Word of the day :)

[petra_r]

As English is my third language I am still stumbling across words that fascinate me.

Today our Janean used one in a post and I LOVED it (once I looked it up, lol, admittedly)

vicissitude

vɪˈsɪsɪtjuːd,vʌɪˈsɪsɪtjuːd/

noun

plural noun: vicissitudes

1. 1.

   a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant.

   "her husband's sharp vicissitudes of fortune"

   synonyms:

   change, alteration, alternation, transformation, metamorphosis, transmutation, mutation, modification, transition, development, shift, switch, turn; More reversal, reverse, downturn; inconstancy, instability, uncertainty, unpredictability, chanciness, fickleness, variability, changeability, fluctuation, vacillation; ups and downs "he maintains his sunny disposition despite life's vicissitudes"

2. 2.

   literary

   alternation between opposite or contrasting things.

   "the vicissitude of the seasons"

I adore language(s) and words, so shall we have a thread about wonderful words? Could be fun?

[holymell]

I think my favorite is "ostentatious" because the word describes itself, in my opinion 🙂

I also like to use the word "behoove" in casual conversation. It just rolls off the tongue. I'm not defining them because I have no clue how you so neatly defined yours and I'm lazy.

Edit--also I'm a native speaker and I'm almost certain you have a better handle of my own language than I do. I was shocked to learn that you weren't a native speaker.

[petra_r]

---

@Melissa C wrote:
I think my favorite is "ostentatious" because the word describes itself, in my opinion 🙂

I also like to use the word "behoove" in casual conversation. It just rolls off the tongue. I'm not defining them because I have no clue how you so neatly defined yours and I'm lazy.

---

 I lazily used the google-provided definition 🙂

And I love "ostentatious" and "behoove" too, as it happens.

Others are, in no particular order (I am a lover of adjectives, unfashionable as they may be...)

• nefarious
• ephemeral
• cromulent
• serendipity

I have no idea why I love "serendipity" so... but I do 🙂

[holymell]

Those are all fantastic! 

It's a shame. I'm a writer, and on occasion, I will use such words, but it's definitely considered pretentious to use your favorite rare words often in your writings. I still do it. Whoopsies! So long as it's done sparingly, I don't think it's an issue. I recently wrote a blog post about this phenomena. If you want to see super pretentious writing in action, read House of Leaves. It should be called, Look How Smart I Am. I abhor that book.

I also love the combination of "malignant narcissist" (guess whom I, as an American, use that to describe?).

A few more:

Truculent 

Reticent

Genuflect

And, because you like "serendipity": 

Serendipitous. 

[yitwail]

I’ve always liked mendacious and mendacity because someone who doesn’t know the definition might assume it’s something complimentary.

[jmlaidlaw]

I agree with all those -- especially "mendacity" (its nature itself being mendacious!).

How about "crepuscular"? (Sounds so terrible and threatening... Yet isn't.)

Yesterday, when I used the word "smarminess" in a post, I seriously considered using a different and wonderful word: "oleaginous." (Held myself back on the principle, noted above, of not wanting to seem pretentious/show-offy. But, **bleep**, it's a rich and fabulous word!)

(BTW:  A "word that describes itself," such as ostentatious, is "autological." That's a less-well-known word than "onomatopoeic," which, of course, refers to words that sound like what they describe, such as "whirring" or "buzz.")

[wendy_writes]

The website is antiquated but look past that.  The words are stupendous. And fun. And educational. And a new one comes daily via email.

Janean (I believe) shared the link with me a while back ...

https://wordsmith.org/

[jmlaidlaw]

Can't take credit for that, Wendy... Maybe Mary or Kat?

Good one, though!

[mwiggenhorn]

My daughter and I are both quite fond of plethora.  Also discombobulation.

[ceidauilyc]

I've loved Serendipity since they taught Penicillin in school!

Totally love that word!

[gilbert-phyllis]

This thread is making me pretty happy. (I am spending a lot of time in Powerpoint purgatory this week, so it's a terrific antidote.) It's also reminding me of how delightful it was, last summer, to start following discussions in this forum and discover so many of my peeps right here. At least, the peeps I like to hang around with--smart, thoughtful, generous, sarcastic, witty.

