Thread: Interesting Words Board: Heaven / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by bib (# 13074) on :
 
I have a fascination with words and delight in collecting ones that particularly appeal. My latest gem is BUMFUZZLE which means to confuse. I'm wondering what words appeal to shipmates.

[ 17. September 2017, 22:45: Message edited by: Trudy Scrumptious ]
 
Posted by Meconopsis (# 18146) on :
 
Clusterf***
 
Posted by Patdys (# 9397) on :
 
discombobulate is rather nice.
I like the way it rolls off the tongue.
 
Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :
 
* defenestrate

* philtrum

* pelagic

* estuary
 
Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :
 
We have a long0running feature at the Book View Cafe blog, titled The Languaage Attic. Ol words are turned up an iscussed. I have one 'fistiana' an 'ovine'.
 
Posted by MaryLouise (# 18697) on :
 
My latest words-I-like-and-can't-stop-using are 'torque' and 'high-octane' as an adjective.
 
Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
We have a long0running feature at the Book View Cafe blog, titled The Languaage Attic. Ol words are turned up an iscussed. I have one 'fistiana' an 'ovine'.

I flirted with the idea of putting 'corvine' in my list - as a matter of fact, I like all the 'ines' and sort of collect them...
 
Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :
 
If you like interesting words, I highly recommend Mark Forsyth's book The Horologicon where he gives a whole tour de force of the delights of the English language. Start your day with the thrumbling of the kettle, and go on from there.
 
Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :
 
'Concatenation', as in 'a concatenation of events leading up to the murder....' [Two face]

'Dumbledore' - a lovely onomatopoeic old English dialect word for 'bumblebee' [Big Grin]

'Lustrum' - as in a period of five years, pace Ancient Rome, but used (IIRC) by some sci-fi/horror writers to signify immeasurable periods of time... [Help]

That'll do for now. I LURVE words!

IJ
 
Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
Serendipity, first encountered as the name of a boat sailed by friends of my parents when I was a child, so named because it was acquired serendipitously.

Crepuscular and pulchritudinous for the sounds of the words, and because they both bring me up short when i read them. The sounds of the words summon up images of encrusted or seeping diseases, not evening twilight and outstanding beauty.
 
Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :
 
Likewise, 'pusillanimous' always sounds more aggressive than its actual meaning, to wit, showing a lack of courage or determination.

IJ
 
Posted by Galilit (# 16470) on :
 
"distilled"
"contrast"
"concommitant"
"sunrise" and "sunset"
"kingfisher"
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
A chap on the BBC News this evening used "mendacious". [Cool]
 
Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :
 
Which brings us to prevarication and procrastination.
 
Posted by Bene Gesserit (# 14718) on :
 
Rebarbative.
 
Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :
 
Catastrophe.

Though you've got to say it right for the best effect - leaning on the second syllable.
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
Hmm ... do you mean "ca-TAS-trofe"? (Perhaps not).

"Sesquipedalian".
 
Posted by MaryLouise (# 18697) on :
 
Lay half-sleep in bed on Sunday morning and a crowd of much-loved words came to me.

vertiginous

viridian

The title of Joseph Massey's poetry collection, a word he found in Emily Dickinson: Illocality

petrichor, the smell of the earth after rain

ambient

temenos, from the Greek, meaning sanctuary

liminal

oneiromancy, the art of deciphering dreams

parataxis

clairvoyant

papillon (masc) from the French for butterfly
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
Which brings us to prevarication and procrastination.

Are you absolutely sure about that? If I were you, I'd take a long time making up my mind, and leave all my options open.
 
Posted by gustava (# 15593) on :
 
Borborygmi and discohesive
 
Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
Hmm ... do you mean "ca-TAS-trofe"? (Perhaps not).

"Sesquipedalian".

No, I mean ca-TAS-tro-fee (four syllables) [Biased]

Sesquipedalian is a fantastic word. I first came across it reading the marvellous "Moab is my Washpot" - Stephen Fry is clearly an avid collector of words, as well. He pairs it with 'pleonastic'.
 
Posted by MaryLouise (# 18697) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by gustava:
Borborygmi and discohesive

There's a word for this? Stomach rumble or urble-burble never seemed expressive enough.

Borborygmi (pl) rumbling or gurgling noises made by the movement of fluid and gas in the intestines.

