WORD MAN: CHARIVARI and ORTHOGRAPHIC

CHARIVARI: The charivari had no effect on the Siamese.

I'd never seen the word charivari before, so I looked it up.

It's a noun that means "a noisy mock serenade performed by a group of people to celebrate a marriage or mock an unpopular person" or "a series of discordant noises."

I doubt I'd ever use that word in a sentence.

ORTHOGRAPHIC: The sight was like a B-12 shot to one who had won all the spelling bees in grade school and had become an orthographic snob ever since.

I'd never seen orthographic before, and the internet only explains it in terms of orthography, which tells me nothing. It involves spelling.

One web site defines orthography as "the art of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage; correct spelling."

I doubt I'd use orthographic in a sentence, either.

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