What's an obsolete or incredibly obscure word you think people should know?
What's an obsolete or incredibly obscure word you think people should know?
Overmorrow refers to the day after tomorrow and I feel like it comes in quite handy for example.
perambulation is a good one. My morning walk isn't quite grand enough to be called a 'constitutional'; nor scenic and leisurely enough to be called a 'stroll'; nor yet social enough to be called a 'promenade'; 'perambulation' is just the ticket.
I thought the morning constitutional was taking a shit.
And what a lovely paragraph about it. Thank you.
Oh I love to perambulate, sitting still is what I really hate
And a "perambulator" is a kid stroller. It was an enlightening moment when I first came across that word in Neil Stephenson's "Seveneves", delved into its etymology and then realised why my British friend called the stroller a "pram". This is just a contracted form of perambulator.
It did not occur to me that there's actually also a verb for it, so thank you for pointing that out! I love it, and I will use it henceforth!
Interrobang.
It's this thing: ‽
More people should use the symbol because it looks cool and has a badass name, so for that you need to know what it's called.
Who's with me‽
Interrobang sounds like something from a porno about police work.
“Did you question the suspect?”
“Yeah, Chief, we interrobanged him and got the info.”
Hey, it's me, your suspect. I've got more info, step it up with the interrobanging, will ya?
Questioning a bang.
My quick and dirty interrobang with her revealed to me how empty inside I was, unlike the outhouse we were in.
Or a fully themed, punctuation inspire flick. Named "character" to let you fill in the blanks.
Char 1: Well what do you think Mark?
Char 2: Are you sure she can handle it, Point?
Char 1: Its time we've shown
Char 2: our true power...
Together: As Interrobang!
Char 3: No wait, I've got my per....
.... OK it needs to be reworked, but you get the idea.
While I like the concept, I can't help but prefer '!?' or '?!'. There's more granularity of meaning, and I think it just looks nicer having two or more separate characters.
I made
AltGr + /type an interrobang so I'd always have access to itHow do I start?
I set up an auto replace on my phone so when I type ?! It’ll switch it to ‽ for me.
Petrichor: The smell of rain on dry ground. One of those things everybody knows about but lacks a word for.
Apparently Streptomyces are the cause.
I learned about this in Amsterdam’s Groote Museum today, huh
It's funny, literally every Doctor Who fan knows this word and what it means thanks to Neil Gaiman.
Overmorrow refers to the day after tomorrow
Figured the other way around might be as obscure...
nudiustertian: relating to the day before yesterdayYikes
To add to that, "ereyesterday" is the noun version for the day before yesterday.
Never saw this one before and not sure how to pronounce it while the German Vorgestern is as commen as Übermorgen.
English on the other hand has fortnight which I think is very cool as we don't have a special word for 14 days
A little off topic but I find these words extremely interesting that have no direct translation as they often give a new perspective on things or concepts.
the german version "Übermorgen" is widely used in germany.
Yes, I learned English here in Austria and I remember classmates asking the teacher how to say "vorgestern" and "übermorgen" in English.
We didn't learn the words "ereyesterday" and "overmorrow" that day, only "the day before yesterday" and "the day after tomorrow". :(
Overimorgen is widely used in Norwegian.
I actually dislike that term a lot.
It's like spunkgargleweewee. It seems immature and makes me feel more dismissive towards the argument. Maybe that also has to do with it being a catch all term and people seem less willing to give specific examples of how things are declining in quality.
Wait did you just coin that? That's fucking brilliant /s
Edit: apparently I needed a /s because Lemmy doesn't use this term constantly or anything?
Because there was no /s - no they didn't, it's been around for a little while now. It basically means products or services slowly getting worse rather than better - such as adding ads, adding useless or broken ai to everything, switching to a subscription without adding any actual value. This is almost always done in the interest of maximizing profit as much as possible, at the expense of the users (monetarily and experience wise). Basically, see any major company decisions in the last several years, especially at companies with very large audiences (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Airbnb, Facebook, etc)
It was coined by Cory Doctorow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification
Writer Cory Doctorow coined the neologism "enshittification" in November 2022, though he was not the first to describe and label the concept.[1][2] The American Dialect Society selected it as its 2023 Word of the Year.
