dawes (11/24/82)
On the subject of humorous and little-known words (such as defenestration, which, as a common Eastern European method of political execution in the not so distant past, is not really all that amusing), the best reference I know of is "Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words", by Josefa Heifetz Byrne, published by Citadel Press. Mrs. Byrne is the daughter of the violinist Jascha Heifetz, and is a concert pianist. She has done an admirable job of combing major dictionaries for the most bizarre words in the English language. As one reviewer put it: 'Only a clinchpoop could scan these pages without a feeling of awe'. Robin Dawes