It also seems the new words are going to be quite short. Removing these 24 words is going to make room for 2,000 new ones.

Here are the words. You decide their fate. If you can use any of these in a sentence, maybe they can be revived.

For those of you who speak Spanish, can you spot the four words that are cognates of Spanish words commonly used today?

• Abstergent – Cleansing.
• Agrestic – Rural.
• Apodeictic – Unquestionably true by virtue of demonstration.
• Caducity – Perishableness.
• Caliginosity – Dimness.
• Compossible – Possible in coexistence with something else.
• Embrangle – To confuse.
• Exuviate – To shed.
• Fatidical – Prophetic.
• Fubsy – Squat.
• Griseous – Somewhat grey.
• Malison – A curse.
• Mansuetude – Gentleness.
• Muliebrity – The condition of being a woman.
• Niddering – Cowardly.
• Nitid – Bright.
• Olid – Foul-smelling.
• Oppugnant – Combative.
• Periapt – An amulet.
• Recrement – Refuse.
• Roborant – Tending to fortify.
• Skirr – A whirring sound, as of the wings of birds in flight.
• Vaticinate – Prophesy.
• Vilipend – To treat with contempt.

Did you know any of those before reading the list?

94 years ago today (Dec. 21), in 1913, Arthur Wynne published the first crossword puzzle, called the Word-Cross puzzle, in the New York World.

In remembrance of Mr. Wynne, and to get us into the Chistmas Spirit, I thought I'd give you all a Christmas themed crossword puzzle. The words are all in Spanish, with no accent marks. So enjoy this crucigrama navideño.

Across

1. una noche que no es mala
2. uno de los tres regalos
3. objeto redondo
4. donde estás ahora
5. día de regalos en algunos países
6. quien cuida a las ovejas
7. mensajero de Dios
8. uno de los tres regalos
9. quien nació
10. un tipo de pan
11. oveja
12. árbol de hojas verdes

Down

1. muchas luces
2. que se usa para adornar
3. algo que te dan
4. los parientes más cercanos
5. ave que se come
6. uno de los tres regalos
7. mamá de Jesús
8. planta supersticiosa
9. canción navideña
10. cobija blanca de la tierra
11. día de regalos en algunos países
12. la última noche del año
13. primer día de enero
14. pequeña cama
15. trajeron regalos
16. bebida caliente
17. se le pone lucecitas
18. papá de Jesús

In 2008 Lamborghini will offer a car called the Reventón to 20 people who can scrape together the million Euros to buy it.

The word reventón has various meanings for Spanish speakers, including party, explosion, burst, flat tire, and blowout. Lamborghini has also made cars called the Espada, Diablo, Murciélago, and Gallardo, but it’s not the only car manufacturer to use Spanish words to name cars.

Ford manufactured the Fiesta, Festiva, Pinto, Granada, Cortina, Sierra, and Bronco. Chevrolet sold the El Camino for a while. Dodge has the Durango, which is also the name of a Mexican state. Hyundai sells the Veracruz (another Mexican State), and the Santa Fe. In Toyota’s lineup are the Corona, Paseo, Premio, and Vista.

Do you know the meaning in Spanish of all the car models named above? Can you think of any more?

Picture credits: Tacoekkel and Zölle.

Si pensabas que era fácil aprender inglés, toma nota de las siguientes palabras que, dependiendo del contexto, pueden tener significados que se contradicen entre si.

1. Bill – (a) billete, dinero en efectivo que tienes (b) una factura/nota, dinero que debes.

2. Against – (a) hacia, cerca de “against the wall”, “contra la pared” (b) que se opone “against the wind”, “contra el viento”.

3. Discursive – (a) pasando de tema en tema, sin orden (b) procediendo con mucha coherencia de un tema al que sigue.

4. Cleave – (a) separar “meat cleaver”, “cuchillo para partir carne” (b) mantenerse juntos, no separarse “to cleave to one another”, “no separarse”.

5. Before – (a) en el pasado “I did it before coming here”, “lo hice antes de venir aquí” (b) en el futuro “The future is before us”, “el futuro está ante nosotros”.

6. Blunt – (a) amellado, que no tiene filo (b) hablando de palabras, son palabras agudas que van directo al grano.

7. Either – (a) uno o el otro, “you can choose either of the options”, “puedes escojer uno de las dos opciones”. (b) ambos, los dos, “there are cars parked on either side of the street”, “hay coches estacionados en ambos lados de la calle”.

