Barely known words

[Duck999]

Here is a thread for teaching and discussing words that not many people know.
Let me start of:
Defenestration-The act of throwing someone or something out of a window.
Hippopotamonstrousisquipedeliaphobia-The fear of long words.

I have more, but I would rather not overload you. Let the discombobulation begin.
Really I enjoy learning this stuff.

[Kindablue]

Doesn't "hippo" mean "horse?"

Anyway, some that I think sound good that I don't hear often:
Imago, the final stage of an insect's metamorphosis.
Bellicose, eager for violence.
Polygyny, many wives.
Darkling, an archaic version of darkening.
Pinteresque, full of pregnant pauses.

[Valwyn]

Doesn't "hippo" mean "horse?"

It does. Etymologically, it comes from hippopotamus ("river horse"). For some reason (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia#Etymology).

I approve of this thread, even if my only contribution will hardly count: Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SesquipedalianLoquaciousness)

Keep the words coming! :smalltongue:

[Totally Guy]

Refenestration: the act of throwing somebody back through the window after making the the mistake of throwing them out in the first place.

[Worira]

ok here have a bunch (http://www.rinkworks.com/words/funwords.shtml)

[Kindablue]

ok here have a bunch (http://www.rinkworks.com/words/funwords.shtml)

I really like spanghew. It sounds like something out of a Mark Twain book.

[Serpentine]

My favourite is Chaoskampf. It's the stories that symbolise the conflict between order and chaos through a battle between a dragon or serpent and a culture hero. St George and the Dragon, Apep vs. Ra or Set, Baal vs. Yam, Jason and the Dragon... There's lots, they're all through mythology, and they're some of the oldest and most symbolism-laden stories out there.

[Telonius]

My favorite is thagomizer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thagomizer) (named for the late Thag Simmons).

[Emperor Ing]

Defenestration-The act of throwing someone or something out of a window.


I would dare say that at least 80% of everyone i've ever met knew that word if only for the reason because they thought it was a "barely known word" :smalltongue:

[Kindablue]

My favourite is Chaoskampf. It's the stories that symbolise the conflict between order and chaos through a battle between a dragon or serpent and a culture hero. St George and the Dragon, Apep vs. Ra or Set, Baal vs. Yam, Jason and the Dragon... There's lots, they're all through mythology, and they're some of the oldest and most symbolism-laden stories out there.

That one's good; I think I'll try to remember it. The only German word I regularly use is klangfarbe, "soundcolor." Always thought it sounded better than timbre.

[Vesth]

Oh! Oh! Oh! I know one: metasemantic.

If someone would be so kind as to explain this word to me in clear, simple , I would be so happy. Dictionary, telling me that metasemantic mean 'Pertaining to metasemantics', just to tell me that that means 'The part of metalanguage that deals with semantics' doesn't teach me anything. At all.

I came across this word when I was playing Dual Transform a long time back, and I still don't know what it is.

[Ashtagon]

I would dare say that at least 80% of everyone i've ever met knew that word if only for the reason because they thought it was a "barely known word" :smalltongue:

The first time I saw that word, it was in the context of Czech politics. I knew at once what it meant (Latin scholar), and it never occurred to me at the time that the word was at all unusual or rare.

[HuskyBoi]

I'm a big fan of "exsanguinated"- means having all your blood drained out. As in, "Trespassers will be exsanguinated".

And always popular: Jocular- a Scottish vampire (citation needed :smallwink:)

[Eldan]

My favourite is Chaoskampf. It's the stories that symbolise the conflict between order and chaos through a battle between a dragon or serpent and a culture hero. St George and the Dragon, Apep vs. Ra or Set, Baal vs. Yam, Jason and the Dragon... There's lots, they're all through mythology, and they're some of the oldest and most symbolism-laden stories out there.

That's one I never really understood. English just tends to use German words in philosophy (and other humanities), even when there's perfectly straightforward English translations available.

[Emperor Ing]

Can you feel ze schadenfreude? :smalltongue:

That's not one of those barely known words, but it seems to be one of those words that at first you never hear it, but as soon as you learn the definition, it's EVERYWHERE.

[Serpentine]

Usually there aren't such straightforward English translations. There's no single English word for "symbolic conflict between order and chaos played out as a battle between a dragon and a culture hero" - certainly none that sounds so cool - so Chaoskampf has become the "English" word for it. There's no one English word for "that specific pleasure from watching someone else's failures or misfortune", so we use schadenfreude.
It's not really any different to all the other words from other languages English has wedged into her vocabulary *shrug*

[hamishspence]

And always popular: Jocular- a Scottish vampire (citation needed :smallwink:)

I thought that was Macula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macula_of_retina) :smallwink:

[Manga Shoggoth]

At this point I can do no better than point you to the World Wide Words website (http://www.worldwidewords.org/), wherein you will find many words and phrases for the discerning gentleman discussed and dissected for your delight and delectation.

[dehro]

defenestration is actually fairly well known in italy..well.. it's italian translation of course... we use it as a verb.
this reminds me of something friends used to say to me, back when I lived in England, namely that they thought my choice of vocabulary was rather posh/affected/sophisticated.. but what was actually happening was that I was simply using the literal and closest translation of words that are of common use in Italian, but turned out to be less common in English.

