Little known words

[MZ3Boy84]

This is a thread, mainly for me to expand my vocabulary, where I would like for you more linguistically intelligent folk to provide little known words that we don't typically hear on a daily basis as well as their definitions.

So, have fun....:p

[Orleander]

pandiculation: yawning and stretching

My son just learned this one. "oh look, Dad is pandiculating" Wha????

[spidergoat]

panniculus, that bulging pillow of fat you see on really fat people, usually under the stomach but can be anywhere, most grossly on the back of their neck.

[Anti-Flag]

Panglossian - Blindly or naively optimistic.
Tmesis - The phenomenon of inserting a word in the middle of another.

[cosmictraveler]

tittle

The dot over the letter i.

[John99]

mandamus

usufruct

i simply adore the word - obfuscate

these terrms are, of course, googleable.

Finally - Sear Fealty

[cosmictraveler]

Bodacious

[Anti-Flag]

Bodacious

Most excellent Cosmic.

[skaught]

Truncated.

[Pandaemoni]

Here are two that sound dirty, but aren't:

"Formicate" to swarm like ants.
Example The eighth graders are formicating in the playground!

"Macerate" to soften by soaking in water (or another liquid).
Example Mom! Billy has been in the bathroom for nearly an hour. I think he must be macerating in there.

There are also:

"Cunctation" delay; procratination.
"Vagile" able to move about or disperse in a given environment.
"Titivate" to decorate or improve the appearance of.
"Orogeny" the process of mountain formation.
"Invaginate" to sheathe something or enclose in something like a sheath.
"Vaginate" enclosed in a sheath. (An adjective.)

[draqon]

Stigmata: sign of pain of Jesus Christ on one own body

[Enmos]

Botch.. at least I didn't know it.

[Enmos]

Stigmata: sign of pain of Jesus Christ on one own body

That's a well-known word..

[draqon]

Botch.. at least I didn't know it.

That's a well known word...

[Enmos]

That's a well known word...

I figured that :p

[cosmictraveler]

serendipity

[Orleander]

Here are two that sound dirty, but aren't:

"Formicate" to swarm like ants.
Example The eighth graders are formicating in the playground!

"Macerate" to soften by soaking in water (or another liquid).
Example Mom! Billy has been in the bathroom for nearly an hour. I think he must be macerating in there.....

don't forget masticate
I grabbed a popscicle and started to masticate.

[Enmos]

don't forget masticate
I grabbed a popscicle and started to masticate.

:eek:

[cosmictraveler]

cornucopia

[PsychoticEpisode]

One of my favorites...

perspicacious: having keen mental perception and understanding

[EntropyAlwaysWins]

dendrophobia

A fear of trees.

[cosmictraveler]

odious

arousing or deserving hatred or repugnance

[tim840]

thank-you-ma'am:

a bump or pothole in the road that jars a person riding over it

[tim840]

floccinaucinihilipilificate:

to declare something worthless or valueless

[cosmictraveler]

zanyism

buffoonery

[cosmictraveler]

zoomania

insane fondness for animals

[Orleander]

dendrophobia

A fear of trees.

LOL, can you imagine having that and living in the Amazon rainforest?

I wonder if there is a fear of sand and if any Bedouins suffer it?

[skaught]

Pantalooned: One who is wearing pants

[PsychoticEpisode]

Hemidemisemiquaver: A musical note that is timed as 1/64th of a whole note

[EntropyAlwaysWins]

LOL, can you imagine having that and living in the Amazon rainforest?


I imagine that would be quite difficult yes....

hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia.

A fear of long words.

[Fraggle Rocker]

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia: A fear of long words."Sequipedaliophobia" (with an O, not an A) is recognized in formal writing even though it hasn't made it into any respectable dictionary yet. "Sesquipedalian" means "given to using long words" or "[a word] of many syllables," from Latin sesquipedalis, "a foot and a half." (Compare "sesquicentennial," a 150th anniversary.)

Adding the part about the hippos and the monsters is just a cutesy-poo way of making the word longer. Apparently some people double the second P, just to get one more letter into it. This elongated version of the word has shown up in print often enough that you can Google it, but it's generally disparaged.

"Sesquipedalian" is a sesquipedalian word. That means it belongs to the very small class of self-defining words like "short." I thought there was a name for that kind of word, but the only one I can find is "recursive." I suppose that's good enough.

[Cellar_Door]

Contrifibularities, spasmotic, compunctuous, periconbobulations, interfrastically...

...these are the common words, down our way.

[EntropyAlwaysWins]

"Sequipedaliophobia" (with an O, not an A) is recognized in formal writing even though it hasn't made it into any respectable dictionary yet. "Sesquipedalian" means "given to using long words" or "[a word] of many syllables," from Latin sesquipedalis, "a foot and a half." (Compare "sesquicentennial," a 150th anniversary.)

Adding the part about the hippos and the monsters is just a cutesy-poo way of making the word longer. Apparently some people double the second P, just to get one more letter into it. This elongated version of the word has shown up in print often enough that you can Google it, but it's generally disparaged.



I'm aware of that, however, I think its amusing enough to justify itself.


"Sesquipedalian" is a sesquipedalian word. That means it belongs to the very small class of self-defining words like "short." I thought there was a name for that kind of word, but the only one I can find is "recursive." I suppose that's good enough.

Meta-words?

[cosmictraveler]

ambrosia

[Pandaemoni]

I thought there was a name for that kind of word, but the only one I can find is "recursive." I suppose that's good enough.

There's also "autological" from "autos" (self) and "logos" (word). It can be used of words or phrases. "This sentence contains five words," would be an autological phrase.

[Anti-Flag]

Contrifibularities, spasmotic, compunctuous, periconbobulations, interfrastically...

...these are the common words, down our way.

I'll have to re-write my dictionary. ;)

[draqon]

Contrifibularities, spasmotic, compunctuous, periconbobulations, interfrastically...

...these are the common words, down our way.

I really have a hard time believing that..."spasmotic" maybe is a common word but the rest, no way are they used anywhere close to on regular basis.

[Anti-Flag]

I really have a hard time believing that..."spasmotic" maybe is a common word but the rest, no way are they used anywhere close to on regular basis.

What about "sausage"?

[cosmictraveler]

transcend

[Fraggle Rocker]

Contrifibularities, spasmotic, compunctuous, periconbobulations, interfrastically... these are the common words, down our way.It's spelled "spasmodic," not "spasmotic." That one is a real word, although it's hardly a common one.

The rest of those aren't real. They may be regional slang words, but from such a small region that they're not in the dictionary. I suspect they don't show up in print very much, since the first one would surely be spelled "contra-" rather than "contri-", and the fourth one would surely be "pericombobulations," modeled after "discombobulate." The primary source of words for dictionaries is, obviously, writing. Spoken words have a much harder time gaining acceptance.

If you're not just pulling our leg, they're probably humorous coinages exactly like "discombobulate," made-up words that almost look real and sound funny. Some of them eventually make it into the language, like "rambunctious" and "humongous." Others are forgotten, like "absquatulate," "to sneak away by not attracting attention."

[Anti-Flag]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FaQgOJfttc

[cosmictraveler]

banal

[John99]

Cala~maree

[John Connellan]

Magiric

[Xylene]

snowcandles; the glimmering of starlight on a field of fresh-fallen snow.

[Orleander]

queef

[cosmictraveler]

pique