devi: (bookish)
devi ([personal profile] devi) wrote2006-02-14 03:30 pm

(no subject)

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?

[identity profile] iresprite.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
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!

[identity profile] eleanorb.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Ubiquitous.

Adj. Being present everywhere at once.

Why do I like it? All those vowels.

[identity profile] arachne.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:36 pm (UTC)(link)
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.
triskellian: (reading)

[personal profile] triskellian 2006-02-14 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
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 [livejournal.com profile] sesquipedality, of course, cos she's evil ;-) And I like paradoxical words, although my brain's currently refusing to provide a handy example.

[identity profile] twistedlilkitty.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Spurtle.
Its a stick used for stirring porridge.

I also like spatula, marmalade, flange, hydroxyl.

[identity profile] bateleur.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I nominate "kumquat" as my word of the day. Long, pretentious words are overrated anyway. Silly-sounding fruit is a much better bet.

[identity profile] huskyteer.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:42 pm (UTC)(link)
'Toggle'

[identity profile] khalinche.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:44 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] gnimmel.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Today I am rather fond of a word I learned yesterday: pernoctation, the act of staying up all night.

[identity profile] miramanga.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:47 pm (UTC)(link)
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 ;)

[identity profile] dyddgu.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Cushion. It has nice vowels, and a "sh" sound.

Sorry to be so ordinary, like.
ext_3375: Banded Tussock (Default)

[identity profile] hairyears.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)


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.

[identity profile] anam-uk.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
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

[identity profile] lanfykins.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
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' :)

[identity profile] skorpionuk.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Guilt.

No reason.

[identity profile] ratmmjess.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:53 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] sshi.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:54 pm (UTC)(link)
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)

[identity profile] twistedlilkitty.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Dongle!

as in bluetooth Dongle!

[identity profile] mooism.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:56 pm (UTC)(link)
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!

[identity profile] wimble.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 03:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Why? Oh... no reason! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4690160.stm)

[identity profile] publicansdecoy.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 04:00 pm (UTC)(link)
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-
ext_22879: (Default)

[identity profile] nja.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 04:05 pm (UTC)(link)
"Autonomy". "Monotony" is a horrible word, "Autonomy" is a good one.

[identity profile] randalf.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)

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

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

(deleted comment) (Show 1 comment)

[identity profile] the-elyan.livejournal.com 2006-02-14 04:19 pm (UTC)(link)
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...

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