[Eldan]

Usually there aren't such straightforward English translations. There's no single English word for "symbolic conflict between order and chaos played out as a battle between a dragon and a culture hero" - certainly none that sounds so cool - so Chaoskampf has become the "English" word for it. There's no one English word for "that specific pleasure from watching someone else's failures or misfortune", so we use schadenfreude.
It's not really any different to all the other words from other languages English has wedged into her vocabulary *shrug*

There are some that make sense since English doesn't have the words. Schadenfreude, yes, Zeitgeist, yes, even Übermensch since DC stole the word Superman from us.
But Chaoskampf? I'll guarantee that 90% of Germans would have no idea what you mean by that. It's not a definition that's actualy clear from the parts of the word, like Schadenfreude or Zeitgeist is. So, chaos struggle would make just as much sense, you need to explain the definition anyway.


I thought that was Macula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macula_of_retina) :smallwink:

Little known fact, the Macula is in fact Irish :smalltongue:

[Kindablue]

Still on German, I just found a piece of sheet music that I had scribbled at the bottom: "Eigengrau//absolute black." Or, the color that you see with no light at all, which is paradoxically lighter than a black object in a lit room, because the brain deals with colors better when they're contrasting each other.

[Eldan]

Ooh. That's is a beautiful word. Never heard it before. Wiki also calls it "brain grey".

[Flickerdart]

Usually there aren't such straightforward English translations.
When faced with the same problem, instead of taking the original word wholesale, Russian translated them. Schadenfreude becomes "zloradstvo", literally "happiness at evil". Kindergarten becomes "detski sad", "garden of children". In my opinion, it's a lot more practical (since people unfamiliar with the words can figure them out, they follow proper spelling conventions, etc), even if it does make you sound less posh.

[BWR]

The Pathfinder Game Mastery Guide has a lovely list of words every gamer should know. I got about half of them, and I consider myself rather knowledgeable about English, since I can follow Sir Humphrey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vShJa6GobFQ&list=PLA84192B6A0450EAD)without (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8keZbZL2ero)problems.
Someone has done most of the work for you here (http://beardian.blogspot.no/2010/10/words-every-game-master-should-know.html).

[Anarion]

I use hornswaggle in casual conversation. It basically means tricked, but it's way cooler* to tell someone that your buddy hornswaggled you into helping him move out of his apartment than it is to say tricked.

*Cooler may, perhaps, not be the most appropriate adjective.

[Flickerdart]

The Pathfinder Game Mastery Guide has a lovely list of words every gamer should know. I got about half of them, and I consider myself rather knowledgeable about English, since I can follow Sir Humphrey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vShJa6GobFQ&list=PLA84192B6A0450EAD)without (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8keZbZL2ero)problems.
Someone has done most of the work for you here (http://beardian.blogspot.no/2010/10/words-every-game-master-should-know.html).
I dunno, it doesn't seem very difficult to follow.

[Ghostwheel]

Oh! Oh! Oh! I know one: metasemantic.

If someone would be so kind as to explain this word to me in clear, simple , I would be so happy. Dictionary, telling me that metasemantic mean 'Pertaining to metasemantics', just to tell me that that means 'The part of metalanguage that deals with semantics' doesn't teach me anything. At all.

I came across this word when I was playing Dual Transform a long time back, and I still don't know what it is.

It is a weasel word. Ignore it.

If someone using this word wanted to be clear they would say or write "a concept (or word) found in multiple languages", or something similar. Have a good day.

[Ghostwheel]

Still on German, I just found a piece of sheet music that I had scribbled at the bottom: "Eigengrau//absolute black." Or, the color that you see with no light at all, which is paradoxically lighter than a black object in a lit room, because the brain deals with colors better when they're contrasting each other.

Some vipers may have this trait in the pigmantation around their eyes. I think that the USAF is looking into it.

[Kindablue]

It is a weasel word. Ignore it.

If someone using this word wanted to be clear they would say or write "a concept (or word) found in multiple languages", or something similar. Have a good day.

What makes it misleading? It just seems like technical jargon to me.


Some vipers may have this trait in the pigmantation around their eyes. I think that the USAF is looking into it.

What trait? The ability to judge colors based on their absolute brightness instead of their relative brightness?

[Worira]

It is a weasel word. Ignore it.

If someone using this word wanted to be clear they would say or write "a concept (or word) found in multiple languages", or something similar. Have a good day.

Err... No, they wouldn't, because that's not what it means. It's not even particularly closely related. Just because a word isn't in your vocabulary, it doesn't mean those using it are doing so as part of some sort of campaign of obfuscation.

[Eldan]

What trait? The ability to judge colors based on their absolute brightness instead of their relative brightness?

The pigmentation would have nothing to do with that. It's not an aspect of the sensory cells at all, but of the nerves linking them together.

[Jon_Dahl]

Pending - Even my English teacher didn't know this. I spelt it out to her, but nothing.
Omitting - My half-English colleague didn't know this one. He was asking me what it meant.

