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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:00 PM
Original message
Share your very favorite obscure word..or non-word.

Here is one I learned in the 70's...

"insigrievious"

Very useful word. Can be used in any context, verb, adverb, etc.

"You are being very insigrievious"

"He had a most insigrievious attitude".

Best part?

No such word,
When asked by huffy people, I tell them to look it up.

Sometimes they indignantly accost me days later to tell me
"there is no such word" thus proving they are, indeed, insigrievious.


What's your favorite word?

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geardaddy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:02 PM
Response to Original message
1. Lozenge
or squeegee
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LanternWaste Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:06 PM
Response to Original message
2. Indefatigable
Indefatigable... it's the name of one of the ships-of-the-line the hero of the Horatio Hornblower series of novels serves on for most of his early career. I also have a dilly of a time pronouncing it :)
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Richardo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 04:54 PM
Response to Reply #2
26. I can't help but get a "Knights of the Round Table" earworm when I hear that word...
Edited on Fri Feb-13-09 04:55 PM by Richardo
We're Knights of the Round Table,
We dance when ere we're able,
We do routines and chorus scenes
With footwork impeccable.
We dine well here in Camelot,
We eat ham and jam and spam a lot.
We're Knights of the Round Table,
Our shows are formidable, But many times, we're given rhymes
That are quite unsingable.
We're Opera mad in Camelot,
We sing from the diaphragma looooooot.
In war we're tough and able,
Quite indefatigable,
Between our quests we sequin vests,
And impersonate Clark Gable.
It's a busy life in Camelot,
I have to push the pram a lot.
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LanternWaste Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 06:51 PM
Response to Reply #26
39. Damn you....
Damn you!!!!! If I end up hearing that in my head over and over again, well-- "the sin upon your head, dread sovereign..."

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Strong Atheist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:08 PM
Response to Original message
3. Copacetic
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Rambis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:22 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. West LA fadeaway (Grateful Dead)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH3XhkSC02g

I'm looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will do
I'm looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will do
I don't want to buy it
I just want to rent it for an hour or two

I met an old mistake walking down the street today
I met an old mistake walking down the street today
I didn't want to be mean about it
I couldn't think of one good word to say.

West L.A. fadeaway, West L.A. fadeaway
Little red light on the highway, big green light on the speedway hey, hey, hey.

I had a steady job moving items for the mob
I had a steady job moving items for the mob
Know the pay's much pathetic
It's a shame those boys couldn't be more copacetic

I need a West L.A. girl, already know what I need to know
I need a West L.A. girl, already know what I need to know
Lord, just how far to go.

West L.A. fadeaway, West L.A. fadeaway
Little red light on the highway, big green light on the speedway hey, hey, hey.

I'm looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will do
I'm looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will do
I don't want to rent it
I just want to use it for a minute or two

West L.A. fadeaway, West L.A. fadeaway
Little red light on the highway, big green light on the speedway hey, hey, hey
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MajorChode Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:12 PM
Response to Original message
4. Ratfuckery
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Urban Prairie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:15 PM
Response to Original message
5. Pulchitrude
Great physical beauty and appeal.

non-word:

misunderestimated (Bush-speak)
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Strong Atheist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:27 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Cyanide. Tnt.
HIGH VOLTAGE!
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Iggo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:58 PM
Response to Reply #7
14. (Done.Dirt.Cheap.)
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jobycom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:34 PM
Response to Original message
8. Beautimous. Say it with a Caribbean accent. Can't remember where I heard it.
Some sketch or other. I keep thinking Robert Townsend, so maybe "The Mighty Quinn?" Don't remember.
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:49 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. I heard it as "bood-a-mus"..somewhere....
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no name no slogan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:38 PM
Response to Original message
9. Chorn
A chorn is the snow and ice that builds up on the mud flap of a car wheel when there's snow and ice on the road. I just heard it this year, and it's very descriptive.
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:47 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. oh..goodie one... Can hardly wait to sneak it into a sentence.
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Urban Prairie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:55 PM
Response to Reply #9
12. Frush
The chunks of heavy refrozen salty and dirty slush that breaks off from inside a vehicle's wheel wells and gets littered on the road. (or in a garage/on a driveway)
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Iggo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 01:56 PM
Response to Original message
13. I'd've.
It just looks neat-o.
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geardaddy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 02:04 PM
Response to Original message
15. Carbuncle
Edited on Fri Feb-13-09 02:05 PM by geardaddy
n/t
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Strong Atheist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 02:46 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. Ooooohhhh! Aaaaaahhh! nt.
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foxfeet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 02:55 PM
Response to Original message
17. Tintinnabulation.