Cory Doctorow coined it: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/
Sonder (noun): the feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles: In a state of sonder, each of us is at once a hero, a supporting cast member, and an extra in overlapping stories.
This one always makes me smile, because it's from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It's just some guy's blog in which he comes up with new words to express experiences and emotions that are difficult to describe, and that specific one has thoroughly broken containment
Bought the book. It's the only dictionary I've enjoyed reading.
Sonder
Literally means "special" in German
That was lovely, thank you for that.
callipygous : having shapely buttocks
and zaftig
of a woman : having a full rounded figure : pleasingly plump
I prefer callipygian
Also: gyatt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widdershins
Just because it sounds cool.
Sounds useful in Minecraft. Like you put a sign in a cave "exit widdershins" to tell people to follow the left wall.
In an emergency, you can also exit widdoutershins.
Yesss. I love this word and use it whenever I can
And don't forget turnwise! (which is the opposite rotational direction defined by the direction the disc turns)
Widdershins start my hair, your Spooktober decorations are so spooky!!!!
Sounds like a creature that would have a lot of creepypasta written about it.
"Thrice" is a somewhat obscure word that otherwise fits.
"Adventitious" is a good one. It means "non-inherent" or "acquired" (as opposed to inherent.)
measure thrice, cut twice.
Avuncular - of or having the qualities of an uncle.
“His avuncular joke was both lazy and sexist”
That's the definition but not how it's ever used.
Proof /s
Yeah, that word means uncle-like, but it's very much a word for a fun or chill uncle vibe.
Don't you slander uncledom like that, you unavuncluar tranch!
Gormless - Lacking initiative, foolish
Copacetic - correct, orderly, good
Copacetic
Gormless is one of my favorites too. Shame it's not used as much as it should be in general.
Widdershins. It means counter to the sun's direction , and was seen as inauspicious. Counter-clockwise, before clocks.
I only know the term from Disc World, is that a real world term or just one of the many whimsical terms Pratchett coined in the books
It's real! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widdershins
- Paramour
It sounds fancy, but means a casual lover. A fuck buddy. A friend with benefits. Though it can also carry the implication of being an out-of-wedlock lover, as it dates back to a time where having a fuck buddy was almost certainly a sign of married infidelity.
- Kith
Means one's friends and other people they are close to that aren't family. Often paired with "kin". Kith and kin. Friends and family.
A paramour is an “other lover”. Para = beside, amour = love. It’s not a casual fuck buddy, it’s your cheating partner. I’m surprised to hear you say it’s unknown as a word these days? Seems like just a normal word to me, albeit one I’m happy to go without using as cheaters suck.
I use paramour, usually to describe an infidelity situation. No one under 35 knows what it is.
Interesting. The only two references I've ever heard to Paramour are the band and the achievement in Mass Effect. I'm now wondering if the devs of that series knew exactly what it meant (infidelity) because you get the achievement for having any relationship. Maybe it's because you can't remain loyal to your original partner to get it in all three games with one playthrough.
Borborygmus I use often enough, but it's not widely known. It's the gurgling sound produced by the movement of gas through your intestines.
Limaceous I almost never use, but I enjoy it anyway. It means characteristic of or pertaining to slugs.
And lastly, tawdry is one of my favorites meaning showy but cheap and poor quality.
The are all great, but tawdry is fantastic!
Rolls of the tongue, and we all come across several tawdry things/people in a given day.
I don't think tawdry is archaic. A little uncommon, but still in use.
Not a word, but there's a specific phrase uttered when you casually pass by someone working, stop for a chat, and then genuinely wish them well with their work as you leave.
