Obscure words that we should use

[WOM]

'Hirsute' (in its correct sense) is used widely though, isn't it?

Widely? It's usually used euphemistically and only after a short pause for ironic/comedic effect. One doesn't normally hear it 'straight'.

[Jah Womble]

Maybe not where you live. It's a word that I hear quite a bit, I'd say - but I'll agree usually in less-serious circumstances.

By no means is it 'obscure', anyway.

[WOM]

In our climate, nobody really knows who's hairy and who's not.


In similar news, we have a lovely young gal who works here with really heavy, dark hair on her forearms. Her last name is.....Potter.


Damn near bitten my tongue right off...

[Jah Womble]

Ha. You wicked boy.

[adams house cat]

Pulchritude.

[Prester John]

I would love to revive the old English word for the intestines, "arse-ropes."

Used in Wycliffe's 14th century English translation of the Bible.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Similarly: "Arseling" = backwards

[diggedy derek]

Prester John, I read a wonderful blog about South London, with a focus on policing and underground and rave culture, titled Transpontine.

[Prester John]

Prester John, I read a wonderful blog about South London, with a focus on policing and underground and rave culture, titled Transpontine.

Nice one! I think the first time I came across the word was a piece about South London, which I'm guessing has a pretty distinct and separate culture from the folks up North (London).

I've never heard the word spoken, mind, only written down. It might sound unbearably pretentious.

[Patrick Thistle]

Ochlocracy - mob rule

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Great thread! Some cracking words in there.

A blogger I regularly read uses the word picayune quite a bit. Had to look that up but it's a great word for describing really small, almost worthless claims.

Very interesting, used in French too, picaillon: an old coin and by metonymy money.

It’s old-fashioned though and relatively rare but I’ve heard it and come across a few times, notably in Provence (Picaille is used too). Someone, typically an older person, may say it’s worth "des picaillons" (worthless), just as an elderly Briton might say that something is worth "tuppence" (though I've heard kids say that, so it's not just older people), but much rarer than tuppence. Picaillon is one of about 100 French words synonym of money, coins/denominations (of which about 25 are more or less routinely used, mostly colloquial terms).

I like callipygian at the minute (or callipygous): having well-shaped buttocks.

And limerence: a state of mind which results from a romantic attraction to another person and typically includes obsessive thoughts and fantasies and a desire to form or maintain a relationship with the object of love and have one's feelings reciprocated.

Also lambent: glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance, eg "the magical, lambent light of the north"

[Felicity, I guess so]

Has anyone said “jejeune”?

Not so obscure, I suppose but I like to use it when pretending to be an eccentric old don.
Also throw it in whenever Spandau Ballet’s 1st single comes on

[Felicity, I guess so]

dd, American “decals” are the kind of thing one would apply to scale models, rather than to the skin, and could be the result of serious research and design. They are printed on clear film, and traditionally needed to be soaked in water to separate them from the backing paper.

We called the skin stuff “transfers”, or later “temporary tattoos”.

So Zappa was asking his baby to lick the decals off his models..?!

[WOM]

Beefheart, baby.

[adams house cat]

Crepuscular - twilight.

[Ginger Yellow]

From watching an Oirechtas committee hearing - "disimprove". Reminded me of The Day Today's "de-encouragise".

[Sits]

Lachrymose
Sepulchral

[Prester John]

My favourite urban slang term, although I doubt that its use is particularly widespread, is 'Kojaking.'

As a verb, it means to find a parking spot directly outside a building where you need to park, even though it's nearly impossible to do this during business hours.
"I had an appointment at the hospital, and I was stressed because I was running late, but I managed to kojak a spot right outside."

As you'd guess, the name derives from the famous detective show from the 70s, when Kojak would routinely park right outside the building that he was visiting, in a very convenient spot. No circling around the block two or three times for him.

I love using it occasionally, because virtually nobody knows what you're on about, but laughs when you explain it to them.

[ursus arctos]

Growing up, a prime reason for watching Kojak was the prevalence of continuity errors.

In addition to the magic parking, they would regularly drive the wrong way on one way streets, and “turn onto” streets that were dozens of blocks away from each other.

[WOM]

Those shows were great for the ubiquitous tire-squealing, no matter who was driving what or how quickly.

[DCI Harry Batt]

At school - and I think middle school, so I was say 11-13 - we had to go find words in the dictionary we didn't know. So I started at the front obv, and found abactor (cattle rustler) and abature (Grass and sprigs beaten or trampled down by a stag passing through them). Both of which I think my teacher thought I'd made up.

[adams house cat]

I like that PJ.

Pusillanimous.

[Patrick Thistle]

Verisimilitude

The appearance of truth

[Sits]

Great Teenage Fanclub song.

[Jah Womble]

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.