Words you like, but don't often use!

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So, what words do you like, but in normal conversation don't get a chance to use?

I choose Squeamish.

― jel --, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

first one that i can think of: discombobulate.

― nathalie, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Effervescent.

Cockmonger.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Balderdash and chicanery!

NB I shall be trying to use these a lot more often.

― Sarah, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

loathe I think is a horrible word and yet it seems to crop up all over the place

― davel, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Flaccid, and engorged I think are great words which virtually every lady I know hates.

― davel, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

words i like, i use em.

― UOIU, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like the word 'umbrage'. The other day, my dad and my brother were talking about something and my dad said "I take umbrage at that" and I thought "That's not something people say enough"

― jamesmichaelward, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sardonic. I never feel confident enough about what it means.

― N., Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought "That's not something people say enough"

I thought what? No, I thought "That's something people don't say enough" Not sure what happened to my mind then, sorry

― jamesmichaelward, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Chimneychunga

― Karl J Kretzschmar, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"shambles". I mean in the "it's a shambles" sense, a disaster. Particularly would like to use this more while watching football.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

fluffy and renegade

― Graham, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

girth and lacsadasical (sp - i think), damn i may have that on my head stone - it kinda sums me up

― born clippy, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Splendid. The sound of the word is pleasing to me, but I'll sound like a right tosser if I ever use it.

― Madchen, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

prestidigitation

― chris, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

bubbleperm

― Arthur, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ninja.

― Lindsey B, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That word is spelled lackadaisical. I checked on AOL's dictionary and they've got an audio pronunciation of it-the speaker sounds EXACTLY like Daria.

― Lindsey B, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Evanescence. It has NEVER come up, and I've been waiting for months. I'm not sure what it means though. Okay I'll go look it up now. (It means tending to "vanish like vapor". Beautiful!)

― Maria, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sussurus. Driftwood. I am trying to work new-fangled into conversations, because I am 43 and it seems to be time that I started using it.

― Martin Skidmore, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Lugubrious.

― Nancy Drew, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Bitch," to refer to my little greyhound.

― felicity, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I used the word "ameliorate" in conversation with my dance teacher and she said it sounded like a made up word. Growing up as a preacher's kid, lots of words that might not be common in most households were part of my environment.

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I hate clumsy Latin derivatives like ameliorate. They are so utilitarian.

― Maria, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Info on ameliorate:

Mid-18th century. Alteration of meliorate (on the model of French améliorer ).

― Lindsey B, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

derived from latin melior.

― Maria, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Damn French, trying to claim all the words.

― Lindsey B, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

glorious, bejewelled. the world needs more exotic positive words

― Menelaus Darcy, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I love to work the word "asps" into the conversation as often as I possibly can -- which is once. Because as soon as I casually toss it into a sentence the person I am talking to always abandons me on some flimsy pretext, such as, "I'm sorry to be so abrupt, but my shoe is leaking. Goodbye."

― Aimless, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

elan

― anthony, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

louche

― electric sound of jim, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Aimless, the people you converse with are very rude indeed. If I were you (which I'm not, being a highly focussed 'go-getter') I would shout "Kiss my asps" at their departing backs.

― Nancy Drew, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'abattoir'

it sounds so nice for something so grotesque

― geeta, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

bitchnose

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

crepuscular, pulchritude (particularly as "feminine pulchritude"), trenchant, fetid, water (as in "man of first water"), I'd also love a conversation where I got to use the words louse and vitiate interchangeably.

― Kris, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

vicissitude.

Because we were pretentious fuckers, in our final papers at college (doing philosophy of science) we decided that we'd all use some "bingo" words in our final (quite free form) essay. these included "jejune" and "vicissitude". we all used "antithetical" but then that was par for the course anyway. (This does sound STUNNINGLY pretentious, but the paper itself was to blame -- you got like 40 essay titles and just chose 1 to write about for 2.5 hours. One I'll never forget was "Compare and contrast the notions of time and space" which got laffs for pure Sellars-and-Yeatmanism)

― Alan Trewartha, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

haberdashery

― nathalie, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

meritocratic

― Graham, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ha you don't get to use it Graham because it is CHIMERICAL

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ululate. Also loads of geographical words that I remember from a- levels but never get a chance to use: involution, pingo, thermocrast, ablation aaahhhh, feels like listening to the shipping forecast.

― Matt, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

three weeks pass...

hapless, as in hapless fool, except i say it to myself at least once a day, along with "it sucks to be you"

also, petulant

― youn, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Absorption, parellelogram. I guess I don't see many parellelograms but isn't it a nice word?

― Andrew, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Erudite.

― Vinnie, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

fizz-nucked

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

spurtle. he he he he he

that was SPURTLE.

it's a stick you stir porridge with. A stick! and they gave it a name. God bless my ancestors

― misterjones, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

DUDES, you all need a copy of "Mrs Byrne's Dictionary of Obscure And Preposterous Words" a copy of which i was leafing through just the other day! some of the words were RUBBISH but some are ACE like... ummm... abascinate (to blind by holding a hot copper basin near the eyes.... ugh). is there an online version of Mrs Byrne (i'd check but am at WORK, obv)? (and FAKT: Mrs Byrne is the daughter of famous violinist Jasha Heifetz!)

― katie, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

http://textstore.co.il/mrsbyrne/mrsbyrne.htm

although this is a "mrs byrne's word of the day" type site!

― katie, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

four months pass...

Main Entry: pro·gen·i·tor
Pronunciation: prO-'je-n&-t&r, pr&-
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French progeniteur, from Latin progenitor, from progignere to beget, from pro- forth + gignere to beget -- more at KIN
Date: 14th century
1 a : an ancestor in the direct line : FOREFATHER b : a biologically ancestral form
2 : PRECURSOR, ORIGINATOR

― pat camporeale, Friday, 27 December 2002 14:48 (twenty-three years ago)

i use "progeny" from time to time, just because i spent altogether too much time studying genetics.

how about "defenestrate"? those wacky latin/french derived words...prob is there's not much chance to use it.

