George Clooney is steasy

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YOU'VE GOT MALE

Rory Gibson

The Sunday Mail (Qld) December 02, 2012

HERE'S a word for you: steasy.
If teenagers have become habituated to your presence and talk as if you are not there, you may already have heard this one. It means to display "style with ease".

I first heard it in the context of skateboarding. Kelly Slater is steasy. Adam Scott, George Clooney ... steasy. I like it a lot, and have added it to my vocabulary. So if I run into you in a bar somewhere and call you a steasy mo-fo, don't hit me. It's high praise in certain circles.

I've added many new words to my vocabulary, thanks to you lot. A couple of weeks ago I invited readers to send examples of obscure words, and have harvested some rippers.

My favourite response came from Gary Roberts, who wrote: "I think you would probably find that most sesquipedalians are confirmed cruciverbalists, as I am. I must also admit that when I am in a gambrinous state I tend to bloviate and become excessively periphrastic. However, being also a deipnosophist, this can usually make conversations a lot more interesting."

Some words had myriad fans. The most popular offering was discombobulated, which I didn't think was that obscure given most parents I know operate in that enervating state of mind most of the time.

The next most popular word - and one I had not heard before - was termagant. Tellingly, it was offered up only by men, perhaps as a reflection of their relationships with their mothers or wives, maybe as an indication of their captious nature. Or they are just eclectic linguists.

The most unusual word was yggdrasil, which has its origins in Norse mythology but I am assured by reader John Mills that it qualifies as an English word because Spike Milligan used it once. Fair enough.

Anyway, enough of being a clatterfart. I have to go and get rid of the ferret that has taken up residence on my top lip. I am not a hirsute man, but that's not a smudge on my dial you see there. That's a pathetic attempt to do the Movember thing. Pulchritudinous it is not, and it puts the kibosh on any attempt by me to exude steasiness. Thank you to everyone who shared their favourite words with me.