# Your favorite semi-obscure English word, or, boardless Scrabble **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 15, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890 "2010-09-15T21:12:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/41 "2010-09-19T17:25:19Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Suigeneris- one of a kind This one is a loan word (phrase), and is actually spelled _sui generis_ - it’s Latin. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/42 "2010-09-19T17:29:41Z")
Cataphract - a type of heavy cavalryman of the classical and early medieval world. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/43 "2010-09-19T17:47:15Z")
> [@coffeecat](#): > > **Superfecundation** : The act of getting pregnant with twins (or multiples) by more than one guy. There’s a word that’s just waiting to be scooped up and used in an insult. > > **Pahoehoe**. It looks like it should be an insult, but really it’s just a kind of lava. I don’t think there is any way to put “superfecundation” into an insult ever. Without having a flowchart and venn diagram handy. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/44 "2010-09-19T21:40:00Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > > [@coffeecat](#): > > > > **Superfecundation** : The act of getting pregnant with twins (or multiples) by more than one guy. There’s a word that’s just waiting to be scooped up and used in an insult. > > > > **Pahoehoe**. It looks like it should be an insult, but really it’s just a kind of lava. > > I don’t think there is any way to put “superfecundation” into an insult ever. Without having a flowchart and venn diagram handy. Superfecundation ‘that bitch is the best candidate for superfecundation since the octomom.’ superfecundation ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/45 "2010-09-20T05:19:35Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > I don’t think there is any way to put “superfecundation” into an insult ever. Without having a flowchart and venn diagram handy. Is there a term for becoming one’s own ancestor through the vagaries of time travel? ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/46 "2010-09-20T06:55:35Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > > [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > > > I don’t think there is any way to put “superfecundation” into an insult ever. Without having a flowchart and venn diagram handy. > > Is there a term for becoming one’s own ancestor through the vagaries of time travel? Yep. “Science fiction.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Terra1041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Terra1041](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terra1041)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/47 "2010-09-20T06:57:56Z")
Ubiquitous. My mom was impressed that I could use it in a sentence at like age 14. My use of the word became ubiquitous for a while ^\_~ ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/48 "2010-09-20T07:01:40Z")
fornenst ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/49 "2010-09-20T09:13:48Z")
Unless you are an Edgar Alan Poe fan, you might not know the word **tintinnabulation** ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/50 "2010-09-20T14:34:59Z")
Hurple–Raising one’s shoudlers to one’s ears in response to extreme cold. And when I hurple My lips turn purple ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/51 "2010-09-20T17:24:43Z")
I am the biggest weather junkie you’ll ever care to meet but until last Thursday I never knew the term [macroburst](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microburst). ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/52 "2010-09-20T19:59:53Z")
> [@ENugent](#): > > > [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > > > Suigeneris- one of a kind > > This one is a loan word (phrase), and is actually spelled _sui generis_ - it’s Latin. I’ve seen it spelled as one word. The teacher who taught it to me spelled it as one word. I think it has two spellings, one which is a couple of Latin words, and the other a couple of Latin words that have been pressed together to make a new word. ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890/53 "2010-09-21T04:34:42Z")
palimpsest - writing material (as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-semi-obscure-english-word-or-boardless-scrabble/553890.md?page=2)