I have signed up with the Word Genius website, and I am therefore quizzed, daily, about my familiarity with various items of esoteric vocabulary. Mostly, I already know the words that are sent to me by Word Genius, but that is not always the case.
For instance, I did not know the word "amphigory" when I got the daily quiz shown above. Although I didn't actually know the definition of the word, I did correctly guess that "amphigory" would likely be studied in a poetry class, given the other options suggested.
If you think that you would enjoy a daily vocabulary lesson, provided free by Word Genius, you should consider signing up for the Word Genius "Word of the Day" tutorial. Clicking that link should get you to the right place to do that. Whether you do or not, I am passing on the word "amphigory" as my gift to you.
As for "amphigory," I was happy to see that the online Merriam Webster Dictionary provided a somewhat expanded definition:
amphigory: a nonsense verse or composition : a rigmarole with apparent meaning which proves to be meaningless
According to the Merriam Webster definition, which is subtly different from what I learned from Word Genius, "amphigory" is not only to be discovered in "verse." A "composition" can be categorized as amphigory, too. "Amphigory," thus, is a word that is useful outside of a "poetry class." You don't have to be discussing "poetry" to put that word to work.
As I have indicated, I am rather happy about that. While I do have some opportunities to comment on poetry, I have a lot more opportunities to comment on various other things, specifically including political, social, and economic texts. In my opinion, it is not uncommon to find that such texts are, indeed, compositions that have an "apparent meaning which proves to be meaningless."
The word "amphigory" is not only esoteric, in other words; it's actually useful for describing various kinds of political statements. Politics is full of statements which can properly be classified as amphigory.
The pronouncements of Donald J. Trump, our immediate past president, come swiftly to mind.
Here's that definition of "Amphigory," once again:
Amphigory: statements with an apparent meaning that proves to be meaningless.
Sounds like our immediate past president to me!
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