Disbudding- The act of dehorning a goat. Probably means something else now in Colorado.
Abecedarian : one learning the rudiments of something (as the alphabet)
Uh huh. That’s what your mom wants you to think…
One of my favorites that is not heard often anymore is “morass” - muddy and boggy or complicated and confused. Always gets a doubletake from the hearer(s).
So… the SDMB IMHO forum should be renamed “Methinks”? I like it.
Love it too. Used it in my most recent novel.
I use this word at least once a week.
Here’s my dad’s favorite: Cogitate. He’d always say “Let me cogitate that for a bit.”
My favorite is yardang, which is a sharp irregular ridge of compact sand lying in the direction of the prevailing wind in exposed desert regions, formed by the wind erosion of adjacent material that is less resistant.
Or something a redneck pirate might say.
Defenestration = To throw a person out a window
Always liked that word.
When I was a boating instructor at Scout camp, I put up a sign that read, “Absolutely no defenestrating allowed.” No one had a dictionary so I got a lot of questions about it.
It’s a good word next time you’re in Prague: Defenestrations of Prague - Wikipedia
I like:
scimitar
braggadocio
presbytery
hirsute
sphagnum
Hornswoggle - to deceive or cheat.
Pluperfect - beyond perfect.
Recalcitrant - uncooperative.
obstinate
lissome
willowy
prothonotary
verdant
lucullan
magisterial
peevish
Lissome, ooh, that’s a good one. Gonna bring that into my active writing vocabulary.
Here’s a similar one: eyesome.
I learned “futz” when I moved up here. I liked it better than “fart around with”.
Also, bumbershoot.
Corpulent.
Sussurance - the sound *is *the meaning.
Syzygy.
Zymurgy.
Frustum.
Lustrum.
Kefalograviera.
Interstices.
Trilemma.
One bored day at work, I came across persiflage. I don’t work it into conversation nearly as often as I should.
Not to be confused with “steatopygian”, meaning having fat buttocks.
It hasn’t made it into official dictionaries but I find this an incredibly useful and descriptive word in this day and age: Wharrgarbl.
I particularly love the etymology:
The comparison of some internet ranter in full incoherent flow with an angry dog trying to bite a stream of water spraying it in the face is wonderful.
one from the dialect of my place of birth.
Clemmy, meaning stone.
as in “oh na! divven’t hoy a clemmy arrus, it’ll git nack!”
Translation. “please do not project a stone in my direction, I am certain it will cause great. pain”
Or how about “spuggy” meaning “sparrow”