What are your favorite words?

[Seharvepernfan]

What words are your favorite?

A long time ago, my cousin asked me what mine was, and I honestly didn't know, but I knew that there were plenty that I really liked, so I started making a list. I know there are more that I really like but haven't remembered.

Here's mine and what they are (or just a stupid comment):
Petrichor is, supposedly, the smell of earth/soil/overgrown vegetation, but I haven't found it in a dictionary.
Veyron as in the Bugatti Veyron, the worlds' currently fastest stock car, and boy does it look sweet.
Epsilon is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet.
Vanguard is the foremost division of an army, "advance guard".
Arboreal: -of or pertaining to trees.
Crescent: I especially like it when combined with moon.
Starlight: My favorite word, partly because of the Muse song.
Interloper: I don't know why I like this one.
Viera: A fictitious race of elf-women. I love the letter V.
Skirmish: My favorite kind of fighting, it also sounds how it looks.
Cerulean: A synonym for Azure (which is another cool word), and a beautiful word, both visually and phonetically.
Azure: Just added this.
Silver: My second favorite color that goes great with my favorite color (green), again a beautiful word, and is used in a lot of things I like.
Ether/eal: Ghostly.
Avenger: If I could be a Punisher knockoff, I'd be The Avenger. Points for Avenged Sevenfold for having the coolest band name ever.
Genesis: A beginning. One of my favorite names is Gene.
Celadon: A pale gray-green. A great eye color and yet another beautiful word. There's gonna be several. Points for Pokemon for having great color/town names.
Panacea: A remedy for all diseases and a Healer's Iron Heart Surge. You don't see many words like this.
Precision: I prefer this to brute force, and I'm seeing a pattern with words that contain the letter C.
Poseidon: God of the sea.
Neutronium: As in the absurdly unoptimized epic golem. An ugly word visually, but it sounds nice.
Cydonia: Ahhhhh. : ) I just love this word. Introduced to me by Muse in an absolutely fantastic song.
Harper: A name that I like and an organization (well, a member thereof) that I love. Gene Harper. Great name.
Seven: My favorite number and another visually/phonetically pleasing word.
Titan: My favorite type of outsider.
Hyperion: A greek titan and a redwood tree.
Illuvatar: A lotr god and a redwood tree. I like most "Illu" words. Illusion, Illuminate/ation.
Tor: A rocky peak. Short and sweet.
Cyclopean: One-eyed, very large, or in some cases, very old.
Nymph: Eh heh, well...yeah. (Also a cool looking/sounding word)
Asunder: Badass. "I tore them Asunder" *chills!*
Corvette: I like C and V, apparently. A light and mobile warship, used to protect larger ships during battle.
Aurora: The night northern lights and a beautiful word.
Corona: The ring of light surrounding an eclipse...
Eclipse: I've always had a thing for eclipses. Great imagery.
Aerial: I like any "aero" word, but this one looks and sounds the best to me. A good elf name: Aerowyn.
Annulus: A flat ring shaped object. Another great A word. Also a powerful psionic artifact in D&D.
Psion/Scion: Just sounds cool.
Herculean: Okay, so, C + ean.
Seraph: An archangel.
Sonorous: Rich and full in sound.
Umbra/Umbral: Shade, shadow.
Esper/Espeon: A ghost or spirit, and Espeon was a psychic cat pokemon.
Eidolon: "1. an unsubstantial image; apparition; phantom
2. an ideal or idealized figure." A very rare word. I don't think I've ever seen this except for the final fantasy and pathfinder summoner.
Symphonic: As in, symphony.

My favorite name is Cynewulf (pronounced Sin-wolf).
My favorite ...phrase? I guess, is Coup De Grace. It's french for death blow. I think it would be a great band name. French is favorite language (though I don't speak it).

[Weezer]

I have a lot, they tend to rotate depending on what I've been reading/exposed to lately. Coincidentally Petrichor is one of the consistent ones, and a word I just recently re-discovered is:

Demiurge: a Platonic subordinate deity who fashions the sensible world in the light of eternal ideas



Petrichor is, supposedly, the smell of earth/soil/overgrown vegetation, but I haven't found it in a dictionary.
Actually it's the smell of dry earth after rain, which is apparently different than the smell of wet earth after rain. Some plants produce an oil during dry spells, which then is transferred to the soil and when it rains begins to smell. wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor)source. I mostly just love the smell of earth after rain, it's such a unique and subtle smell.

