That (weird) word you love

[wayndom]

I got two of 'em:

Penultimate, because it's so weirdly specific and so rarely needed -- it means, "next to last," by the way.

And my all-time weirdest, favormost word (aside from "favormost," which I got from an ex-girlfriend),

Defenestrate


It means, to push or throw from a window. As in, "He spat in a club member's face, whereupon the club member defenestrated him."

On the rare occasions that I've seen this word in use, I always wonder, "When in the course of human history was the practice of pushing people out of windows so common that it needed a word of its own?"

English...ya gotta love it...

[reenkam]

Penultimate, because it's so weirdly specific and so rarely needed -- it means, "next to last," by the way.

There are a lot of times this word would have come in handy for me....I feel like I say "next to last" a lot

I like the word abecedarian...having to do with the alphabet.

The only thing I can think of that's abecedarian is the alphabet itself.

[My-Immortal]

I own a book called: Depraved and Insulting English. There are TOO many words in there that would fall into the 'wield words I love' category. Probably even more entertaining is reading the sentences incorporating these uniquely depraved and insulting words...

Two words you wouldn't want to mix up (or accidentally typo)

uxoravalent: / ooks or AHV uh lent / adj: Able to have sex only with one's wife

uxorovalent: /ooks or O vuh lent / adj: Able to have sex only with someone other than one's wife.

:)

[LisaHy]

One word I like is 'extrapolate'. I've not yet managed to use it in a novel, but somewhere in the future, I shall have a book titled "Extrapolate This!". Don't know what it's about yet, but I will write it...

Cheers, Lisa.

[My-Immortal]

On the rare occasions that I've seen this word in use, I always wonder, "When in the course of human history was the practice of pushing people out of windows so common that it needed a word of its own?"

English...ya gotta love it...

hamble: verb: to cripple a dog by cutting out the balls of its feet.

As you said above, when was this practice so common that a word was needed for it???

or...

fream: verb: to roar like a wild boar during the rutting season, when he seeks to mate

while others such as:

malversation: noun: corruption in office/misuse of public funds

are still common enough acts but the words aren't commonly used...

English is interesting. :)

[DeadlyAccurate]

Egregious. I love that word. I love penultimate, too. And nigh. That's such a cool word that I had to use it in my last book.

[triceretops]

In Journey to the Center of the Earth, where James Mason extricates a beautiful emrald from a formation, he grins at the others and says, "inexplicable." I love it.

Tri

[Marlys]

I like coolth, the opposite of warmth. How did we ever let that word drop out of general usage?

[DeadlyAccurate]

I just thought of another one. Aplomb. Say it. Aplomb. It almost sounds like an onomatopoeia (and yes, I did have to look up the spelling of that one.)

[Red Robin]

Erubiscate (blush) is my favourite. I don't even know if that's in the dictionary. Erubescent is, so why not erubiscate.

Tintinnabulate (ring like a small bell(s) ) That's my second favourite.

I think you ought to use your favourite words in a sentence. Such as -

Tintinnabulation, for some inexplicable reason, caused her to erubiscate.

[EriRae]

Erubiscate (blush) is my favourite. I don't even know if that's in the dictionary. Erubescent is, so why not erubiscate.

Tintinnabulate (ring like a small bell(s) ) That's my second favourite.

I think you ought to use your favourite words in a sentence. Such as -

Tintinnabulation, for some inexplicable reason, caused her to erubiscate.


Great words; love the sentences :)

Methinks you writers have a much larger vocabulary than I...

A word I love is sursurus. Marilynne Robinson used it twice in Gilead. I've been listening to the cicadas' sursurus today...damn things keep me awake (to use it in a sentence).

Another word: prosthelytize. My MC, Dolf, often prosthelytizes to his fellow students, trying to get the non-Jews to join his pro Nazi group, the Slayers. I can't believe I haven't written it into my WIP yet...

[kristie911]

My favorite weird word is from my EMT class...I just can't imagine ever working it into my writing.

Diaphoretic: which basically means sweaty

[Spiny Norman]

Man, Defenestrate is a really popular word.

[MidnightMuse]

Epiphany.

[JimmyB27]

The only thing I can think of that's abecedarian is the alphabet itself.

I had some nice abecedarian soup the other day.


Ever since I stumbled upon it in the Hardy Boys, I've loved the word 'jalopy'. It might be a really common word in the US, but not so much in the UK.

[althrasher]

Anthropomorphize--to ascribe human characteristics to non-human things. I already used it in a post yesterday, but it makes me happy.

[alanna]

"splendiforous" ... which I use all the time interchangeably with "swell" :)

[Willowmound]

On the rare occasions that I've seen this word in use, I always wonder, "When in the course of human history was the practice of pushing people out of windows so common that it needed a word of its own?"

English...ya gotta love it...

Hrm. It's a constructed word, though. You can construct almost any word following standard rules. The prefix "de-" is clear enough, I should imagine. And "fenst" is a word of Germanic root having to do with windows.

The German word for window is fenster. The Swedish word for window is fönster. For instance.The link with English must be there if you look. For English too is a Germanic language.

