Words that you'd like to use more often in conversation

[Martini Enfield]

There's a great line in an episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, when General Melchett instructs his aide-de-camp to make a note of the word "Gobbledegook" because he wants to use it more often in conversation.

I've got my own list of words I'd like to use more often in conversation if the situation ever arose, with the current favourite being "Shenanigans". I so rarely get to use it, though.

What words do you have a mental note to use more often, but so rarely actually get the chance to do so?

[kambuckta]

What words do you have a mental note to use more often, but so rarely actually get the chance to do so?

I love the word 'frust', but it doesn't come up in polite conversation ever, really. So when I'm being all domestic and sweeping the floor, I address the frust personally. :D

Sorry....that's all I've got. All sorts of other big and obscure words I use regularly just to piss-off my work colleagues.

:p

[Hilarity N. Suze]

I need to just stick to plain old ordinary words. The last odd word I used out loud was "detritus," which I didn't think was all that odd a word, especially in context. (Getting the detritus from last school year out of my son's room, in preparation for new school stuff.)

My coworker did not know what it meant and asked about it--since we are editors and are interested in words. I said maybe I'd mispronounced it. No. Or used it wrong. No...by this time she had it in her sights, I mean in the dictionary. No, she just hadn't heard it before.

Too bad, because this one could come up in conversation a lot.

[Bobotheoptimist]

"Abound" - As in "Egad chum, mysteries abound!"

I try to use "supple" at least once a month. Unfortunately it's usually something like "Hey, the fans in these new switches blow the heat out the front. Sure does keep the fibre supple, tho"

[seosamh]

I managed to get the Managing Director of a UK train operator to say the word "Retromingent" during a formal meeting.

[WhyNot]

I need to just stick to plain old ordinary words. The last odd word I used out loud was "detritus," which I didn't think was all that odd a word, especially in context. . . I said maybe I'd mispronounced it.
Huh. That's one of those words that I've only ever seen in print, so while I thought I knew how to pronounce it, I was completely wrong. I just looked it up now, and it's "dih-TRY-tus". I wouldn't have recognized it by hearing it, even though it's a great word.

(I thought it was "DEH-trih-tus")


As for the OP, I love the word "seafoam", but you'd be surprised how often it doesn't come up.

[Litoris]

I like introducing odd words to people. I love the way superfluous rolls off the tongue. I also am currently using the word spiffy. I know, common enough words, but they make other people stare :D

I don't keep a list, though, I just find excuses to shove new words in now and then when they come across my radar. Malodorous and mellifluous have been used recently. Yeh, I guess I like -uous and -ous words.

ETA: I love the word detritus -- I use it far too often, lol!

[Slithy Tove]

"Lethoso," for which there is no meaning, but I wish there were. So when pedants correct me for mispronouncing the African nation of "Lesotho," I could counter-correct them back.

[Johnny L.A.]

Pusillanimous
Poltroon
Plummet
Strewth
Monkeyshines
I also am currently using the word spiffy.
'Spiffy' is the adjective I use for my Triumph and my coconut pork pie hat.

[Flutterby]

Just the other day I was able to use both defenestrate and copacetic in the space of an hour.

It was wonderful.

[Johnny L.A.]

Just the other day I was able to use both defenestrate...
Which reminds me: Jettison.

[Slithy Tove]

Which reminds me: Jettison.

While a crew might jettison the jetsam, does the sea flottison the flotsam?

[Moriarty]

Righteous.

(I'm a fan of indignation)

[susan]

Debacle. Imprimatur. Supercilious.

[WhyNot]

Righteous.

(I'm a fan of indignation)
Oh good. For a moment there, I thought you were a fan of '80s surfer slang. :p

[Johnny L.A.]

Righteous.
In the late-1970s we used that in the same way people now use 'Awesome!'

[WhyNot]

While a crew might jettison the jetsam, does the sea flottison the flotsam?
Yes. It comes to shore with the seafoam.

BOOYAH!

[Queen Tonya]

Huh. That's one of those words that I've only ever seen in print, so while I thought I knew how to pronounce it, I was completely wrong. I just looked it up now, and it's "dih-TRY-tus". I wouldn't have recognized it by hearing it, even though it's a great word.

