There are a considerable number of words in Ra’s communication that the vast majority of English speakers have never heard nor will ever hear again. A few of those words were distortions of English originals that don’t quite exist in English. (“Pyramidical” being one such example.) Sometimes they are just generally uncommon. Many times the words were simply archaic, last used by English writers centuries ago. We’ve pondered the reason for the archaic varieties. Were they used because they offer a specificity of meaning not available in their more modern counterparts? Or perhaps they were used because to Ra, what is a few hundred human years? Ra could simply have been unaware that the term had fallen out of fashion sometime after Shakespeare, or just wanted to sound super smart.
Either way, for a culture that hasn’t had the need for spoken communication through word-symbols for millions of years and multiple densities of evolution, it is incredible that they could so expertly wield the English language—better, even, than most native English speakers.
This list includes a compilation of words that stand out to our eyes as unusual in and of themselves, or unusually used. As with any such list, it is made subjectively. The list began life as a gift from a person in the UK, and was built upon and enhanced by Carla Rueckert, Tobey Wheelock, Michelle Holt, Austin Bridges, Gary Bean, and Trisha Bean.