Weird Words: Manducate

MANDUCATE (verb) (from Latin)—Every time my partner springs me leaving the cap off the toothpaste, forgetting to turn off lights or playing the latest in blood-curdling computer games, I can just sense her mental 'tut-tut' as she ponders the impossibility of making me completely socially functional.

Manducation, however, has nothing whatsoever to do with the education of men (I mean, why would anyone invent a word with so little practical application?), and everything to do with chewing. You'll hear it used metaphorically (if you associate with the right sort of people) to refer to 'chewing something over in one's mind'. Hmmm. There's an obvious pun there about 'food for thought' but I might leave it be…