Since the age of 12, I have kept a quote book. It’s strange to see Langston Hughes written out in my careful 12 year-old handwriting, and reminds me of where I was then, and where I am now.
I have recently decided that I need to start a word book. Words that delight me. Like “serendipity.” and “chaos.”
So, Dopers. We seem to be a semantic (sometimes semetic) bunch. What is your favorite word, and why?
Brobdingnagian. Adjective: Large
Cause it gives people whiplash when you say it.
Codswallop: a polite word for Bullsh*t
Walleydriegle (sp?): unkempt
Please give these words a good home. They need exercise, so take them out once a day.
Labyrinthine = Convoluted, like a complex maze.
Ensorceled = Enchanted or bewitched.
Interstices = Small or narrow spaces in between objects or parts.
Defenestrate: to throw a thing or esp. a person out of a window. The defenestration of the commissioners at Prague {1610-20).
Byzantine
Phrenology…study of the shape and bumps on the head. Used to determine character & intelligence. It’s a discredited idea, but I really like to use the word whenever possible. It’s hard to work into daily conversation though.
Elephantine
Ameliorate
Kudos
Laviscious
Lullabye
I’ve had a quote page in my journal/writing notebooks since I was about 11, and I used to have word pages as well. I love this thread.
amaranthine-eternally beautiful
bete noir-the thing one hates or fears most
I just feel good about being able to throw around a French phrase.
eldritch-strange or unearthly, eerie
incognito-disguised under a false name
prolix-tediously prolonged, wordy
mea culpa-I am to blame
I felt smart for knowing something in Latin when I was 11. Plus, I got it when, after grading the first quiz, my Roman history professor suggested we all go home and chant “mea culpa.”
Disambiguate. Learned that one on the boards here. I forget who used it, but I thought they were coining a word, and I liked it. Turns out it’s a real word.
-Another
Borborygmi - this is the odd gurgles and other sounds your stomach makes. I didn’t even know it was a word until I saw it in a restaurant review.
yam!
Accrue
downgrade
corpuscle
strongman
flapjack
surreptude
proliferous
quintessential
dogmatic
sesquipedalian
pantaloon!
Unundulating. Have never been able to work it into conversation w/out giggling, though.
zugzwang. (From chess but can be used in other contexts: a position in which one is forced to make an undesirable move.)
flibbertigibbet
squinch (An arch or lintel built into the upper corner of a square space, allowing a circular or polygonal dome to be placed more securely above the walls.
Ooh, I too love sesquipedalian. It’s so self-referential!
lockbox
Tintinnabulation - the ringing of bells.
Quintessentail - someone said it, but I love this word. It’s so fun to say.
Ridiculous - said properly, this can be a very scathing insult. And I love the hard sounds in it that mimic its meaning.
Superfluous - learn how to pronounce it correctly and everyone will be impressed.
Mellifluous
Zephyr
Languish
Doldrums
Gelatinous - I love this word because I have a funny story for it. I was really tired at school one day, and I told my friend Tina I was gelatinous with fatigue. She could not believe that gelatinous was a word, and we argued for a while. Then she looked it up, and was like, alright, but who says it in a sentence?!
Then like three weeks later we had to read 1984, and sure enough Orwell said the exact same thing: “Winston was gelatinous with fatigue. Gelatinous was the right word.” I screamed like a banshee when I read that! Tina swore up and down that I had read the book before, but I hadn’t really. To this day, if I bring it up, she says all sorts of insulting things about me being a phony and a fake-word user. 
Good luck with your list, Swiddles.
I meant, of course, quintessential. Mea culpa!
A friend of mine once said “Damoclean sword” in the sense of “double edged sword”.
You wouldn’t believe how long the argument went.
Nonetheless, Sword of Damocles is a great one.
Vapid.
Redundant.
Obsequious.
Scathing.
Onomatopoeia.
And redundant.
Redundant is a good word. It really is. Really.