This phrase does not exist in English:
- "Break a leg" is close, but more reserved for some grand performance
Nor does it exist in German:
- "Viel Spass/Glück" (Have fun, Good Luck) is also close, but has an element of sarcasm and/or success through chance.
- (Edit) "Frohes Schaffen" (Happy 'getting it done') is pretty spot on.
In Turkish, you just say "Kolay Gelsin", meaning "May the work come easy so that you finish sooner".
Its such a useful unjudgemental phrase, easily uttered, that I've seen nowhere else. Maybe other languages have it too.
"May the odds be ever in your favor" works in almost any situation!
Reminds me of a much abbreviated version of this Irish prayer:
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Exactly this kind of sentiment. Beautiful poem.
Doesn't exist in German? What about "Frohes Schaffen"?
(I've literally never heard that said once, but it qualifies, so I'll add it)
"Good luck with/have fun with that!" In a pleasant tone while gesturing towards the act being done is enough, I've found
Unless it's clearly like, WORK, work, then something like "don't work too hard, there!" Is common
The tone of it is the same, but there's also a sarcastic interpretation of it though, and it can be applied liberally to lots of non-work situations
Dutch: 'Werk ze'
I use "have fun" completely unironically all the time. One time my partner's (Pakistani) carer thought I spoke Arabic because Afwan is apparently an Arabic salutation meaning approximately the same as "cheerio", "goodbye", or "you're welcome" in English. He also turns up around half one every day for added amusement
I will steal that one!
“Break a leg” is close, but more reserved for some grand performance
So in Estonian we have a bunch of those I don't remember because nobody uses them anymore. But the main one everyone knows is "Kivi kotti" (literally, stone/rock in your bag, but much like with "break a leg", you actually wish them well). It's still basically "good luck" but not so much for grand performances, it could just be for your first day of work, or going fishing (the real origin I guess). There's also "Nael kummi" which is "nail in your tire", which is reserved for people driving somewhere.
I say "good luck" in a non-sarcastic tone to people whenever they head off on some banal errand. It gets some confused looks sometimes, laughs others.
Shemomedjamo - Georgian word meaning to eat past the point of fullness because it tastes so good or as I heard it, "I accidentally ate the whole thing."
I was sure Harry Potter said it one time when he cast a spell.
SHEMOMEDJAMO!
Grok
It means to know or understand, like "yeah man I can grok that."
Being pedantic, but it's beyond that.
To grok is to know or understand so completely, it becomes a part of yourself. To know something fully. You can understand the concepts of astrophysics, but you might not grok the concept.
I guess I didn't grok the true meaning of the word. Thank you!
The literal meaning was defined "to drink". If you drink something, it becomes a part of you.
Specifically, it refers to a deep understanding.
[A critic] notes that [the coiner's] first intensional definition is simply "to drink", but that this is only a metaphor "much as English 'I see' often means the same as 'I understand'". (from Wikipedia)
When you claim to "grok" some knowledge or technique, you are asserting that you have not merely learned it in a detached instrumental way but that it has become part of you, part of your identity. For example, to say that you "know" Lisp is simply to assert that you can code in it if necessary – but to say you "grok" Lisp is to claim that you have deeply entered the world-view and spirit of the language, with the implication that it has transformed your view of programming. Contrast zen, which is a similar supernatural understanding experienced as a single brief flash. (The Jargon File; also quoted on Wikipedia)
Indubitably!
It means most certainly, beyond questioning.
And it's fun to say!
Ah, I grew up listening to Adventures In Odyssey and one character said that all the time. Beautiful word.
I like that it's root is fairly plain to see.
That's un-doubt-able - indubitable.
I love that word. I don't know where I even learned it first, but I sometimes throw it back out there. It's so fun!
Sesquipedalian: A user of big words
I like that saying sesquipedalian makes you sesquipedalian.
This is my favourite too. I have a very sesquipedalian friend, and I had the honour of introducing him to the word.