[renata101]

I've always liked verisimilitude.



And I also like Stephen Colbert's take on it.

[colleenezzell]

Two of my favorite words are rapscallion and addlepated. My dad used to call me a rapscallion and I took a quiz in the New York Times, used the word addlepated (which I am, frequently) and was deemed a "wordsmith." Pretty high praise from the NYT, huh?

[renata101]

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@Colleen E wrote:

Two of my favorite words are rapscallion and addlepated. My dad used to call me a rapscallion and I took a quiz in the New York Times, used the word addlepated (which I am, frequently) and was deemed a "wordsmith." Pretty high praise from the NYT, huh?

---

Is that anything like discombobulated?

I notice Collins online also has "combobulated." Like "gruntled," I didn't think this was a word. But it appears that you can both combobulate and gruntle (and maybe even at the same time). Who knew? 

I have to say, I like definition of gruntle. 

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/submission/12200/Combobulate
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gruntle  

[colleenezzell]

It's a lot like discombobulated, except I think of discombobulated as a physical condition and addlepated as a mental condition, both from which I suffer. I just remembered another one I like, but can't find in my (admittedly antiquated) dictionary, is "couth," the opposite of "uncouth," If it doesn't exist, it should. When my sisters and I were little, we vied to be appointed "Manners Monitor" at the dinner table, which allowed us to correct our siblings' table manners. But we had better make sure we were right - my mom was the final arbitrator. As we got older, the title evolved to "Couth Control Officer," and we still fought to win it!

[jcullinan]

I also enjoy playing with the word "whelmed" as in overwhelmed, but when I'm not quite at the point of "over" yet. "Whelmed" is when the water is just at the base of one's chin. I have no idea if it's a "real" word or not but I like it.

[jmlaidlaw]

I admit to occasionally relying on my vocabulary so as to be able to tell my students what I was really thinking, without much danger of their going home to whine about it to their parents. I would do so when I was exceptionally exasperated -- and would choose a word or words that, due to their recondite nature, were not heavily charged with connotation (or, at least not with connotation that hit home for the student in question, or humilated him or her publicly). Moreover, I knew perfectly well that my students would be unlikely to be able to reproduce the word or words in question perfectly enough to effect a complaint. But they would know that they had been "dissed." (And if they or a classmate looked up a new word, then so much the better!)

For example, I might raise an eyebrow, draw a breath, and then ask, slowly and with great patience: "Morgan, is there a particular reason for this morning's truculence?"

[renata101]

---

@Janean L wrote:

I admit to occasionally relying on my vocabulary so as to be able to tell my students what I was really thinking, without much danger of their going home to whine about it to their parents. I would do so when I was exceptionally exasperated -- and would choose a word or words that, due to their recondite nature, were not heavily charged with connotation (or, at least not with connotation that hit home for the student in question, or humilated him or her publicly). Moreover, I knew perfectly well that my students would be unlikely to be able to reproduce the word or words in question perfectly enough to effect a complaint. But they would know that they had been "dissed." (And if they or a classmate looked up a new word, then so much the better!)

For example, I might raise an eyebrow, draw a breath, and then ask, slowly and with great patience: "Morgan, is there a particular reason for this morning's truculence?"

---

Janean, 

If you haven't already seen it, I recommend the BBC Blackadder dictionary episode (which seems to be called Ink and Incapability). It features some terrific British actors who might be more recognizable from their other work. 

Ridiculous spoiler:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOSYiT2iG08
 

[jmlaidlaw]

I ADORE Blackadder!  So do all my children!

[datasciencewonk]

Recalcitrant

Nefarious

Preponderance

Behemoth

Just a few of my favorite words. I'm in writing hangover mode right now, so once that passes, additional words will float through my mind.

LOVE THIS THREAD!

[yitwail]

Honorary mention for sesquipedalian 

[mwiggenhorn]

I like enervate which doesn't mean what it should mean.

