Words everyone knows but no one uses

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I saw someone use 'shenanigans' in another thread and thought about the fact that I have NEVER heard anyone use that word in conversation. There must be other examples...

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 10 October 2002 05:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Mmm-bop

― felicity (felicity), Thursday, 10 October 2002 05:40 (twenty-two years ago)

sure thing cowboy

― jayne (jayne), Thursday, 10 October 2002 05:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I use "shenanigans" once in a while.

― Jody Beth Rosen, Thursday, 10 October 2002 05:44 (twenty-two years ago)

"mawkish"

― Jody Beth Rosen, Thursday, 10 October 2002 05:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I have only twice heard 'indefatigable' used, oddly enough it was on the same day in completely unrelated circumstances

― H (Heruy), Thursday, 10 October 2002 05:49 (twenty-two years ago)

H, that kind of thing ALWAYS happens to me. I think of an idea or a word, and suddenly I hear it mentioned/used several times the same day.

― Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 10 October 2002 06:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I always use 'mawkish', at least in my head, because I really can't stand mawkishness

― spectra, Thursday, 10 October 2002 06:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I was regularly using "schadenfreude" years ago, and everyone was all "What's that mean? How do you pronounce it? You're pretentious." Now it's everyone's favorite word and every media outlet's doing a story on this clever new meme that PERFECTLY describes people's feelings about Martha Stewart.

― Jody Beth Rosen, Thursday, 10 October 2002 06:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Tomfoolery, caper, demimonde, moreish

I say shenenigans a lot

― Miss Laura, Thursday, 10 October 2002 06:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, schadenfreude totally sold out. And don't even get me started on zeitgeist.

― bnw (bnw), Thursday, 10 October 2002 06:45 (twenty-two years ago)

chickenbear!

― Tad (llamasfur), Thursday, 10 October 2002 06:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Dammit Tad! You're living in the past - your obsession is beginning to rule your life. I loved the chickenbear too you know, and it hurts me, deep in my heart it hurts me to be reminded like this! Why can't you just let him go?

*Ned style weeping*

― Kim (Kim), Thursday, 10 October 2002 07:00 (twenty-two years ago)

OK! New ILE obsession time!

http://members.aol.com/dubplatestyle/mase.jpg

― Tad (llamasfur), Thursday, 10 October 2002 07:03 (twenty-two years ago)

http://thedeadites.net/imgs/chknbr2.jpg

Just remember Tad, we'll ALWAYS have that one wild and crazy Saskatchewan night!

― jilted chickenbear (Kim), Thursday, 10 October 2002 07:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Inexorable. Cavort. Lachrymose. Religiosity.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 10 October 2002 07:27 (twenty-two years ago)

cantankerous.

― michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 10 October 2002 07:57 (twenty-two years ago)

numbskull. phenylalanine. pianoforte. curmudgeon

― Sofa King Alternative (Sofa King Alternative), Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I use 'moreish' and 'cantankerous'.

discombobulate(d)

― Jeff W, Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I think some of these choices are very odd. Tomfoolery? Mawkish? Moreish? Curmudgeon? Cantankerous? I'm sure I, and other people, use all these quite often.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:26 (twenty-two years ago)

rigamarole

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:27 (twenty-two years ago)

MAIS NON! I'm *often* saying "What a bloody rigmarole!". You're all nuts.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Madcap.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, I can't say I use that, unironically at least. But TV listings writers and Syd Barrett are surely using it quite a lot.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:42 (twenty-two years ago)

It was madcap and impromptu

It was was something to belong to

Rise and Fall of the GBC by Duotang

― Miss Laura, Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I keep on trying (without much success) to inveigle the word 'imbroglio' into my everyday conversation - but then I am a bleeding ponce.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sure I, and other people, use all these quite often.

yeah, but are we talking about oral communication or the written word?

(i do, though, use a number of these words in everyday conversation)

― michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I keep on trying to inveigle the word 'inveigle' into my everyday conversation. Favourite poncy word though = 'fetishise'.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Antidisestablishmentarianism

― Plinky (Plinky), Thursday, 10 October 2002 08:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I do use a lot of the above in spoken communication, though often facetiously I admit. I can confidently say though that I have never uttered the word 'phenylalanine'.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Good call, Plinky.