Pronunciation: \ˌtin-tə-ˌna-byə-ˈlā-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin tintinnabulum bell, from tintinnare to ring, jingle, from tinnire
Date: 1831
1 : the ringing or sounding of bells
2 : a jingling or tinkling sound as if of bells
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 03:33 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. For 10 extra points, name the poem that used that word.
I vaguely remember reading the word in a poem...
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foxfeet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 03:44 PM
Response to Reply #18
19. "The Bells" by Edgar Allen Poe.
Loved it when I first read it in high school. Now, about those ten extra points. . .
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 04:36 PM
Response to Reply #19
20. Blue..or red?
:bluebox: :bluebox: :bluebox: :bluebox: :bluebox:

:redbox: :redbox: :redbox: :redbox: :redbox:

:applause: :applause:
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Left Is Write Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 04:38 PM
Response to Original message
21. Favorite obscure word: crapulous; favorite non-word: craptacular
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Tommy_Carcetti Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 04:40 PM
Response to Original message
22. Non-word? Irregardless.
:hide:

I don't care if it is contradictory and/or non-sensical. It just flows off the tongue so much better than "regardless" or "irrespective."
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Glorfindel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 04:42 PM
Response to Original message
23. "fard" - to paint (the face) with cosmetics
"Pray excuse me; I must retire to the ladies' room and fard." Makes for interesting conversation.
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bif Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 04:42 PM
Response to Original message
24. Feegledorf.
It's a little mystery object. Like a dustball or a piece of lint. As in: "Hey, you've got a feegledorf on your sweater."
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Glorfindel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 04:50 PM
Response to Original message
25. Also, "callipygian" - having shapely buttocks
A highly useful word, indeed.
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DeepBlueC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 05:04 PM
Response to Original message
27. carphology
n. delirious fumbling with bedclothes etc.

It got dropped from the last edition of the Concise Oxford but presumably still in the OED. It's a medical observation. I once saw an alarming oil painting that depicted exactly this; I recognized it (and the syndrome) immediately.
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jeff30997 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 05:09 PM
Response to Original message
28. Midlo.
:)
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leeroysphitz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 05:19 PM
Response to Original message
29. knurnal.
Edited on Fri Feb-13-09 05:20 PM by leeroysphitz
A small, unaticipated, gap or protuberance located
at some point along what was meant to be a smooth
and continuos shape.
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Angleae Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 05:23 PM
Response to Original message
30. I'm partial to Doohickey, doodad, thingamajig, thinaamabob, whatchamacallit, etc.
Edited on Fri Feb-13-09 05:23 PM by Angleae
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Brother Buzz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 05:39 PM
Response to Reply #30
32. Those are not obscure words if you worked in a hardware store
You know what I mean, Vern?

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Angleae Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 12:42 AM
Response to Reply #32
45. I know exactly what you mean.
I'm an aircraft mechanic, they're daily usage. Just a couple days ago, someone came into the shop looking for our "bondage checker deelydo"
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mitchum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 05:31 PM
Response to Original message
31. "Mendacious","fecundity", "dessicated"...
all those Tennessee Williams words
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Doc_Technical Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 05:54 PM
Response to Original message
33. Chingadera.
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crimsonblue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 05:56 PM
Response to Original message
34. Lambaste.
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RagAss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 06:10 PM
Response to Original message
35. Fuckfest ....
A common word used in the IT business.....I still believe that I invented the word while working as a nighshift operator in 1982. But I'm willing to listen to other claims.
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Greyskye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 06:15 PM
Response to Original message
36. Ignoranus - someone who is both stupid AND an asshole

Credit to the annual Washington Post's Mensa Invitational.
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MrPerson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 06:17 PM
Response to Original message
37. jesustits
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GoneOffShore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 06:18 PM
Response to Original message
38. Apposite - for appropriate.
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Stevenmarc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 06:56 PM
Response to Original message
40. Persnickety
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Dystopian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 07:36 PM
Response to Original message
41. Fuckedupedness and Putridity.
hovel
cur


peace~
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Richardo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 07:37 PM
Response to Original message
42. Desafortunadamente
Unfortunately, it means "unfortunately". But it sounds so musical.
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The Velveteen Ocelot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 07:42 PM
Response to Original message
43. Recondite
Tendentious
Glabrous
Fulgent
Mephitic
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-13-09 09:10 PM
Response to Original message
44. Wonderful words...
I am impressed...and wiser.

Great stuff.
One more: Bushwhackery.
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Ivan Sputnik Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 12:54 AM
Response to Original message
46. Some favorites
illapse
gobemouche
arsiversie
coryza
scuppernong
susurrus
incunabulum
salubrious
cavil
sprezzatura
clinquant
roun
cynosure

Meanings at:

http://wordie.org/lists/malechis-list
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bluesbassman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 01:08 AM
Response to Original message
47. Two: kittywampus and harkum
kittywampus - To be out of place or askew.

That fence got all kittywampus after the big storm


harkum - Lees than desirable substance.

Where did you get that harkum?
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Adsos Letter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 03:02 AM
Response to Original message
48. fleapax...
...I have no idea as to why...
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alphafemale Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-14-09 04:23 AM
Response to Original message
49. otamotapea - I doubt I spelled that right. Which would be ironic nt
Edited on Sat Feb-14-09 04:25 AM by alphafemale
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