'Their tender interlude, lying together in wordless silence in the deep swaying hammock, was only a little marred by her post-prandial borborygmi.'
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
Now, Graham Greene wrote an excellent short story about that ...
 
Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by MaryLouise:
petrichor, the smell of the earth after rain

This is a thing I much love - and now I know there's a word for it! Thank you!

In line with the slightly science-y nature of that one, I like 'podsol'.
 
Posted by Eirenist (# 13343) on :
 
How about 'inspissated'?
 
Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
Turpitude. Also flummox.

My favorite Spanish word is romper (to break, from the Latin rumpere).
 
Posted by Urfshyne (# 17834) on :
 
Oh how I love a bit of osculation - with my wife, of course.
 
Posted by leo (# 1458) on :
 
Quotidian
 
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :
 
drumlin

onomatopoeia

inchoate

skookum
 
Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Urfshyne:
Oh how I love a bit of osculation - with my wife, of course.

I once abused that in an engineering report to find out if anyone read it. I am pretty sure they didn't. (The two objects being investigated made osculatory contact). A good word.
 
Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :
 
Driving several miles northward from my place this morning, I came around a corner and was - as always - delighted by the blue-grey mountain that suddenly pops into view. What a lovely massif, I thought. Then I thought, what a lovely word 'massif' is.
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
Cruciverbalist. As I'm a rather keen one, I quite frequently discover new and often delightful words.

I occasionally make them up to fit the clue, and find to my pleasure that they were there all along.
 
Posted by wild haggis (# 15555) on :
 
Hebbie gebbies.
Stramash
Stooshie
Scummer
Shuggle
Skoosh
Cluggie

A'd better haud ma wheesht noo!

A visit to Glasgow will help you translate the above.
 
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :
 
We have "heebie jeebies" here, and also:
- shinny
- slough (it's said slew!)
- kybo
- gotchies

All said to be Scottishisms, but from when this area was Rupert's Land (they ignored the indigenous peoples) which means 17th-19th centuries.
 
Posted by bib (# 13074) on :
 
I'm enjoying the offerings and have added some of them to my little black book.
 
Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :
 
My former manager had sesquipedalian tendencies, so while working late one Saturday night in the lab I sent him a note that I was going to leave before I cucurbitified.

I took great pleasure in the fact that he apparently had to look it up to discover it meant "turn into a pumpkin".
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
And did you depart in a cabriolet, a barouche or a simple Hansom cab?
 
Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :
 
Or perhaps a landau, a chaise, or a brougham?

'Curcurbitified' has go to be The Word Of The Week, though!

[Overused]

IJ
 
Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :
 
I often misuse crapulous, though it really means over indulgence; gluttony. In Finnish krapula means a hangover, which I have good reason to remember (I was much younger). Crapulent has the same appealing sound, but also means consumption to excess.
 
Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :
 
A couple of Susie Dent specials:
Gigglemug: someone who is unnecessarily cheerful, especially in the morning.
Testiculate:a man who talks a load of cobblers.
and if I can borrow a Scottishism, dreich which describes 70% of the weather at the moment.
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
It can be dreich in Wales too, but they've probably got a different name for it ...

I'm sure the comedian Lenny Henry coined the word spondilious to mean "great" or "terrific".
 
Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :
 
Runcible.

Invented IIRC by Edward Lear (1812-1888), and applicable as an adjective to just about anything you fancy!

[Big Grin]

IJ
 
Posted by HCH (# 14313) on :
 
My family at one time referred to a small bit of random fluff one might find on a carpet as a "peem".
 
Posted by keibat (# 5287) on :
 
2017 is the 150th anniversary of the British North America Act which created the Dominion of Canada, and there have been many celebrations of this going on in Canada and elsewhere, including a symposium in London which I was at - where I learnt the gloriously opaque (even with some knowledge of Latin) adjective sesquicentennial which means '150th'.
 
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by keibat:
2017 is the 150th anniversary of the British North America Act which created the Dominion of Canada, and there have been many celebrations of this going on in Canada and elsewhere, including a symposium in London which I was at - where I learnt the gloriously opaque (even with some knowledge of Latin) adjective sesquicentennial which means '150th'.

If you want to go on like that, I wore one of my toques today because it was cold. I didn't wear a bunnyhug. Nor a siwash. Nor pantoufles.
 