I've got six of them:
- Tittynope: "A small amount left over; a modicum."
- Cacography: "bad handwriting or spelling."
- Epeolatry: "the worship of words."
- Kakistocracy: "a state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens."
- Oikophilia: "love of home"
- Tenebrous: "dark; shadowy or obscure"
Feel like tenebrous being on a list of obscure words is tenuous, but maybe I just have esoteric interests.
Unlike many of these I'd heard it before but didn't know its true meaning. It fits.
Darth Tenebrous
I'm a master in Cacography!
"Pardon my cacography" sure has a better ring to it than, "can you read this?"
That list is going to send me down a rabbit hole looking for the etymology of words
Oh, I also really like Mammonism: "the greedy pursuit of riches", from the Biblical "Mammon".
‘Tenebroso’ is commonly used in Spanish, at least in Spain. This whole thread is very interesting.
Voldemort is Señor Tenebroso.
A lot of words in English have a Germanic and Latin version. The Germanic one tends to be more common in everyday use, while the Latin one tends to be more formal, a consequence of French being the language of the aristocracy back in the day. Spanish is all Latin-derived, so they would of course be the everyday words.
Kakistocracy: “a state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens.”
See also kleptocracy: rule by thieves. I not infrequently refer to our government as a kleptocratic kakistocracy
Brobdingnagian.
It's a very big word that means very big.
It comes from Gulliver's travels. The Brobdingnagians are giants, 12 times the height of humans. The word isn't limited to that scale, but it's definitely for things that are unusually large compared to us.
It's the literal opposite of Lilliputian, which is from the better known race from "Travels" that are 1/12 our size.
It's my absolute favorite word. Not just because it's a literary reference but it's fun to say. Brob ding nag ian. It just burbles off the tongue like a drunken stream stumbling among the rocks of its bed. And, it's a big word that means big, which is just fun wordplay. Like the phobia of big words, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, which was inevitable as soon as the idea of a phobia of big words was conceived.
I'd settle for not seeing "should/could/would of" typed out anymore.
Wud u tho?
Shoulda hoped for something better.
I once knew a guy from the deep south who'd say stuff like yoostacud. I yoostacud run a marathon. I thought that was marvellous! Another one was fixina. I'm fixina get tickets to the game tonight. You in?
I've heard the former before, and the latter would become the modern "finna".
It's German but 'Rucksackriemenquerverbindungsträger', the thing between the straps of a backpack that you can connect to lighten the load on your shoulders.
I made the word up but I use it pretty often.
Well .... I knew exactly what you meant, as you know what I mean when I say: "Rucksackriemenquerverbindsungsträgerersatzschnalle" and I think it's beautiful.
Also: "Getriebeschmiernippel"
The chest strap?
Yes
Duodenum.
Doo-odd-in-umm.
The duodenum is the first section of the small intestine in most higher vertebrates, including mammals
Albeit.
My favorite English word... I use it quite often because it fits the German Ductus.
I have a double whammy: Nonplussed.
Bewildered; unsure how to respond or act. Double whammy because it does not mean not-plussed like many people seem to think.
Nonplussed...that takes me back.
I was educated in a private school for British ex-pats run by a very old and very posh couple. This was the early eighties and they were already in their seventies, so definitely from a different era. Because of this and because of the size of our school (my entire year consisted of nine kids) we ended up quite odd. Up until highschool we had a mild but "poshy" London accent and words like vexing, nonplussed, providential, etc., peppered our vocabulary. Then my family moved to Louisiana followed by Texas and that shit went right out.
Also, the word is aluminium. It is NOT aluminum!
I very recently learned that Amour is not universal and I just grew up playing a singular RPG that was developed by a group of British brothers so that forever shaped my expectations for how Armour should be spelled
I was right there with you until you defended that silly word.