Let me prove my point by constructing another word, following normal rules: mammofobia. It means "fear of breasts".

[reigningcatsndogs]

'smarmy' -- it about says it all when you write about not-nice individuals

[Danger Jane]

I don't have any weird words that I love.

[Danger Jane]

Hrm. It's a constructed word, though. You can construct almost any word following standard rules. The prefix "de-" is clear enough, I should imagine. And "fenst" is a word of Germanic root having to do with windows.

The German word for window is fenster. The Swedish word for window is fönster. For instance.The link with English must be there if you look. For English too is a Germanic language.

Let me prove my point by constructing another word, following normal rules: mammofobia. It means "fear of breasts".

I thought it was from Latin?

fenestra -ae f. [a window; a breach , loophole].

The German might come from the Latin...



1620, "the action of throwing out of a window," from L. fenestra "window." A word invented for one incident: the "Defenestration of Prague," May 21, 1618, when two Catholic deputies to the Bohemian national assembly and a secretary were tossed out the window (into a moat) of the castle of Hradshin by Protestant radicals. It marked the start of the Thirty Years War. Some linguists link fenestra with Gk. verb phainein "to show;" others see in it an Etruscan borrowing, based on the suffix -(s)tra, as in L. loan-words aplustre "the carved stern of a ship with its ornaments," genista "the plant broom," lanista "trainer of gladiators."



De- is a Latin prefix...those (generally) get stuck onto Latin-derived words.

Also wouldn't it be mammophobia?

[Willowmound]

I thought it was from Latin?

fenestra -ae f. [a window; a breach , loophole].



Excellent. So it's either of Indo-European origin, or the word was imported straight from Latin at a later stage.


De- is a Latin prefix...those (generally) get stuck onto Latin-derived words.

It certainly makes for a cleaner construction. But in English, de- is so much used, I reckon you can stick it on pretty much anything.

Also wouldn't it be mammophobia?

Yes it would. :)

[Willowmound]

English window comes from "wind-eye" -- an "eye" in the wall to let in, or shut out, the wind.

'S true.

[Danger Jane]

It certainly makes for a cleaner construction. But in English, de- is so much used, I reckon you can stick it on pretty much anything.


But that's just the bastardization of the language!!

[Willowmound]

Yup. But English is all about being a bastard.

Saxon, Flemish, Celtic, Norse, French, Latin, Punjabi, Native American (I know), Australian Aboriginal (I know), Maori (I know!), German, Italian... It contains influences from all, and from many, many more.

It's why I like it.

[Danger Jane]

This is true.

English owns all.

[wordsquid]

Adipose.

[imagoodgurl4]

Incorrigible. Not really uncommon, I suppose, but it's a favorite of mine. I called a friend of mine that when we were having a humorous conversation last year and every time we hear the word, we both crack up.

Cohabitate. Again, not totally uncommon and it means to live with someone, but I always think like, husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, kinda thing and it was used in the context of just roommates, again, from the same friend mentioned above, and I always think of something dirty whenver it's used...so I crack up at that one, too.

Yes, I know...I'm incorrigible. :tongue

[Alan Yee]

Toward the end of first semester of last school year (freshman, as in high school), we read Romeo and Juliet out loud in my English class. At some point in the play, Juliet uses the word "methinks." I thought it was hilarious that it was an actual real word--before then, I had seen several AW folks use it, but I thought it was just an online thing.

[deathwizard]

This is the most basic one yet, but for some unknown reason I like the noun slew. As in "a slew of words have been mentioned already."

[Storm Surge]

corybantic -- frenzied; agitated; unrestrained

This describes me pretty well. Much to my family’s dismay.

[midwife]

feral. I love it, but if I use it more than once, it's too much.

[wayndom]

I like coolth, the opposite of warmth. How did we ever let that word drop out of general usage?

Which reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon in which Dogbert states that the show features, "full frontal and backal nudity."

[wayndom]

Erubiscate (blush) is my favourite.

I've been know to do that while watching an ecdysiast...

[wayndom]

Prosthelytize?

Um... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proselytism :)

It means trying to recruit someone who has an artificial limb.

[wayndom]

Yup. But English is all about being a bastard.

Saxon, Flemish, Celtic, Norse, French, Latin, Punjabi, Native American (I know), Australian Aboriginal (I know), Maori (I know!), German, Italian... It contains influences from all, and from many, many more.

It's why I like it.

Since you included Native American (which would apply, I assume, exclusively to American English), don't forget Dutch. I actually heard a British linguist say he couldn't understand how, when the Pilgrims went from England to America, they arrived calling open spaces "plains," and cliffs "bluffs." I'm not sure about bluffs, but I know the Pilgrims spent a year in Amsterdam before they came to America, and in the Netherlands, a public square is a "plein" (pronounced, "plane"). Also, the pronunciation of school, "skool," is Dutch. The German pronunciation is "shool."

[farfromfearless]

"Cantankerous"

[imagoodgurl4]

cadge - it means to beg....just sounds wicked cool...have yet to use it in a novel, but I'm gonna try. :)