Posted by Higgs Bosun (# 16582) on :
 
quote:


- slough (it's said slew!)

The pronunciation interested me, so I did some digging. From this there are two main definitions:

- a swamp, pronounced to rhyme with 'now', as in Bunyan's "slough of despond"

- a verb to shed, pronounced 'sluff' (c.f. 'rough').

The town of Slough, near Windsor, is presumably named for its swamp. Betjeman did not think much of the place:
quote:

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!


 
Posted by Carex (# 9643) on :
 
In common US usage, "slough" is always pronounced "slew" when referring to water features. It is most commonly used for a part of a river that has very little current, such when the water breaks through the narrow part at a bend and leaves the former main channel with water in it, but with little actual flow. It may also refer to a stream that only has significant flow in the rainy season, but stays wet the rest of the year. We have a lot of them around here.
 
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :
 
Western Canada: slough (slew) is a pond with soft edges such that bullrushes and reed etc grow on its edges. Habitat for waterfowl (ducks, geese, herons, cranes etc). A pothole to us is a slough with hard edges, i.e., you can walk up the edge easily. It may have reeds and bullrushes too. They are post-glacial features. We talk of prairie pothole country.

We'd call Carex's sloughs "oxbows".

A bluff here is a patch of trees on the prairie, without a slough. There's no hill involved.
 
Posted by MaryLouise (# 18697) on :
 
peely-wally

(used by my Scottish grandmother whenever she saw teenaged me looking what I called soulful)

scintilla, scintillate

(shine on you crazy diamond)
 
Posted by Leaf (# 14169) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
Western Canada: slough (slew) is a pond with soft edges such that bullrushes and reed etc grow on its edges. Habitat for waterfowl (ducks, geese, herons, cranes etc). A pothole to us is a slough with hard edges, i.e., you can walk up the edge easily. It may have reeds and bullrushes too. They are post-glacial features. We talk of prairie pothole country.

We'd call Carex's sloughs "oxbows".

A bluff here is a patch of trees on the prairie, without a slough. There's no hill involved.

This is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike accuracy.

Although this shipmate makes frequent claims about how "we" "here" in Western Canada use language, I can say that most of these claims about vocabulary are unknown to me. I have lived across Western Canada and in rural, urban, and small town settings. The claims being made about a huge and diverse landscape actually pertain to a small area of one province, and often the usage is not current usage.

I advise that when reading these claims, one ought to understand that "we" refers to this shipmate and partner (or possibly the majestic plural) and "here" to mean the area immediately surrounding the shipmate's residence.

The moral of this story: Don't incorporate. We don't like it here.
 
Posted by keibat (# 5287) on :
 
Shame on you, Leaf. Not one exciting word in your entire post. You could at least have suggested that no prophet's flag's geolinguistic perspective was peculier [sic].

Meanwhile, back on the eastern side of another country: conversation about a family with an unusually high offspring count was rendered more concise by noting that the parents must be polyphiloprogeniitive [thankyou, T S Eliot]
 
Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by keibat:
Shame on you, Leaf. Not one exciting word in your entire post. You could at least have suggested that no prophet's flag's geolinguistic perspective was peculier [sic].

Meanwhile, back on the eastern side of another country: conversation about a family with an unusually high offspring count was rendered more concise by noting that the parents must be polyphiloprogeniitive [thankyou, T S Eliot]

'Peculier' is a fine word, sic or otherwise. Of course it's not the same as it used to be when I was young, but Old Peculier is still one of the finest beers of them all.

The Washington Post, inspired by Kim Jong Haircut's complimentary words to donald trump, has just run an article on lesser known insults, but he scored the bullseye with 'dotard'.

[ 23. September 2017, 01:18: Message edited by: Stercus Tauri ]
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by MaryLouise:
peely-wally

(used by my Scottish grandmother whenever she saw teenaged me looking what I called soulful)

My wife uses when I am pale and sickening for something (a cold or the like), or just very tired.
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by keibat:
The parents must be polyphiloprogeniitive

Or just exhausted.
 
Posted by Meconopsis (# 18146) on :
 
Scofflaw.
 
