# Coolest word you've learned recently **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 14, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724 "2010-09-14T14:20:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/1 "2010-09-14T14:20:53Z")
[Heuristically](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12911862&postcount=78). How cool! I adore learning new words, this is the main reason I want to upgrade my old Sony Reader to a new version with a built-in dictionary. I would love to tap on words I don’t know and get a quick definition while I’m reading. ---
**Author:** ![FuzzyOgre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@FuzzyOgre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyOgre)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/2 "2010-09-14T14:23:55Z")
Then you will really like [http://www.freerice.com](http://www.freerice.com) Its a great way to learn words. And its free. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/3 "2010-09-14T17:05:11Z")
Diegetic. It means “present in the fictional world.” For example, in the film _Whole New Thing,_, the music of the Hidden Cameras is constantly used to accompany the action, but it is not heard by the characters, and is therefore non-diegetic – except when the main character is listening to the Hidden Cameras on his Walkman, in which case the music becomes diegetic. (And sometimes it can be blurred; say a character puts on a song on her car stereo, and then the scene zooms out of the car and the song continues on, even when it cuts to a different scene.) Or consider the musical _RENT_. “One Song Glory,” “Another Day/No Day But Today,” “The Tango: Maureen,” “I’ll Cover You,” and so forth, are probably non-diegetic; the characters aren’t “literally” singing, that is, there’s no reason for them to be singing in real life, and the other characters don’t react to them as though they had suddenly started singing. It’s meant to be dialogue or even inner monologue, and it’s sung in order to express the emotion of the scene and because sudden non-diegetic song is part of the idiom of the stage musical. But in other cases – “Your Eyes,” “Over the Moon,” and the like – they are supposed to actually be singing; in “Your Eyes” it’s a plot element that Roger has been working on this song for ages; “Over the Moon” is part of an agitprop performance art piece; and so forth. So those songs are diegetic. And others are much more ambiguous: in “La Vie Bohème” or “Today 4 U,” it’s actually slightly plausible that these crazy Bohemian characters are actually dancing around the area, even though it would be a bizarre thing to see in real life; following “Today 4 U,” for example, the other characters applaud Angel once she finishes singing. So it might or might not be diegetic. If you want to see a recent movie that truly fucks with the diegesis, try “Scott Pilgrim.” Damn. Anyway, I think it’s awesome there’s a word for it. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/4 "2010-09-14T18:30:18Z")
Wirtschaftswissenschaften (It has the word Schaft twice!) It means economics (wissenshaften is science and wirtschaft is business or economy). However, wirtschaft can also mean pub, or bar. So it can also be the science of pubbing! ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/5 "2010-09-14T18:38:32Z")
Slight hijack, but I made up an awesome word the other night. Computrification. What happens to me every evening until late at night. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/6 "2010-09-14T18:42:40Z")
[Skeuomorph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph). Wonderful word, and perfectly describes the design of 90% of the music software on the market. For instance, if you purchase a compressor plug-in for your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software, in all likelihood the control panel of the original device will be perfectly duplicated - no matter how much screen space is used or how poorly round knobs work as an interface element on a computer screen. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/7 "2010-09-14T18:46:03Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > “The Tango: Maureen” I was just pondering this song yesterday and wondering if it was non-diegetic or not. The spoken lines in the song suggest that Joanne and Mark are actually dancing a tango (“It’s hard doing this backwards.” “You should try it in heels!”). I feel like musicals are somewhere in a fuzzy place between diegetic and non-diegetic music. I wish I had something to add to this thread now. Um, I recently learned the specifics of what a boot sector is and how it works? ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/8 "2010-09-14T19:01:00Z")
[Nocebo](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=578099&highlight=nocebo). Like a placebo, but having negative rather than positive effects. I had no idea. ---
**Author:** ![HardlySanguine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HardlySanguine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HardlySanguine)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/9 "2010-09-14T19:47:07Z")
[Tmesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tmesis). Ever chopped up a word and shove something in the middle? Abso-fucking-lutely you have. 😃 See also [Expletive Infixation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expletive_infixation). **Hardly-any-Sanguine** ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/10 "2010-09-14T23:01:06Z")