[Traab]

Verisimilitude - Believability of a narrative.

Basically, its a story that sounds like it could be true. I dont think it actually has to be true, just be believable. I read this in a book years and YEARS ago. Back before the internet was as common as it is today. It wasnt in my standard dictionary at the time either so it took me forever to track it down. Words like that are why I love reading fantasy novels, they seem to be sprinkled with awesome words. This is another, more a phrase than a word but I love it and use it all the time.

Disreputable tatterdemalion - Untrustworthy urchin was how it was used in the book, but technically its an untrustworthy person who looks rather raggedy. I drove my sister insane with this because she couldnt figure out the definition and she knew it was an insult but other than "Nuh UH!!!" she didnt really have a way to defend herself from the name.

[Frozen_Feet]

Can you feel ze schadenfreude? :smalltongue:

That's not one of those barely known words, but it seems to be one of those words that at first you never hear it, but as soon as you learn the definition, it's EVERYWHERE.

What's even funnier, there's an even less known word for the same word, borrowed from Greek: epicaricacy.

Also, I find it hugely ironic English is using a loanword for this concept instead of, say, "harm's joy" or "joy of harm", because in every other language I know the concept is presented as a compound word of "joy" and "harm". Like the german Schadenfreude, or Finnish vahingonilo.

[Eldan]

I just found one on Youtube, of all places.

Panegyric: a formal speech publicly praising someone or something.


Isn't it lovely?

[ForzaFiori]

I don't see what all the fuss is about English borrowing words - It's a long standing tradition of ours (especially stealing from French and German, which is how the language was made in the first place), and its not like the same thing doesn't happen in the other direction, especially (at least, in my experience) with Italian, who stole such hard to translate words as "bar", and "sport". It's even worse with technical jargon (which is how this all got started). When your country tends to be ahead in a field (as the USA/Britain were in computing, like Germany was in Psychology/Philosophy, etc), people tend to just steal your jargon wholesale.


Pending - Even my English teacher didn't know this. I spelt it out to her, but nothing.
Omitting - My half-English colleague didn't know this one. He was asking me what it meant.

Really? Pending and omitting seem... well, really common here. Heck, if you queue up more than one thing to print on my computer it says that the ones that aren't printing are pending, and I can't even begin to count the number of forms that have in big letters "Do not omit any blanks" or something similar.


Verisimilitude - Believability of a narrative.

Basically, its a story that sounds like it could be true. I dont think it actually has to be true, just be believable.

Your correct - Verisimilitude is simply a stories believability.

[Ashtagon]

Pending - Even my English teacher didn't know this. I spelt it out to her, but nothing.
Omitting - My half-English colleague didn't know this one. He was asking me what it meant.

Your English teacher needs to give up the day job.

[dehro]

it gets worse, in Italy.. on account of how we get it wrong.
a favourite of mine: for decades, though it's changing now people still occasionally get it wrong, jogging has been called "footing"

no, I don't understand it either

[Eldan]

That happens everywhere. German has beamer (projector) and Handy (cell phone). There's probably more.

[Traab]

I don't see what all the fuss is about English borrowing words - It's a long standing tradition of ours (especially stealing from French and German, which is how the language was made in the first place), and its not like the same thing doesn't happen in the other direction, especially (at least, in my experience) with Italian, who stole such hard to translate words as "bar", and "sport". It's even worse with technical jargon (which is how this all got started). When your country tends to be ahead in a field (as the USA/Britain were in computing, like Germany was in Psychology/Philosophy, etc), people tend to just steal your jargon wholesale.



Really? Pending and omitting seem... well, really common here. Heck, if you queue up more than one thing to print on my computer it says that the ones that aren't printing are pending, and I can't even begin to count the number of forms that have in big letters "Do not omit any blanks" or something similar.



Your correct - Verisimilitude is simply a stories believability.

Yeah, the odd thing is, back when I first found the definition years ago it was "assertion of truth" and strangely enough, both definitions fit what happened in the story. The basic gist was, two guys were starting a relationship, one of the guys is the heir to nobility and his daddy is a wee bit conservative, so they figure the best way to hide the relationship is to stage a fight and make them look like enemies outside of their living quarters.

The way the word was used could have been either to be serious when talking about making their little act believable, or a bardic tendency to get into the part he was playing when he talked to his boyfriend about how, "He was going to have to tear your shirt apart for his verisimilitude." So he could have meant, "I will of course have to tear your shirt to make this story believable" or it could have been, "I will of course have to tear your shirt off in this staged fight after you start saying these true, (if nasty) things about me"

[Xuc Xac]

Oh! Oh! Oh! I know one: metasemantic.

If someone would be so kind as to explain this word to me in clear, simple , I would be so happy.

Honestly? Metasemantic = someone explain this word to me

Semantics studies the meanings of words and how they relate to each other. Metasemantics studies where those meanings come from and how they get assigned to words in the first place.

For example, "aqua" (or something similar) occurs in many languages. Semantics says "aqua" means "water". Metasemantics asks "How did 'aqua' come to mean 'water'?"