Posted by Meconopsis (# 18146) on :
 
trepidatious
 
Posted by Martin60 (# 368) on :
 
Meconopsis
 
Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :
 
Once while held up in bed I started thinking how diseases often sound like flowers. I imagined going into a florist and ordering a bouquet of Epilepsy, with some Asian Flu, and a stem or two of dislocated spines.

Perhaps it was the fever talking. [Mad]
 
Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Graven Image:
diseases often sound like flowers

I miss the disease names of yesteryear, replaced by awfully clinically sounding words now:

dropsy (edema)
the vapors (PMS)
undulant fever (brucellosis)

and so on.
 
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
When we were children one of my brothers and I were laughing over the words "galloping consumption". Granddad overheard us and gave us a lecture about how serious it was.

Since then, under it's current label of TB, it's made a re-appearance due to overcrowded and damp homes. It's definitely not something to laugh about.

Huia
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
In the "Para Handy" books by Neil Munro, the crew of the "Vital Spark" try to convince a lazy colleague that he is actually suffering from the deadly "galloping convulvulus".
 
Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
When we were children one of my brothers and I were laughing over the words "galloping consumption". Granddad overheard us and gave us a lecture about how serious it was.

Since then, under it's current label of TB, it's made a re-appearance due to overcrowded and damp homes. It's definitely not something to laugh about.

It was also known as the 'white death'.

Moo
 
Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on :
 
Dialect vernacular words are great.

In Ulster/Scots we worry about ending up in the 'shuck', if we drive or walk too closely to the grassy, boggy verge at the side of a road.

If you're 'foundered' you're freezing cold.

Being up to your 'oxters' in anything is usually very uncomfortable. I know you find this word in other parts of Britain, too.

And, as a probable mispronunciation of 'beak', you'll be told to 'shut yer bake' (flat vowel please!) if you're talking too much. By the same token, 'gob' becomes 'gub' in Ulster.

And a classic of my father's would have invited you to 'aff ye go and claw mowl roun' yersel'. (Again bearing in mind the flat Ulster vowels.) In other words, why don't you go into the garden, sit in the muck and claw mud around yourself like the lunatic you are?

And my favourite - 'thrawn', as in 'he's a thrawn old bugger'.
 
Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :
 
Another colorfully named disorder is St. Vitus' Dance (Sydenham's Chorea). My mother would tell us kids that we'd come down with it if we couldn't sit still and stop fidgeting.
 
Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
LOL...my mother used to threaten me with St. Vitus' Dance too, but I can't remember why...probably for not wearing a coat or for sitting on the cold ground or other thing she found unhealthy.

I take online classes for fun, and the lecture transcripts seem to be generated by voice recognition technology, which often creates unintentionally humorous phrases. In one lecture, the professor kept referring to MOOCs, Massive Open Online Classes. The computer kept transcribing this as "mooks," which every fan of New York based crime dramas knows is slang for " disreputable person." Right now I'm taking a class on Plato, and the transcript rendered "Meno," Socrates 'dialog partner, as "meano," which struck me as funny.
 
Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
When I was in Belfast, I was the Research Assistant for Ulster Dialects, and I also taught a small class. One day I asked the students what Gaelic words they knew that were in common local use. All the examples they came up with were insults that children used on the playground. They were vague about the exact meaning of these words.

Moo
 
Posted by Meconopsis (# 18146) on :
 
weisenheimer & wiseacre (I think they mean the same).
schlemiel
 
Posted by gustava (# 15593) on :
 
psammomatous
 
Posted by keibat (# 5287) on :
 
Hula posted:
quote:
When we were children one of my brothers and I were laughing over the words "galloping consumption". Granddad overheard us and gave us a lecture about how serious it was.

Since then, under it's current label of TB, it's made a re-appearance due to overcrowded and damp homes. It's definitely not something to laugh about.

In Finland, an immigrant recently died, because over a period of six months no one, from local health centre to regional hospital, realized that he had TB. A chest x-ray would have saved his life. It was only taken in the week he died.
 
Posted by keibat (# 5287) on :
 
Shipmasters: This is the second time recently I've been shunted up this particular cul de sac:
quote:
We require that you perform one complete performance of "Do The Hokey-Pokey" between all submissions. (Make sure it takes at least 120 seconds).

Use your back button with whatever extremity is not currently "OUT" to return to the previous page. Or use your browser's reload button.

And that's what it's all about.

