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Obscure words that we should use

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    #76
    'Jumentous' is a good word.

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      #77
      Having looked it up, I'll concede that the meaning wasn't quite what I was anticipating.

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        #78
        Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
        nibling (pl. niblings)

        (uncommon) The child of one's sibling or of one's sibling-in-law (in other words, one's niece or nephew), especially in the plural or as a gender-neutral term.
        I used this word on the Xmas Gifts thread last night and I just remembered where I learned of its existence. Thank you for adding such a useful word to my vocabulary.

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          #79
          Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
          I note that WOM picked up on my use of 'solipsistic' over on the 'famous unheard songs' thread.

          I reckon he might be that guy to whom I referred at post #25.
          Is this Showaddywaddy-gate all over again? (WOM, not you)

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            #80
            Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
            I note that WOM picked up on my use of 'solipsistic' over on the 'famous unheard songs' thread.

            I reckon he might be that guy to whom I referred at post #25.
            Heavens, no. I love learning new words. It's the 'incorporating them casually into everyday conversation' that presents the challenges.

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              #81
              Originally posted by treibeis View Post
              Is this Showaddywaddy-gate all over again? (WOM, not you)
              I wasn't Showaddywaddy-gate. I was "gimme 10cc's of 'neverheardofit, stat!"

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                #82
                Originally posted by WOM View Post
                I wasn't Showaddywaddy-gate. I was "gimme 10cc's of 'neverheardofit, stat!"
                No, you were also Showaddywaddy. I remember when I mentioned I'd wandered into a (free) Bonnie Tyler gig, with Showaddywaddy as the support band, and you accused me of making them up.

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                  #83
                  That rings true, so I'll cop to it.

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                    #84
                    If you'd ever seen Showaddywaddy, that belief would not have been in any way extinguished.

                    The fact remains that the Leicestershire Teds-Lite had twenty-three Top Forty hits over here - including a million-selling number one (Under the Moon of Love) and nine further Top Five entries.

                    [/Jahfacts]

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                      #85
                      A seasonal one - Tintinnabulation.

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                        #86
                        I used to do a teacher training exercise with some of these obscure words - that's how I knew callipygean and jumentous from this thread before. As luck would have it I've just been sorting through my old stuff and come across the handout and would therefore like to offer up:
                        Gossypiboma
                        Farctate
                        Lalochezia
                        Quidnunc
                        Steatopygia
                        Adoxography

                        All of which I think ought to be used more often than they are

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                          #87
                          Adoxography is excellent. Buck Henry used to do stuff like that. He was on Letterman once and said "We found ourselves in an establishment where ladies would divest themselves of their outer garments for remuneration." Nobody had much of a clue what he was talking about.

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                            #88
                            You don't see anyone driving pantechnicons these days.

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                              #89
                              Adoxography is indeed excellent.

                              My modest offering tonight: Glottophobia = prejudice against regional accents (a word recently coined by a French linguist to describe discrimination based on pronunciation and tone, needed to discouraged by law, she said.)

                              Great word, came courtesy of good old Jean-Luc Mélenchon about 2 months ago.

                              French MP seeks ban on 'glottophobia' after Mélanchon mocks journalist's accent

                              A French member of parliament has proposed that mockery of accents be outlawed, after an irate politician derided a journalist's southwestern pronunciation before asking if anyone had a question in "understandable French".

                              […]

                              In an exchange widely relayed on media and social networks, Mélenchon mimicked the journalist's accent and told her she was "talking nonsense" before turning away and saying: "Has anyone got a question in more or less comprehensible French?"




                              (the journalist’s question was perfectly clear BTW. I’m sure Mélenchon's glottophobia has gone down well in his Marseille constituency)

                              https://twitter.com/LaetitiaAvia/status/1052984517856768001

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                                #90
                                Listening to the recent In Our Time podcast on the Thirty Years War, and the infamous 'Defenestration of Prague', reminded me of how a beautiful and obscure word was coined to describe something so grim.

                                But it can be used in a figurative sense of dismissing someone from power and authority. The main example Google gives is of Churchill's defenestration by a war weary electorate in 1945.

                                And of course the practice has a long history. Queen Jezebel was recorded in the Old Testament book of Kings as being unceremoniously thrown out the window to the street below so the dogs could lick her blood. Nice.

                                A snag, though. A proper defenestration should involve the breaking of glass in the process, in my view.

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                                  #91
                                  I would suggest “class conscious” rather than war weary

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                                    #92
                                    Infinitesimal.

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                                      #93
                                      Originally posted by Prester John View Post
                                      Listening to the recent In Our Time podcast on the Thirty Years War, and the infamous 'Defenestration of Prague', reminded me of how a beautiful and obscure word was coined to describe something so grim.

                                      But it can be used in a figurative sense of dismissing someone from power and authority. The main example Google gives is of Churchill's defenestration by a war weary electorate in 1945.

                                      And of course the practice has a long history. Queen Jezebel was recorded in the Old Testament book of Kings as being unceremoniously thrown out the window to the street below so the dogs could lick her blood. Nice.

                                      A snag, though. A proper defenestration should involve the breaking of glass in the process, in my view.
                                      problem is I can't break the link between people going through windows, and its use as a running gag in Father ted.

                                      Comment


                                        #94
                                        I'd like to bring back "harlequin ", maybe I'll start shouting at refs that they're fuckin blind harlequins.

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