As for discombobulation:  At the Milwaukee airport, after you get through security, the area set aside for putting yourself back together is the "Recombobulation Zone".  Absolutely love that someone had a sense of humor.

[reinierb]

My favourite word is "dawn".

Every morning as I watch the sun rise, the brightening sky reminds me both of the relative movements of everything in the Universe, and of our place in the Universe, which does not quite match the hugely inflated sense of self-importance many of us suffer from sometimes. 

[jmlaidlaw]

@ Reinier -- Unfortunately, the word "dawn" has been ruined (for me) by the author of the perfectly dreadful and tawdry and maudlin Twilight series. Now, if only she had titled the series Crepuscule, perhaps the teenie-boppers and the tweenies wouldn't have noticed the series, wouldn't have had the vapors over it all, and the rest of us would have been spared Bella-mania.*

(*keywords: "tawdry" "maudlin" "the vapors" and "crepuscule/crepuscular" redux)*

(*keyword: redux)

[wendy_writes]

John sent me to Google -

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sesquipedalian

[jcullinan]

I love all the wordplay in Hamilton, though I can't wrap my mouth around all of it! Especially this line from Aaron Burr: "I am inimitable; I am an original" which is amazing in the rhythm of the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulsLI029rH0

Inimitable: adj., so good or unusual as to be impossible to copy; unique.

[wendy_writes]

Jess, check out Spamilton. http://spamilton.com/

You're welcome.  😉

[boshoffirene]

One may need to be careful that you do not become intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbocity.

[sgoble]

Favorite:

Crapulent bexcause it does not mean what is sounds like.

[craiggabriel]

All time best use of the word "truculent": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGWP-_VhrzE

I'm a fan of the word "venerable," largely because whenever I hear someone or something described as "venerable," I invariably mutter to myself, "Ah, but I'll bet he's not as venerable as the Venerable Bede!"

[renata101]

For people who just like words in general, the Merriam-Webster website has some fun quizzes. I'm especially fond of "Name that Thing." I wish I could get this in French to help me navigate trips to the hardware store. 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-games/vocabulary-quiz
https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-games/name-that-thing

[knwlzahid]

Anyone playing Words with friends? Its a good game to learn new words. 

[datasciencewonk]

---

@Kanwal F wrote:

Anyone playing Words with friends? Its a good game to learn new words. 

---

 Heck yeah!

I love Words with Friends.

[knwlzahid]

---

@Kat C wrote:

---

@Kanwal F wrote:

Anyone playing Words with friends? Its a good game to learn new words. 

---

 Heck yeah!

I love Words with Friends.

---

 Me too.

[astro_writer]

Thanks, Renata, that was fun. They should replace some of the Upwork language tests with those.

[allergywriter]

love anathema (how's that for wordplay)

managed to sneak it into a business piece last week as in "duplicate content is anathema to Google"

Anathema

a·nath·e·ma

noun

noun: anathema; plural noun: anathemas

1. 1.

   something or someone that one vehemently dislikes.

   "racial hatred was anathema to her"

   synonyms:

   an abomination, an outrage, an abhorrence, a disgrace, an evil, a bane, a bugbear, a bête noire; More adjectivesabhorrent, hateful, repugnant, odious, repellent, offensive "the idea of a poem as a mere exercise is anathema to me"

2. 2.

   a formal curse by a pope or a council of the Church, excommunicating a person or denouncing a doctrine.

   synonyms:

   an abomination, an outrage, an abhorrence, a disgrace, an evil, a bane, a bugbear, a bête noire; More

[ravi_iitian]

One of my favorite words is “glorious.”

[luce-neidert]

I've just found this wonderful thread.

I"ll just add two favourite of mine to this amazing list:

Aggravating and Onyric.

It's interesting to note that most words suggested are long ones.

[gilbert-phyllis]

I am repeatedly bumfuzzled by how many people complete a project--or a substantial portion of one--and then start wondering when and how they'll be paid. 

[etrusca]

I like very much flabbergasted. It makes me think of a face with wide eyes and open mouth.