(no subject)

[devi]

ARGH AM INCAPABLE OF DOING ANY WORK WHATSOEVER.

I need help to get enthused about words. What's your current favourite word and why do you like it?

Comments

[iresprite.livejournal.com]

sesquipedalian.
n.
A long word.

adj.
1. Given to the use of long words.
2. Long and ponderous; polysyllabic.

Why do I like it? Come on, it's totally self-referential humor built in to the very language!

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's a favourite of mine too.

[eleanorb.livejournal.com]

Ubiquitous.

Adj. Being present everywhere at once.

Why do I like it? All those vowels.

[arachne.livejournal.com]

one of two. Either encomium - like flattery, but truthful, so when you say something nice about someone and they accuse you of flattery, you can say "no, encomium!" and they generally can't argue with that and just accept the damn compliment. Also, it rolls off the tongue and just *sounds* good.

Also : aibohphobia - fear of palindromes. Self-explanatory.

[mooism.livejournal.com]

I saw “aibohphobia” the other day. I think it’s a wonderful word.

[triskellian]

My favourite word is autodefenestrate, just because OMG, there's a word for that?! And because it reminds me of an amusing childhood incident when my brother spent quite some time hurling himself out of my groud-floor bedroom window and then coming straight back in through the front door to do it all over again :-)

I'm rather fond of sesquipedalian, too. (Not of sesquipedality, of course, cos she's evil ;-) And I like paradoxical words, although my brain's currently refusing to provide a handy example.

[kensson.livejournal.com]

Monosyllabic.

[twistedlilkitty.livejournal.com]

Spurtle.
Its a stick used for stirring porridge.

I also like spatula, marmalade, flange, hydroxyl.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Those are all... hmmm... pleasingly cornery, but rounded corners...

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I nominate "kumquat" as my word of the day. Long, pretentious words are overrated anyway. Silly-sounding fruit is a much better bet.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

'Toggle'

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

I'm fangirling a bit on Quechua at the minute. I've liked 'urpi' ever since I heard it in 2001, which means 'dove' and is used as an endearment, 'urpillay' = 'my little dove'. Also there are sundry words for 'to frolic like a baby animal or a little child', 'to satisfy your senses with music, art, food or anything pleasurable' (sajyay), to grumble and to enter into a small hole like a mole or a miner. I've been intending to post about these for a while. Maybe I'll get round to it today.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Oh, please do! Those are all great!

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

Today I am rather fond of a word I learned yesterday: pernoctation, the act of staying up all night.

[miramanga.livejournal.com]

INCENDIARY!

I looooooove it! I use it ALL the time cos it's how I feel when I get excited. I also use it in chat up lines ;)

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. And 'incandescent'.

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

Cushion. It has nice vowels, and a "sh" sound.

Sorry to be so ordinary, like.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Sorry? Words don't have to be weird to be beautiful.

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Leguminocomptiferous - Of, or appertaining to, the bean-counters.

I like accountants. Oh yes. Really, I do.

Counterintuitive - it just is.

Often used as a pejorative term, as in bad user interfaces on software; but the term encapsulates the delight in discovering that things really don't work the way that you thought they 'ought' to.

Spiral - partly because it's so foreign.

Do you get phases where a particular word in common usage sounds alien and unfamiliar? Maybe 'spiral' is having that kind of day. Or maybe it really is a strange and alien interloper from the world of mathematics. I like it for the associations, too: descent spiral (yay! astrogation!); cubic spiral (railway curves and road layouts); spiralling out of control; spider webs, fractals, the three-dimensional fibonacci series on Romanesca cauliflowers.

I am an geek. But I love words.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

I have a love of spirals too, for many of the same reasons.

But yes, definitely, sometimes a common word gets disconnected from its meaning in my head and spends several days sounding like a silly, meaningless series of sounds. Especially when I've been using it a lot.

[anam-uk.livejournal.com]

callipygian:- I like big butts & I cannot lie(^*)

deracinate:- about all my garden is good for ATM

palimpset:- I'm incapable of retaining the meaning of this word in my mind, I'm aware right now what it means (I'm not telling you thats what the dictionary is for) I won't be tomorrow or may be the day after

^* Yes yes I KNOW

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

I love the word 'palimpcest' and all it implies too.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

My word of the moment is 'skulduggery'. Though I can't remember whether it needs an extra 'l'. It's kind of swashbuckly :)

I'm also fairly fond of 'mendacity', just because it's kind of a bit self-referential in its meaning - trying to be all sneaky and evasive around the word 'lie' :)

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Roll the word dastardly around your parietal lobes. Put on your best Vincent Price expression and denounce 'This dastardly act...'

[skorpionuk.livejournal.com]

Guilt.

No reason.

[ratmmjess.livejournal.com]

Schadenfreude, because it's a sadly large part of my personality, and because I'm tickled that someone took the time to boil down such a complex emotional reaction into a single word.

[kensson.livejournal.com]

German is like that. Someone once suggested that it was created by an overly-pedantic two-year-old whose parents had died after teaching him all the one-syllable words. I was just thinking about this because I saw a thimble, which is Fingerhut (finger-hat) in German.

I think Schadenfreude means, literally, shame-happiness.

[sshi.livejournal.com]

streamlined - it's not my favourite word, but it's currently the word for the day. mostly because I'm writing a lecture about things like this (http://www.metmuseum.org/special/americanmodern/meatslicer.r.htm)

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

*blink* Streamlined, but kinda scary.

[twistedlilkitty.livejournal.com]

Dongle!

as in bluetooth Dongle!

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

I can't say dongle without sniggering, yeah.

[mooism.livejournal.com]

I like the word “beige” even though I dislike the colour to which it refers. Just the sound of it really, the zh bit at the end especially; “bay” doesn’t do it for me.

Splink!

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Why? Oh... no reason! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4690160.stm)

Re: Splink!

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Splink is a cute word, but oh my gosh. I for "if"? N for "no"? What were they thinking?

[publicansdecoy.livejournal.com]

My favourite word is paneity, which means 'the state of being bread'. I like it because it is utterly ridiculous and has no real applicable use. It exists simply because it can.

-x-

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

I shall spend the next few minutes pondering the degree of paneity of my toasted bagel, then.

[nja.livejournal.com]

"Autonomy". "Monotony" is a horrible word, "Autonomy" is a good one.

[randalf.livejournal.com]

"punnet". It seems terribly English, for some reason.

"mellifluous". It flows as well as its meaning. :)

[kensson.livejournal.com]

Punnet is good. It looks like it ought to be a small play on words but instead holds strawberries. Win-win.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Yes! I discovered 'perseveration' just about a week before you posted your thing about it and had been thinking it was wonderful. I have had many perseverations.

[the-elyan.livejournal.com]

Phastasmagoria

It is both a wonderful word to roll off the tongue, and it descrbibes an involving and altering experience

I'd imagine sections of the Trans-Siberianm journey verged on it...

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it also imply things rushing towards you? That makes it even more relevant.