Jerry - what was that poncey word you were celebrated for dropping into conversation about a year ago? We were in the Spread Eagle with Joe and Sarah whatserdoublebarrelledname. As I recall, it wasn't even in a dictionary. It may have had origins in classical myth. But I can't remember what it meant. Something about getting stuck in a way of doing something, maybe. Transcending one's artistic autopilot, even less maybe.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it was CLINAMEN (from Lucretius, via Harold Bloom) meaning the anxious creative swerve away an overbearing influence.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Hurrah for Jerry and his Clinamen toothpaste!

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Sofaking, I used "phenylalanine" in conversation just today.

― Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I use cavort and shennanigans regularly.

(Or would do if I ever said a bloody word)

― Graham (graham), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I've just used malarkey (sp?).

I think some of these choices are very odd. Tomfoolery? Mawkish? Moreish? Curmudgeon? Cantankerous? I'm sure I, and other people, use all these quite often.
-- N. (nickdastoor@h...), October 10th, 2002.

We obv. travel in very different social circles.

― Miss Laura, Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Obv.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Obsequious

― Graham (graham), Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:41 (twenty-two years ago)

?? I thought I was being rude.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:41 (twenty-two years ago)

So am I.

― Graham (graham), Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:43 (twenty-two years ago)

'Shenanigins' is possibly the word I overuse most, after 'innit' (maybe it's because I moved to London-ah!). However, the best word I use to confuse is 'inchoate'. Lovely.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Thursday, 10 October 2002 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Cloud

― toraneko (toraneko), Thursday, 10 October 2002 13:42 (twenty-two years ago)

roister, desuetude, ascian, katzenjammer, solatium, bloviate, remora, corybantic, vaquero

- spring to mind.

punctum has to be the GAYEST word ever!!!

― bob zemko (bob), Thursday, 10 October 2002 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

i have replaced the wankrous "shennanigans" with "shananny"

― bob zemko (bob), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

and don't forget "hamburglaresque", hmm?

― bob zemko (bob), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Hegemony (I have no idea how to pronouce it -- does anyone actually speak this word, as opposed to use it in tedious op-eds?)

― j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha I used hegemony in another pub conversation with N. (with ref to the ILE pubbist hegemony!)

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I sometimes say it, but usually mumble it because I can't remember whether it's a soft or hard g (it is soft).

I believe Jerry the Nipper invoked it as an alternative to my ILE 'mob mentality' on the bars vs. pubs thread.

{ha - crossed posts!)

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

sycophant, ribaldry.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

phenylalanine, imbroglio, desuetude, ascian, katzenjammer, solatium, bloviate, remora, corybantic, vaquero.

the thread title is 'Words everyone knows but no one uses'. i'm off to run these past my nana.

― michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

notice nobody playing the "but I don't know that word and I'm somebody" card

― felicity (felicity), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Isn't that what Michael just did (I don't know any of those words either).

Obv. the question is ridiculous because no one would know them if they weren't used.

People seem to be going a lot for 'fancy' words. But maybe it is words like cowslip and meadowsweet that fit the bill closest. For most of us.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

yes but his message came in as a New Message Alert while I was posting so I didn't care :P

― felicity (felicity), Thursday, 10 October 2002 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I can never seem to casually drop catamite, eschatology, heirophant or Hyperborean into daily chit-chat, sigh.
In this part of the world, nobody sez elevenses; but I'd imagine that sort of malarkey was commonplace for you lot.
(oh yeah, & huggermugger, obv.)

― Ess Kay (esskay), Thursday, 10 October 2002 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, huggermugger's a badboy word

― bob zemko (bob), Thursday, 10 October 2002 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Who's actually heard anyone say the word "companion" out loud?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Tracer - any people in a restaurant where I have to complain that my 'companion's' food is all wrong.
(We're not married so I can't use 'wife', I can't seriously use 'girlfriend' at my age (42), and I'm not middle-class or liberal enough to use 'partner' without cringing.)

― Ray M (rdmanston), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Say 'lover'.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

see: 'cringing'

― Ray M (rdmanston), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

And it wasn't a French restaurant.

― Ray M (rdmanston), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Rotter. As in "you dirty rotter!".
Last known person to use the word was probably Steve Jones on the Bill Grundy show ("you fahkin' rotter!") in 1976.
Crikey and cripes are others.

