Lilliputian. (n or adj)  Meaning: A resident of Lilliput; very small or tiny, either in stature or importance. What it should mean: Exactly what it does mean. Why I like it:  This is my favorite word because it sounds so perfect for the meaning, it’s fun to say, it arises from Jonathon Swift’s wonderful Gulliver’s Travels, and because it makes a fantastic insult.  Best word ever.

 Pulchritudinous. (adj) Meaning: Physically beautiful.  Yeah.  What it should mean: Decomposed or some other synonym for a corpse in an advanced stage of rot.  Why I like it: Because it’s the most vile sounding—and vaguely dinosaur-like—term for ‘beautiful’ I’ve ever heard. 

Cyclopes. (n) Meaning: The plural of ‘cyclops.’  What it should mean: A circus performer who puts a trapeze on a ball and socket joint and spins in circles while doing all his tricks.  He will inevitably die during his first performance.  Why I like it: I like that ‘peez’ at the end.  It would be even better if the plural were ‘cyclopods.’

Demagoguery. (n) Meaning: The practice of being a demagogue.  What it should mean: The practice of being an alternative to Armageddon.  If you don’t get this, google “Gog and Magog.”  Why I like it: Those double ‘g’ sounds into that slurred ‘uery’ ending are cool, who wouldn’t like one who commands by inspiring irrational passions, and the word sounds naughty but isn’t.  I like words that sound naughty and aren’t.

Lickspittle. (n) Meaning: A fawning, servile flatterer worthy of contempt.  What it should mean: A category name for the very worst of all the annoying yappy little dogs whose owners have for some unfathomable reason taught them that on occasion humans actually want to kiss dogs.  Why I like it: It’s deliciously disgusting plus fun to say.  Come now, how can a word with both the ‘ck’ and double ‘t’ not be great?  It’s the closest English comes to the brutal assault that is political German.