Favorite seldom used terms

What words do you like to use that are seldom used by others?

My favorites:

Fortnight: Two weeks.

Irascible: Quick to anger.

Nebulous: Unclear; vague; indefinite

Niggardly: Stingy. The word that has caused quite a furor by people who mistakenly think it is racist.

Puisssant: Powerful, strong.

Lallygag-To waste time by puttering or being aimless.

Kerfuffle: A commotion or fuss.
Codswallop: Nonsense.
Quisling: A traitor. (Vidkun Quisling [1887–1945] was a Norwegian army officer who earned notoriety when he sided with the Nazis on the first day of Norway’s entry into the Second World War.)

Well, shoot - OP beat me to ** nebulous **. Others I like:

** phrenetic ** : Wildly excited; frantic.
** bourgeois ** : typical of, or relating to, the Middle Class

And, my very favorite word of all words, I give you…
** Fritillary ** : Members of Nymphalidae family of butterflies, or * Fritillaria * genus of plants.

Love,
Kn*ckers

I like/use nebulous, too.

For me, I like trollop and strumpet. Those are the insults I hurl at female drivers when I have to keep my language rated PG in the car.

I also use dolt, dullard and lout. Those are the insults I hurl at male drivers when I have to remain in PG mode.

[sub]lousy kids…[/sub]

**lu·gu·bri·ous ** (l-gbr-s, -gy-)
adj.
Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.

I don’t know about “fortnight” being seldom used- it is quite common in Australia- much to the chagrin of my Amerivan friends who always get confused when I use it.

fondrian : the state of being chesmuric or malifulent

baltustrate : to pultify a person or group of people with gloms or other frunates

cranule : a small irritant in ones nethrodes

politicking - the act of doing politics. I just think it sounds so fun and silly, and then you find out what it means… :slight_smile:

erstwhile: previous
antechamber: anteroom
forsooth: indeed
thrice: three times (I actually stopped saying that because it got annoying when people didn’t understand and I had to explain.)
pre(post-)prandial: before (after) dinner
peregrinate: wander
sartorial: relating to clothes.

I could go on…

moribund - Approaching death; about to die.
noisome - Offensive to the point of arousing disgust.
callipygian - Having beautifully proportioned buttocks.
invective - Denunciatory or abusive language; vituperation.

Well, if colloquialisms count, I’d have to nominate “Well buy me a Cadillac, and call me Elvis!” which has a small but loyal following. :slight_smile:

Failing that, I’ll go with Defenestrate-“To toss out a window”

ennui-a feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction

lassitude-a condition of listlessness, see also Langour
(I’m not an energetic person obviously.)
I always knew it as lollygag, never knew there was a variant.
Learn something every day.

gelid, very cold, icy
poltroon, fool, idiot
coscinomancer, one who practices divination with a sieve and a pair of tongs or shears, which are supported upon the thumb nails of two persons looking upon one another.

I like sesquipedalian, which is said of a person who has a predilection for using unnecessarily long and complicated words. Such as sesquipedalian.

wench is fantastic - a great humorous insult to hurl at female friends and girlfriends

“make me a cup of tea wench!”

be careful when you use it though. :smack:

and i agree with Cicero - “fortnight” is damn common in the UK too.

My favorite color is ** puce **. Which is that lovely shade that ain’t quite purple and ain’t quite brown.

Some of my favourites:

bibulous : addicted to drinking alcoholic liquor.

crapulent : given to or suffering from effects of, resulting from, intemperance.

And one that a few of our esteemed friends sometimes seem to suffer from:

logorrhoea : excessive flow of words.

Ranchoth,

Did you mean to toss out of a window, or to toss the whole window out? I only ask because I’ve always thought the act of throwing something out of a window should really be exfenestrate, with defenestrate reserved solely for window-removal. Course there’s probably no such word.

I like “bankrupt”, when applied to morals or politics.

Hmmmm -

Phrases that I actually incorporate into my speech when I think I can get away with them?

Words:

Puerile - immature
Chippie - tart or strumpet
quotidian - daily (e.g., “my quotidian existence”)

Phrases:
“You little so-and-so”!