wordlore means the science, study, or knowledge of words. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
WORDLORE — [Noun] The study or body of knowledge concerning the origins, history, and meanings of words. From the Old English wordlār ("verbal teaching or instruction"), a compound of word ("word") + lār ("teaching, lore"). Unlike lexicography, which denotes the formal craft of dictionary-making, or philology, which encompasses the grand sweep of language and literature, wordlore is the intimate archaeology of individual utterance. It is the tactile surprise of "avocado" arriving from the Nahuatl ahuacatl (testicle), the ghost of a lost trade in the surname "Cooper," and the ill-starred sky mapped within "disaster." This patient pursuit listens to the whispers in a syllable, finding whole lost worlds compacted into a single sound.
noun
- The science, study, or knowledge of words.“Morris mastered the secrets of English wordlore as much better than Shakespeare as the manifold development of the science of language (speechlore) natually enabled him to do.”