Words, Words, and More Words

[Calantha]

So, I am a fan of words, and so I was thinking that maybe this thread could be your favourite words...words of the day, whatever suits your fancy.

Okay, well, I really like the word "nepenthe"
Actually, the reason why is because I find it a very beautiful word. It is a drug that eases grief or sorrow by causing forgetfulness...

Anyways, I love seeing new words...so, what are your words?

[Isbister15]

Ah, Calantha, another fan of words... ;D

I love words. I love knowing words and what they mean. I hate being listened to but love to be heard. I think that's what drew me to Journalism, the fact that I could let my words do all the talking.

I love the word Perhaps. I don't know, I just think it's a nice little word. I used to work it into every article I would write, just because I liked it so much. (There was a kid who worked on the paper who used to like to put the word "kudos" in all his articles. )

Another word I really like, though I rarely use, is Resplendent. It just sounds so noble and powerful...

One last word (for now) that I like is Potato. This is my pet name for the kids I work with, and they've now added it to their vocabulary as well. You little potato!

[En]

Ooo... woooorrrddsss...

I am what you might call sesquipedalian, meaning I never use a short word when a diminuitive one will do. I am prone to using words like "obfuscatory" and "impediment" in casual conversation. Nothing makes me laugh like a well-placed polysyllabic term or a good use of archaic terminology.

And then there are the lawyer words. Very few people realise that lawyers are among the funniest beings on earth, because lawyers use language so strangely. But I can't even tell you how many times I've heard lawyers pop out a play on words worthy of Shakespeare. And people who work in the law business (in general) have a healthy tendency to laugh at ourselves whenever we use lawyer words in common speech:

GONZO: Did [En] just ask me to dinner?
EN: What!
GONZO: I think s/he did. I think En just asked me to dinner.
EN: *recovering from shock* Under no circumstances would I ever go to dinner with you! *thinks a moment about the concept of free food* Except as hereinafter described....

[fico the fur]

*breathes easily through nose* Words rock my Chucks.

I think "morbid" is one of those sad-beautiful words. I read a poem once where a girl said something like, "everything is grey through these morbid eyes", and I fell in love with it at that.

And one of my very favourite things to do is to go to youth group meetings and use as many sesquipedalian words as I can. (We, *mini-blush* Rue, Chandra, and I looked that one up the first time we saw you use it. ) It's sort of this running-joke. The kids in my youth group don't tend to be too word-oriented. So I'll just rattle off an entire sentence with at least every other word as complicated as my last name, and they'll sit there and go, "wha...?", and then, then (this is the best part), Rue will get in on it. So, like, if I were in a goofy mood and used "splendiforous", the other kids wouldn't get it. And then Rue would say, "well, what does 'splendiforous' remind you of?" After a while, someone would say, "splendid", and Rue would say, "exactly." Then I would rattle off another sentence.

*is very impressed with "nepenthe"*

*goes to look up "diminuitive" because he had always thought it was rooted with "diminish", and he probably has something wrong here*
*edit* no, i had it right. so, nialle, you like those one-syllable words that no one has ever heard? "It is at once obvious that the Dying Gaul is not native to Greece because of his bushy hair, his moustache with no beard, and the intricate torque he is wearing...."
*second-edit* *major-blush* so while i was looking for a rare, one-syllable word to put into a sentence in quotes, i ended up explaining the circumstances to chandra. ... and she explained your joke, 'cause i'm dumb that way. anyway, that's really funny... once you get it.

[laci]

prehaps, mayhaps. haha, gen i love those youthgroup meetings, there is this silence and then an ok.... i love words too, except i have the problem of pronounciaTION, i read a lot of new words, but don't know how to say it so when i do, i end up looking like a fool, which isn't all that uncommon

[Calantha]

Eh, no worries laci. Among my many, many issues, I will have problems with words I have never heard before...like saying them also. Why you may ask? Well, it is because I wanted to be special, so I half self-taught myself, and was half taught by my grandfather. And so...phonics never came into the picture. I also blame this on my lack of being able to spell.
Ahh...anyways...

