What new words have you learned recently?

[Fyraltari]

I see your Inigo Montoya and I raise my James Bond!

[Khedrac]

Kenning - a combination of words used as a metaphor for another word or person (e.g. winter's blanket = snow, giant slayer = Thor).

https://examples.yourdictionary.com/...f-kenning.html

Quite where that meaning for the word comes from, but it must be very modern - it isn't any of the meanings in the Oxford English Dictionary (the full version which attempts to include any word ever used as English).

The OED's definitions pretty much fit my understanding of the word (with a couple of surprises):
It's a dialect word for the dry measure of 2 pecks or half a bushel.
It is an obsolete word for teaching.
It is an obsolete word for being able to see something or visual range.
It is an obsolete word for teaching.
And it means to understand something.

[Peelee]

Elan, as a Dashing Swordsman, is a stereotypical action hero, therefore I posit to you that he is Tom Cruise-levels of jacked, which is nothing to sneer at.

Tom Cruise is a slightly short guy with show muscles. Further, why Tom Cruise and not Keanu Reeves or Nic Cage?

[Hyoi]

Quite where that meaning for the word comes from, but it must be very modern - it isn't any of the meanings in the Oxford English Dictionary (the full version which attempts to include any word ever used as English).

The OED's definitions pretty much fit my understanding of the word (with a couple of surprises):
It's a dialect word for the dry measure of 2 pecks or half a bushel.
It is an obsolete word for teaching.
It is an obsolete word for being able to see something or visual range.
It is an obsolete word for teaching.
And it means to understand something.

It seems that the word has had that meaning in the Nordic languages for a long time but only more recently been borrowed into English. The wikipedia article quotes an English-language source that used the term to describe English-language writing in 1995 so it's at least that old. Maybe someone should let the OED know they missed one.

[Fyraltari]

Tom Cruise is a slightly short guy with show muscles. Further, why Tom Cruise and not Keanu Reeves or Nic Cage?

Why these two and not Daniel Craig or Jean Reno?

[Peelee]

Why these two and not Daniel Craig or Jean Reno?

Because Daniel Craig stinks, but I'm a sucker for Jean Reno. So, Jean Reno then?

[Vinyadan]

I think Orlando Bloom would be more Elan.

[Eldan]

Quite where that meaning for the word comes from, but it must be very modern - it isn't any of the meanings in the Oxford English Dictionary (the full version which attempts to include any word ever used as English).

The OED's definitions pretty much fit my understanding of the word (with a couple of surprises):
It's a dialect word for the dry measure of 2 pecks or half a bushel.
It is an obsolete word for teaching.
It is an obsolete word for being able to see something or visual range.
It is an obsolete word for teaching.
And it means to understand something.

It's a Nordic and Germanic word in that meaning, and an outdated or possibly even archaic one at that (I don't speak any Nordic languages, just German). And I've never seen it used except to refer to Norse poetry, which is extremely heavy on Kennings. (As in, there's entire verses without normal nouns.)

[Scarlet Knight]

"Bildungsroman" is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood.

It was in a book review and it's use in the sentence " This book is a Bildungsroman" didn't help me in the slightest.

[Xuc Xac]

Bildungsroman is what RPG enthusiasts call "zero to hero".

[Eldan]

From my experiences in German classes, it's mostly whiny upper middle class teenagers growing into whiny middle class young adults.

[Rockphed]

Similar to thirsting's first word, there's also haberdashery - anything fiddly and small used in sewing, like buttons, ribbons and thread.

A haberdasher is either a seller of men's clothing or a seller of what you mention. A haberdashery is where a haberdasher sells his stuff. Haberdashery is the stuff a haberdasher sells.

From my experiences in German classes, it's mostly whiny upper middle class teenagers growing into whiny middle class young adults.

That sounds like a rather unfortunate amount of the "literature" I read in school. Catcher in the Rye is probably the ultimate example I was made to suffer through.

And although I learned it 5 or six years ago, I present "trunion", which is a system for allowing something to tilt, especially a cannon.

[Eldan]

Catcher in the Rye has nothing on The Sorrows of Young Werther. The one where he philosophizes for an entire chapter about how happy the poor peasants working in the fields are, because all their suffering is physical, unlike his own, which is mental and artistic and deep and they aren't smart and educated enough to suffer like he can. Because the girl he's stalking doesn't love him enough.

[Rockphed]

Catcher in the Rye has nothing on The Sorrows of Young Werther. The one where he philosophizes for an entire chapter about how happy the poor peasants working in the fields are, because all their suffering is physical, unlike his own, which is mental and artistic and deep and they aren't smart and educated enough to suffer like he can. Because the girl he's stalking doesn't love him enough.

Is the point to come out hating Werther? Because just from that description I already hate Werther.

[snowblizz]

And although I learned it 5 or six years ago, I present "trunion", which is a system for allowing something to tilt, especially a cannon.

Trunnion with 2 N:s. And I must have read too much historical non-fiction because I knew this without actually knowing the word right away. Just a voice in my head going, "nah must be with 2 Ns".

Is the point to come out hating Werther? Because just from that description I already hate Werther.

