Recently, while reading an article on parents killing each other and how it screws up the kids, I came upon the word defenestration. I had no idea what it meant. It seems that Anne Hudson (played by Anne Margret in the tv movie The Two Mrs. Grenvilles"), who married some rich playboy and then killed him, had two kids. The two kids later committed suicide, both by defenestration. Anyway, I looked it up and it means to throw a person or thing out the window. From the latin, feneste (window)

My question is: are there words that you've come across, and maybe even use, that you don't know the definition of? And what's your favorite word?

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

Answers

My fave word right now is lackadaisical. (Gayla, you know why I like that one, right? Your fave Pavement song...)

I never know the difference between pragmatic and practical. I didn't know what dilettante meant until Cate told me the other day, and now I'm glad I know coz I thought it was just a nice word for slacker. But the real definition is a little more flattering so now I'll use the word to describe myself. Heh.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

My favorite word is "ostensibly" because it sounds cool and you can slip it in to many sentences, so it gets a lot of use.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

You've already got my favorite word, right there.

When my son was about two, I was in the front yard mowing the lawn when I noticed he was dumping his blocks out the front window. I went to the door, stuck my head in and yelled, "Honey, the kid's defenestrating his toys!" and went back to mowing the lawn.

A few minutes later, my wife walked out and said, "When I married the son of an English teacher, I figured that some day you'd use a word I never heard before. I didn't think it'd take this long."

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

"Defenestrate" is awesome. I like a lot of words that have Latin roots, though. If I had to sit through two years of a dead language, I want it to be useful, damn it. Surprisingly, it was, and I think I got more out of my Latin classes than my French ones. (I was actually *into* Latin, and studying during "Sho-gun" when it was a mini- series. I'm guessing that would be 1980 or 1981. How sad is it that we watched so little TV that I can remember that?)

I get on a roll with words until I tire of them. This week it's "epitome". (Sadly, the words that 'stick' the most are slang terms, though, like "shitful" or "fuckety".)

I tend to pick favorite words because of the way they sound, not by jmeaning...so I like words like 'murmur', 'pellucid', 'eviscerate', 'fiduciary', 'mellow', 'lollo p' or 'forsythia'...

I still have trouble with 'nonplussed', because so many people misuse it. So I read it used properly and then get confused because I seeit used IMproperly. It looks like it means 'complacent and unsurprised'. However (and this quote puts it better than I would): "Nonplussed," to bring the rest of the gang up to speed, means "perplexed or embarrassed," and comes directly from the Latin "non plus," meaning "not more" or "no further." Someone who is "nonplussed" has been stymied or brought to a halt. But for some reason, many people have decided that "nonplussed" means "unperturbed" or "impassive," which is, of course, exactly backwards. So people use it improperly all the time, but no, it has not become like "cleave" (one word which means two diametrically opposed things--to separate one item into two or to adhere together two items into one).

I love etymology, too, and like to find out where certain words and phrases came from. Examples: "Welsh Rabbit," otherwise known as melted cheese on toast, invented by commoners in a time when real rabbit was a delicacy reserved for the wealthy. Implication being that the Welsh couldn't afford something as highfalutin' as an actual bunny for dinner. "Welsh Rarebit" is an alternative (and, apparently, wrong) spelling. For more fun (at least to me!) stuff like this, go here: http://www.word-detective.com/

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

REITERATE...I love that work so I shall reiterate it...REITERATE! Today's dictionary.com word of the day...

hoary \HOR-ee\, adjective: 1. White or gray with age; as, hoary hairs. "Reverence the hoary head." --Dr. T. Dwight. 2. Hence, ancient; extremely old; remote in time past

Yeah I feel pretty hoary sometimes, but sometimes I've just been a whore. And there's nothing worse than a hoary whore. In other words an old ho!

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

I do love the word epitome. I use it all the time, even in situations where it's not socially acceptable. I also say unilateral, and lots of words I learn from watching Daria.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

insouciant. (Hope I spelled it right.) I just saw it in one of Milla's posts in the old car thread. Insouciant is a damned good word. :-)

Mallory, my current .sig is from Daria:

Daria: I may have had a hand in her epiphany.
Jane: I hope you washed it thoroughly.

Now, for those four of you who don't know it, I'm a Duranie, and some of my favorite words were gleaned (<- there's a good word) from Nick Rhodes' list of Fave Words And Phrases, circa 1982. The ones I can remember without referencing the source book (Duran Duran: Their Story) include turgid, dilemma, and benestrophe (which I don't think is even a real word, but it should be!).

Words words. This topic was a good idea. :-)

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

I love the words plethora and quagmire.

