Susie Dent Sales Words of the Day
Any gameshow going since 1982 must be doing something right? British daytime telly staple Countdown features word-based quizzing. With expert 'adjudicator' adding considerable colour from 'Dictionary Corner'.
Susie Dent in this slot enjoys quite the fanbase.
Her twitter feed features the addictive 'word of the day'.
An obscure, sometimes defunct word ripe for revival. Always entertaining and often with a piercing wink to events of the time.
I am renowned for imparting that 'to own the syntax is to own the bid'.
Both making up, especially in collaboration with buyer, and getting adopted unusual language, labels and terms to frame your proposal can really put you on the pedestal marked 'deal'.
And Susie's feed is full of such awaiting our - and our prospect's - embrace.
Here's a recent collated sample thirty for starters, just from 22H1, holding spooky pertinence to solution sell situations;
arsle (verb, 19th century): to find yourself going backwards in a task rather than making any progress at all.
bamblusterate (19th century): to try to deceive or mislead - a blend of 'bamboozle' and 'bluster'.
battologist (17th century): an individual who repeats the same story over and over, even when all the facts contradict them.
busy-idle (17th century): busily taken up with doing entirely trivial things.
controuver (15th century): an inventor of false gossip; a contriver.
corrump (14th century): to destroy something morally, or bring it down to nothing.
desiderate (17th century): to yearn for something once possessed, but now lost.
flench (Scots): to give a deceitful promise of improvement. Used of weather or a situation that looks as though it might get better, but never actually does.
forwaked (14th century): weary from watching and waiting for something that never seems to materialise.
girouettism (19th century): a constant changing of opinions or principles to follow the latest trend or political wind. From the French 'girouette', 'weather vane'.
gobemouche (19th century): a gullible, open-mouthed individual who believes everything they are told. From the French for ‘fly swallower’.
hornswoggle (19th century): to bamboozle, hoodwink, or humbug.
ipsedixitism (19th century): the insistence that something is ‘fact’ because someone else said so.
maw-worm (19th century): one who insists that they have done nothing wrong, despite evidence to the contrary.
nod-crafty (17th century): having the knack of nodding with an air of great interest and understanding, when you actually tuned out hours ago.
misken (15th century): to refuse to recognise something by pretending it's not happening.
mumpsimus (16th century): 'a person who cannot/will not change their opinion on something even when presented with hard evidence that proves them wrong.'
ochlocracy (16th century): government by the crowd; mob rule.
parwhobbler (19th century): one who so monopolises a conversation that others can't get a word in edgeways.
perendinate (17th century): to mark time by continually putting something off until the day after tomorrow.
quiddling: 18th-century speak for paying extra attention to trivial matters as a way of avoiding the important ones.
respair (16th century): fresh hope; a recovery from despair.
roundaboutation (19th century): bloviating or evasive talk that focuses on everything but the subject in hand.
sequacity (17th century): a slavish following of another person’s opinions without any questioning at all.
sparple (14th century): to deflect unwanted attention from one thing by making a big deal of another.
spuddle: a useful verb from the 17th century that means to work feebly and ineffectively, because your mind is elsewhere, hasn't yet shifted into gear, or you haven't quite woken up yet; also [& of great consequence to we solution sellers] to work ineffectively [as in] to be extremely busy whilst achieving absolutely nothing [imagine asking ,'ever feel like you're spuddling?!].
stiffrump (18th century): a highly obstinate individual who refuses to budge.
struthonian (1960s): one who ignores unwelcome facts and buries their head in the sand. From the Latin 'struthio', 'ostrich'.
thinkache (19th century): the bone-weariness that comes from too much (painful) thinking.
thwankin (19th century), describing clouds that are gathering in thick and gloomy succession.
ultracrepidarian (19th century): one who loves to hold forth/criticise on subjects/matters they know absolutely nothing about.
& lastly, a recent The Daily Mail graphic on her revivalist thrust, coupled with a tweet from earlier this month;
A reminder today that we can all be gruntled, ruthful, mayed, ept, couth, kempt, feckful and full of gorm.
— Susie Dent (@susie_dent) June 2, 2022
Each is a lost positive from the dictionary, just waiting for a comeback.
