I get plenty of enjoyment from learning new vocab. Is anyone else here a big dork and keeps a dictionary handy? My favorite statement: "Wow, your vocabulary is just so........uh......so.......uh..uh.....BIG!" Let's see some of your favorite words! I'll start easy: excoriate SYLLABICATION: ex·co·ri·ate PRONUNCIATION: AUDIO: k-skôr-t, -skr- KEY TRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: ex·co·ri·at·ed, ex·co·ri·at·ing, ex·co·ri·ates 1. To tear or wear off the skin of; abrade. See synonyms at chafe. 2. To censure strongly; denounce: an editorial that excoriated the administration for its inaction.
Clodpate [n] A blockhead; a dolt. __ Masticate 1 [v] chew (food). 2 [v] grind and knead. Tintinnabulation [n] the sound of a bell ringing. __ Example of usage: "Can I not masticate without tintinnabulation from clodpate telemarketers?"
one of my favorite words is: Pejorative - expressing disapproval; "dyslogistic terms like `nitwit' and `scalawag'" You would use this, for instance, if you told someone that could be taken either positively or negatively. You could say, "I didn't mean it pejoratively". No one knows what this word means! It's great!
When i was a freshman in highschool, i was so wrapped up in the English language and all of the words out there... i would try to learn a new one, everyday... i've forgotten a lot since then, but i still try to hold on to one or two... Some of my favorites, that i could almost NEVER use in a sentence were: Hippopotomonstrossesquippedaliaphobia: Fear of big words... it's possible i misspelled that... Chlorotriflouramethane: It's a colorless, odorless gas, the scientific abbreviation for it, is: CICF3, if my memory serves correctly. It's possible i spelled that one wrong, too; don't ask me why i know what it is... There are two four-letter words that are right there on my favorites list; obviously, i can't post them... Then there are the Scrabble words... Can NEVER use them in a sentence, but they're a lot of fun to throw down on the board... Oe: a cyclone off the Pharoe Islands... Xi: i think this one is a monetary unit of some country... Xu: i think this one is a Greek letter... Ai: A three-toed sloth... Ae: One, as an adjective... Aa: hot, cindery lava... Pdq: Quick or quickly (pretty damn quick)... Qaid: i'm pretty sure a Qaid is a Muslin leader... Qat: a shrub... Qanat: i don't remember what this means... Qindar & Qintar: these are both monetary units; same thing, just different spelling... Qoph: don't remember this one, either, but it's definitely in the Scrabble dictionary... Qiviut: another one i can't remember... Still came in handy at the end of a Scrabble game when you were stuck with the Q and all 4 Us were already on the board and inaccessable... Those are the only seven words i know that start with a Q but don't follow with a U... i guess, though, that one of my all time favorite words is: Ferrari.
one of my favorites, which is actually in the English dictionary: weltanschauung - (noun) pronounced velt-"än-"shau-&[ng] - German, from Welt world + Anschauung view: a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world especially from a specific standpoint.
*****rdly Look it up your damned self. If you think it is racist, you are either prejudgmental, politically correct, or simply ignorant
Jejune Epistemological Watch Woody Allen's movie "Love and Death" to get a laugh out of these two words.
Alme: An Egyptian dancing girl... Also spelled as Alma. Which gives new meaning to those cities name such.
ad hoc polemic Two of the favorite and most overused babble words in architectural journalism. I have a degree in architecture, worked in the profession for 31+ years, and still don't know what they mean.
I like ad hoc. I always tell people when we are going out "We will just figure things out ad hoc" and they get so confused. Fun stuff.
I'm a big fan of The Superior Person's Book of Words by Peter Bowler. He has a few books in that series.. absolutely hilarious stuff. -R
Paradigm is a keeper. "One that serves as a pattern or model." Always impresses folks to tell them you're charting the path that will change the paradigm for the company.
Gynecium: A women's dormatory. My wife slapped me at a soccer match when I publicly refered to my 4 daughter's bedrooms as a gynecium.
Get a copy of "The Dictionary of Difficult Words" John Ayto Barnes & Noble Random opening of my copy has hendecagon - 11 sided figure opsimath - late bloomer P.S. If you tried "pdq" with me, I would challenge...it's an abbreviation...not allowed in Scrabble. But then I may be a disengenuous clodpate.
Bryan, one of the few areas in life i feel i can confidently exude a little confidence is in the game of Scrabble... Granted i've lost plenty of games and granted i haven't played in a while, but when i DID, it was nuts... PDQ is DEFINITELY in the Scrabble dictionary; at least, the last time i checked; the most recently Scrabble dictionary i have is from 1996 and i haven't even SEEN it in almost 6 months... My partner and i played so often that it became increasingly easy to get 7-letter words on the board (quazars is worth a LOT of points), so we bumped it up to 8 tiles apiece; that lost its flair, so we moved up to 9... That got scary after a while when we were throwing 9-letter words down like it was the point of the game, so we dropped back down to 7... When we challenged, a word not only had to be in the Scrabble dictionary, but the person being challenged had to know the definition of it...! If you're ever in Atlanta, let me know; a friendly game over lunch would be fun...