For example:
I approached the daunting quagmire that formed on the floor of my room; a plethora of bad clothes from the 80's and Diet Coke cans piled precariously about.

I really don't have many opportunities to use them, but sometimes I'll just whisper one of them to myself when I have nothing to listen to while driving.

Queen of the Freaks

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

I love the word:

antidisestablishmentarianism

Yes, it is a real word, and yes, I can spell it out loud without writing it down first. And can type it with no errors. Go me.

I don't use words if I'm not sure of the meaning, so I can't think of anything right now that I like but don't know the definition of.

Oh, wait! There is one. Eschew. Did I spell that right? I like that word, but I have no idea what it means. I used to think it was some kind of nut. Like "cashew". Duh, Lauren.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

Kelly--so YOU are the one who asked about that word.

OK. Here's what I found out about benestrophe. First of all, it's a band name, an they claim to have coined it (made it up), but since they were active circa 1989, that seems far too late.

Their definition is that it is means the opposite of catastrophe, I.e., extreme good fortune, not bad.

The closest dictionary word I found was anastrophe, which is essentially the proper term for Yoda-speak (just like Bob Dole referring tohimself as "Bob Dole" makes him an illiast). Anastrophe is the reversal of normal sentence structure or word order (i.e., "A mighty Jedi knight he would be, we saw, yes?").

I lookd in OED and a 1913 copy of Webster's. (Alas, "Webster" is in the public domain and so any dictionary can append that to its name, ergo I don't know how reliable this Website-Webster's IS.)

Hope that helps.

The wickedest bunch of odd words occurs in one of my favorite books of all time, Mark Helprin's "A Winter's Tale". Evil, evil vocabulary words that you have to go to Oxford English Dictionary to find the definitions of (he's making a point with this, BTW, but I got pissed off while looking them up) and one or two were not even in there. (You can read the story without looking them up, BTW, but I'm weird like that and HAD TO KNOW what they meant.)

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

"Eschew" (Which does sound like cashew if you ask me) just means 'to make a habit of avoiding'. The implication is that you find it morally repugnant or, less judgementally, impractical for your purposes.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 2000

chagrin, metastasize, hebephrenic, hypnagogic: all favorites. "Chagrin" is the only one I can much manage to work into conversation though. Defenestrate is wonderful because it is so specific. I think I love metastasize because it just seems so horrifyingly accurate. The syllables sound dangerous to me.

Almost any Italian word will do, especially if it starts with sb or ends in issimo/issima.

one more: visceral

-- Anonymous, July 29, 2000

Dammit, Jill, do we like EVERYTHING The same? I love the word metastasize! Dude, I was mumbling it aloud (to myself) just last week, no joke.

So many people have posted words here that I like-- plethora, defenestration, antidisestablishmentarianism (I can spell it too! :-) ), visceral, eschew. Also, like someone else said, I'm suddenly blanking, but there are sooooo many words I love to use.

More words: bunny, puddin' (for pudding), naff, dreadful, gruesome (used as exaggeration), hideous, bumf, snout, lorry.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2000

I'll confess: I used the word accoutrements in conversation three days ago. In front of my new boss, no less. It basically came about this way:

T( that's my boss), while watching a woman yak on a cellphone while maneuvering her giant Ford Expedition in a small parking lot in a most decidedly yuppie suburb: "Get off the phone! Geez, freakin' yuppies."
Paul W.: "Dontcha hate 'em? Too bad I'm one of 'em."
T: "I know."
Paul W.: "Actually, I just collect the accoutrements of yuppies without actually becoming one."
J (my company's director of investor relations), heavy with sarcasm: "Wow, Paul, that's deep."
Paul W.: "I used to be deep, but I got over it. Now I'm so much happier being shallow and materialistic! (then I died laughing at my own joke)

It's kind of a case of the DINK NIMBY calling the yuppie faux. :-)

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2000

Oops, mustn't forget. I also used immutable recently. I'm also fond of inscrutable. :-)

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2000

I just found a couple of great ones in an old issue of Bust: chiaroscuro and lubricious. I had to look them up and now that I know their respectiv meanings I'm even more pleased. Here's one I actually learned on MTV: chthonic. I also love phantasmagoric ....oooh!

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000

Oliver Sacks says phantasmagoric a lot, so I caught his contagion.

Most of the words I like, I never say aloud.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2000

Undulate, ululate, apocryphal and esoteric. I was a German major in college and my favorite German word is Konservierungsmittel, it means 'preservatives'. For some reason I like how it feels to pronounce it.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

I used to think German was such an ugly gutteral language (I studied romance languages). But I have a coworker who majored in German and when he speaks it it really is quite beautiful.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

I always imagine that speaking German feels like cursing. I'm dying to learn it.