It's interesting, it is becoming a modern day contronym
Interesting link! I didn't know the misuse went back so far.
overmorgen, in Dutch. I heard this 'overmorrow' word a couple times as a response in that they wish it did exist
And übermorgen in German
And övermorgon in Swedish
ereyesterday is the day before yesterday. as a german i am used to refer to two days in the past and future without useing weekdays.
They’ve fallen from grace. Probably because it’s been a few centuries since the saxons
The language could use a refresher eh
its actually a real rabit hole to see which cultures use however many days to refer into the future and past. Since the use of unified calenders its been declining. few centuries ago it wasnt unusual to have words for like "five days ago". and some languages actually perserved that!
Dont ask me for specifics tho. its been many moons since i did that deep dive ^^
Obstreperous - noisy or difficult to control (as in "the boy is cocky and obstreperous")
Meant to say in my Nero Wolfe comment - there's a Lemmy community for interesting words at [email protected] - it's not very busy, but still.
Perchance!
You can't just say "perchance"!
Perchance?
"Where did you get that preposterous hypothesis? Did Steve tell you that, perchance? Steve."
To sleep, perchance to dream. And in that sleep of death, what dreams may come!
Hamlet (hopefully I didn't get it too wrong)
Defenestration. Throwing someone out of a window. Example the defenestration of prague
And Russian oligarchs
I like to make the joke whenever someone mentions a Russian doctor falling out of a window or something:
There's defense and there's defenestration.
It's composed of de- an fenestra, the latter meaning window.
So literally de-windowing
An ultracrepidarian—from ultra- ("beyond") and crepidarian ("things related to shoes")—is a person considered to have ignored this advice and to be offering opinions they know nothing about.
The word is derived from a longer Latin phrase and refers to a story from Pliny the Elder
The phrase is recorded in Book 35 of Pliny the Elder's Natural History as ne supra crepidam sutor iudicaret[1] ("Let the cobbler not judge beyond the crepida") and ascribed to the Greek painter Apelles of Kos. Supposedly, Apelles would put new paintings on public display and hide behind them to hear and act on their reception.[2] On one occasion, a shoemaker (Latin sutor) noted that one of the crepides[a] in a painting had the wrong number of straps and was so delighted when he found the error corrected the next day that he started in on criticizing the legs.[2] Indignant, Apelles came from his hiding place and admonished him to confine his opinions to the shoes.[2] Pliny then states that since that time it had become proverbial.[2]
"scruple" as a verb, meaning "hesitate due to conscience".
People probably know a word based on it, unscrupulous, meaning having or showing no moral principles
Yeah, and folks know "scruples" as a noun which some people have and some don't, but "scruple" as a verb is a nice archaic version that I really like, which you don't encounter much outside of, say, a Jane Austen novel.
Sorry
I see you've never been to Canada.
Sorry, I speak a little Canadian, eh?
Internecine, meaning "destructive to both sides in a conflict".
Petty bickering like that divorce where they had a judge adjudicate the distribution of their beanie baby collection was internecine.
As soon as I read "destructive to both sides in a conflict" I immediately thought of that case. And then you referenced it 😂
Übermorgen, the german word for overmorrow, is in abundant use in Germany. It's far from obsolete or obscure over here.
Same for overmogen in the Netherlands. And eergisteren for the day before yesterday.
In Poland it's "pojutrze" - after tomorrow, and "przedwczoraj" - before yesterday (those are also literal translations just as i wrote). Also in common and constant usage.
Same for the Romanian "poimâine" (after tomorrow). We also have "alaltăieri" (the other yesterday). They are in use, quite common.
I'm currently reading through all of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries, and one fun feature is that he almost always includes one or more very obscure words. It's a nice little thing to look out for.
In the one I'm currently reading it's, "peculate," meaning to embezzle or steal money. Others include:
- Plerophory - Fullness, especially of conviction or persuasion
- Apodictically - From apodictic: clearly established or beyond dispute
- Usufruct - The right to enjoy the use and advantages of another's property short of the destruction or waste of its substance
- Acarpous - Not producing fruit; sterile; barren
- Yclept - By the name of
- Eruction - A belch or burp
I had a look to see if I could find a full list but sadly not. However most Wikipedia entries for the individual novels include a section called, "The unfamiliar word," if you want to find more.