[dehro]

heu-..isn't that ethymology?:smallconfused:

[truemane]

Ooh! I like words!

Some of my favourite obscure words.

Anhungry. Meaning not hungry. It's not in use any more, sadly. But it serves as a perfectly valid answer to the 'There are three words in the English Language that end in -gry" thing that idiots are always coming out with.

Gruntled. The opposite of 'disgruntled.' In other words, it means happy and content. It's so wonderful because it sounds like the opposite of what it means.

Cleave. Not an obscure word, but my favourite example of an 'autoantonym', (which is an obscure word), meaning a word that has two, opposing meanings.

Lilliputian. Meaning very small. Comes from Gulliver's Travels. In my youth this was a word that was unusual but completely unheard of. But the best thing about this word is its opposite...

Brobdingnagian. Meaning very large. Also from Gulliver's Travels. This might be my favourite word to drop in casual conversation.

Pusillanimous. Cowardly or timid. Doesn't get used too often, but it's fun to say.

Pugilistic. Relating to hand-to-hand fighting. Fun mainly because there are far easier ways to convey it in everyday language. Also, pugilism (the act of bare-knuckle fighting) and/or pugilist (one who fights with his hands) are also entertaining.

Pugnacious. Means violent and prone to fighting.

Perspicacious. Possessed of keen insight and/or wisdom. It's fun when you describe someone as perspicacious (or, even more fun, having perspicacity) and they go 'Huh? What does that mean?'

Superfluous. Extra, unnecessary, unneeded. Not overly obscure, but when people ask me how I am, I like using this word as an answer. No one ever calls me on it.

Magnanimous. Generous, giving, large-hearted, high-minded, noble. When I was younger people used this all the time, but it's fallen from grace. It's also tricky to say, which make it fun to try to fit into regular conversation. Especially in adverb form.

[BWR]

heu-..isn't that ethymology?:smallconfused:

Etymology. That's certainly what I would say, but I found my semantics and pragmatics courses to be mostly pointless; a bunch of theory which didn't really help explain anything - just a bunch of stuff for certain professors to 'study' and write papers on. Which is why I was drawn to philology and real language study. I learned more about semantics and use by actually reading various works in all stages of English than I ever did reading semantic theory.

Maybe I would be in a better position to appreciate that new stuff now than I was when I actually read it, but I suspect my ex-supervisor would snort derisively at the suggestion.

[Mono Vertigo]

I know most of them. Makes me feel good. :smallbiggrin:

Anhungry. Meaning not hungry. It's not in use any more, sadly. But it serves as a perfectly valid answer to the 'There are three words in the English Language that end in -gry" thing that idiots are always coming out with.
Obligatory XKCD strip (http://xkcd.com/169/).

[Xuc Xac]

heu-..isn't that ethymology?:smallconfused:

Aquamarines are blue stones that get their name ("aqua" meaning "water" and "marine" meaning "from the sea") from their color.

Etymology: "Aqua is in the name because aqua means water"
Metasemantics: "why does 'aqua' mean 'water'? How did that concept get tied to that sound?"

[The Succubus]

Etymology. That's certainly what I would say, but I found my semantics and pragmatics courses to be mostly pointless; a bunch of theory which didn't really help explain anything - just a bunch of stuff for certain professors to 'study' and write papers on. Which is why I was drawn to philology and real language study. I learned more about semantics and use by actually reading various works in all stages of English than I ever did reading semantic theory.

Maybe I would be in a better position to appreciate that new stuff now than I was when I actually read it, but I suspect my ex-supervisor would snort derisively at the suggestion.

Did someone say etymology? :smallbiggrin:


http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/etymology_man.png

[Eldan]

Superfluous. Extra, unnecessary, unneeded. Not overly obscure, but when people ask me how I am, I like using this word as an answer. No one ever calls me on it.


That's sort of depressing, if you think about it.

Fun fact: the German word "überflüssig" means exactly the same thing. "Über" meaning "super" and "flüssig" meaning, well, "fluous" or "liquid".

Wiktionary tells me fluous is not an adjective. I don't care.

[Lionheart]

I'm too tired to remember all my favourites, but I've always been a fan of Antediluvian; meaning very old or antiquated, or something predating the Biblical Flood.

Also, on German loan words, Weltschmerz. It's just lovely.

[dehro]

Aquamarines are blue stones that get their name ("aqua" meaning "water" and "marine" meaning "from the sea") from their color.

Etymology: "Aqua is in the name because aqua means water"
Metasemantics: "why does 'aqua' mean 'water'? How did that concept get tied to that sound?"

I see..
the answer is "because"

on another language related note, for the first time in many years I'm playing D&D with a group of exclusively italian people, so for once not using english as a middle ground.
suddenly I find that half the jokes I'd like to make, or geek references I could make, either fall on deaf ears or would be utterly unfunny in italian.
this vexes me a little.

[Eldan]

Happens to me as well. I played D&D for about six years before I found any fellow German players. And suddenly, I don't know what to say while playing.