I love undulate.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

I just realized I didn't put any of my favorite words. I like euphemism, ramification, ennui, segue, (both of which I used for *years* without knowing how to spell them), and entropy.

Gwen, why don't you say your favorite words aloud?

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

Coz they're words I read or write but couldn't say without people looking at me funny, I guess.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

I don't know how many times I've been made fun of for using big words. It was mostly in grade school & junior high but it still happens occasionally. You can take it, Gwen, work that vocab!

another: uvular. doesn't it sound dirty?!

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2000

The Phantasmagorical Tarot might appeal. :)

chthonic--I keep seeing it but I have never heard it pronounced. How IS it pronounced?

segue--I keep wanting to write it "segue-way" which would, of course, sound like 'seg-way-way' (not to be confused with a Martin Lawrence character). It's a great word.

German has great words: shadenfreude, doppleganger, ubermensch. Rock on!

I like chiaroscuro. I also vote for ululate, accoutrements, finesse, snout(er pup), gruesome, gorgeous, and bunny. GREAT words.

I like acuisle (acushla) which means, from what I can tell, a friend who shares an understanding with you--someone whose heart pulses like yours. The a is umlauted. (Umlaut is a good word.)

Ke'bitchara is a made-up phrase some friends and I use based on an author I don't read (Mercedes Lackey, who coined ke'chara). I think it means the same thing as acuisle, but with a connotation of saucy, spicy, sassiness.

Addictive phrases/words, some of which aren't standard English and many of which I shouldn't use so often (if at all) because they're either archaic or 'unamerican':
tatty, naff, dodgy, bummer, cool, shitful, fuckity, wait up!, queue up (but I rarely say queue for a line), quite (sorta sarcastic), dead (as in very), pseudo, psych!, cheers, howaya (greeting), yonks, brolly, oodles, pissant, way (interjection), presh (shortened precious), mayhap, p'raps, y'all, anyhou, you betta you bet, believe you me, but I digress, champers, starkers, noshery, abso-bloody-lutely, advert, sprog(let), hard (as in 'I'm dead hard, me' *posture*, but only as a joke), kneebiter, lagniappe, banger (or hoopty--no one knows what I'm saying), cat's PJ's, knackered, skint, sorted, sussed, giddy, weird, funky, lodgy, whipped (tired), metier, thang, pong, dandy, dicey, peachy, swell, keen, fab, neat-o, bog rolls, wanker, biccies, cokkies (I'm not consistent and biccies are usually plain and crunchy in my universe), gripe, fussy, miffy, miffed, fuck!, cripes!, damitol!, ginormous, humongous, ha-yooj, ta-ta's, nick (as in swipe), gormless, cluefree, forque, knickers, kip, nosh, peckish, narked, peeved, piss off, spazz, michegos, schmuck, poncing (mincing), I should cocoa (grandy said it, Supergrass made me start doing it again, damn it), kak (or cack), plonk (not money, just flopping into a chair, etc.), stroppy, nippy (cold), boho (bohemian), scrumptious, sarnie, the Norms (yuppies), right!, wee, dinky, rubbish (only for nonsense, not for trash), oh PLEASE!, sod it, eye candy, ear candy, spots, spotty, very smart (nice), sure thing, clod, huh, wot?, tarnation, video, telly, varmint, slag, nutter, are you on crack?, tump (to spill), whatEVer, doolally-doo, poo, he's the Nazz, on a stick, fancy (verb and adjective), shag/snog/randy (Austin Powers, curse you), Anyway..., Actually..., Mogs, Buddhahead, Paddapaw, Kitimus (all to pet), viddy, droogie, appy-polly-logies (when in the mood), Ped Zing (pronouncing abbreviation for pedestrian crossing), X-mas (same idea), nudnik, nogoodnik, fress (to eat), schmutz, yutz, putz, maven, chutzpah, etc....

I love words.

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2000

Segue-way and Shenaynay (or however Martin L spells it) -- ha!

The Germans deserve a medal or some bags of grain for having the word "uber" in their language and then for letting other countries borrow it. Coz it's almost as good as "ultra".

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2000

Yes, Milla, yesyesyes! Shadenfreude is an all time favorite, and of course uber and doppleganger are fabulous, too. Chthonic is just like it looks but without the ch. Thanks for reminding me of "on a stick", I used to say that way too much in high school. My favorite made up word is "garmonbozia" from Fire Walk with Me. It means either "pain and suffering" or "creamed corn".

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2000

Somebody just said "dickwad" on NPR. I didn't know they could do that!

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2000

Not a big hard word, but Milla's list made me think of it: Bolshie - especially as used to describe a small child's attitude.

-- Anonymous, November 14, 2000