― DavidM (DavidM), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Steve Jones in public school identity-confusion shockah

― Ray M (rdmanston), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Who's actually heard anyone say the word "companion" out loud?

Surely you've been to Park Slope...

― Jody Beth Rosen, Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:36 (twenty-two years ago)

"Excuse me, but my cringing's food is just not right."

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't people say "popular" that much out loud since I graduated from high school. Either it's shortened to "pop" or some other slang like "big" is substituted. Sorry, that sentence will never go in Strunk & White.

― felicity (felicity), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I know people who say "crikey" and "cripes" in real life, and they inspired me to do so occasionally. If the pinefox doesn't say them in real life I'll have to cry; it's all part of my charming and surely entirely inaccurate mental pinefox picture.

― Rebecca (reb), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Jody in Park Slope they usually just say "my bitch" and be done with it.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:58 (twenty-two years ago)

And Nick surely "lover" is even more rarely spoken than "companion". Or at least it should be.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 10 October 2002 17:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I manage to say catamite all the time. And harem.

Maudlin is a great word that no one ever says though.

― Maria (Maria), Thursday, 10 October 2002 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

tracer i think it is bristol where everyone calls you "moy loverrr"

― bob zemko (bob), Thursday, 10 October 2002 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

"chthonian" and that staple of coversations about kant scholarship- "entelchy".

― mike (ro)bott, Thursday, 10 October 2002 23:11 (twenty-two years ago)

You could say "friend", unless yr worried the waiter won't realise yr "with" her and makes a move/thinks yr a loser. "Partner" is awful, it's not like yr playing board games or something.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 10 October 2002 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

cthnonic and entelechy surely?

― bob zemko (bob), Thursday, 10 October 2002 23:21 (twenty-two years ago)

"Wry"'s a nice word, but it seems a bit subtle for conversation.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 10 October 2002 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

you're right about "entelechy", but i've seen the ol' underworld one both ways, depending mostly on the side of the atlantic.

is there a difference between "demonic" and "daemonic" ?

harold bloom to thread !

― mike (ro)bott, Friday, 11 October 2002 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I say chthonic. Daemonic is like faerie a pointlessly old fashioned variant.

― isadora, Friday, 11 October 2002 00:16 (twenty-two years ago)

daemonic is old fashioned = grander = def not pointless. use the age 4 effect man. demonic is reserve for humans only funnily enough

chthonic sounds eviller; cthonian kind of "citizen of cthonia (sometimes billed THE UNDERWORLD raaah)"

― bob zemko (bob), Friday, 11 October 2002 00:55 (twenty-two years ago)

likewise faerie is a diff kind of magic

― bob zemko (bob), Friday, 11 October 2002 00:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I say 'maudlin' all the time, usually when I've had a few too many Guinnesses and I'm warning people what I'm about to become.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 11 October 2002 08:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I have never known anyone in real life to say any of the four central sentences which form the foundation of soap opera dialogue, namely:

1. 'Ere, woss goin' on?

2. Don't come the innocent with me.

3. What's that supposed to mean?

and:

4. I should have thought it was obvious.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 11 October 2002 09:26 (twenty-two years ago)

. What's that supposed to mean?

God, I say this *all the time*! Spot on with the first two though.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 October 2002 09:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Tabloid words: pneumatic, bid, romp, dalliance, rendezvous.

My uncle, deprived of the type of people who know/use such words in Big Lake, MN, said to me over dinner in London, 'I thought that was really dee-cay-dint.'

― suzy (suzy), Friday, 11 October 2002 09:43 (twenty-two years ago)

bonk

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 October 2002 09:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I once developed a huge crush on a girl because she casually used the word "chthonic" in a conversation.

Daemonic/demonic: Daemonic implies the Greek definition of an individual's spirit or fate or whatever (as in "wrestling with one's demons"); putting the pedantic "e" in helps usher it away from the more banal guys with pitchforks, goatees, hooves etc.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 11 October 2002 09:56 (twenty-two years ago)

bonk is the winner by miles!!

― bob zemko (bob), Friday, 11 October 2002 09:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I read this quote in the paper recently - "It's not that I have anything against bonking. Everyone likes a bonk. There's just a time and a place for it." Someone just said bonk twice. Anyone other than me ever encountered someone who finds it astonishing when you use the word 'surly'?

― alex (alex), Friday, 11 October 2002 10:07 (twenty-two years ago)

No. Though thinking about it, I rarely use the word myself.