I had a look to see if I could find a full list but sadly not. However most Wikipedia entries for the individual novels include a section called, "The unfamiliar word," if you want to find more.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
It’s curious to see how things merge between languages. In Spain, both usufruct (usufructo) and eruction (eructo) are quite common words.
Oh really? That's cool, thanks for the info. Language is so fascinating 👍
Eruction - A belch or burp
There could be some wild confusion if a New Zealander were to say "I've got a massive eruction building up" 😆
I like penultimate, next to last.
I see what you did there
Followed by antipenultimate
You mean antepenultimate?
Autodefenestration is one of my faves. The act of throwing yourself out of a window.
If you’re throwing someone or something out, then it’s just plain defenestration
Makes me want to find an excuse to use the term autoeroticdefenestration: to be sexually aroused by throwing yourself out of windows
Grandiloquent/sesquipedalian. It's what you get when you use everything in this thread ₍^ >ヮ<^₎ .ᐟ.ᐟ
/s
Vituperative. Means vicious.
"Philomot" was always pretty charming. "The color of a dead leaf."
I am now adding overmorrow to my vocabulary. I can't wait to confuse the shit out of people I hate.
übermorgen
I can't wait to use it tomorrow.
And overmorrow.
You know that episode of Seinfeld where someone eats a candy bar with a knife and fork and it just spreads into the wild because people don't really question it?
That's what I'm hoping happens with overmorrow
Vulgar Argot - a word or phrase that is obsolete or incredibly obscure.
Defenestrate means to throw out of a window.
For example, "Someone should defenestrate Putin."
I agree that we should use overmorrow more. Japanese has a similar word and it gets frequent use.
Many languages have it. English for some reason does not use it
In my country we also have a word for that and it's always used when referring to overmorrow.
Scrofulous - a) having a diseased run-down appearance. b) morally contaminated
I learned this word when I heard someone being described as a 'scrofulous drinkist' lol
Uxorious: devoted to one's wife.
Uxor, Uxoris, f. (Latin) = wife
philalethist, A lover of truth.
Not to be confused with philatelist, a stamp collector. The word means to enjoy receiving something without the necessity of payment.
Wait overmorrow is correct English? We have "morgen" and "overmorgen" in Dutch which is tomorrow and overmorrow respectively, so I always missed an overmorrow in English. Is it actually commonly understood or will people look at me like I'm a weird foreigner when I use it?
It's archaic english. So yes, I think people will think you're weird. But maybe if you start using it with your dutch friends/colleagues in english-speaking contexts, you can slowly introduce it into common usage in your community. Might be cool.
Also don't forget "ereyesterday" for the day before yesterday.
"Overmorrow" is actually not obscure or obsolete at all in german.
"Übermorgen" is quite often used (at least around me)Übermorgen is the name of my heavy metal band
Twaddle: something insignificant or worthless or another word Nonsense.
Discovered this word while reading the dictionary during silent reading in English and they wouldn’t let me play games.
There used to be a Scottish football ⚽ player called Kevin Twaddle. Always amused me.
Codswallop
My contribution is katzenjammer, which is a word describing a really bad hangover (in the English language). I believe it is used a bit differently in the German language, but don't take my word for it.
It’s funny that a hangover in Dutch is a kater, or, (male) Katze
I learned that word from an old comic from the late 19th century called The Katzenjammer Kids, which apparently is the oldest strip still in syndication.
Salitter is my answer to this one every time.
The silence. The salitter drying from the earth. The mudstained shapes of flooded cities burned to the waterline. At a crossroads a ground set with dolmen stones where the spoken bones of oracles lay moldering. No sound but the wind.
Here, also.
Something I learnt recently and which is rampant on gay social apps: sphallolalia - flirting that doesn't lead to meeting irl.
