Definitions
Etymologies
- Middle English from earlier elrich, equivalent to Old English el- ("foreign, strange, uncanny") (see else ) + rīċe "realm, kingdom" (see rich ); hence “of a strange country, pertaining to the Otherworld”; compare Old English ellende "in a foreign land, exiled" (compare German Elend "penury, distress" and Dutch ellende "misery"), Runic Norse alja-markir "foreigner". (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps Middle English *elriche : Old English el-, strange, other; see al-1 in Indo-European roots + Old English rīce, realm; see reg- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Like bitter juice scratched in eldritch patience and dried on vellum skin. plethora convoluted diadem”
“Berwin gave a kind of eldritch shriek and stepped back a pace, as though to place himself on his guard.”
“And the woman, whose voice had risen to a kind of eldritch sing-song, turned with a skip, and was gone.”
“It appears to be Jesus on Mary's calendar, but that woman is looking at it like it's some kind of eldritch abomination from the bowels of the universe.”
“Join us, intrepid explorers, as we journey once again into the depths of the Penny Arcade archives, facing eldritch curses and monstrous perils aplenty in our quest to unearth the ancient treasures of the year 2004 A.D.!”
Dark Horse Solicitations for May 2008 | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News
“Â She now sits on her throne on an abandoned world, trying to control the eldritch power roiling within her.”
Dueling Review: Adventure Comics #4 | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News
“With the help of editor Paula R. Stiles and a band of eldritch writers she publishes the online zine Innsmouth Free Press.”
“Born in Austria in the mid-'70s, he's been working under a collective of nom de plumes to add to his eldritch bearing.”
The Huffington Post: Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin: Dog Ears Music: Volume 160
“She unleashes a few eldritch shrieks and falls to the ground writhing, as if she were Bertha Mason in the attic.”
The Guardian: Hamlet; Passion; Beautiful Burnout; Wanderlust
“It does not matter what menace you are rescuing her from, so long she is half-naked and the menace is eldritch.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘eldritch’.
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phrontistery - e
from phrontistery.info
eagre, earing, earwig, easement, eau-de-nil, ebberman, ebeneous, ?boulement, ebriection, ?brillade, ebrious, ebullioscope and 616 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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for school!
squally, monetization, honorificabilitud..., hornswoggle, collywobbles, slangwhanger, filibuster, cliona, beknow, gallimaufry, sylvan, aide-de-camp and 31 more...
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Words I Intend to use.
selectarian, solastalgia, niefling, eldritch, santagnostic, laborious, obstreperous, quibble, inusitate, cacology, tmesis, cacoethes and 50 more...
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adj. + adv.
vainglorious, lanuginous, altiloquent, ambisextrous, desiderative, flothery, liquescent, logoed, autotelic, tropology, erotogenic, crocky and 108 more...
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Favorite Words
pablum, maundy, histrionic, adamant, ascribe, verbiage, insouciant, erudite, gregarious, superfluous, banal, obdurate and 280 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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.names
remy, rolf, theobald, jerrick, dray, theade, torfin, roderick, eleazer, keller, leif, melrick and 149 more...
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tree's Words
aphasia, anhedonia, promontory, misandry, amanuensis, asymptote, penultimate, muslin, tundra, calico, kinaesthesia, rutabaga and 209 more...
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Illuminated Manuscript
words for the bespoke
midheaven, moth-fly, yea-forsooth, ontil, coxcomb, vulnerary, landhelgisgæslan, beasthood, deviltry, triolet, diablerie, titil and 107 more...
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There's a word for that?
temerity, tacit, froward, faineant, caterwaul, menagerie, ennui, sine qua non, lissom, multifarious, laconic, katzenjammer and 240 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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Lovecraft's Ingeneous Idiolect
Some of HPL's most toothsome words.
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ADW2
nudnik, temper, intercalate, cleave, scowl, chapfallen, malapropos, disport, annals, paean, paradisiacal, whet and 362 more...
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tranquill's Words
loquacious, unmitigated, trundle, ephemeral, vociferous, trapezoidal, liminal, obsequious, veracity, squash, onomatopoeia, oscillate and 267 more...
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Wordnik Notebooks
All the words from the cover of the Wordnik notebook.
A few words appear twice: frass, cruet, luna, thalweg, and possibly some more.
Careful: Contains spoilers!spilth, frass, fomite, rux, worricow, alizarin, mundungus, parthenocarpy, jib, whinyard, weisure, nimiety and 217 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for eldritch.
milosrdenstvi I'd never seen this word before reading H. P. Lovecraft. He manages to stick it at least once into each of his stories. Jan 21, 2010
yarb Am I the only one here to think of the singer from Sisters of Mercy?
I'll get me cloak... Apr 16, 2008
bilby It's a dull word. Could be the name of a stodgy cricket player who only scores runs between mid-on and mid-off. "Yes, it's a fine knock by Eldritch today who looks as if he'll make ten by lunch. All in singles of course but lovely technique. I haven't seen a left elbow so high since Kippax and indeed Trumper." Apr 16, 2008
pterodactyl Ditch-phuca? In lieu of actually knowing what you mean, I have to assume that you are talking about some sort of Old World chupacabra.
Poor Ethelred! Apr 16, 2008
chained_bear Blecch. Not to me. I was in a production of "The Rimers of Eldritch" years ago and I loathed it. So now the word makes me think of that experience. *shudders* Apr 16, 2008
sionnach There's something remarkably satisfying about this word. Eldritch. Eldritch. Eldritch.
To me, it conjures up weird images of Ethelred the Unready, waking up in some kind of a ditch, after a particularly unsatisfying altercation with the ditch-phuca. Apr 16, 2008
seanmeade etymology is 'elf kingdom' (the word for kingdom in Old English being 'rice' like in the German 'reich') Mar 26, 2007
brtom "I anticipated some such reception, he began with an eldritch laugh, for which, it seems, history is to blame."
Joyce, Ulysses, 14 Jan 20, 2007