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Old March 24th, 2012 #41
Sean O'Keith
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Lagubrious.

[Correction: LUGUBRIOUS]

Definition: how I currently feel.

Last edited by Sean O'Keith; March 24th, 2012 at 10:35 AM.
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #42
Rick Ronsavelle
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No such word.
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #43
Sean O'Keith
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Ronsavelle View Post
No such word.
You're right. It's Lugubrious. Sorry. Spelling. I hate you for pointing it out, but am glad you did.

Meaning: Excessively mournful.
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #44
Alex Linder
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Quote:
Originally Posted by General_Lee View Post
Here's another one I ran across recently and had to look up: "paean"; pronounced as PEE-uhn; meaning a song of praise or joy. Not necessarily in the religious sense.
That's a good one, and it's on the list. Also, panegyric.

Quote:
That is a habit my parents taught me as a kid: When I came across a word I did not know, they would not, usually, tell me what it meant; insisting instead that I look it up. In those days it meant trudging across the house and dragging out this big ol' thick dictionary they had bought for me and flipping through pages to find it. It's a lot easier now with online dictionaries and it's a habit that I'm trying to instill in my own kids.
Yeah. I'm not too happy with dictionaries. They should hold the line on changes until they are truly established, but, I suppose to increase profits, they give in very easily not just to new words that might disappear but by legitimizing misuses of existing words. Because jenny or jacky might have his self-esteem hurt if someone told him he was using a word incorrectly.

BTW, it was Ben Franklin, if I recall correctly, who's best known for advising people to look up every word they come across they don't know as a means of building their vocabulary. It certainly does work. I did this with the German version of Stephen King's novel Christine when I was trying to pack on some Deutsch. I had a huge amount of underlinings in the first dozens of pages, then fewer.

Quote:
And speaking of learning habits, not intending to derail the thread, my dad would be known on frequent occasion to ask me what I had learned today, usually but not always in reference to school. And he wouldn't let the subject go until I could articulate something that I had learned today (or at least very recently) that I didn't know before; even if it was seemingly insignificant. Sometimes, it was just the meaning of a word. And whatever it was that I came up with we'd end up having a father / son conversation about and that would always lead to me learning other things from him.
Sounds like you had or have a good father. I always felt like the only useful stuff I learned from formal schooling was how the type of people running the schools and teaching in them think.

Quote:
And "chary"; pronounced as CHAIR-ee; meaning -- No, you'll have to look it up.
I know it, but usually use other words for its meaning. Most commonly encountered in some version of Be chary of giving advice.
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #45
Alex Linder
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Donnie in Ohio View Post
Janissary.
yep, on the list. there are many good words for the punks, thugs, henchmen, mercs around a tyrant.
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #46
Alex Linder
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Scabdates View Post
You're buried in minutia. Some other time.
You're attempting some stupid point, but failing to get it across, and misspelling your petty insult. It's minutiae. Don't piddle in my thread, doglet.
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #47
Alex Linder
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean O'Keith View Post
You're right. It's Lugubrious. Sorry. Spelling. I hate you for pointing it out, but am glad you did.

Meaning: Excessively mournful.
one of my favorite words. but it's not just excessively, it's ridiculously mournful. the word has such a beautifully appropriate sound, given the meaning. which makes it perfect for mocking.

another great word is lucubration, for when you're making fun of some dolt's attempt to think.

your enemies lucubrate, long into the night, but the product of their glorious excogitations is always laughable.

a basic semi-rule is only use latin-greek formulations (those really long words) when you're mocking something, or in the mock-heroic vein. otherwise use simple words, if you're simply a person writing, as opposed to a writer making entertainment. to multiply syllables for no meaning = middle-class pretentious. those ordinary people keep the world running, it's true, but their urge to be Respected and Important will get nothing but raspberries from me, as will working class folks, proles, who capitalize random nouns.
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #48
Alex Linder
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[sheet #3]

sententious
excogitate
euphonius
esoteric
preternatural
flagitious
gallimaufry
salmagundi
contretemps
canaille
imbroglio
imbroglio
potentate
nabob
soliloquy
reverie
apostrophe
ephemeral
transient
precipitous
charlatan
pullulating
sanguine
opus
syncopation
soporific
anodyne
attenuate
indigenous
endemic
propinquity
impecunious
reticulation
coterie
canard
contiguous
prate
proffer
sobriquet
appellation
incubus
succubus
jackanapes (41)
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #49
Alex Linder
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noctivagent
noctambulent
chimerical
suppositious
nullity
circumspect
soi-disant
politic
precept
olfactory
bagatelle
abacist
corpulent
adipose
precipice
recumbent
spavined
truckling
refractory
pertinacious
contumely
malocclusion
effluvium
redolent
offal
officious
unguent
unctuous
blandishments
emollient
sebaceous
saponaceous
anile
onerous
obtuse
inimical
ostentatious
ostensible
affectation
punctilious (40)

