Originally posted by Jah Womble
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Obscure words that we should use
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Originally posted by diggedy derek View PostPrester John, I read a wonderful blog about South London, with a focus on policing and underground and rave culture, titled Transpontine.
I've never heard the word spoken, mind, only written down. It might sound unbearably pretentious.
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- Apr 2011
- 2053
- A bottom-bottom wata-wata in Lake Titicaca
- Atlético Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca Pan flutes FC
- Buñuelos Arequipeños
Great thread! Some cracking words in there.
Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View PostA 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.
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"
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- Mar 2008
- 9829
- Tyne 'n' Wear (emphasis on the 'n')
- Dundee Utd, Gladbach, Atleti, Napoli, New Orleans Saints, Elgin City
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
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- Mar 2008
- 9829
- Tyne 'n' Wear (emphasis on the 'n')
- Dundee Utd, Gladbach, Atleti, Napoli, New Orleans Saints, Elgin City
Originally posted by ursus arctos View Postdd, 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”.
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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.
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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.Last edited by DCI Harry Batt; 11-12-2018, 18:25.
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