# Needed: A few good words **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 21, 2001, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720 "2001-10-21T18:56:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SwimmingRiddles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SwimmingRiddles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingRiddles)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/1 "2001-10-21T18:56:38Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/2 "2001-10-21T19:12:24Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/3 "2001-10-21T19:31:32Z")
Labyrinthine = Convoluted, like a complex maze. Ensorceled = Enchanted or bewitched. Interstices = Small or narrow spaces in between objects or parts. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/4 "2001-10-21T19:37:55Z")
Defenestrate: to throw a thing or esp. a person out of a window. _The defenestration of the commissioners at Prague {1610-20)._ ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/5 "2001-10-21T19:40:24Z")
Byzantine ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/6 "2001-10-21T19:47:12Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/7 "2001-10-21T20:09:28Z")
Elephantine Ameliorate Kudos Laviscious Lullabye ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/8 "2001-10-21T20:12:35Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![Another\_Primate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Another\_Primate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Another_Primate)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/9 "2001-10-21T20:50:47Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/10 "2001-10-21T21:44:47Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![They\_Call\_Me\_Sneeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@They\_Call\_Me\_Sneeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/They_Call_Me_Sneeze)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/11 "2001-10-21T22:12:26Z")
yam! ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/12 "2001-10-21T22:15:12Z")
Accrue downgrade corpuscle strongman flapjack surreptude proliferous quintessential dogmatic ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/13 "2001-10-21T22:23:46Z")
sesquipedalian ---
**Author:** ![They\_Call\_Me\_Sneeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@They\_Call\_Me\_Sneeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/They_Call_Me_Sneeze)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/14 "2001-10-21T22:31:25Z")
pantaloon! ---
**Author:** ![Yersinia\_Pestis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ccd318/32.png) [@Yersinia\_Pestis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yersinia_Pestis)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/15 "2001-10-21T22:32:11Z")
**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**](http://www.loggia.com/vignette/99218b.html) (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! ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/16 "2001-10-21T22:39:02Z")
lockbox ---
**Author:** ![Nacho4Sara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Nacho4Sara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nacho4Sara)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/17 "2001-10-21T23:38:02Z")
**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. ---
**Author:** ![Nacho4Sara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Nacho4Sara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nacho4Sara)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/18 "2001-10-21T23:39:17Z")
I meant, of course, **quintessential**. Mea culpa! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![drillrod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@drillrod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drillrod)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/19 "2001-10-22T00:50:13Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Sylkyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sylkyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylkyn)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2001, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720/20 "2001-10-22T01:00:50Z")
Vapid. Redundant. Obsequious. Scathing. Onomatopoeia. And redundant. Redundant is a good word. It really is. Really. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/needed-a-few-good-words/88720.md?page=2)