Back and Fourth: Can This Be Right?

Although several people have commented on enjoying some of the series I've created via this blog, it's safe to say no one has enjoyed them as much as I. And the "Can This Be Right?" series, although arriving just once a year, might be my favorite. Please join in and share some words that make you scratch your head each time you hear or see them in print.

1.) gainsay - to deny. How can this be right? I say it and you gainsay it? It doesn't even sound like a verb. Every time this word appears in print, not a frequent occurrence I grant you, the dictionary comes out.

2.) limpid - lucid; completely calm; without distress or worry. Come on! If I equated going limp and being calm as the same thing, maybe I'd remember what limpid means. Fat chance.

3.) risible - having the ability, disposition or readiness to laugh. Of the twelve words used to date for this series, risible might be in a league all its own. Try using this word in a conversation - I'm guessing laughter will not be among the reactions you get.

Guano, natty, prosaic; fulsome, pulchritude, comely; ordnance, enervated, avuncular. Even after deconstructing those nine words in the first three installments, two of them still give me pause each time I run across them, let alone try to use them. "Though she was a comely woman, her natty attire had an enervating effect on the fulsome man she called her husband."  Can this be right?