Fun reading is just a wurp or so away

If you’re tired of using only ordinary, everyday words, you might want to check out “Totally Weird and Wonderful Words” (Oxford, $14.95 paperback).

Editor Erin McKean’s A-to-Z compendium of hundreds of out-of-the-ordinary words and their definitions will not only help you dress up your vocabulary, but might even turn heads at a cocktail party and raise eyebrows on the elevator.

Here are five from the book to get you started:

Eagre: One might be eager to learn that this word means “a wave of unusual height, especially a tidal wave up a narrow estuary. The origin remains unknown.”

Heterography: Spelled correctly here, it’s “an obsolete and rare word meaning ‘incorrect spelling.’”

Oligosyllable: “A word of fewer than four syllables” – one of which, curiously, “oligosyllable” is not.

Varve: “A pair of thin layers of clay and silt of contrasting color and texture that represent the deposit of a single year (summer and winter) in a lake at some time in the past. … ” (“Varve” is sure to add verve to your vocabulary.)

Wurp: “An obsolete word meaning ‘a stone’s throw.’”