Please enhance our vocabulary with a favorite word of yours that you think less than half of the public could spell or define. No proper nouns, please, and while we all love our schadenfreude, nothing that’s a loan word, or not an obvious one at least. Please give part of speech and definition, and use it in a sentence.
I will arbitrarily assign points that don’t matter in the slightest.
For obscurity:
:rolleyes:Zero points if it’s so fabulously specific/specialized obtuse and obscure as to be ridiculous.
:)One point if I didn’t know what it means.
:DTwo points if I’ve never heard it before.
For usefulness:
:rolleyes:Zero points if I will never, ever have the smallest chance to use it in conversation without getting strange, blank looks from those around me.
:)One point if I can use it in conversation to look witty and well read.
:DTwo points if I can use it in conversation to surreptitiously poke fun at someone.
For that certain je ne sais quoi:
:rolleyes:Zero points if I have no hope of pronouncing it.
:)One points if its a homonym or false cognate with another well known word.
:DTwo point if it fits nicely or humourously with your username or title. You should point this out; I’m pretty dense
For example:
Alacrity (Noun): Cheerful willingness, preparedness or readyness. The scouts greeted with alacrity the tasks of setting up camp and making a fire.
I’d give myself a 1 for obscurity (since I had to look it up today), 1 for usefulness and 1 for je ne sais quoi for sounding a lot like angry.
Malamanteau, also Malamanteaux (Noun): A Neologism for a portmanteau created by incorrectly combining a malapropism with a neologism. It is itself a portmanteau. In other words, a malamanteu is a new word for a blended word created by wrongly mixing an inappropriate, similar-sounding word with a new word. Usage: Sarah Palin is a malamanteau factory.
OXBOW: A U-shaped piece of wood or stream/river KOINE: Greek dialect ORIBI: antelope ZEATIN: plant hormone PAEAN: Joyous song TUN: A cask MUUMUU: Hawaiian dress (gotta love those Hawaiian words for Scrabble) UNAU: A TWO toed sloth (as opposed to its more well-known cousin, the three-toed AI) TSKTSK: Uhhh, to “tsk”
sesquipedalian: a big word that seems like it’s about a foot-and-a-half long.
hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian: a big word that seems like it’s about the length of a monstrously large hippopotamus’s foot, plus another half of the same foot.
hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia: fear of really big words.
boustrophedonnoun. An ancient method of writing in which the lines run alternately from right to left and from left to right. Or like ox-turning in plowing or mowing a lawn.
karmadharayanoun. A compound of two words in which the first is an adjective and the second is a substantive. blacksmith, grandson, gentleman
Callipygian and steatopygian. Fun to say, fun meanings.
I’m also fond of wrestling slang, which is more useful than you’d think in entirely wrestle-free contexts. From that world, we’ve got kayfabe. (Work is another one that I like, but that doesn’t fit into this thread.)
“Thither” (to there). My house is over there, I will go thither shortly.
I think “hither” (to here) & “whither” (to where) are used more, in the phrases “Come hither,” & “Whither thou goest.” And of course there are “thence” (from there), “hence” (from here), & “whence” (from where). Not terribly obscure, I think, but rarely enough used.
For a bonus, “masticate” & “datum” probably both fit your criteria, sadly. Masticating, of course, is done with the mouth, a datum that will give many a titillating image.