I like 'mayhap' also, although a teacher once told me that it was not a word...that upset me quite a lot...but it is a word.

Izzy, you call the kids you work with Potato? That's great! I say chitlen or goose...they have not picked up on those yet.

I like the words sharooshed...
I think it looks fun.
Sharooshed...

[Will]

I love words and yet I'm a horrible speller... -cough, cough-

Anyway, I really like the words melancholy, somber, elegance, and splendor. Simple words, yes, but it's music to my ears...

[En]

I know that "wha...?" look, because I have spent most of my life getting it

I taught myself to read at a young age, right, so, I have the same problem as laci and Calantha. Can't tell you how humiliating it was to discover that a show-FIR is not a CHAFF-er. Now, it's hard to throw an English-language word at me that I can't spell or pronounce, because I've just been reading and talking that much longer. Because I've studied a couple of other languages, I can also handle those languages and their cousins, at least for basic meaning and sound. But if you pitch me something in Swahili (which I don't know), and I have to try to pronounce it... I pronounce it with a French accent. Go figure

Nialle's word of the day: stentorian. Meaning, loud, or at least well-projected, voice. Like Bagman when he was using the Sonorus spell, or like the dudes who get into shouting matches in the Senate. I was at a thing last night that ended in a Q/A session, and it hit me that I have a very quiet voice. So I was thinking about loudness and whether I should get me some.

[Robin_Sprouts]

My favourite word (as I have discussed in depth with Nialle) is bludgeon. I like the way it sounds when I say it. My brother and I maintain that it is onomonopeia, although his english teacher told him it wasn't, until he picked up an inflatable bat and ran around the room hitting things and yelling "bludgeon, bludgeon, bludgeon." She then agreed with him - but I think it was just out of fear.

[Calantha]

You know...on the subject of loudness and whatnot...being loud runs in my family on the female side and all the males are rather soft spoken until they are provoked. Interestingly enough, I am a bit of both. Talk to me on the phone and I'll be awfully soft spoken, talk to me in a big crowd I am soft spoken, or when I have to ask someone something, but then...there are times when I have loudness...
Like when I'm upset about something, or excited, or I want to get my point across. And of course, when I tell kids directions, I have to be...loud. Well...I'm not really very consistent at all..

The word that fits me best today would be: lethonomia
For some odd reason, today I'm having a horrible time with recalling names, and since it means the inability to recall the names of people, then there ya go, that sums me up today.

[En]

Oo, "lethe-" is one of my favourite word roots. I made a list of ones I liked once, and then I randomly put them together to see what would happen.

photophages: things that devour light.
agoradicts: people who shout on street corners.
geophyte: much shorter way to say an environmentalist.
hippognost: someone who knows a ton about horses.


and now...
metalethism: forgetting that you forgot.

[Calantha]

Today's I think will be phrontistery, it is a thinking place.
Why chosen for today? Well, because right about now I'd like my own special phrontistery, but I'm at work and it is certainly far from being that.

[En]

*nods* Ditto that. I need a "genesarium" -- another Nialle^TM word -- meaning "a place to create."

[Calantha]

Oh, I like that word.

One for today because it suits me rather well:
aboulia: a loss of ability to make decisions
Sums me up just dandy for today.

[Rue]

In fourth grade I decided I needed a favourite word. I don't know how I came to that decision, or why, but I searched through a dictionary and landed on qualification. I had to read the meaning a few times before I understood it, and I didn't have any connection with the meaning at all, I just loved saying it. ;D

I like words, but I only know the basic jist of their meanings, not the actual definitions. When I write essays or anything which requires elaborate explanation, I need a thesaurus so I can go on a wild rampage to find the right word, or else I don't end up saying at all what I intended. And that's why words are kind of scary for me. I can pronounce words and spell them really well, but whenever I'm with people who have a better than best vocabulary *ahem*, I only know the feel of the conversation and am completely lost to what they're actually talking about.