What a great word in today's dating scene. Is it an older word that has been modified to be more modern?
I think it's a modern word, as for example it doesn't figure in Merriam-Webster. But it was created in a classical way, i.e. from Greek words meaning "stumble" and "talking".
Lugubrious - because it means the opposite of how it sounds!
It's fun to say, but is defined as sadness, which the word can't evoke
Lugubre in Spanish. Well known word in this other language. I love this thread!
Jocund: cheerful and lighthearted.
From Romeo and Juliet:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
I got one that everyone thinks they know but they don't:
Bulimia.
Everybody commonly referse to purge type binge eating disorders as Bulimia, but that is actually Bulimia Nervosa, strongly correlated with Anorexia.
What Bulimia really means is constant strong cravings for food, and it can express itself in people of all sizes with a notably large number of heavily overweight victims in stark contrast to Anorexics.
The reason for the confusion is constant misuse by tabloids and clickbait articles.
Crepuscular. Related to twilight, dimness, the golden hour.
Verantwortungsbewusstsein. Let's get back to our roots.
Is that obsolete or obscure (in German speaking areas)?
The concept might be, but the word itself is a compound of the words "verantwortung" and "bewusstsein". They mean responsibility and consciousness respectively, and are both perfectly common and simple words. The whole thing means what you think it does, nothing special.
German doesn't really have those hyper specific super obscure words, they're almost always compound words made up of common words.
Seems like every time you use it you'll end up having to explain what it means unless you're playing D&D
Logoparalysis. https://lemmus.org/post/6454872
defenestrate.
Shannon Makes fan?
Smaragdin which means "green"
Euouae
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euouae
Euouae (/juː.ˈuː.iː/; sometimes spelled Evovae)[1] is an abbreviation used as a musical mnemonic in Latin psalters and other liturgical books of the Roman Rite. It stands for the syllables of the Latin words saeculorum Amen, taken from the Gloria Patri, a Christian doxology that concludes with the phrase in saecula saeculorum. Amen. The mnemonic is used to notate the variable melodic endings (differentiae) of psalm tones in Gregorian chant.
In some cases, the letters of Euouae may be further abbreviated to E—E.[2] A few books of English chant (notably Burgess and Palmer's The Plainchant Gradual) make use of oioueae for the equivalent English phrase, "world without end. Amen".
According to Guinness World Records, Euouae is the longest word in the English language consisting only of vowels, and also the English word with the most consecutive vowels.[3] As a mnemonic originating from Latin, it is unclear that it should count as an English word; however, it is found in the unabridged Collins English Dictionary.[4]
Two words technically, but "Nothing doing!"
Sort of an old fashioned way to say "no way"
Rob is a name in English. Rob means slave in Bosnian.
coprophagia- the consumption of feces.
Coprophasia
Serendipity, idk it sounds cool, "serendipitous" moments happen a lot irl (e.g. forgetting to bring ur wallet with u to the supermarket but minutes later, you end up finding a coin in a random pocket from your jacket to unlock a shopping cart), but it almost only sees its use in fiction, like.....
Serendipity, a stroke of fortune! Great word.
Lemmy
As long as it's not "used car salesmen" words:
- the ask
- the spend
- action this
It's as discordant as "the above paragraph" or "see the below steps" except with wrong words instead of broken ordering.
No one mentioned "niggardly" yet? What's going on?
For those that can't believe it's not a racial slur.
Niggard (14th C) is derived from the Middle English word meaning 'stingy,' nigon, which is probably derived from two other words also meaning 'stingy,' Old Norse hnǫggr and Old English hnēaw.[2] The word niggle, which in modern usage means to give excessive attention to minor details, probably shares an etymology with niggardly.[3]
I don't understand, why is that your word?
It's an obsolete and relatively obscure word that I think a lot of people don't know - because if most people did know it, no one would ever have gotten into trouble for using it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_niggardly