Words that sound cool, but really aren't

Huguenot

Sounds like: a 25th century space marine with a flame thrower on one arm and a diamond-tipped buzz saw on the other.

Used in a sentence: The Huguenots mercilessly destroyed the denizens of the Kraktyk nebula with alarming ferocity and lack of conscience.

What it really is: Members of the Protestant Reform Church of France from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

Used in a sentence: Many Huguenots were unfortunately slaughtered in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572.


Ramekin

Sounds like: A small rodent indigenous to central Zaire whose saliva is poisonous enough to kill the world's population three times over.

Used in a sentence: That guy is stupid because he just ate a ramekin.

What it really is: a small bowl used for the serving of foods dishes. Many restaurants serve sides of dressing in them.

Used in a sentence: That guy is stupid because he just ate a ramekin.


Milquetoast

Sounds like: A fancy dish that over-privileged white people such as myself eat at French restaurants in order to thumb our noses at poor families the world over who could feed a family of six for a year for the menu price of one serving of milquetoast.

Used in a sentence: Milquetoast is especially delicious considering the famished stares of that vagabond outside who watching me. Hahahahaha! Let's give more of our hard-earned money to Bernie Madoff so he can Ponzi scheme us back to the Stone Age!

What it really is: A very timid, unassertive, spineless person.

Used in a sentence: Bob was a milquetoast because he put his money into mutual funds instead of engaging in Bernie Madoff's high stakes Ponzi scheme.



Clandestine


Sounds like: A brand of super anti-depressants known to turn people like Friedrich Nietzche into giddy little schoolgirls.

Used in a sentence: Kevin's mom was miserable because married an old man just for the money, so she started taking Clandestine and all her problems (except for that little affair with Ernesto, the cabana boy) magically went away.

What it really is: An adjective, meaning characterized by, done in, or executed with secrecy or concealment.

Used in a sentence: Kevin had to make sure the clandestine meetings of his club were kept underground, because if the kids at Penn State found out that he was the president of the Altoona chapter of the Miley Cyrus fan club, he would surely be banned from his fraternity.