[Telonius]

That happens everywhere. German has beamer (projector) and Handy (cell phone). There's probably more.

Strangely enough, saying "Beamer" to an American and a German will have the German thinking of a projector, but the American thinking of a German car.

[nedz]

When faced with the same problem, instead of taking the original word wholesale, Russian translated them. Schadenfreude becomes "zloradstvo", literally "happiness at evil". Kindergarten becomes "detski sad", "garden of children". In my opinion, it's a lot more practical (since people unfamiliar with the words can figure them out, they follow proper spelling conventions, etc), even if it does make you sound less posh.

Kindergarten is American — the English is Nursery School

[Flickerdart]

Kindergarten is American — the English is Nursery School
American English is still English.

[TuggyNE]

Pending - Even my English teacher didn't know this.

Wat.

HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT "PENDING" IS. HOW.

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

Literally. It doesn't mean the same thing as "figuratively." Who knew, right?

[Valwyn]

Bequeath: 1) Law To leave or give (personal property) by will; 2) To pass (something) on to another; hand down
Colloquial: Characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks the effect of speech; informal
Recquabasical: Neologism
Tonsicular: Neologism
Gearsimple: Neologism (http://iraffiruse.net/post/35754425442#.Ua3vNKxX3pE)
:smallbiggrin:

[GnomeFighter]

Bequeath Colloquial

I'd say those are bot pretty common words. Not used that often, but I would expect most English speakers to know what they mean.

[Silverrida]

Oh! Oh! Oh! I know one: metasemantic.

If someone would be so kind as to explain this word to me in clear, simple , I would be so happy. Dictionary, telling me that metasemantic mean 'Pertaining to metasemantics', just to tell me that that means 'The part of metalanguage that deals with semantics' doesn't teach me anything. At all.

I came across this word when I was playing Dual Transform a long time back, and I still don't know what it is.

Metasemantic can easily be split into two components: Meta and semantic.

Semantic is dealing with words and meta is dealing with the medium abstractly.

So a metasemantic argument would be an argument about...how to use words, most likely. Has pretty much the same meaning as semantic, though a semantics argument would be more about what the word MEANS rather than how to use it.

I have quite a few words that I enjoy personally.

Ameliorate is an immediate one that jumps to mine, and it pretty much works as a term to mean "To make better" or "To fix."

Ironically, I love the word laconic, meaning of little words, though I am anything but.

I am trying to use piquant more often, but it's a word that describes taste and flavor, specifically an appetizing one, and I don't see it coming up too often in day to day life.

[inuyasha]

Mephetic fug: stench, a horrible horrible stench

[Razanir]

Floccinaucinihilipilification: The act of considering something unimportant. The verb is "to floccinaucinihilipilificate"

Used in a sentence– Most people floccinaucinihilipilificate the word floccinaucinihilipilification.

[Salbazier]

Floccinaucinihilipilification: The act of considering something unimportant. The verb is "to floccinaucinihilipilificate"

Used in a sentence– Most people floccinaucinihilipilificate the word floccinaucinihilipilification.

Okay, where the heck this came from?

[Kindablue]

Okay, where the heck this came from?

A very bored flea market vendor.

[Jon_Dahl]

Don't laugh, but I'm reading trying to read through an entire English dictionary just to expand vocabulary. It's an old dictionary and I found the word "enunciate". I know "pronounce", but not "enunciate".

Would you find it odd if I said something like "Llanfairpwllgwyngyll is difficult to enunciate"?

[Kindablue]

I think it was either Ernest Hemingway or Eminem (I get them confused a lot) who said that a good writer shouldn't own a dictionary, they should've already read it twice from cover to cover and given it away.

Is that Welsh?

[ForzaFiori]

Don't laugh, but I'm reading trying to read through an entire English dictionary just to expand vocabulary. It's an old dictionary and I found the word "enunciate". I know "pronounce", but not "enunciate".

Would you find it odd if I said something like "Llanfairpwllgwyngyll is difficult to enunciate"?

Enunciate is usually used (at least, in my experience) to refer to the need to pronounce something better, as opposed to simply the ability. So your sentence would work (I, at least, would find it hard to vocally separate the syllables of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, however the hell it's pronounced), it wouldn't be exactly the same as saying it's hard to pronounce, or at least wouldn't have the same connotation. Enunciation is the spoken equivalent of saying "e-nun-ci-ate" as opposed to "enunciate". typically found when speaking to someone who slurs or otherwise muffles their speech - "You need to enunciate more" and similar sentences.

[BWR]

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll
It certainly looks Welsh.


floccinaucinihilipilificate
best one found so far. Only one that has had me stumped.


Don't laugh, but I'm reading trying to read through an entire English dictionary just to expand vocabulary.
Why would anyone laugh? I used to spend hours browsing the OED when I was young. It makes for fascinating reading.

[Serpentine]

I quite like tintinnabulation - and related, but not as uncommon, cacophony. Came across the former (and the latter, for that matter, but I already knew it) in the Edgar Allen Poe poem "The Bells (http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/poe/bells.html)":


Hear the sledges with the bells-
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

There's lots of others, but that's the one that came to mind.

