Always assume the arrival of an acme of alliteration...

 Happy 23rd kids!  This one kind of snuck up on me to tell the truth, but in spite of the fact that my mind has been awash with Greek and Japanese words for a solid 4 weeks straight, I shall fulfill my vow!  (I think that may be the first time I've used two consecutive exclamation marks since 3rd grade)


 Jingo.  No, it's not a Star Wars character, a tribe from New Guinea, or some newfangled file-sharing program.  Jingo is an actual word, used to refer to hardcore war activists in politics (you can probably tell I've been reading a lot of military history books lately).  I think one of the reasons I find myself drawn to jingo is that the word does absolutely nothing to give you a hint at its meaning.  Thanks to Latin and Greek I can usually make a pretty good go of interpreting unfamiliar words on the fly, but jingo resulted in one of those frustrating trips to the bookshelf to rummage through the dictionary.  Now I try to use it as often as possible simply for the strange looks I get when people think I just made a reference to a voodoo spell.


 Σαυρωτήρ.  Keeping to things military, sauroter (writing Greek words in English is surprisingly difficult——I blame the letter rho) is a fun little term used to describe the counterweight/butt-spike at the end of a Greek hoplite's spear.  But why in the world would I choose something as mundane as butt-spike?  Why don't we break it down.  Sauros may look familiar to some of you because it's the Greek word for lizard (from dinosaur fame), but when you put it together with -oter, you get 'lizard killer.'  Yes, that's right, lizard killer.  Never in the history of pointy objects have I found a name quite so awesome.  Consider yourself officially supplied with a piece of completely useless information.


 Viridian.  I don't know if we've quite broached my love of the color green and its associates, but I'm putting it out there now. Green is the greatest color ever, and if you try to argue with me I will fight you, win, and then rub your face in the greenest patch of grass I can find.  But I digress.  Viridian may seem to be just another one of those obnoxious words used to define variable shades of a basic color (e.g. cerulean, cinnabar, saffron, fuchsia, celadon) and to name towns in Pokémon.  While viridian's main function is to denote the color green, it comes from the Latin verb vireo, which means to be green.  No adjective required here folks, the entire concept of existing in a state of greenness is all denoted by one word.  Awesome would be a good description.


 Sobriquet.  Let's face it——nickname is not that great of a term. Sobriquet (pronounced soo-brih-kay, I've heard some pretty creative pronunciations in my time) on the other hand, even if it comes from a random French term that means 'a tap under the chin,' is so much more stylish.  Alias, pseudonym, incognito——none of them quite reach the level of smoothness contained in sobriquet.  Have you been pegged with a mildly embarrassing nickname?  Now you can garnish it with a dash of style by coupling it with sobriquet!  "Yeah, my name is Charles, but I tend to go by the sobriquet Chuck.  Old Carlos Norris got the idea from me..."