Apr 30: Steven Poole doesn’t dive back hundreds of years to come up with “edgelord,” a word apparently in popular use only since 2015. I’ve never come across it, but it means a person who “posts on internet forums and social media with the express intent of being as ‘edgy’ as possible, expressing the most nihilistic or outrageous opinions he can think of.” Me, I can only dream of growing up to become an edgelord.
In Rebecca Giggs’ wonderful “Fathoms,” I came across: “It took thirty-six hours to butcher a whale — a mephitic, spattering task.” Mephitic? I guessed a meaning of devilish, but the dictionary is more matter of fact: “foul-smelling, noxious (especially of a gas or vapour).” What a delicious word!
Source: A Word for Every Day of the Year by Steven Poole.