Fun Words are Fun! Vocabulary Time

[ThinkMinty]

Seeing as fun words are fun, I'd like to see if I can get all y'all going on a sharing-fun-words spree. I'll start us off with...

...

Hepcat!

A hepcat is a jazz/swing enthusiast and/or performer, and most likely a cool cucumber.

I learned this word today and wanted to share it.

[AvatarVecna]

Did you know that the number 10¹⁰⁰ is called a googol? I always thought it was spelled google (guess why). Also of interest, 10¹⁰¹⁰⁰ is called a googolplex, and 10^1010100 is called a googolplexion. Math is weird sometimes.

Base-12 counting is fun as well, whether you call it dozenal, duodecimal, or what have you.

[ThinkMinty]

Base-12 counting is fun as well, whether you call it dozenal, duodecimal, or what have you.

Dozenal sounds like it should be the last name of a cute chick from math class.

[AvatarVecna]

Dozenal sounds like it should be the last name of a cute chick from math class.

Wouldn't that make for an interesting TV show...

[ArcanaFire]

Dozenal sounds like it should be the last name of a cute chick from math class.

To me, it sounds like allergy medication.

[Kymme]

I like petrichor. It's the scent of the earth after it rains.

[ThinkMinty]

I like petrichor. It's the scent of the earth after it rains.

Petrichor is now my new favorite word. I want to buy your brain a pizza, thank you.

[Jeff the Green]

Trabajabamos. Spanish for "we used to work" (well, it can be translated a few ways).

Saudade, a melancholic longing for something you know will never return.

Litotes, saying something isn't x to imply it's the opposite of x. E.g. "He isn't the sharpest tool in the shed."

[ThinkMinty]

Trabajabamos. Spanish for "we used to work" (well, it can be translated a few ways).

Huzzah! I love long Spanish words, they just sound cool.

Saudade, a melancholic longing for something you know will never return.

I like how that word makes you feel wistful saying it.

Litotes, saying something isn't x to imply it's the opposite of x. E.g. "He isn't the sharpest tool in the shed."

I retroactively wanted know what this word was since I was about...seven, maybe. Excellent.

[Cuthalion]

Petrichor?! It's a word? Yay!

[Jormengand]

I always thought that obsolescence, the state of being about to be obsolete, was a cool word.

Halcyon, a word meaning from an idyllic past time, is another of my favourites.

[Kymme]

I want to buy your brain a pizza, thank you.

Can I sig this?

Another great word, this one from Germany: Backpfeifengesicht; noun; a punch-able face, literally: "A face that cries out in need of a fist."

One of my favorite loan-words: defenestrate. It means "to throw (a person or a thing) out a window. It's history is what makes it really funny to me.

[Aliquid]

Hepcat!

A hepcat is a jazz/swing enthusiast and/or performer, and most likely a cool cucumber.

And that word eventually evolved into the current slang word for cool: "hip"

Another word:
Imagine you know someone who keeps using the term irregardless, even though you repeatedly tell them “that isn’t a real word”. That person is a Mumpsimus.

A Mumpsimus is someone who obstinately clings to an error, bad habit or prejudice, even after the foible has been exposed (especially if it is vocabulary related)

[ThinkMinty]

Can I sig this?

You can, yeah.

Another great word, this one from Germany: Backpfeifengesicht; noun; a punch-able face, literally: "A face that cries out in need of a fist."

I love that one. It was in a Cracked listicle at some point, but I forgot how it was spelled n' stuff.

One of my favorite loan-words: defenestrate. It means "to throw (a person or a thing) out a window. It's history is what makes it really funny to me.

The SECOND defenestration of Prague. It's funny because it happened again. Recurring joke value and all that.

The word Spaeman is fun. My dad thought it was any kind of wizard, but it turns out it's just a male soothsayer/diviner sort.

[Oneris]

Junket can either mean "a pleasure trip taken by an official at public expense", or simply "pudding".

Similarly, Subtlety means "so delicately complex as to be difficult to describe", "cleverly indirect" or "elaborate Medieval edible entertainment"

Substituting in the latter definition whenever the former is used makes reading political articles infinitely more interesting.

