Chary

char-y (/ˈtʃɛərɪ/)

adjective
1. causing sorrow.
2. feeling sorrow.
3. dear, precious, cherished.
4. careful, cautious, circumspect.
5. fastidious, shy, particular.
6. careful.
7. careful not to waste or part with.
8. requiring careful handling.
No stories or poems were ever created about the chary love between Oscar and Florrie because is was requited, genuine, and went utterly unfulfilled; no one wants to remember that.

Synonyms: delicate.*

*Chary is really the only word that says so many things so concisely. I think Damien Rice could have used it for his song: "Delicate."

Cockamamie

cock-a-mam-ie (ˈkɒkəˌmeɪmɪ)

adjective/noun/slang
1. inexplicable or ridiculous, not well thought out.
Sheldon: Wait! You have to drive me.
Penny: What?!
Sheldon: You know I don't drive.
Penny: Well, go ask Leonard!
Sheldon: I did; he said, and I quote: "Ask Penny, it was her cockamamie idea."
Penny: Leonard said "cockamamie"?
Sheldon: Actually, I'm paraphrasing. Having been raised in a Christian household, I'm uncomfortable with the language he used. And to be honest, I'm not entirely comfortable with "cockamamie."

Synonyms: aberrant, absurd, batty, brainless, clueless, cockamamie, crazy, cuckoo, delirious, demented, disconnected, disjointed, distraught, dumb, fallacious, flaky, foolish, freaky, idiotic, ill-conceived, incoherent, injudicious, insane, invalid, kooky, loony, mad, mindless, nonsensical, nutty, off-the-wall, preposterous, raving, reasonless, ridiculous, silly, sophistic, specious, stupid, unreasonable, unreasoning, unsound, unstable, unthinking, unwise, wacky, wild, wrong.

*American English slang word attested by 1946, popularized c.1960, but said to be New York City children's slang from mid-1920s; perhaps an alteration of decalcomania.

**The Word Detective says: "Cockamamie ... is a grand word in danger of extinction through neglect," and suggests, like Clint Eastwood does, we should use it every once and a while, just to keep it alive. It just makes me think of Foghorn Leghorn.

Consanguinity

consanguinity (knsn-gwn-t, -sng-)

noun
1. Relationship by blood or by a common ancestor.
My daughter and cousin are both in Toronto right now with no other relatives. When I told my grandmother that they were going to a big family dinner tonight, she said they were like her, going out in the world and building their own families, without depending on notions of consanguinity.
2. A close affinity or connection.
Part of my hesitance to spend time with my estranged relatives is that it will be awkward at a time when we might expect consanguinity.

Synonyms: affiliation, affinity, agnate, blood-relationship, brotherhood, cognate, connection, family tie, filiation, kin, kindred, kindredship, kinship, lineage, race, sisterhood, strain.

Cimmerian

cim-mer-i-an (s-mîr-n)

adjective
1. Perpetually dark and/or gloomy.
The Bride of Frankenstein recommended Dracula run the photo he wanted to use for his match.com profile through photoshop first so that he might look a little less cimmerian.

Synonyms: abyssal, aphotic, atramentous, black, blackish, caliginous, clouded, cloudy, crepuscular, darkened, dim, dingy, drab, dull, dun, dusk, dusky, faint, foggy, gloomy, grimy, igneous, ill-lighted, indistinct, inky, lightless, lurid, misty, murky, nebulous, obfuscous, obscure, opaque, overcast, pitch-black, pitch-dark, pitchy, rayless, shaded, shadowy, shady, somber, sooty, stygian, sunless, tenebrous, unlighted, unlit, vague.

* Undead life can be hard for a vampire.

Crapulous

crap-u-lous (krpy-lns)

adjective
1. Characterized by gross intemperance in eating and drinking.
My sister refers to her crapulous years as if they were in the past, almost as if she'd left them behind her.

Synonyms: decadent, effete, epicurean, gluttonous, gourmandizing, greedy, hedonistic, immoderate, lush, parsimonious, sybaritic.

Commencement

com-mence-ment (kə-mĕnsˈmənt)

noun
1. A beginning or start.
Today is the commencement of the rest of our lives.
2. A ceremony in which academic degrees or diplomas are conferred.
Seeing my daughter in her gown before commencement, filled me with pride!
3. A day on which such a ceremony occurs.
I am loving this word: commencement. It's not the ending of high school for her; it's the beginning of her post-high school life. With every ending comes new beginnings.

Synonyms: alpha, convocation, graduation, initiation, kickoff, proem, services, start.

Chatelaine

chat-el-aine (shătˈl-ānˌ)

noun
1. The mistress of a large and fashionable household.
Barbie teaches each warm blooded American girl to be a chatelaine someday.
2. A chain and/or clasp that holds something valuable at your waist.
It's funny to think how many punks keep their wallets in their back pockets with a chatelaine.

Synonyms: a tool.

Chicanery

chi-can-er-y (shĭ-kāˈnə-rē, chĭ-)*

noun
1. Deceit through trickery or sophistry.
To vice, innocence must always seem only a superior kind of chicanery.

Synonyms: aspersion, calumniation, calumny, deciet, deception, defamation, dishonesty, disinformation, distortion, duplicity, evasion, fable, fabrication, falsehood, falseness, falsification, falsity, fib, fiction, forgery, fraud, guile, hyperbole, inaccuracy, invention, libel, lie, mendancity, misrepresentation, misstatement, myth, obloquy, perjury, revilement, slander, stratagem, subterfuge, tale, tall tale, white lie, whopper, quibbling.

* Be careful not to pronounce it chick-cannery. That just has terrible connotations and sounds silly.

Chutzpah

chutz-pah (tsp, ht-)

noun
1. Flaboyant self-confidence that borders on arrogant nerve or effrontery.
It takes a lot of chutzpah to claim you found Allah in your potato!

Synonyms: audacity, backbone, balls, boldness, brass, gall, moxie, nerve, spine.

Concupiscent

con-cu-pi-scent (kn-kyp-snt)

adjective
1. Characterized by a strong sexual desire.
Many thinkers agreed with Augustine that concupiscent love was to be distinguished from friendship, and, with respect to heavenly beatitude, use from fruition. - Lorenzo Valla

Synonyms: aroused, carnal, desirous, horny, hot, lascivious, lecherous, libidinous, lustful, oversexed, passionate, promiscuous, randy, salacious, sensual, slutty, turned on.

* That picture on the right is of the Flatiron Building. Seriously, get your mind out of the gutter!

Chimerical

chim-er-ic-al (k-mr-kl, -mîr-, k-)

adjective
1. Unbelievably fancy, like so fabulous that you have to be dreaming!
The dresser crab has a chimerical sense of fashion.

Synonyms: awesome, fabulous, fanciful, imaginary, unreal, utopian, visionary, wild.

* Chimerical is one of those words that really shows the evolution of our language. Its root lies with the chimera, a mythical she-beast from Greek mythology. It went on to mean fanciful, as in out of one's imagination, until it became a synonym for absolutely fabulous.

Chthonian

chtho-ni-an (thn-n)

adjective
1. Of or relating to the underworld.*
All this Warlock crap is a bit of chthonian foreshadowing for the direction Sheen is headed, especially with this Torpedos of Truth tour he's got planned.

Synonyms: diabolic, hellish.

*Especially in Greek mythology.