[Kindablue]

Cryptochromaticism, which is used once in a scene in Lolita to describe the patterns Humbert finds in the colors of cars he passes on the road that he believes are following him. It's almost impossible to work into a conversation, and maybe that's why I like it so much.

[Terraoblivion]

Antidisestablishmentarianism. Not only is it ridiculous long, it's also nearly impossible to pronounce, includes a double negation in the word itself, but it has no relevance to anything anymore seeing as how it was the name of the ideology supporting the tie between church and state in 19th century Britain.

[Jahkaivah]

Kumquats, and pickle barrel.

[Science Officer]

Recrudescence - the re-occurrence of a disease in an organism
Concatenate - to join together
Decollate - to take apart
Inhume - to bury. antonym of exhume
Stultify - from latin stultus and facere. to make stupid.
Apotheosis - the greatest example of itself
Putative - widely regarded to be
Cthonic - dealing with the earth and underground things?
Cyclopean - constructed of uneven, rough-hewn stone
Delimiter - describes a limit? I think
Empyreal - cosmic, otherworldly, and such.
Antedeluvian - before the flood
Trenchant - keen, incisive, cutting
Stochastic, Aleatoric - Involving chance, luck, dice
Operand - the thing being operated on.
Squamose - scaly
Rugose - having folds or creases
Exocortex - the part of your brain located outside of your skull
Psychopomp - the mythological archetype of the conductor of the dead


Cydonia is also in an excellent Bal Sagoth song, Beneath the Crimson Vaults of Cydonia. Bal Sagoth uses a lot of good words.

[Dienekes]

Money
Dollar
Gold
Cash
Riches
Treasure
Wealth

Just hearing these words makes me happier.

Also, ursine.

[Zetapup]

Hmm, probably zany and acclimate. Can't think of any others right now.

[Nix Nihila]

Of the top of my head, a few of my favorites.

Chiaroscuro
Pleonasm
Acedia
Anodyne
Tenebrous

[Joxer t' Mighty]

Cannoli
Ethereal
Discombobulated
Beefsteak
Dollop
Tobacco
Phantasmagorical
Mould
Ambrosia
Liquors
Opal
Skrimshaw
Cecrops
Dankeschön
Mes amis

[Othesemo]

Defenestrate- To throw forcibly out of a window, esp. without the person or object's consent.

My New Year's Resolution was to use this word at least once per day in a way that makes sense in context. I'm still going strong.

[the_druid_droid]

Hmm, words I like:

Archon
Primarch
Necrotic (definition aside, this one sounds cool)
Abstruse
Orison
Abjure

[Soras Teva Gee]

....(pony)....

[SaintRidley]

I'm partial to the word Schmendrick right now.

[Inglenook]

tinker
dearheart
hoosegow
viti
aperture
artifice
pariah
quintessence
psychopomp
schadenfreude
shibboleth
syncope
puppet
porpentine
trinket
paragon
cthonic
seraph
phylactery
reliquary
maquisard
calabash
gloaming
piquant
ejecta
dissonance
demiurge
bastion
marsupium
pergament
juxtapose
duplicitous
amaranthine
arc
resonant
twilight
sunder
succulent
plinth
pith
rictus

[GolemsVoice]

Apotheosis - the greatest example of itself

It also means "becoming god", literally, I think.

My favourite German words:

aushäusig literal translation: the state of not being at home. Great word, and I try to use it as often as possible
fernmündlich orally, but from afar. A fancy bureaucratic word for "via telephone", but damn does it sound fancy
inkommodieren to make somebody uncomfortable


in English:
behold! goes with anything
indeed the two ees make it sound nice. It's a word for men, I'd say. Indeed calls for a deep voice.
ravage sounds just like what it describes

[Brother Oni]

ravage sounds just like what it describes

Especially when spoke with a strong Germanic accent. :smalltongue:

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Gravitas.
Slick.
Luscious.

[factotum]

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious... :smallwink:

[Weimann]

"Eftersträvansvärt" (approx. "worth striving towards") and "försanthållande" (approx. "things held to be true") are Swedish words I'm rather enamoured with right now.

[Fri]

The one word that I can remember I like/amused to is bed. Because it looks like bed.

