Dec 29, 2008
3 words I use that most other people I talk with don’t
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What unusual words do you use, not for making yourself sound smart, but because they’re especially fun or useful?
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© 2012 Abuyo. All rights reserved.
‘Asinine’ ‘cuz I likes the way it sounds.
‘Propitiation’ because it is a great word for explaining the Gospel.
Your dad taught me to love the word “assiduous.”
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assiduous
Thrice.
Ditto to “asinine.”
Moronic.
I’ll admit I didn’t know the definition of any of the three words you listed.
Meticulous and loquacious
now, if i say “asinine”, will it be canceled out.
no. really. i use the same 15 words over and over. i’m kind of an artless, dunderheaded dolt when it comes to the english language…or any language, i guess.
Exacerbate
Contextualization
I once called the gr 9-10 guys in my youth group a bunch of prognosticators and made them promise not to Google the word. That was fun.
ooohhh… i like the word “krex”. I am going to adopt that into my vocabulary!
Fraught – it makes stories sound better when they are fraught with something.
I didn’t know what your words meant but I love krux. A little onomatopoeia.
I use extrapolate quite regularly.
I’ve also taken the term “preemptive strike” and turned it into a verb – it’s one of the most handy phrases I have! Like, if there is something coming up that might be a potential problem, I say, “okay, we need to find a way to preemptive strike that before it becomes a bigger problem…”. Not totally grammatically correct, but the term carries a lot more meaning than just “heading off” or “stopping” something… :)
fixin’.
example: What are you fixin’ to do?
apparently it is unusual in MN. we get laughed at when we use it. it is fun to say, but it is probably more a habit.
We have kids, so Mr Lunt’s name get’s thrown around enough to not be uncommon.
I usually answer the howareyou question with the word “swell”, though. I never hear that one used by anyone else (except the Beave…)
Indeed.
I love to drop the used correctly “whom” bomb on people.
Amorphous
ef / effing
unbelievable (i know it’s not unusual, but i use it A LOT)
kern
AP…indeed, I have seen all the above mentioned action/effects on your blog, but I never recall actually seeing the words used…
Mr. Turk, indeed is indeed one of my favorites!
1. lapidary
B. apoplectic
III. fie
Honorable Mention: ennui
Discombobulated.
It’s fun to say.
ostensibly
swell
scrump: used as a noun or verb form of “scrumptious” Eg: Double-chee-scrump=cheeseburger with two (2) patties. Or, lets go scrump on some PB n J.
Break-scrump=breakfast.
Deli-scrumpable=delicious.
confunsticate
i love the word “concurrent,” and i use it most frequently in adverb form in lieu of saying “simultaneously.”
Splendiferous — a word which only applies to my wife, btw.
“peachy keen”
I like to use the word “ubiquitous” because it’s fun to say.
pretentious
pontificate
petulant
opine
odious
esoteric–probably one of the most useful words I know
(Thank you, Richard Foster, for introducing me to it!)
bifurcation
bimodal distribution
“a pimple on a rhino’s hiney” for insignificance
“ridin’ the pine” for waiting
“big hat, no cattle” for someone who is all ego
clearly, i work on wall street…
I used “bifurcated” in teaching a sunday school lesson once and my class broke out in hysterical laughter. When I asked what was so funny, they all say at the same time, “you think we know what that means!”
So, yeah, I don’t use “bifurcated” in real life anymore.
Keosauqua. It’s my hometown. It means “big bend in the river” in Indian.
Also, “tomfoolery”. As a parent of four, there are occasions.
gelatinous – never really in context, but because it cracks me up….
raucous
cacophany
snarky
puerile
ravenous
weird…I instinctively knew “lunt” was a word related to pipes. I hadn’t ever heard the term, but it just sounded like it would be.
presently i’m transitioning from
“daily quiet time” to “quotidian quiet time”
penultimate
craggly
It the right situation logorhea is a great word to use. I typically use it with people who are overly wordy (i.e. just trying to sound smart). Plus it is just fun to say! Here is the definition:
An excessive and often uncontrollable flow of words.
I read a lot of older translations of theological works, so I find myself saying “sundry” a lot in actual conversation.
lilliputian
culsdesac
nerdlinger (my term for myself before age 16, and sometimes still today)
As a teacher, I love pulling out the thesaurus with my young students and discovering new words… good times!
“Excuse me”. I never really hear anyone say that much in the city. And “quinquennial” which is something that happens every five years.
so…use the word LUNT in a sentence.
can you say I lunt a fire? or a kindled a lunt? (as in a fire)?
I lunt a cannon?
How does one use that word…I”m curious.
I don’t use it as much as I would like, but sepulchral has its uses in the correct context.
I generally don’t use big words when I talk. I think this is because I have such a low lung function, that I’m trying to quickly and succinctly blurt out whatever I’m saying and hoping not to have to repeat or explain it.
Speaking in gasps (so to speak).
melissa–i’ve often wondered how far-reaching “fixin’ to” is…now i know it doesn’t go as far north as MN. i use it all the time–we’re KS folk.
i used to say “imago” (i’m going to go) a LOT.
providential
-wont (no, I didn’t forget an apostrophe)
-pulchritude
-fewer (seems no one else remembers this word any more as it’s been almost entirely replaced by “less.”)
anthropomorphic. also occasionally proprioception. and I second ubiquitous.
good words for the kind of research I do, also occasionally useful in everyday life.
Does it count if we made it up? We’re kind of famous for that in our house. For example,
“Discompliment” (coined by my eldest before the whole “dissing” thing became popular) — It’s not as strong as an insult but definitely not a nice thing to say.
notwithstanding [a lawyer show-off word]
I coined the term, “christnomos” as an engligreek term, gotta know who christ is and what a nomos is…
also, a phrase, “carries the idea”
stole it from dave crowder.
very useful phrase, when I’m tossing ideas and language around (which is what we all do for fun anyways…)
Orthogonal
Axonometric
Articulate (referring to jointure not language)
Surreptitious
Equanimity
Haughty (I didn’t think this was that unusual, but I used it the other day and none of my coworkers knew what I was talking about. When I explained, one remembered that her mom used to use it.)
Rats!
Obsquatulate: To go away (decamp) and squat somewhere else (sometimes spelled as absquatulate).
Defenestrate: To throw oneself out the window.
Over the past summer, Paul Alexander and I enjoyed working “obsquatulate” and “defenestrate” into our everyday conversations. Most of the dictionaries don’t have the word “obsquatulate”, but it is a recognized slang word trying to work (or obsquatulate, rather) its way into the English dictionary. But first, it has to defenestrate itself from the slang dictionary. :)
amelioration
Fun post, Abraham. My favorite words to say are all Swahili words that either sound fun or describe the thing better than the English word. Often used as slang.
Bwana = Mister (good thing to call teenagers)
Kwasababu = Because (it’s just fun to say)
Nashba, it means nasty in Romanian.
dilapidated – reduced to or fallen into partial ruin or decay, as from age, wear, or neglect.
I can pronounce it correctly in my head – but then I end up stumbling over it when I actually use it!
Notice how no one said “retarded”? You’ve changed the Vocabulary of Blogdom with one single post…well done.
Nerts – As in, aww nerts, I forgot to feed my crocodile.
Nascent.
Count Chocula.
Phantasmagorical
Gladiatorial