"querulous". that should be used much more often.

i'm also fond of "accoutrement"...the dictionary says an alternate spelling/pronunciation is "accouterment", which seems like the articulate-white-trash pronunciation.

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Friday, 27 December 2002 16:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Skipping 70 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Salubrious -- because it sounds like it means pretty much the opposite of what it does (possibly due to "salacious" and "lugubrious").

― OleM (OleM), Thursday, 19 August 2004 07:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Evanescence. It has NEVER come up, and I've been waiting for months. I'm not sure what it means though. Okay I'll go look it up now. (It means tending to "vanish like vapor". Beautiful!)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 19 August 2004 09:07 (twenty-one years ago)

callipygian!

― metalmickey, Thursday, 19 August 2004 09:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh come on, you've gotta love that word! Incandescent is good too.

― metalmickey, Thursday, 19 August 2004 12:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Coprolalia is another good one.

― metalmickey, Thursday, 19 August 2004 12:42 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

Quaffing!!!! I keep wanting to use it, but the appropriate context often eludes me.

― jel --, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 18:37 (eighteen years ago)

quaquaversal

― emsk, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 18:41 (eighteen years ago)

gimcrack

― fife, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 19:50 (eighteen years ago)

glossolalia

― Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 19:52 (eighteen years ago)

Purloin.

― chap, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 19:56 (eighteen years ago)

I just recently encountered the word "dithyramb" for the first time. Now I eagerly await my chance to unleash it on an unsuspecting dialogue.

― bernard snowy, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 19:57 (eighteen years ago)

apocryphal

― milo z, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 19:58 (eighteen years ago)

stagflation. like, right on man!

― tremendoid, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 20:07 (eighteen years ago)

Heteroskedacity

― theantmustdance, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 21:55 (eighteen years ago)

Antidisestablishmentarianism

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 21:58 (eighteen years ago)

dicknose

― RJG, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:00 (eighteen years ago)

GAYSPACK
FANNY
NAN

-- GARU G (garu...), September 7th, 2004.

― Curt1s Stephens, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:02 (eighteen years ago)

portent

― Sara R-C, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:08 (eighteen years ago)

blarney

― Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:12 (eighteen years ago)

cliquish

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:14 (eighteen years ago)

obfuscate
crotch

― molly mummenschanz, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:14 (eighteen years ago)

quandary

― Sara R-C, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:14 (eighteen years ago)

I love "obfuscate." "Crocth" I've used a lot more often now that I have kids.

I don't use "crotchety" as much as I should.

― Sara R-C, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:21 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

wang

― Om mani padmetino (Curt1s Stephens), Wednesday, 10 December 2008 05:44 (seventeen years ago)

ostensibly

― thereminimum chips (electricsound), Wednesday, 10 December 2008 05:46 (seventeen years ago)

churlish

― Granny Dainger, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 05:49 (seventeen years ago)

caravanserai

― Aimless, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 19:36 (seventeen years ago)

corybantic - it's just damn hard to work into a conversation.

― Aimless, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 20:52 (seventeen years ago)

Gossamer - ever since I moved onto pleasuremax.

― Holden McGroin (Ned Trifle II), Wednesday, 10 December 2008 21:17 (seventeen years ago)

alluvial

― Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Wednesday, 10 December 2008 21:19 (seventeen years ago)

RUBISCO

― Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Wednesday, 10 December 2008 21:19 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

lobe

― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Sunday, 17 January 2010 20:37 (fifteen years ago)

limn

― dyao, Monday, 18 January 2010 02:45 (fifteen years ago)

I have fits trying to use the lovely word impetigo without actually doing myself physical harm. As some consolation, another favorite word of mine, freckle, is much simpler to shoehorn into ordinary conversation and always proves satisfying.

― Aimless, Monday, 18 January 2010 06:20 (fifteen years ago)

twelve years pass...

vouchsafe

Life is not vouchsafing me many opportunities to use this word.

― jmm, Monday, 21 March 2022 15:29 (three years ago)

three years pass...

Bonkers. Gotta save it for the right occasion.

― Modollno Kahn (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, 3 December 2025 13:59 (one month ago)

ecclesiastical

― Edward Albee Sure (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 3 December 2025 14:28 (one month ago)

Ecumenical

― Modollno Kahn (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, 3 December 2025 17:53 (one month ago)

Chronophage

― salsa shark, Wednesday, 3 December 2025 18:03 (one month ago)

calumniated, traduced.

― ledge, Wednesday, 3 December 2025 18:11 (one month ago)

Notwithstanding

― Tony Bubbles (Tom D.), Wednesday, 3 December 2025 18:17 (one month ago)

Impart

― Now read it backwards. (dog latin), Thursday, 4 December 2025 19:14 (one month ago)

flapdoodle

― Edward Albee Sure (Neanderthal), Thursday, 4 December 2025 19:36 (one month ago)

credenza

― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 4 December 2025 19:45 (one month ago)

poikilotherm

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, 4 December 2025 20:48 (one month ago)

Gnostic. (Don't often = never.)

― clemenza, Thursday, 4 December 2025 20:49 (one month ago)

Lad in this Ngaio Marsh book just said another character gives him "the jim jams".

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 9 December 2025 15:31 (one month ago)

nincompoop

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, 9 December 2025 22:44 (one month ago)

cantankerous!

― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 9 December 2025 22:45 (one month ago)

antimacassar

― bulb after bulb, Tuesday, 9 December 2025 22:55 (one month ago)

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