(I thought it was "DEH-trih-tus")


As for the OP, I love the word "seafoam", but you'd be surprised how often it doesn't come up.

Hey, me too! I wasn't even motivated to look it up, figuring I already knew it and all, so you saved me from an embarrassing mispronunciation as well.

Thanks :)

[pprgrl]

Pescetarian. Now I just need to convert so I can be a pescetarian Episcopalian and I'll be all set!

[Bobotheoptimist]

Not so much now, but I wish I knew the word "crapulent" back in my drinking days. The years 1988-1992 (inclusive) were frequently crapulent.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

Come to think of it, I've also mystified coworkers with "truculent" and "lugubrious." Not in the same sentence...not even the same day.

[Shryn King]

aplomb

I was talking to someone the other night and it worked in the conversation and I used it; and, then it didn't work because he said, "what?", and I backed off thinking that maybe I hadn't pronounced it right.

I had pronounced it correctly. I had used it appropriately. Next time I hope to have the aplomb to carry it off.

[ivylass]

I would like to work kerfuffle more into conversations, but I'm satisfied with the occasional albeit.

I had to laugh at my daughter...she thought to increase her vocabulary she should read the dictionary. I told her to keep doing what she's doing...read books voraciously. She's currently reading the entire Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[Mark Ryle]

Malodorous and mellifluous have been used recently. Yeh, I guess I like -uous and -ous words.There's something I've always liked about incredulous when it modifies a pronoun, as in "I was incredulous!," instead of saying "I couldn't believe it!" or 'I was astounded." It has the advantage of your hearer being able to discern the meaning from the context and your expression even if they don't know the word.

I once saw Maureen Dean use it repeatedly in a TV interview during Watergate, and each time it impressed me. I don't think I use it to impress, but just to vary the diet in conversation. But I never get tired of it. Occasions to use it are never lacking but I severely limit it because of the danger of sounding like a showoff, as Mo Dean did that day.

[threnodyangelfire]

I got the word "Skullduggery" on the homepage of a very dry financial website I was Producing at the time.

[Mark Ryle]

I got the word "Skullduggery" on the homepage of a very dry financial website I was Producing at the time.Remember to spell it skulduggery. Two L's is a variant spelling almost never used. Surprisingly too, because the word seems to lend itself to 'skull'-type associations. Also to skulk, in the sense: to hide or conceal something (as oneself) often out of cowardice or fear or with sinister intent. (m-w. com)

[Hostile Dialect]

I've got my own list of words I'd like to use more often in conversation if the situation ever arose, with the current favourite being "Shenanigans". I so rarely get to use it, though.

Australia must be a sad place if you don't get to use "shenanigans". If it makes you feel any better, I've already used your share, and your neighbor's too.



As for the OP, I love the word "seafoam", but you'd be surprised how often it doesn't come up.

Isn't there seafoam on Lake Michigan?

As for me, I'm a language geek, so I use uncommon words all the time and probably don't even realize it. I do feel bad when I throw one right over someone's head. Cultural references, too, since I tend to know less about the TV shows of the last couple of years than I do about philosophy, sociology, psychology, and more obscure things (to my generation). I was disappointed today when a 19-year-old Super Christian was describing his church men's group get-togethers and I cut in with "so you guys talk about Kierkegaard?", only to get a blank stare in response. I was going to explain it, but thought better of it for some reason I couldn't nail down. I was glad, since it was only a few seconds later that I heard him say that they spent their time "...you know, philosophizing..."

I would, however, like to have more occasions to use the word "fisticuffs". Just doesn't lend itself as naturally now that I'm not into hockey anymore.

[Cyberhwk]

Bumfuzzled & Obfuscate

I'm just not quick enough to remember a word like "obfuscate" before blurting out "get around."

[betenoir]

Gobsmacked. Because when I use it around my fellow Americans they tend to look...well, gobsmacked.

Also catawampus.

And I'm a big fan of defenestrate and copacetic. I'm frequently copacetic when I'm not being defenestated. If I am I go all catawampus.

I also like bugger, as if I drop something on my foot at work I can get away with shouting it out like I couldn't with "Oh shit".

[Hostile Dialect]

Caterwauling is another excellent word that just doesn't come up as much as you'd think it would.