[alex - a sub might have changed it from something ruder]

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 October 2002 10:10 (twenty-two years ago)

in that case, the sub said bonk twice.

people don't say surly enough these days.

― alex (alex), Friday, 11 October 2002 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Surly teenagers.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 October 2002 10:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Am feeling like a cantankerous curmudgeon right now as I am about to write an irate letter of complaint.

― Miss Laura, Friday, 11 October 2002 10:40 (twenty-two years ago)

daemon with an 'a' is used all the time in the computer business for a process that generally runs in the background waiting for things to happen.

from whatis.com:
A daemon (pronounced DEE-muhn) is a program that runs continuously and exists for the purpose of handling periodic service requests that a computer system expects to receive.

which is exactly what i said. which is lucky or they'd throw me out of geek club.

andy

― koogs, Friday, 11 October 2002 10:46 (twenty-two years ago)

"Whom". No-one to whom I have spoken recently has used the word whom. Apart from me. Three times. Just then.

― lol p xx, Friday, 11 October 2002 15:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I say "whom". There are loads of people who say "whom" even when they don't want that case. GRRR. I = curmudgeon, oh yes. (I should have thought that was obvious, etc. Actually an argument between me and my mother is pretty much guaranteed to contain both 3 and 4 from Marcello's list, although I too have never heard 2 in real life and would probably laugh for about a week if I did.)

― Rebecca (reb), Friday, 11 October 2002 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

sententious

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

nincompoop

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:21 (nineteen years ago)

Someone I know actually said "cathexis" the other day. It was kind of hot.

― Laurel (Laurel), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:32 (nineteen years ago)

There are a lot of slangy journalistic expressions that are never used outside of a newspaper/magazine. "Eaterie" comes to mind.

― Revivalist (Revivalist), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:37 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, The Herald uses eaterie all the time, though I think it's slowly spreading outside hackdom.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:39 (nineteen years ago)

sententious

Okay tracerpaws, I don't think EVERYONE knows the word "sententious".

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:41 (nineteen years ago)

Variety to thread.

― === temporary username === (Mark C), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:44 (nineteen years ago)

shenanigans is called, not used.

nobody has ever used the word luscious.

― autovac (autovac), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:44 (nineteen years ago)

The Sun's Page 3 disagrees.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:45 (nineteen years ago)

Alliteration is key:
Curvy Cate from Catterick
Luscious Linda from Liverpool
Skanky Sue frae Shettleston

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:47 (nineteen years ago)

"corporeal" (it's in books and articles all the time but i never hear anyone say it, not even people with ginormous vocabularies)

― golana murcalumis (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:49 (nineteen years ago)

nobody has ever used the word luscious.

You have obviously never been in earshot of me in one of my temulent, lecherous moods.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:53 (nineteen years ago)

nincompoop

-- Onimo (gerry.wat...), September 8th, 2006 3:21 PM. (GerryNemo) (later) (link)

My Battlefield 2 online nickname is BunglingNincompoop! I stole that from a Grailquest book though.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:56 (nineteen years ago)

This thread could be titled "Words everyone knows but only Stephen Fry uses"

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 8 September 2006 13:59 (nineteen years ago)

Manbearpig

― GoodGodHolyShitBagofDemons (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Friday, 8 September 2006 21:05 (nineteen years ago)

umbrage
jocular

― oops (Oops), Friday, 8 September 2006 21:25 (nineteen years ago)

corporeal

I used it last week, but it was a discussion of René Descartes, so...

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Friday, 8 September 2006 21:26 (nineteen years ago)

My personal favourites are 'pithy' and 'glib'.

― Ricky Willmsenman (gatinhathree), Friday, 8 September 2006 21:34 (nineteen years ago)

yeah i screwed up with sententious; it's actually one of those words that EVERYONE uses but NOBODY knows what it means

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Friday, 8 September 2006 21:54 (nineteen years ago)

Removal of inspissated purulent exudate from the ventral conchal sinus of three standing horses.

― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 8 September 2006 22:51 (nineteen years ago)

insouciant, which in my mind i always pronounced "in soo ah sahnt" for some bizarre reason, until i actually tried to use it a few years back and i was corrected

― timmy tannin (pompous), Sunday, 10 September 2006 04:30 (nineteen years ago)

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