Why this word is great
SCOLION — [Noun] A genre of ancient Greek songs sung alternately by guests at a banquet, often to the accompaniment of a lyre. From Ancient Greek σκόλῐον (skólion), meaning 'crooked' or 'oblique', possibly referring to the irregular or improvised nature of the songs. Unlike a 'hymn' (which bows to the divine) or a 'paean' (which marches in triumph), the scolion is a secular, spontaneous unfurling of wit and wine. It is the flicker of lyre strings in torchlight, the playful volley of verses between cups of unmixed wine, the crooked path a melody takes when it follows laughter rather than liturgy—proof that even in antiquity, joy was never perfectly straight.