> [@Electric\_Warrior](#): > > > [@matt\_mcl](#): > > > > “The Tango: Maureen” > > I was just pondering this song yesterday and wondering if it was non-diegetic or not. The spoken lines in the song suggest that Joanne and Mark are actually dancing a tango (“It’s hard doing this backwards.” “You should try it in heels!”). I feel like musicals are somewhere in a fuzzy place between diegetic and non-diegetic music. Good point! And yet there’s completely no reason for them to be dancing a tango at that moment. It may fall into my “who knows what those crazy Bohemians could get up to” category. (In the movie it’s a little more on the fantasy side, due to the imagined sequence with all the other dancers). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/11 "2010-09-14T23:37:36Z")
Planetesimal: a cosmic object the size of a small planet, formed in the early stages of galaxy formation. One theory of how the moon came to be (since it is larger than it should be and is composed of many elements of the Earth’s crust) is that a planetesimal collided with the Earth when it was much smaller, but lost the battle. What was left of it was mixed with large chunks of the Earth’s crust and was captured in Earth’s orbit. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/12 "2010-09-15T03:31:42Z")
Tonight I learned: Asyndeton: A series of elements, not connected with ‘and’, ‘or’, or some sort of conjunction. (sorta) Synecdoche: The whole represents a subset, or a subset represents the whole. (kinda) Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![FuzzyOgre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@FuzzyOgre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyOgre)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/13 "2010-09-15T03:32:08Z")
Thanks for tmesis. Its abso-infix-lutely why I love SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/14 "2010-09-15T03:56:41Z")
[gobshite](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gobshite). Yeah, I kind of knew what it meant, but I never really said to myself, “What a priceless fucking word.” It’s an absolute delight to say. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/15 "2010-09-15T10:24:59Z")
Porcata, Italian for “filthy junk”, “piggish stuff”, “something you never want to think about”. Nearly every election in Italy is preceded by the government changing how Italians vote in order to gain an electoral advantage (usually this is preceded by the government studying statistics on which demographic the law should best target). Every new version of the voting law is given a nickname by the Italian press. The latest voting law is nicknamed “porcata”, as the law’s (right wing) author immediately denounced it as a piece of shit almost as soon as it was signed into law. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/16 "2010-09-15T11:54:24Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > [Skeuomorph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph). Very nice one. You’ve probably heard of coulrophobia, the irrational fear of clowns (though some would argue it’s entirely rational ;)). But did you know the coulro- prefix came from the Greek “kōlobathristēs”, which means “someone who goes around on stilts” ? ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/17 "2010-09-15T13:05:45Z")
[Flaunching](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flaunching) - the “sloped fillet around the base of a chimney pot, which serves to hold the pot in position and allow rainwater to run off”. As in “failure to maintain one’s flaunching can cause water ingress around the chimney stack” Hence the water dripping from the kitchen celing by the old stove flue whenever it rains heavily. This word cost me £140 ($220) this morning when I wrote a cheque to the guy who came to repair it! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/18 "2010-09-15T13:50:40Z")
[Hurple](http://everything2.com/title/hurple). To hunch up one shoulder’s in reaction to extreme cold. And when I hurple, My lips turn purple. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/19 "2010-09-16T02:21:20Z")
The only one that comes to mind is eisegesis. It’s the opposite of exegesis. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724/20 "2010-09-16T02:27:34Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > [Flaunching](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flaunching) - the “sloped fillet around the base of a chimney pot, which serves to hold the pot in position and allow rainwater to run off”. > > As in “failure to maintain one’s flaunching can cause water ingress around the chimney stack” > > Hence the water dripping from the kitchen celing by the old stove flue whenever it rains heavily. > > This word cost me £140 ($220) this morning when I wrote a cheque to the guy who came to repair it! Pardon the hijack, but, whom does one call for this repair? My brother may need this repair. Thanks,’ hh [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coolest-word-youve-learned-recently/553724.md?page=2)