No it actually isn't. It is a classic (ok many will dispute that) from the Romantic period. It was quite serious about itself, and IIRC accused, even in its time to have encouraged "Romantics"to kill themselves. The majority of the Romantic movement is like that, pretentious, angsty and superbly insufferable. The whole moment is a reaction against the rationality of Enlightment thought. I read Dostoevsky's The Idiot as an assignment, as we had to read a book from the period-genre-style. My bookreport of it was titled:"Aaaaaaaaaargh!". True story. It was painful to slog through. Every character always acted in the most painfully insane emotional way ensuring the utmost misery for everyone involved. The reader included. Many of the Romantic classics are like this, The Humpback of Notre Dame I am only 50% sure I read has the same general set up.

[danzibr]

Hmm, I try to learn new words when I see them... I'm blanking, only remembering colors, I'll put one here:

aeneous: greenish gold

[Scarlet Knight]

Panglossian : marked by the view that all is for the best in this best of possible worlds : excessively optimistic.

An article in my newspaper read: " should this seem naively panglossian..."

[Vinyadan]

The word comes from Pangloss, a character from Voltaire's short work Candide, ou l'Optimisme, who believes that this world is the best of possible worlds.

[Fyraltari]

Pangloss is a satire/strawman of the philosopher Leibniz.

[Peelee]

Pangloss is a satire/strawman of the philosopher Leibniz.

Leibniz? Like, the "I independently invented calculus" Leibniz?

[Fyraltari]

Leibniz? Like, the "I independently invented calculus" Leibniz?

That’s the one, yes.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

The word comes from Pangloss, a character from Voltaire's short work Candide, ou l'Optimisme, who believes that this world is the best of possible worlds.

An optimist believes that this world is the best of possible worlds. A pessimist fears that might be true.

[Knaight]

The word comes from Pangloss, a character from Voltaire's short work Candide, ou l'Optimisme, who believes that this world is the best of possible worlds.

And who continues to believe that through a great deal of suffering, including losing multiple body parts permanently.

[Scarlet Knight]

Again in another book review I ran upon a German word that I never heard of before.

Weltschmerz (from the German, literally world-pain, also world weariness) .

A book review referred to Lincoln as "a character of deep wisdom and soul and Weltschmerz".

[WinterKnight404]

That's so funny you guys have a thread for this. On FB I post words frequently that I encounter while reading news articles online. The most recent one I shared is:
Vacillate - to alternate or waver between different opinions or actions; to be indecisive
Example: "I had, for a time, vacillated between teaching and journalism."

[Wildstag]

Recently learned the word Sonder, which is great because I find it hard to believe that people actually get concerned enough by that realization that it needs its own word.

I dunno, I just find it pretty natural to think I'm just one person out of billions, and everything that happens to me is just as hectic as everyone else. Never needed to realize it, I just always knew it.

[Imbalance]

That's so funny you guys have a thread for this. On FB I post words frequently that I encounter while reading news articles online. The most recent one I shared is:
Vacillate - to alternate or waver between different opinions or actions; to be indecisive
Example: "I had, for a time, vacillated between teaching and journalism."

Keep doing that. In my early Internet days I was edified by others who were themselves hobby etymologists and wordsmiths. Having well-read forum peers, namely ones with handles such as Abacinate, Dark Angel and Skinflint, was and is always beneficial.

[SZbNAhL]

Tautology-Two words that mean the same thing put beside each other consecutively.

That’s a pleonasm actually. A tautology is a statement that bears no new information or a logical construct that is always true regardless of the truth of its hypothesis.

Example: ‘All red ants are red’, every single math theorem ever, ‘my older brother was born before I was’, etc.

I'd call that a truism. I'd say tautology is a repetition of information, either from acronym confusion (e.g. PIN number) or describing nouns with adjectives already included in their definitions e.g. organic aldehyde, French Parisian, microscopic atom.

As for new words, I learned "crepuscular" today, meaning "of or related to twilight"*. I therefore move that Stephanie Meyer fans henceforth be referred to as "the crepuscular collective".

*Here was the context, if anyone's interested.

[Razade]

I'd call that a truism. I'd say tautology is a repetition of information, either from acronym confusion (e.g. PIN number) or describing nouns with adjectives already included in their definitions e.g. organic aldehyde, French Parisian, microscopic atom.

As for new words, I learned "crepuscular" today, meaning "of or related to twilight"*. I therefore move that Stephanie Meyer fans henceforth be referred to as "the crepuscular collective".

*Here was the context, if anyone's interested.

A French Parisian isn't really a tautology as you could have, say, a Moroccan Parisian or an American Parisian. They domicile there, they are not culturally or nationally French. I live in Phoenix, thus I am a Phoenician but I am not an Arizonan Phoenician. I wasn't born in Arizona nor do I identity as an Arizonan culturally. Also a tautology may be used to mean "a statement that is true by necessity or by virtue of its logical form." which the quoted examples fall under. That's how it's defined in logic.

[Vinyadan]

A French Parisian isn't really a tautology as you could have, say, a Moroccan Parisian or an American Parisian. They domicile there, they are not culturally or nationally French. I live in Phoenix, thus I am a Phoenician but I am not an Arizonan Phoenician. I wasn't born in Arizona nor do I identity as an Arizonan culturally. Also a tautology may be used to mean "a statement that is true by necessity or by virtue of its logical form." which the quoted examples fall under. That's how it's defined in logic.

In this case, I think it's important to specify what you mean by Phoenician; I'd never heard that with that sense.