[BroomGuys]

Did somebody say "cacophony"? Time for some musical terms!

Monophony - Only one musical "voice" in the abstract sense; there can be multiple people singing (or instruments playing,) but they're all singing/playing the same thing.

Polyphony - Multiple musical "voices." There can be one singer/instrument per voice or more than one, but there is more than one voice.

Homophony - Multiple musical "voices," but they are tied down to each other in some important way. Most commonly this refers to Western music with chords in it (starting somewhere in the 17th century), since there is an abstract progression of chords that the voices "have to" belong to.

Heterophony - There are multiple "voices," and none of them care what the others are doing.

So now, if someone asks you "which of these categories includes Karlheinz Stockhausen's piece for string quartet inside four different helicopters?! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ykQFrL0X74)" you can answer: polyphonic! (They all have headsets so they can hear each other)

[Jon_Dahl]

My effort to read through the dictionary continues and currently I'm on P. I'd like to share a few jewels (there are many to choose from, but these are just my personal favourites):
Evince
Gormandize
Dirigible
Inundate

I decided to leave out the names of plants, animals and diseases. Some of them are just.... too much for my brain.

[Serpentine]

A couple of friends and I sat around flicking through a dictionary once (...it was more fun than you'd think), and we came across several good words. Sadly, I can't remember any of them. I'm particularly annoyed about forgetting an especially snazzy word that meant walking in some particular way, I think some sort of strut? Damn, this is gonna annoy me.

[Aedilred]

Strangely enough, saying "Beamer" to an American and a German will have the German thinking of a projector, but the American thinking of a German car.
It's also a type of delivery in cricket (an illegal one, in fact). The more you know!

It certainly looks Welsh.
It is - it's the (start of the) name of a village. The full name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch and is often cited as the longest place name (and possibly word) in any language. I have no idea whether that's true, and very little interest in finding out.

"Moot" is a fairly commonly-used word, usually to mean "trivial, unimportant or wrong". Unfortunately it actually means precisely the opposite - "valid, worthy of consideration and debate". This is why in history, and now more often in fantasy settings, you get kingsmoots, entmoots and the like. It's still used as the term for a legal debate. Of course, these days you have no idea which of the meanings anyone using the word intends - unless you have prior knowledge - which renders the word entirely useless.

[Feytalist]

A recent Time article taught me skeuomorph, a design concept: an object is made or decorated to look like another material, without any practical necessity. A fascinating concept, especially as it pertains to digital design.

Sam & Max taught me that rabbits and hares belong to the order Lagomorpha. Lagomorph. Such a fun word.

Coupla words I always thought were widely known, but I've had to explain to native English speakers:
Coruscate: to give off or reflect light by flashing or sparkling.
Effervesce: to bubble or sparkle, either in a liquid or as personality trait.
Evanesce: to dissipate like mist or vapor.


'Course, there are some words us D&D players are already familiar with:
Amulet, periapt, phylactery: all objects or charms worn for their supposed magical or religious properties.
Prestidigitation: sleight of hand, essentially.
And, of course, a whole bunch of words pertaining to magic and its practice. It's sometimes surprising that other people don't seem to know them.


There's also a word for the concept of something's smell being different than its taste, but damned if I can remember it. Maybe someone in here knows of it.

[GnomeFighter]

It's also a type of delivery in cricket (an illegal one, in fact). The more you know!

It is - it's the (start of the) name of a village. The full name is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch and is often cited as the longest place name (and possibly word) in any language. I have no idea whether that's true, and very little interest in finding out.


It is true, kind of. It's was a name made up to attract tourists. It is a real name, but I don't see it as counting because you could just call a village something longer and claim the record.



"Moot" is a fairly commonly-used word, usually to mean "trivial, unimportant or wrong". Unfortunately it actually means precisely the opposite - "valid, worthy of consideration and debate". This is why in history, and now more often in fantasy settings, you get kingsmoots, entmoots and the like. It's still used as the term for a legal debate. Of course, these days you have no idea which of the meanings anyone using the word intends - unless you have prior knowledge - which renders the word entirely useless.

Actually, it means a point of argument or contention, not an important point. People saying something is a moot point to stop an argument is short hand for saying "We won't talk about that because it causes an argument and we are agreeing to disagree" but it has been taken to mean "We won't talk about that because it is not important".

The names come from places where discussions would be held from the days when the English king would travel the country with his court discussing political matters and settling legal disputes.

[Bulldog Psion]

Eructation -- belching.

I like it because it sounds like something x-rated, and all it is is a big burp. :smallbiggrin:

[SaintRidley]

"Moot" is a fairly commonly-used word, usually to mean "trivial, unimportant or wrong". Unfortunately it actually means precisely the opposite - "valid, worthy of consideration and debate". This is why in history, and now more often in fantasy settings, you get kingsmoots, entmoots and the like. It's still used as the term for a legal debate. Of course, these days you have no idea which of the meanings anyone using the word intends - unless you have prior knowledge - which renders the word entirely useless.

