Reply With QuoteNo-one will top that OP!
I've always had a fondness for the words 'Maladroit' and 'Adroitness', not that weird and wonderful I acknowledge, but a far more satisfying way of referring to someone as a clumsy oaf or someone demonstrating good skills.
floccinaucinihilipilification flocci|nauci|nihili|pili¦fi|ca¦tionPronunciation: /ˌflɒksɪˌnɔːsɪˌnɪhɪlɪˌpɪlɪfɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/
noun
The act of estimating something to be worthless.
Contrary to popular belief, antidisestablishmentarianism is not the longest word in the English language. In fact, floccinaucinihilipilification is one letter longer.
No-one will top that OP!
I've always had a fondness for the words 'Maladroit' and 'Adroitness', not that weird and wonderful I acknowledge, but a far more satisfying way of referring to someone as a clumsy oaf or someone demonstrating good skills.
In addition... abstemious and facetious have all the vowels in alphabetic order, and only once each. There are a few others, but these are the 'common' ones.
And there are medical terms that are longer than floccinaucinihilipilification... pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis for example.
Nothing special about this word, but I always enjoyed "quagmire"!
I try and use it in conversation as often as possible
Ironically, I used to have real problems recalling the word "inarticulate"
My wife tells me I do this quite frequently.
quaff (kwäf/)
verb
- drink (something, especially an alcoholic drink) heartily.
Can't beat the OP but do love using the word magnanimous!
My favourite word is wainscoting.
I've always found it difficult to crowbar into general conversation.
Unless the topic of conversation happens to be about weird and wonderful words.
I like hyperbole and brouhaha
I've always liked tmesis.
Discombobulated, love that word it just rolls off the tongue.
When said aloud, "timorouslessness" is like a pebble being skipped on a still pond, fading away
I love words and there are some good ones above (especially wainscoting - a word i try to use at all available opportunities).
I also particularly like:
soporific (to induce sleep)
jocundity (a merry, cheerful quality)
propinquity (being in close proximity)
assimilate (to take in and understand)
meretricious (appearing attractive but actually having no value)
Melifuous is a great word and sounds.................melifluous!
Is that last one related to meretrix, and so implying that principles have been prostituted?Originally Posted by triumph coupe
Yes, as I understand it you are correct.
Reminds me of this story:
When copywriter Robert Pirosh landed in Hollywood in 1934, eager to become a screenwriter, he wrote and sent the following letter to all the directors, producers, and studio executives he could think of. The approach worked, and after securing three interviews he took a job as a junior writer with MGM.
Pirosh went on to write for the Marx Brothers, and in 1949 won an Academy Award for his Battleground script.
(Source: Dear Wit.)
Dear Sir:
I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecunious, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave "V" words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty. I like sullen, crabbed, scowling words, such as skulk, glower, scabby, churl. I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land's-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid. I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon. I like wormy, squirmy, mealy words, such as crawl, blubber, squeal, drip. I like sniggly, chuckling words, such as cowlick, gurgle, bubble and burp.
I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood, but before taking the plunge I went to Europe for a year of study, contemplation and horsing around.
I have just returned and I still like words.
May I have a few with you?
Robert Pirosh
385 Madison Avenue
Room 610
New York
Eldorado 5-6024
I've always enjoyed the act of saying the word "minutiae"; I also enjoy the sound and the spelling (I find the vowel:consonant ratio, and the ordering of the letters, strangely comforting too).
Not only of interest to crossword puzzlers: syzygy...a conjunction or opposition, especially of the moon with the sun. Neap tides occur soon after the sun and moon are in syzygy...they can also be called syzygy tides.
When I was a kid we had a nearby ice cream/milkshake cafe place called "Serendipity". I loved the name and always thought it was a made up word for a shop, until I looked it up in a dictionary. Loved the word ever since
It's 'mellifluous'.
I've always like the term vulpine.
Again, not one for everyday convo.
I always thought that that word had 'ickili' tacked onto the end of it
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
I've always liked 'Discombobulate(d)'
Disconcern or confuse.
And there are medical terms that are longer than floccinaucinihilipilification... pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis for example.[/QUOTE]
My grandad was a GP and this was his favourite word and one which my Mum serves up now and again and gets all misty eyed.
My 11 year old son's favourite at the moment is discombobulate - to disconcert or confuse (someone).