» Please use your browser's back button to return, unless you got this because of flood control, in which case the back button will just try to screw with you. Sorry about that.

And the only way out, in fact, is to reload the thread in question. Frankly, I don't find this amusing, I find it frustrating.
 
Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :
 
I understand your frustration, keibat. This is a problem more suited to the Styx board than Heaven. I hope you can get some help there.

jedijudy
Hoping to be a helpful Heaven Host

 
Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 
Sometimes it is the common words that have a nice sound to them:

oblong,
mangle.

Recalcitrant is another favourite, and something I could never be [Two face]

There is a dialect phrase, much beloved of my maternal grandmother, used to describe a woman of loose morals as being as "leet geen as a posser 'ead." "Leet geen" meaning lightly given. Posser.

The phrase maternal grandmother, paternal grandfather etc. are more satisfying than the grandmother or grandfather alone. I dislike the word nan for grandmother intensely.

Bleb, the word is fantastic; having a bleb is not. (Currently using bleb ointment [Frown] )
 
Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 
ETA

Why are the other words for bleb: Zit, Pustule etc. also satisfying to say, particularly as an insult?
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
... other words for bleb ...

Like plook? [Big Grin]
 
Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 
Aye.

That is the exception though when it comes to collective nouns. An infestation of blebs, or zits sounds right, but for that word the alternative collective noun sounds better:

A gathering of plooks.

As they are hard to shift, despite the prescribed gunge, I have a gathering of recalcitrant plooks.

Bye for now, must go and scratch. [Roll Eyes]
 
Posted by M. (# 3291) on :
 
Balsam,

So a posser is what I would know as a dolly?

M.
 
Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by M.:
Balsam, (sic)

So a posser is what I would know as a dolly?

M.

Like a short stool on a long handle?
 
Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 
Words starting with fl can never be uninteresting.

Flavour

Flicker

Flounder

But flange, that is a satisfying word, say it again, flange.

Flange mmmm.
 
Posted by keibat (# 5287) on :
 
Balaam commented;
quote:
The phrase maternal grandmother, paternal grandfather etc. are more satisfying than the grandmother or grandfather alone.
Swedish at least, and probably all the Scandinavian languages (not, however, Finnish, which is not a Scandinavian language) systematically distinguish between mormor, morfar, (= mother's mother, mother's father) and farmor, farfar, (= father's mother, father's father), and similarly between moster, morbror, (= mother's sister, mother's brother) and faster, farbror, (=father's sister, father's brother).

But agreed, English makes no such distinctions.
 
Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
Words starting with fl can never be uninteresting.

But flange, that is a satisfying word, say it again, flange.

Flange mmmm.

Thanks to the BBC show "Not the Nine o'clock News" (1980's) flange became the collective noun for baboons.
 
Posted by M. (# 3291) on :
 
Balsam,
Yes re dolly/posser (which would make a good name - she's probably the tweenie in a middle class Victorian house).

And thank you so much for pointing out the inherent interest of 'fl' words! I would never have thought of it, but you're quite right!

M.
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
I'm currently reading a book called Horologicon by Mark Forsyth. It's a journey through the hours of the day, exploring words that for one reason or another have fallen out of use.

So far, my favourite has to be:

snollygoster, n. One, especially a politician, who is guided by personal advantage rather than by consistent, respectable principles.

I suspect our American friends might find a use for it ... [Devil]
 
Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :
 
O, thank you, Piglet, for that absolute gem!

Sorry about the capitals, but SNOLLYGOSTER really does deserve them!

[Killing me]

IJ
 
Posted by andras (# 2065) on :
 
Fussbudget. As in Peanuts!
 
Posted by ArachnidinElmet (# 17346) on :
 
obfuscation

The word, not the action.
 
Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :
 
Eschew!

As in 'eschew obfuscation'....

IJ
 
Posted by keibat (# 5287) on :
 
flummoxed

flabbergasted

fleshly
 
Posted by andras (# 2065) on :
 
Bufflehead - Pepys uses it in his diary to describe the then Lord Mayor of London; Pepys considers that he's a few sandwiches short of a picnic (!) and the word surely deserves to be brought back into use!
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
Pity he wasn't around to use it a few years ago, post-Livingstone but pre-Khan! (Although, admittedly, the "Mayor" of London isn't the "Lord Mayor").