8. Fast – (a) rápido, algo que se mueve rápido (b) fijado, amarrado firmemente, que no se va a mover.

9. Buckle – (a) asegurar “to buckle your seatbelt”, “abrochar el cinturón de seguridad” (b) vencerse, caerse, desplomarse “the bridge buckled”, “el puente se desplomó”.

10. Oversight – (a) cuando le das atención a un asunto: supervisión, vigilancia (b) cuando no le das atención a un asunto: descuido, equivocación, inadvertencia

¿No te encanta este idioma donde your house can burn down while it’s burning up, your alarm clock comes on when it goes off, and when you fill out a form, you’re actually filling it in?

¿Conoces más palabras contradictorias en inglés o español?

Photo credit: Krawiec. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Here are Merriam Webster’s top 10 words for 2007 (some new, some old):

1. w00t – expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word “yay”

2. facebook – to use facebook.com.

3. conundrum – a difficult problem, question or riddle that has a conjectural answer, or the answer involves a pun.

4. quixotic – foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals.

5. blamestorm – a meeting or gathering whose purpose is to pass or assign blame to someone.

6. sardoodledom – mechanically contrived plot structure and stereotyped or unrealistic characterization in drama.

7. apathetic – having or showing little or no interest, concern, emotion or feeling.

8. Pecksniffian – unctuously hypocritical.

9. hypocrite – acting in a contradictory fashion to your stated beliefs and feelings.

10. charlatan – someone who makes showy pretenses to knowledge or ability.

People

There’s a whole class of words that end in either o or a depending on the gender of the person, such as camarera, camarero, tía, tío, and hermana, hermano. These words aren’t so hard to deal with since the gender corresponds to the person the word represents.

Trees

There’s also a bunch of fruit where the fruit is feminine and the corresponding tree that produces it is masculine. These aren’t too hard to remember either, once you catch on to the pattern. For example:

manzana (apple) – manzano (apple tree)
cereza (cherry) – cerezo (cherry tree)
naranja (orange) – naranjo (orange tree)
almendra (almond) – almendro (almond tree)

The hard part

Now we get to the hard part. Words that end in o or a, and depending on that difference, have a totally or partially different meaning. Watch out for these or you’ll get tripped up.

barranca - ravine, gorge, canyon, cleft
barranco - cliff, precipice, drop-off point, obstacle

bolsa - woman’s purse, bag in general, bolsa de plástico = plastic bag, bolsa (de valores) = stock exchange
bolso - (also bolsillo) – pocket, pants pocket, change purse (also monedero), money bag

braza - fathom (maritime measurement). Don’t confuse this with brasa, which is a red-hot coal.
brazo - arm (anatomy), fork (of a river)

cabecera - header, heading, beginning, head, headboard, headpiece, headline
cabecero - foreman, headboard (of a bed)

cobra - cobra (snake)
cobro - charge, collection (money)

cuenca - wooden bowl, eye socket, valley, river basin
cuenco - earthen bowl, hollow, cavity, depression (in the earth)

fruta - fruit (the pieces of fruit from a plant or tree)
fruto - results, payoff, consequence, benefit, profit, fruit (the yield of a plant or tree)

hoya - dale, hollow, river basin, grave, hole in the ocean’s floor. Not to be confused with olla (cooking pot, stew pot).
hoyo - hole, pit.

libra - pound (weight), constellation Libra
libro - book

manga - sleeve or arm of a shirt or other piece of clothing
mango - the fruit mango, handle (of a tool etc)

poma - pome, apple
pomo - flask, knob, cluster

ribera - shore, bank (of a river etc)
ribero - dike, levee (to hold back water)

ría - river delta, river mouth
río - river

saca - extraction, taking out, bag, sack
saco - sack, bag, sac, plunder, loot, suit coat, suit jacket

There’s probably a lot more of these word pairs as well. Watch out for them as you perfect your Spanish.

Here are the first 10 from his long list of contronyms.

• anabasis – military advance, military retreat
• apology – admission of fault in what you think, say, or do; formal defense of what you think, say, or do
• aught – all, nothing
• bolt – secure, run away
• by – multiplication (e.g., a three by five matrix), division (e.g., dividing eight by four)
• chuffed – pleased, annoyed
• cleave – separate, adhere
• clip – fasten, detach
• consult – ask for advice, give advice
• copemate – partner, antagonist

• boar (wild pig)
• Boer (a South African of Dutch descent)
• boor (tasteless buffoon)
• bore (not interesting)

See Alan Cooper’s list of Homophones for more inspiration.

And that’s the number #1 reason why English is hard to learn.