Book criticism is hard work, especially these days, and in the rush to get their reviews—for which they're probably not being paid enough—out the door and into the hands of their editors, critics might be a little too quick to rely on such moth-eaten mots injuste as “compelling” and “lyrical. But many an splendiferous yet woefully undersung word is out there, just waiting to be employed by a skilled reviewer, and no one knows it better than the editors at Merriam-Webster and the hosts of its Word Matters podcast. To help critics punch up their prose, these custodians of the written word have rounded up 11 lesser-known locutions so that book blurbers and critics might put them to good use.
efflorescent
adj : developing and unfolding as if coming into flower : flowery
splendacious
adj : very splendid; gorgeous
coruscate
v : to be brilliant or showy in technique or style
eximious
adj : choice, excellent
aureate
adj : marked by grandiloquent and rhetorical style
chrysography
noun : writing executed in gold letters
rhyparography
noun : the painting or literary depiction of mean, unworthy, or sordid subjects
(also rhyparographer, rhyparographist, & rhyparographic)
squib
noun
1 a: a short humorous or satiric writing or speech
b: a short news item
especially : FILLER
tushery
noun : writing of poor quality distinguished especially by the presence of affectedly archaic diction
inkshed
noun : profuse use or unnecessary waste of ink in writing
acidulous
adj : somewhat acid or harsh in taste or manner