[ 09. October 2017, 14:43: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]
 
Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :
 
No, but 'BoJo the Bufflehead' is surely a most appropriate moniker for our beloved Foreign Secretary (pity he isn't permanently in Foreign Parts......).

IJ
 
Posted by Eirenist (# 13343) on :
 
Bojo a bufflehead? He will be discombobulated!
 
Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :
 
Amanuensis. I was struggling for the right word in a perfectly normal conversation the other day, and it was perfect.
 
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :
 
I owe La Vie en Rose an apology - she had already mentioned Horologicon way back near the beginning of page 1, and I didn't notice. Sorry about that, La Vie! [Smile]

I have trouble with:

lascivious, (of a person, manner, or gesture) feeling or revealing an overt and often offensive sexual desire

To me, it should mean being over-zealous when adding cream to one's strawberries, i.e. more related to the sin of gluttony than of lust.

I might be mixing it up with luscious ... [Hot and Hormonal]
 
Posted by Meconopsis (# 18146) on :
 
scalawag
 
Posted by Eirenist (# 13343) on :
 
When my brother and I behaved like SCALLYWAGS, my mother would say we gave her the OOPAZOOTICS.
 
Posted by MaryLouise (# 18697) on :
 
OOPAZOOTICS is perfect.
 
Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
Michigan's Native American place names: Meauwataka; Kitchi-Ta-Kipi; Topinabee.
 
Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Stercus Tauri:
Amanuensis. I was struggling for the right word in a perfectly normal conversation the other day, and it was perfect.

Interestingly, Mr Al Stewart, who got a mention in rebutting Schroedinger's Cat's scurrilous accusations regarding folk music over on the unpopular opinions thread (why by golly those accusations belong), believes himself to be the only person to have
worked the word into a song.
 
Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 
Petrichor, the aroma of rain on hot dry earth.

Both a good sounding word and a delightful definition.
 
Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
From the dim and distant, a couple which I believe are my own invention (in any event they became family standard):

Apachoocha An old fashioned gas holder
Glodda A kick-down motorbike stand
 
Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :
 
Glodda sounds Welsh - plural Gloddau perhaps?

IANAWS

(I Am Not A Welsh-Speaker, so open to correction)

IJ
 
Posted by Higgs Bosun (# 16582) on :
 
It's terrible when you get gribble in your futtocks.
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
Isn't there a lotion for that, though?
 
Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :
 
Not a lotion, perhaps, but an unguent instead?

A much nicer word, and it doesn't sting...unlike embrocation when accidentally applied to broken skin...

IJ
 
Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
Glodda sounds Welsh - plural Gloddau perhaps?

IANAWS

(I Am Not A Welsh-Speaker, so open to correction)

IJ

Could be a NW dialect pronunciation of *glodde, plural would likely be *gloddiau. Dd as th in "this", of course. Were the plural *Gloddau it would be pronounced colloquially the same as the singularthroughout Wales, although distinct in formal speech.

[ 19. October 2017, 17:08: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
 
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
Not a lotion, perhaps, but an unguent instead?

A much nicer word, and it doesn't sting...unlike embrocation when accidentally applied to broken skin...

Definitely the latter, I feel.
 
Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :
 
Thanks, Karl - I had a sneaking feeling that something was missing from Gloddau.

Like I said, IANAWS.

IJ
 
Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :
 
Toolie-weeds. "They live out in the toolie-weeds."
 
Posted by keibat (# 5287) on :
 
Moo moo'd, a while back:
quote:
When I was in Belfast, I was the Research Assistant for Ulster Dialects, and I also taught a small class. One day I asked the students what Gaelic words they knew that were in common local use. All the examples they came up with were insults that children used on the playground. They were vague about the exact meaning of these words.
Off-topic, I concede: but back when I was teaching at a Finnish university, we had a student who went on exchange to Luimneach [that's Limerick to most of us]. One weekend a group of the exchange students went to visit Belfast, and got into a slight confrontation with someone who didn't like foreigners. Since I don't have the Gaelic myself, the following account of the dialogue has to be in the English tongue, but was uttered entirely in Gaelic: "Fuck off, bloody foreigners!" – reply. "Fuck off yourself, you bad-tempered git." But then, the student in question was rather good at languages.
[Devil]
 
Posted by rolyn (# 16840) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
Petrichor, the aroma of rain on hot dry earth.

