Love words? Help me.

Hippocampus!
The word jumped out at me like a loose squirrel.

After a viral infection artist Lonni Sue Johnson lost her memory. Her complex art had been featured in The New Yorker & many other books and publications. Her recovery is centered around her art, which has changed somewhat but still retains elements of what it was. She has become fascinated with word searches.

I was reading the amazing story of Lonni Sue Anderson this morning when I became hopelessly side-tracked, off on a tangent and planning an activity to do with a mob of 12 year olds.
By all means go back and check out Lonni's story, but first help me. Here's my idea:

1. Compile a list of odd words. (I do have some well-read students, but I hope they don't know everything just yet.)
2. Each kid picks a word from the hat and illustrates it without knowing what the real definition is. This is a kind of cross between Pictionary and the Dictionary Game.

Here is my list so far, some words stranger than others.

hippocampus, stevedor, bamboozle, roustabout, gerrymander, carpetbagger, philistine, scalawag, boondoggle, muckraker, pompadour, bellhop, haberdashery, paw-paw, peckish, fulgent, leviathan, amalgamate, epee, buteo, serendipity, flibbertigibbet, halcyon, desiccant, probiscus, proboscis, hibiscus, treacle, mahout

I bet there is an on-line list of words like these, but it's more fun to think of them on my own. Or accept suggestions!

I'm listening....