The fun of the modern definition of moot is that its modern use grows out of a beloved rhetorical device by the word's original speakers. The Anglo-Saxons loved some litotes (understatement), so to say that something is moot to mean trivial or unimportant to discuss would probably have pleased a number of Anglo-Saxon writers.

[Duck999]

A couple of friends and I sat around flicking through a dictionary once (...it was more fun than you'd think), and we came across several good words. Sadly, I can't remember any of them. I'm particularly annoyed about forgetting an especially snazzy word that meant walking in some particular way, I think some sort of strut? Damn, this is gonna annoy me.

Was it possibly flaunt, flounce, or swank. Wow, my Samsung Tablet wants to correct flounce and swank...

[Kindablue]

Was it possibly flaunt, flounce, or swank. Wow, my Samsung Tablet wants to correct flounce and swank...

Maybe it just wants to forget The Next Karate Kid...

Some other wonderful walking words: perambulate, promenade, pereginate, and... hirple.

[Ashtagon]

Was it possibly flaunt, flounce, or swank. Wow, my Samsung Tablet wants to correct flounce and swank...

"Swanky" is best used to describe big houses. I'm not sure what a swanky walk would even be.

Maybe it was swish, swagger, or glide?

[Serpentine]

Was it possibly flaunt, flounce, or swank. Wow, my Samsung Tablet wants to correct flounce and swank...Ooo. Could've possibly been swank. I feel like I would've remembered that, though, considering its closeness to swanky. I remember noting that it was close to, but not the same as, any other word.

[Totally Guy]

and... hirple.

Rhymes with purple? :smalleek:

I remember once being told that Wirinun was another word for wizard but google's got nothing which is a shame as I quite like it.

Escutcheon is a word for the metal cover of a keyhole.
Quoins are big bricks that decorate the corner of an external wall.

[Kindablue]

Rhymes with purple? :smalleek:
There's also curple, meaning a horse's ass.

Escutcheon is a word for the metal cover of a keyhole.
Oh I love that. Know I've heard it before somewhere.

[Eldan]

Escutcheon also means coat of arms. Given that this is a fantasy website, you probably heard it in that context.

[Totally Guy]

Escutcheon also means coat of arms. Given that this is a fantasy website, you probably heard it in that context.

That would explain the pictures of them amongst the keyholes on google images.

[dehro]

I was unaware it had any other meaning than that.

[Eldan]

So was I. Good to know, though.

[Feytalist]

Also it means a little engraved plate stamped into the stock of a rifle.

I didn't actually know that was the English term until I Googled the word, heh.

[Iron Penguin]

Escutcheon also means coat of arms. Given that this is a fantasy website, you probably heard it in that context.

It also has a similar (derived) meaning in heraldry, as a shield-shaped bit within a coat of arms. On the subject of heraldry, heraldic language ("blazon") is full of great words. There's the fairly well-known "rampant (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Lion_Rampant_Guardant.svg/400px-Lion_Rampant_Guardant.svg.png)", i.e. standing on one back leg waving arms and looking scary; and the less well-known "sejant (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lion_Sejant.svg)" (sitting), "guardant" (looking at the viewer), and "passant (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Lion_Passant.svg/420px-Lion_Passant.svg.png)" (on all fours - literally 'walking'). A lion passant guardant (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Lion_Passant_Guardant.svg) (walking along with head turned to face the viewer) is also called a leopard, just to confuse everyone.

Other good heraldic words: "vair" is squirrel fur (and also a pattern that looks like squirrel fur), which is maybe where Cinderella's glass slipper comes from - a translator of Perrault's fairy tales mistook "vair" (squirrel fur, a perfectly sensible thing to make a shoe out of) for "verre" (glass, a ridiculous thing to make a shoe out of, even in the era before health and safety forms and risk assessments). A "hippocampus" is a mythical animal that looks like a sort of mer-horse (and also the name of part of the brain for some reason no-one has even been able to adequately explain to me); and of course they can't call things "red" or "gold," they have to be "or" (gold), "argent" (silver), "azure" (blue), "sable" (black), "gules" (red), "vert" (green), and so on.

[Eldan]

Most of these are, as far as I can tell, perfectly normal French words. For some reason, heralds just like talking French instead of English. Probably because the English nobility did.

In German Heraldry, you use perfectly normal German terms. ("Schildhaupt", "rechte Flanke", "Figuren", "Beizeichen"). The colours have no fancy names whatsoever, they are just red, purple, gold, green, etc. Though there are fur patterns that are called that. Mostly ermine in different colours.

The Hippocampus has a simple explanation:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Hippocampus_and_seahorse_cropped.JPG
When prepared, it looks a bit like a seahorse.

Hippocampus can be either an animal with the front half of a horse and the back half of a fish, or a sea horse.

[Iron Penguin]

Most of these are, as far as I can tell, perfectly normal French words.

Except when, just to confuse you, they're not :smallwink: The Normans have a lot to answer for when it comes to the English language.

Thanks for the hippocampus explanation, BTW - I shall remember that for future conversations about heraldry and brain anatomy :smallsmile:

[Keld Denar]

Eructation -- belching.