Both a good sounding word and a delightful definition.

Nice to know there is a word for such a heavenly sensation.

Piffle as in the talking of.
 
Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
OK, its not the 'real' word* for the item in question, but the Welsh slang for a microwave is popty-ping which just makes me smile [Smile]


* correct word is meicrodon
 
Posted by wild haggis (# 15555) on :
 
"Peely wally" yes good Scottish word. ]
You are as pale as a wally (china) dug (dog) on the mantle-piece.......one of those china dogs with a white face.

Because I was fair skinned I was always called peely-wally as a child.

What about "The great piratical rumbustification"? (was the title of a children's book our son loved many years ago.
 
Posted by wild haggis (# 15555) on :
 
Can't find any of your "Welsh" words in my Welsh dictionary - even with mutations.

Could be a deriative of "glo" = coal
e.g. "glo brig" = open cast mining;
"pwll glo" = coal mine

or it could just mean a load of dross.............
 
Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 
Some ordinary sounding words sound dull unless spoken in a different accent.

Take the word tatty. Prety much a meh. word.

But when spoken in a North Wales accent, which emphasised the second syllable, we get ta-TEA. A much better word/
 
Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
I'd suggest that some of these Welsh words may be "Wenglish", ie they are aren't pure Welsh, but Welsh/English hybrids.

Also you have to remember that the language has some distinct differences between North and South Wales.
 
Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :
 
I realised too late the other day that I was showing my age when I referred to a very young female type person as a tomboy. Seems that one may no longer say that.
 
Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
a gathering of recalcitrant plooks

Sounds like some kind of committee meeting.


I love the word inchoate
 
Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :
 
Just came across another good one: farcical
 
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :
 
May I submit:

kerfuffle

humbucker
 
Posted by keibat (# 5287) on :
 
kerfuffle is good
I remember learning this from an Australian kids' movie at Saturday morning matinee at the local cinema – that must date it around 1950 [Roll Eyes]

to piffle I counter with a peffle [= a persistent dry unimpressive cough

and what about nithered? – Yorkshire dialect for freezing cold
 
Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by churchgeek:
Just came across another good one: farcical

A bike on which you can make long journeys.
 
Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :
 
litotes We all use them but how many are aware of the correct descriptive?
 
Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
litotes We all use them but how many are aware of the correct descriptive?

I had to look that word up!
quote:
ironic understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary (e.g., you won't be sorry, meaning you'll be glad ).
Now, close to a year ago, when asked if I'd be willing to accept nomination as senior warden at my church, my response was, "I won't say no." Immediately, a motion was made (and seconded and approved) to cast a unanimous vote for me. Maybe people thought this was what I was doing. I literally meant if pressed, I'd reluctantly agree, if no one else was willing.

Note to self: Avoid this construction.
 
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by keibat:

to piffle I counter with a peffle [= a persistent dry unimpressive cough

and what about nithered? – Yorkshire dialect for freezing cold

My mother used to say "piffle" when she was dismissing something, like I say "it's very cold out", and she says "oh piffle!".
 
Posted by Eirenist (# 13343) on :
 
Has anyone suggested 'paraphernalia'?
 
Posted by andras (# 2065) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Eirenist:
Has anyone suggested 'paraphernalia'?

Literally That which a girl brings to her marriage which is not a part of her dowry and which is therefore hers alone.

Aftermath is an interesting one; literally it's what's left in the field after it has been mown. It's hardly ever used now in its original sense, but its figurative meaning is alive and well.
 
Posted by Eirenist (# 13343) on :
 
Bamboozle.
 
Posted by Eirenist (# 13343) on :
 
If I was the queen, and thought the Corbynistas were likely to form the net government, I would put my money out of their reach too.
 
Posted by Eirenist (# 13343) on :
 
Sorry, that was meant to go in 'unpopular opinions'.
 
Posted by Gill H (# 68) on :
 
Gallimaufry. Nothing to do with Doctor Who. It means a 'confused jumble or medley of things'.
 
Posted by andras (# 2065) on :
 
Coruscating - it means Sparkling or Brilliant, and not as some illiterates (especially newspaper theatre and film reviewers) seem to think, Trenchant or Biting.

It's far too good a word to be lost to ignorance!
 


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