I'm sure I have more word I like, but that's on top of my mind now.

[GolemsVoice]

The one word that I can remember I like/amused to is bed. Because it looks like bed.

Damn. That's a revelation.

[Anarion]

In no particular order

largesse
zugzwang
amaranthine
catawampus
dispositive
elide
deleterious
risible
transcendence
everypony (yeah, thanks ponythread)

Also, good lord, bed looks like a bed. Mind=blown.

[TheEmerged]

I was introduced to my favorite word by a monolog from the Escape from the Planet Of the Apes movie - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_the_Planet_of_the_Apes. It is arguably the most important word in human thought (the word itself varying by language, of course), perhaps even the word that *defines* human thought.

No.

Think about it :smallwink:

[KingHywel]

Cerulean isn't a word, silly. It's a city!

[Eakin]

Defenestrate- To throw forcibly out of a window, esp. without the person or object's consent.


I'm glad that last bit is in there. I'd hate to use the word to describe someone I threw out of a window with their full consent. Boy would THAT be embarrassing!

Personally, I'm inordinately fond of the word "indubitably." It's fun to say AND it's a great way to answer a question in the affirmative without having to worry about working it into a sentence.

[warty goblin]

I'm glad that last bit is in there. I'd hate to use the word to describe someone I threw out of a window with their full consent. Boy would THAT be embarrassing!

Personally, I'm inordinately fond of the word "indubitably." It's fun to say AND it's a great way to answer a question in the affirmative without having to worry about working it into a sentence.

Indubitably is a great word. I managed to employ it as an answer to a homework question last week. I believe my answer was:

"Inspection instantly indicates indubitable interaction effects."

I'd give me full credit just for that. We'll see if the Chinese grader is similarly amused.

[Eakin]

Indubitably is a great word. I managed to employ it as an answer to a homework question last week. I believe my answer was:

"Inspection instantly indicates indubitable interaction effects."

I'd give me full credit just for that. We'll see if the Chinese grader is similarly amused.

Alliteration always assures absolute appreciation.

[Fri]

Damn. That's a revelation.

Indeed. That's exactly what I thought when I got that.

[ArlEammon]

Ahnalnathrackuthebebethutte

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Glisten. It sounds like what glistening would sound like if glistening made a sound.

[Dark Elf Bard]

Tapioca and gumbo. Say it right now and tell me how it feels.

[Raz_Fox]

You are a very lovely thread and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Now, as for a few of mine, which I try to collect in a little file called Nice Words...

Oneiric - of, or pertaining to, dreams. This is a beautiful word and one that I cannot use enough, and may certainly be my favorite word of all time. Doesn't it just roll off the tongue? Doesn't it hint of magic and the otherworldly by its very nature?
Threnody - a poem, speech or dirge for the dead. This is a word that hits you with its weight and never stops impressing.
Adumbrate - to foreshadow, prefigure, or produce a faint image or resemblance of. One that I should use more often, definitely.
Incunabula – the earliest or first stages of anything.
Concatenate – to link together or to unite. This is definitely one I should start using in conversation.
Dithyrambic – wildly irregular in form, or wildly enthusiastic.
Mendacity – the tendency to lie. Another one that deserves to be used more often.
Cacoethes – an irresistible urge or mania.
Desideratum – something wanted or needed.
Daedal – skillful, ingenious; cleverly intricate.
Tatterdemalion – a shabby person; ragged or unkempt. This one, in particular, is one of my particular favorites, both as the perfect word to describe a character and to use as an uncommon adjective in conversation.
Prolix – unnecessarily wordy; extended to unnecessary or tedious length.
Praxis – practice as distinguished from theory; application and use of knowledge or skills.
Estival – pertaining to or appropriate to summer.
Sidereal – of or pertaining to the stars.
Hermetic – sealed and airtight; isolated and unaffected by outside forces; pertaining to occult science.
Irenic – peaceful or conciliatory.
Effulgent – shining forth brilliantly; radiant.
Perspicacity – wisdom, swiftness of mind.
Felicity – high happiness; skillful faculty; good fortune. Isn't this just a happy word in general? A very happy word.
Ebullience – high spirits, exhilaration; exuberance.

[Copper]

I love the word "Gusto". It just sounds so much like what it means and I just find it enjoyable to say.