Dear friend, Heather, sent me a Facebook message after one post about words we never use but should... or maybe it was about words I made up, but those two things aren't mutually exclusive, so let's go with it.
It says, in short; Please accept the challenge of inserting the word effluvium into your blog. She was kind enough to provide a definition as well.
Effluvium, n. a slight or invisible exhalation or vapor, esp. one that is disagreeable or noxious. Adv. form effluvial.
Challenge accepted. Here goes.
This morning, my breath was so bad you could see it like so much effluvium trailing from my mouth!
Man, that guy can make a car effluvial in mere minutes!
Great word. Sounds a lot like what it is. Very Latin. And it's easy to mix up with alluvium/alluvial which refer to non-compacted loose earth or various consistency and makeup. I suppose however you could adapt that to scatology and say you had an alluvial bowel movement containing toxic effluvia.
Which brings us to the next word that Dave and I have been trying to resurrect for some time, which is fulminate. This word means variously a primary explosive compound, or a vociferous protest. Both work on so many levels for us since we generally use the adjective form (fulminant) in a scatological sense. Interesting fact that the last form, fulminant, which is indeed a word is no recognized by the blog publishing site's dictionary. But that is a rant for another day. In fact, thanks to bathroom humor, the last bastion of the hack comic, you can make the following sentence incorporating all three words.
"Sorry about your bathroom. Those tacos went totally bad on me which caused some fulminant alluvium and not a little bit of effluvia . I hope you have insurance"
You'll likely notice I didn't really use any of those words correctly in the strictest sense, but they are so aptly descriptive of the intended message that I believe that can be forgiven.
So, I will end there with the reminder that not only did I use the word, I used all it's forms, applied it to daily life and made it a little funny.
Challenge Won. Sorry it took so long, Heather... I kept forgetting.
If you would like to see a word that is little known or used reintroduced, drop me a line. I would be happy to work it in.
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