I recently watched an episode of “A Town and Country Murder” on you tube. When they interviewed the parents each used the world ebullient in reference to their daughter who was murderer.
I live in the USA. I know the the meaning of the word; however I have never heard it used IRL.
So my question to UK dopers: how common is the word ebullient?
I’ve never heard it used in common parlance, although ‘exuberant’ does crop up from time to time usually in a tongue in cheek way.
No, never heard anyone use it in common speech.
Never heard it normal speech either, when not in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Or scrabble. Two people saying it seems weird, to me.
I’ve never heard anyone use it. I may have seen it in a book at some point. I don’t know what it means.
It’s a newspaper word. Like ‘rapped’. When did you last meet a ‘love rat’? How about 'hanky panky?
Edit - Journalese is what it is.
I remember a skit on The Fast Show where one of the Suit Your Tailors (Paul Whitehouse, I think) responded, “Ebullient, sir, ebullient” when asked how he was doing.
I think part of the joke is that he used a ridiculous word to describe it. He’s also used, “Radiant, sir, radiant.” Always for laughs.
Yank here. (How it pains to say that!) I think I remember a Dizzy Gillespie record referring to him as Ebullient. Now that I said it, I’ll go check to see if I mistook it for another $3 word.
Beat the clock: The Ebullient Mr. Gillespie - Wikipedia
“romp” “boffin” “tragic tot” etc etc
Ebullient isn’t an everyday word, and to be honest I only had, before this thread, a rough idea of what it meant.
So, “ebullient” means “pertaining to, or characteristic of, someone who had been murdered”?
I picture “bullient” as meaning “pertaining to, or characteristic of, the act of bull riding at a rodeo, or the person to does it”. If this is done virtually or electronically (as in a video game, for example), then it’s “ebullient”.
I love hearing big or unusual words. If I encountered someone using ebullient in the wild I’d feel real real good.
I’d never thought of ebullient as journalese until this thread, but it’s true that I think I’ve only encountered it in journalistic descriptions of individuals whose court case just went their way.
Remember the character from season 4 of The Wire who proclaimed that only buildings and bowels can be evacuated, not people? I wonder if such thinking is behind the journalistic use of ebullient. According to the dictionary definitions online, it refers to behavior and appearance, not emotion. Maybe some HW Fowler-type told reporters they couldn’t say the acquitted defendant was happy or ecstatic because they couldn’t read minds, but they could confidently assert that he was ebullient.
I’d disagree with that.
Most people only use a small fraction of their vocabulary in their normal day to day speech. The usage of ‘Ebullient’ tends to be outside usual spoken language, but not all that uncommon in literature.
I like the word. It sounds like what it means. (probably the ‘bull’ in it…)
My Tuppenceworth…
Never heard or read the word, and can’t even begin to guess what it might mean.
Ebuliant? It’s the sort of word I’d use, though not often to describe sociable, vivacious, (possibly overloud and slightly annoying) women.
The interesting thing to me is the sexism and class difference embodied in the word and the use of “ebuliant” that and the synonym “bubbly.”
Public schoolgirls perhaps might be seen as “ebuliant” (excitable) while the land lady of your local pub might be considered “bubbly” (flirty, tarty, and dim!)
Seems pretty normal to me. The only reason I wouldn’t consider it an “everyday” word is that I don’t get the chance to use it every day. I know my mom used it when I was young, which is probably where I picked it up. I also use the phrase “blot on the escutcheon” thanks to my mother, who had an impressively varied range of vocabulary and idioms for a woman whose first language was Yiddish!
Thank you everyone for your responses.
First entry on my first vocabulary list in high school was “Ebullient: bubbling, effervescent, lively”
“Bubbly” seems to be the go-to descriptor for parents when talking about their recently-deceased daughter in newspapers. “Lovely girl… bubbly… full of life”. I always wonder why they feel the need to draw a distinction between how much life she used to possess and the current state of affairs.
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard Fry use it on QI like it weren’t no thang…