I used to flip thru a big ol’ dictionary looking for interesting words. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten most of the ones I found because neither I nor most other people use them.
One that I do remember and really like is persiflage - noun: light and slightly contemptuous mockery or banter
It’s a bit classier than snark.
Are there any words you’d like to hear more often?
Discombobulation - state of being confused, upset.
Defenestrate–to throw something out a window.
I got to use the word “cachinnation” in conversation just the other day. I have a neighbor who has a very loud laugh! Quite possibly the first time I have ever actually uttered that word.
“Gender” instead of “sex,” which already means something else.
Chuffed. It’s a Britishism that would be a great addition to American vocabularies.
“Please”
“Thank you”
“May I?”
“Excuse me”
I figured someone would pick some ordinary niceties… I don’t consider any of them to be particularly interesting words, altho they are far too scarce in everyday life.
I rather like callipygian, and I was quite surprised to hear it in the lyrics of a Limeliters song.
Foreigners who don’t know the language well find “diarrhea” a very mellifluous word, but I can’t say that it is underused.
For myself, I think “borborygmus” could be put to wider use, at least in apologies. “I hope you will forgive my borborygmus, Lady Catherine, I’m afraid my collywobbles have developed a life of their own.”
Right on!
I’d like to hear the entire Spanish language used more … it’s almost musical to the ear.
Where have you been for the last several years? It’s incredibly common to use “gender.” A Google news search turns up 14.9 million results. Searching “sex” mainly turns up results related to the act in various ways–sex workers, sex education, etc.
I would have expected Eutychus to have suggested that word…
Actually, nicety does not mean a polite, pleasant phrase. It means a fine or subtle detail or distinction.
Actually, it means both.
Cite?
Google “niceties of life” to find innumerable examples of the usage.
The usage evolution of nice is rather fascinating.
I’d like to hear “fewer” used correctly more often.
The Oxford English Dictionary, definitions I (niceness, or an instance of this) and II (a nice thing, utterance, etc.)
Sample quotation:
1931 The master, about fifty years old, a veteran Ichabod in pedagogy . . . began the day without any get-together niceties.
And commensurately fewer incorrect use of “less”?