I like it because it sounds like something x-rated, and all it is is a big burp. :smallbiggrin:

Along with masticate, which means "to chew".

I've always been a fan of the word lapidary. Its fun to say. A lapidary is a person who cuts gemstones or other rocks for display. When I met my brother-in-law who is a geophysicist with a passion for rock collection if he was a lapidary, he replied "not professionally at the moment, but I was in college part time". Well played, bro-in-law, well played!

[snoopy13a]

It is true, kind of. It's was a name made up to attract tourists. It is a real name, but I don't see it as counting because you could just call a village something longer and claim the record.



Actually, it means a point of argument or contention, not an important point. People saying something is a moot point to stop an argument is short hand for saying "We won't talk about that because it causes an argument and we are agreeing to disagree" but it has been taken to mean "We won't talk about that because it is not important".

The names come from places where discussions would be held from the days when the English king would travel the country with his court discussing political matters and settling legal disputes.

In the legal sense, moot describes a legal or factual argument that a court will no longer entertain because there is no longer an underlying case or controversy. This is most important in U.S. Federal Court where the constitution requires an actual case or controversy; there are a few nuances here, but federal jurisdiction questions regarding mootness, ripeness, and standing are some of the most confusing aspects of law.

For example, suppose an ex-girlfriend says something offensive about me. I talk to my lawyer to see if I have grounds to sue her for slander (the verbal form of defamation). Whether or not her comments constituted slander is the legal question or questions up for argument that my attorney would research.

However, I die the next day before filing a lawsuit. Since an estate cannot bring a defamation suit, there is no longer a potential controversy. Whether or not the ex-girlfriend's comments were slander is now moot as no lawsuit may be brought.

[dehro]

french was the main language of nobility and diplomacy for centuries.. that heraldry mostly uses french or french-rooted words makes a lot of sense

I guess there's a reason why the saying "noblesse oblige" remains untranslated in most languages

[Xuc Xac]

french was the main language of nobility and diplomacy for centuries..

That's why international languages like fantasy's "Common" are called "lingua franca" in the real world. And before French, it was Latin, which is why they're called "lingua franca" instead of "langue francais".

[Eldan]

Of course, the Lingua Franca of the Roman Empire was Koine Greek, which was spoken for a dozen centuries in half of Eurasia.

[Aedilred]

Fun fact: while French was indeed the lingua franca of Europe for a while, the original one wasn't actually French at all, but a mixed tongue comprised of various Mediterranean languages, principally contemporary Italian. The "franca" designation came from the eastern civilisations, who called all westerners Franks regardless of their actual origin.

[Eldan]

Frankly, I'm offended by that kind of stereotyping.

[SaintRidley]

Frankly, I'm offended by that kind of stereotyping.

Indeed, that was quite frank of you to say. I would roam away in my two ton truck where I keep my sax on my kilt and tell Norman and Scott to stay away because they smell like an horse covered in grease. The problems come when you drink your juice, sitting at port - two geese show up and they're wrecking your bask in the sun and what's worse there's a fin in the water and it's rushin' right to you, so you go. Thick, now, isn't this with all the puns and not a single italic to identify them? Thick like a dog's coat as it chases its ball, ticks hanging on for dear life, a little slavish in its devotion to the task (don't tell Chekov or he might make you crane your neck to see the nuclear wessel coming to shoot down the ball, which seems like overkill).

But who am I to talk? I'm a merkin.

[Knaight]

I just found one on Youtube, of all places.

Panegyric: a formal speech publicly praising someone or something.


Isn't it lovely?

Panegyric is broader than that, and encompasses some writings as well. The key to it that it is a speech or writing of praise, and that it exists in reproducible form - a memorized speech that was recorded can count, an impromptu one would be pushing the boundaries of the term.

I also suspect that it isn't a rarely known word, given that I immediately recognized it without even being in a field where it is particularly prevalent (e.g. history).

[snoopy13a]

I like prolix.

1. extended to unnecessary or tedious length; long and wordy.
2. (of a person) given to speaking or writing at great or tedious length.

Many in the "geek community" are prone to prolixity.

[nedz]

Fun fact: while French was indeed the lingua franca of Europe for a while, the original one wasn't actually French at all, but a mixed tongue comprised of various Mediterranean languages, principally contemporary Italian. The "franca" designation came from the eastern civilisations, who called all westerners Franks regardless of their actual origin.

So lingua franca actually means medieval latin ?

Which was a language created by, well not personally, the big C.

[Aedilred]

So lingua franca actually means medieval latin ?

Which was a language created by, well not personally, the big C.
It's essentially a Romance language, so ultimately derived from vulgar Latin. Mediaeval Latin was much closer to actual Latin, though, and derived from classical Latin, just a little different (compare modern and ancient Greek) whereas the LF was a distinct language of its own, like the contemporary langues d'oil and d'oc, the Spanish languages, the Italian languages, and so on.

But the LF was a pidgin, so rather less like Latin than the others, since they remained much closer to their source material, whereas the LF, although principally Romance, is defined at least in part by the non-Romance influence on it (mainly Arabic and Greek).