The Greatest Word You've Ever Heard

[a red nine]

Top three favorite useless vocab words, ready, go!!

Arachibutyrophobia - The fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth

Defenestration - The act of throwing a person/object out the window

Tittle - the dot on a lowercase 'i'

Your turn! The more pointless the word, the better!

[Nicole]

Exsanguinate - to bleed to death... I used this word once in casual conversation when I was a medical student and my friends thought it was hilarious. Now I use it because it's fun.

Tub-thumping - arguing or promoting vigorously... Come on. How stupid, yet fabulous!

That's all I've got tonight. Just 2. Sorry.

[katia]

I don't know if these are useless, but they're fun anyway:

finifugal- an adjective meaning "shunning the end" (of anything).

Niefling- nongendered word for neice or nephew.

Mammothrept- a spoiled child.

Kench- to laugh loudly.

Oh! And Nicole- I have a word of the day calandar, and yesterday the word was tub-thumper! I thought it was the greatest thing ever.

[Nicole]

Oh! And Nicole- I have a word of the day calandar, and yesterday the word was tub-thumper! I thought it was the greatest thing ever.

DUDE, we must have a VERY similar calendar, because that was my word a few days ago! I love those things!

[katia]

Oh! And Nicole- I have a word of the day calandar, and yesterday the word was tub-thumper! I thought it was the greatest thing ever.

DUDE, we must have a VERY similar calendar, because that was my word a few days ago! I love those things!

It's probably the same one. I can't remember the exact day it was on. Words are so fun.

[Trillium]

"Defenestration" and "exsanguinate" -- love those!

triskaidekaphobia -- fear of the number 13

[obsessed]

Debacle - an epic failure.

Agroof - to fall on one's face.

[morediscreetkid]

ENDOPLASMIC RETICULUM!!! hehehehe heard from my love, and its her fav word too.

[ArenGoLucky]

ENDOPLASMIC RETICULUM!!! hehehehe heard from my love, and its her fav word too.

it IS an awesome word love...my favorite.

i also love the word debauchery. i love how it rolls off the tongue.

LOVE this thread, btw...im a word nerd!

and dictionary.com's word of the day is machination meaning a crafty scheme to accomplish some usually evil end.

[MissMercy]

Masticate, Mastication, Masticating...>_>

Def- To chew food, or to grind in one's mouth.

[High on Lullabies]

Coruscating - 'flashing brightly' or 'extremely clever and exciting or humorous'

Love how it sounds like it should be painful but actually isn't!

Emaciation - very thin and weak, usually because of illness or extreme hunger

Oooh and I'm allowed a third? Okay then....I'm sure I'll think of better words later but for now:

Sashay - to walk confidently while moving your hips from side to side in a way that attracts attention

I don't believe I've ever sashayed anywhere in my life!

[a red nine]

MEDULLA OBLONGATA!!!

[count tiszula]

"sesquipedalian"; having a foot and a half [in verse], by extension boring and pedantic.

"lucubration"; late night study, or the stuff produced by it.

I have never yet dared to say to anyone; "I grow tired of your sesquipedalian lucubrations"; but there is still time....

[Giant Steps]

Pulchritudinous - Great beauty, attractiveness etc.

I'm still trying to find a way to use this one successfully. "Hey babe, you're looking pulchritudinous tonight."

Bunding - The process of making bunds, which are little walls used to keep water in and prevent breaching.

I just thought this was a hilarious word when we were discussing it in geography the other day. And yes, that was the highlight of the class.

I could fill this next space with pretty much any Glasgow slang, because it's all hilarious. Today I think I'll pick "tumshie", which is an idiot.

[Vetinari]

A Scottish word:

Dreich: describes grey wet drizzling weather.

A norsk word:

Oppholdsvær: More weather (because obviously the Norwegians are very similar to the Scots when it comes to what's important). This one means an overcast day when it isn't actually raining (yet).

And I know this is cheating but one from The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd:

Scrabby: A curious-shaped duster given to you by your mother which on closer inspection turns out to be half an underpant.

[tFM!]

Tub-thumping - arguing or promoting vigorously... Come on. How stupid, yet fabulous!

Also a great 90's song

Hmm...currently my favorite is:

Unalienable: not to be separated, taken away, or denied (as in rights)

And I can't think of anymore...rawr...perhaps later?

LMAO, I love everything that's been posted though. Especially endoplasmic reticulum and triskaidekaphobia. I throw those into random conversations all the time

[Hawkeye]

Defenestration is one of my favorite words.

I also LOVE the word shenanigans.

I'm also quite a fan of "paraphernalia".

[Guest bbwsnzr]

Sconce. It's short and weird to say- it is lighting on a wall. Sometimes I will use it as an insult to a person being useless, as in, "You're a sconce!"

Effortlessly- it means "without effort" but takes a bunch of effort to say. Go ahead, say it out loud.

[Just Older]

These are normal words, but rarely heard spoken.

Falafel

Cadaver

Maniacal

Poinky (a random word (i hope) as used by 4-year-olds: "what is that?" "it's a poinky, you silly goose")

*urban dictionary definition: a synonym for "stupid" & "annoying"/Sort of pointy, sort of sharp, very uncomfortable

[Mirf]

Hmm.. reminds me of a favorite word thread ..

Anyway English words are

Racecar (especially spelled backwards )

Fiddlesticks! I'm not even sure what it means or if it is actually a word .. but it's awesome .

And for German i'll still stick with

Himbeerbonbonpackpapierchen

[Chanel_no5]

Best word I've ever heard is probably the word

privacy

[Enkidom]

Somehow I knew defenestration would be out the window by the time I got here...I LOVE that word!

Other favorites:

Onomatpoeia - a word that sounds the same as it is spelled.

Catharsis - purging of emotional tensions.

Demagogue - a leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions of the masses.

[count tiszula]

If I'd realised we could have foreign or silly words, I would have had a much longer list; as it is, German compounds are an endless source of joy, so I nominate

Vergaenglichkeit, meaning "transience"; and there must be compounds, like "Vergaenglichkeitserinnerung", a memory of transience; well, there ought to be.

Similarly, the more complicated tenses of Latin verbs, as in "Nisi dominus aedificaverit domum, in vanum laboraverint qui aedificant eam", rather prosaically appearing in the prayerbook as " except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." Not that that isn't wonderful too; except plus the subjunctive, Swoon!

[SomethingClever]

I love the word raffle... no clue why...

also schadenfreude, which means taking pleasure in the pain of others in german (horrible maybe, but it's a really great word)

also fluctus, which is latin for wave

[Trillium]

also schadenfreude, which means taking pleasure in the pain of others in german (horrible maybe, but it's a really great word)

Love the word Schadenfreude!

Along those same lines -- Weltanschauung (German for worldview, or better yet, perspective from a certain point of view)

Mirf (or others whose German is way way better than mine), help me out here: "Himbeerbonbonpackpapierchen" = (little) wrapper for (a piece of) raspberry flavored candy? Cool word!