Working for an US bank that likes to watch its expenses they love the word - Boondoggle - "work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value".
Its a word that covers many people at work every day!
rambunctious
3 for discombobulated! Didn't know it was that popular. My partner is a shrink and I learnt it from her as she is always finding interesting words to label me! Cheers.
One of my favourite English words is 'shivers'. It's by no means a fancy word, but I think it sounds just like shivers down the spine feel like.
Onomatopoeia is another favourite, and sadly hardly get chance to use it! (and yes I had to google to check the spelling!)
You spell it exactly as it sounds, dummy.
I like Machiavellian and schadenfreude.. i really hate the words moist and soup.
It's an Americanism, but I like 'copacetic' (everything is) excellent, other favourites are coruscate, susurration, shale (as a verb) and IMO the nicest sounding of all words, puddle.
......a moist, soupy puddle :-)
frenulum
NSFW just don’t google that at work! and dont do an image search! you have been warned.
I really like the word "naive" and spelling it with two dots above the i. Something my iPad seems unable to do! MS Word does it automatically for you though.
Another favourite is "specious". As in a specious argument, ie an argument initially appearing to have merit but on further consideration is shown to be false.
And, for a bit of Wenglish, a favourite word is "cwtch" (pronounced similarly to crutch without the r and with a bit more "oo"), which means a type of cuddle/hug, typically had whilst sitting down. In Wales!
I hadn't come across that variant before. You might like to alternate naïve and naïf...
Edit: Anyone who doesn't want to accept the auto-correction of naive in MSWord only has to press alt x for it to 'undo'. Or else you can change it in the autocorrect list from the proofing options.
Last edited by PickleB; 18th November 2015 at 14:49.
A Scotsman with a Welsh girlfriend therefore could be having a cwtch (cuddle) on the cooch (sofa/couch), in the hope of getting into her cooch (vagina) later.
My favourite word is 'apotemnophilia'; fourteen letters, seven vowels & seven consonants.
I very much like the Pratchett coined retrophrenology.
Retrophenrology is is the practical application of phrenology. To modify a personality, retrophrenologists remove head bumps that cause problems and add bumps with positive effects.
"You can go into a shop in Ankh-Morpork and order an artistic temperament with a tendency to introspection. What you actually get is hit on the head with a large hammer, but it keeps the money in circulation and gives people something to do."
Sir Terry Pratchett
So how its counterpart about counterpart acrotomophilia? Does that do anything for you?
Words I dislike: inflammable and defraud. They're illogical.
I've always hated the word facetious.
It means
1. not meant to be taken seriously or literally
2. amusing; humorous.
3. lacking serious intent; concerned with something nonessential, amusing, or frivolous.
but no-one ever uses in it a kind way, it's such a derogatory, judgemental, supercilious word, at least in usage...
Obviously, it's just a collection of vowels and consonants otherwise!
M.
Just learned what an asymptote is last night (a line or curve that approaches a given curve arbitrarily closely). Funnily enough, the spellchecker in Chrome believes this word does not exist. Also, I quite like loquacious (a person that talks too much)
I'm rather partial to Pulchritudinous which always goes well when chatting to the opposite sex. Although you generally have to explain what it means!
Squall
Looche
Wazzock
Nope & neither word has any direct sexual connotation (another nice word!) to me.
I like the spoken sound of 'apotemnophilia' (it's quite a tricky word on the tongue & lips) & I like the balance of vowels & consonants when its written, that's all.
Last edited by jwg663; 18th November 2015 at 18:17. Reason: Clarity!
I only thought that another word from the field of psychology with a similar balance of vowels & consonants might also appeal to you.
OK, that's not quite true and maybe it was a poor attempt at humour...but I didn't mean to imply anything untoward.
corpulent
@ PickleB:
I first used the word in this thread, post #112:
http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...filing-a-TZ-ER
The (loose) idea was to caricature the type of member who, when something tasty appears on SC, rushes to post, "Will you take a kidney?" or some such nonsense.
Now, I just like the word...
Sundries is a word I sometimes use in quotes as I am rather fond of it.
I particularly like the following and use them on a regular basis
Jiggery-pokery
Shenanigans
and
Pollava
I've always liked:
Crapulous
1. Characterized by excessive eating or drinking.
2. Suffering physically from the consequences of excessive eating or drinking.
3. Surcharged with liquor; sick from excessive indulgence in drinking or eating; drunk.
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