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| Oxford English Dictionary |
Feck = efficacy, vigor, value; stomach; cow's belly. Feckful: vigorous and powerful; has guts. Feckless: feeble, valueless, ineffective. Feckly: "effectually, indeed." Fecket: an under waistcoat (around the belly). Feculent: state of foulness, cf infect. No feckish listed. No feckles.
Or take peckish. Is peckish like peevish? A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck? How many pecks did Peter Piper pick? And what was he picking at, anyway? OED: To peck: To attack with the beak; to eat daintily, nibble. Peck: grub, food. Presumably not eating grubs, even when peckish. Peckish: somewhat hungry. I know, it was pickled peppers! Yikes! Pecker, as in "Keep your pecker up!", according to the OED means something like, Keep up your energy! (I need an OED update, e.g., "A President should keep his pecker in his pants.") Peckage: food, victuals (vittles?) Would a peckrat hoard groceries? Or snacks? He's not starving, just somewhat hungry.
Parepethymia: a mental disorder characterised by perverted desires. Okay, I will have to resort to an encyclopedia, as this is all the information OED gives. Maybe Wickedpedia. I wish pedophile meant someone who loves pedestrians. Pediculous: infested with lice or the characteristics of a louse. Carol Burnett in a Neil Simon play might have said her former husband was ridiculous and pediculous. I believe she did say this, actually. I specifically remember the word Louse.
Parepochism: an error of date (usually at the level of epochs). Fortunately my errors of date usually involve doublebooking within the month and are at most errors of decades, as revealed in job applications throughout a long career, e.g., when did you get your Social Security card, when did you graduate from college, get married, work for a newspaper, move to Salt Lake City? And how much did they pay you? When, when, when? According to OED, Josephus was not so lucky. His errors were eras.
Parepididymis: the organ of Giraldys, a mass of convoluted tubules just above the epididymis. I guessed twin Greek slaves.
Did you ever play the Liars Game? Everyone gets a word on a card (the same word) but only one gets the dictionary definition and derivation. Each remaining team member has to make something up. The other team has to guess who is telling The Truth. My debate club played that game endlessly, inventively.
Parisian: a native of Paris. Parisienne: a female native of Paris. Okay, I gave you that one. Want to play Scrabble? Parison: Parison or parisa, (wait for it) is an equal balance of clauses. Or a couple of elves of either sex, not necessarily living in Paris. Parisology: Gotcha! You thought it was the study of Paris, didn't you! No! It's the use of ambiguous language! Overheard: You know that Parish woman enjoys parisology? She's a little bit French. Not relevant. Moving on. Paristhmic: Not even vaguely related to Paris: related to the tonsils. Paristhmitic: inflammation of the tonsils. When you need your tonsils out, I doubt you could say this. Even drunk on absinthe in Paris, possibly in the only era the word was ever used.
Whit: the tiniest portion, a particle, as in, Rylan didn't care a whit about birthday cake, not one little bit. Rylan is the smartest darlingest little boy a grandmother ever wanted to spoil. He is becoming fluent in a sub-Saharan clicking dialect with ooohs and coos and peekaboos. And lots of joyous handclapping.
Whitterish: pale and faded. If the definition included raggedy it would perfectly describe the current style of bluejeans, aka levis. I saw them in the store! It always seemed a matter of honor to me to actually wear out my levis myself, not buy them pre-trashed like the filthy rich who have to have Everything done for them. Or even the clean rich. (What other word automatically comes after filthy? Lucre, that's what.) Levis would be a good word for the Liars Game, since it has its own great story ready-made (rim shot).
Whittle-wattle: to shillyshally. Huh. We'll have none of that! Nor dilly-dallying.
Wifehead: the condition of being a wife. I would have guessed wifehood.
Brideshead (visited, unvisited, revisited): I don't even want to look.
Words I like: Precipitous (like rushing off a precipice, as depicted in the Fool card in the Tarot or as in "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.") Murmuring. Whisper. Tomato. Sublime, subliminal: mystery. Loose, Loosen, Lose, Lost, Lesson: There you have the whole story.
Kazen, Denise's grandson, to me, "You say 'Excellent!' just like Aunt Abi. You use big words like Papa (Wes) does. You have an excellent vocabulary." Why thank you, young man.
Wes is a former husband, now long married to Denise, feckful and still peckish for ice cream. Smile, Wes! You have two excellent grandsons!