec – a small three-masted Mediterranean sailing ship

Xin – heart, mind, core (Chinese)

Y ahí vas – and there you go (Spanish)

Yammer – complain loudly

Yew-yaw – to walk crookedly (Suffolk c/o Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks)

Yoik – melodic calling to communicate with ancestors (Sami)

Yoka boka – for us all (wolof)

Zaftig – plump, buxom (Yiddish)

Zaperoco – a commotion, riot or tumult (Venezuelan slang)

Zarbi – bizarre (Verlan)

Zephyr – a gentle breeze

Zugunruhe – itchy feet (German)