A Few Words

To make a running start rather than sitting on this I'll begin by having a little trot around some of the latest offerings through word of the day sites. It should get the word expansion juices going at least:

Courtesy of the site that actually calls itself Word of the Day as well as providing one: Sockdolager: with the offered definition: something unusually large or heavy. Now this doesn't look really that detailed - sufficient to use the word with confidence because of the slippery element that always has to be remembered, context.

According to Merriam Webster it's a 'decisive blow in an argument. '  And if the roots of this word are suggestive that this is really how this word should be used rather underlines why one should be circumspect about taking a word on and using it with the minimum of background information. It certainly can be used to describe a heavy object but why would you? As a winning and final blow in an argument it sounds most useful.

Macroscian: having a long shadow. So says the 'That Word Site.' Already looks useful for poetry - if perhaps slightly archaic and multi syllabic. Interrogating further reveals the following: Talk Talk Dictionary of difficult words defines it thus: A person casting a long shadow, then hints that the person should be an 'inhabitant of a polar region.' Most other online dictionaries seem to agree, more or less.

Merriam Webster's word of day feature is slightly different in the choosing - unlike other sites that seem to delve into the dark corners of their dictionaries to find dusty nuggets that have fallen into dis or non use, MW tend to select words that have cropped up in the newspapers or other media and are therefore current and perhaps already causing some debate. Putrescible I think falls into that category. According its own website it means: liable to become putrid. Another useful one for poetry, though I find it easy to imagine using it figuratively in prose.