[AkazilliaDeNaro]

Junket can either mean "a pleasure trip taken by an official at public expense", or simply "pudding".

Similarly, Subtlety means "so delicately complex as to be difficult to describe", "cleverly indirect" or "elaborate Medieval edible entertainment"

Substituting in the latter definition whenever the former is used makes reading political articles infinitely more interesting.

I just like Subtlety Because it has a subtle-T in it. *buh dum tss*

Another word I like is Copious meaning abundant in supply.

[Oneris]

I just like Subtlety Because it has a subtle-T in it. *buh dum tss*

Just to nitpick and be a total wet blanket, it's actually the silent 'B' that's subtle.

[enderlord99]

Just to nitpick and be a total wet blanket, it's actually the silent 'B' that's subtle.

Yeah. I was a bit confused until you pointed out that it was just an error.

[AkazilliaDeNaro]

Just to nitpick and be a total wet blanket, it's actually the silent 'B' that's subtle.

Well, then i've been wrong this whole time!

[Altair_the_Vexed]

From a post of mine on this very forum I discovered that not a lot of people know the word "verisimilar" - meaning "like the truth".

It's usually seen hidden in the etymology of the noun "verisimilitude" - meaning "the property of being like the truth".

[Scarlet Knight]

"...and it's fun to say 'Schnapps'."

[ThinkMinty]

"...and it's fun to say 'Schnapps'."

Schnapps was probably named that so you could still say it when hammered...on Schnapps, perhaps?

[Fri]

Bed actually looks like a bed.

Also, I know the word for cat in a couple of language (eg. Cat, gato, neko, kucing, hurairah)

But my favourite word for cat is polish. It's kot. For me it just sounds like something cute or small that want to be seen as badass. Because for me kot is a short and cute-sounding word, but o is just a masculine and hard-sounding vocal.

[erradin]

I like the very ironic word:

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: The irational fear of long words.

Also: Egregore: A collective mind made up of, as well as influencing, the consciousness of a group of people.

[Ifni]

Ooh, I didn't know 'egregore'. (Didn't know petrichor or saudade or litotes either - all good words!)

'Coranach' (also spelled 'coronach') is a dirge / lamentation for the dead. 'Phantasmagorical' is an adjective I've always liked ('having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination').

'Syzygy' is a word I learned in the context of 'when you need a word with no vowels and rhythm is taken' But it means 'a conjunction or opposition, especially of the moon with the sun'.

(I am totally calling my next character's magic weapon Syzygy; if asked where she got it, she will respond that she won it in a Scrabble challenge )

[Jormengand]

"Sanctioned" is a word that can mean either "Allowed" or "Rebuked". It is one of a few words known as auto-antonyms. The verb dust can involve the addition or removal of the noun version (dusting a cake, dusting the floor) and "Fast" can mean "Immobile" (stand fast) or "Rapid" (move fast). Nonplussed can mean disconcerted or unperturbed.

[Yora]

We Germans are well known for creating new snappy words for complicated concepts in philosophy and physics. Our language is just made for that (and we got a lot of philosophers and physicists.)

But my favorite is Verschlimmbesserung, which can be approximated as "disimprovement". A measure that is meant to provide some kind of benefit but actually only makes it worse. Like the kinds of great ideas upper management comes up with to improve specific tasks at the low level jobs.

[enderlord99]

"Sanctioned" is a word that can mean either "Allowed" or "Rebuked". It is one of a few words known as auto-antonyms. The verb dust can involve the addition or removal of the noun version (dusting a cake, dusting the floor) and "Fast" can mean "Immobile" (stand fast) or "Rapid" (move fast). Nonplussed can mean disconcerted or unperturbed.

Don't forget "cleave" and, depending on who you ask, "literally."

[Jeff the Green]

depending on who you ask, "literally."

In the same way as 'nonplussed', actually. Its 'unfazed' definition is listed as "proscribed, US, informal".

[enderlord99]

In the same way as 'nonplussed', actually. Its 'unfazed' definition is listed as "proscribed, US, informal".

Well, yeah, but I don't mean the second definition is invalid. I mean it's not exactly opposite; it's basically a form of emphasis, and "literally" never means "slightly."