Top 5 Forgotten & Interesting Words

1. The Endangered English Dictionary: Bodacious Words Your Dictionary Forgot

by David Grambs. W.W. Norton & Company. Save the forgotten words--that's the goal of this book. From the publisher: "The resultant treasure trove of exotic verbal creatures is an indispensable resource for every lover of language."

2. Forgotten English

by Jeffrey Kacirk. HarperCollins. This book draws from sources like Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer, Benjamin Franklin, Keats, John Donne, Herman Melville, Ben Jonson, and William Blake.

3. Shakespeare's Language: A Glossary of Unfamiliar Words in His Plays and Poems

by Eugene F. Shewmaker. Facts on File. If you were wishing for a Shakespeare dictionary of words the last time you read Shakespeare plays or poems, here it is! "Shakespeare's Language" features 15,000 entries, with context, correct usage, geographical references, historical and mythological figures, and foreign-language expressions.

4. New American Dictionary of Difficult Words

by Carol-June Cassidy, and Paul Heacock. Signet. Words aren't always easy. But, just because a word is difficult to understand or spell doesn't mean you should give up. This book features more than 3,000 words that are often misspelled, misused, misunderstood, and confused.

5. The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate

by Eugene H. Ehrlich. HarperCollins. "The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate" offers a list of interesting words and definitions, along with discussions of words that are often misued or confused.