Last edited by Alex Linder; March 25th, 2012 at 01:24 PM.
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #50
Alex Linder
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courtier
doxy
courtesan
licentious
modicum
prevaricate
seminal
fecund
inanimate
ethereal
truculent
insouciant
coruscation
lucidity
refulgent
bellicosity
numinous
penumbra
fulmination
pliable
circumscribe
etymology
deliquesce
withy
svelte
exiguous
animalcule
lissome
actionable
disputations
microbe
minutiae
soucon
evanescent
ensconced
descant
expatiate
prolix
voluble (39)
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #51
Alex Linder
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maunder
perdition
privation
sonorous
stridulation
cacophony
alarum
stentorian
uxorious
comely
unctuousness
insipid
incandescent
protuberance
sumptuous
plethora
prepossessing
preponderance
august
imprecation
anathema
execrable
acerbity
truculence
obdurate
calumniate
traduce
mephitic
opprobrium
tractable
scrofulous
salient
variegated
vertiginous
fen
epigram
epitaph
aphorism
apothegm
adage
axiom (41)
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #52
Alex Linder
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timorous
rook
mulct
tautology
vivisection
dolorous
nostrum
encomium
progenitors
interpolated
travesty
burlesque
coterie
haggard
caudate
vim
paragon
gimlet
gimcrack
quiesence
sempiternal
indefatigable
acumen
obliquity
obduracy
apostasy
contumacy
equivocate
morbidity
mignon
supplication
spurious
cant
locution
emetic
spoliation
pustuliferous
laconic
pithy
homonculus (40)

Last edited by Alex Linder; March 24th, 2012 at 05:29 PM.
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #53
Alex Linder
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I have 1000 words, but there will be tryouts. Any words anyone has are welcome; if they are good I will work them in, number is irrelevant.

Interesting question: how many different useful ways can words be grouped?

- alphabetically (dictionary)
- by concept (thesaurus)
- both (alphebetical thesaurus)
- sound (um...rhyming dictionary, poet's dictionary if such things exist)

Let me know if you can think of other ways.

Part of the purpose of this book is to leave clarity where there was confusion. That means disentangling words that sound alike, even if their meanings are far apart.
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #54
Alex Linder
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crepuscular - (creeping around at dusk, twilight, dawn - as opposed to day - diurnal - or night - nocturnal)
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #55
Rick Ronsavelle
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soi-distant

soi-disant
 
Old March 24th, 2012 #56
Rick Ronsavelle
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adulterate

dilute
 
Old March 25th, 2012 #57
Alex Linder
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Ronsavelle View Post
adulterate

dilute
i think these are too easy or well known to require analysis.
 
Old March 25th, 2012 #58
Alex Linder
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Ronsavelle View Post
soi-distant

soi-disant
thanks, corrected.
 
Old March 25th, 2012 #59
Alex Linder
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[sheet #7 - 72 words]

prehensile
threnody
jeremiads
querulous
pule
bewail
terra firma
isthmus
proprietor
gambol
dilatory
dormant
taciturn
recalcitrant
reticent / reluctant / recalcitrant
salacious
salubrious
sometime
fleer
enormity
capricious
occult (blood, life changes - 'succession of scams practiced on first-timers')
quiescent
gravitas
facetious
parsimonious
cathartic
irrigate (Hemingway)
integument
miscreant
pettifogger
barratry
emetic
indolent
verdure
cabal
egress (Barnum)
saltation
mountebank
saltimbanco
homonculus
flounce
erudition
matriculation (Lombardi or Stram)
novitiate
intelligentsia
ascertain
roue
satyriasis
priapism
oblique
valedictory
expound
rake
sycophant
toady / toad eater
sinister
superfluous
bailiwick
ex officio
modicum
detritus
virulent
pernicious
hieroglyphics
mitigate
velleity (buckley)
captious
munificence
catholic
magnanimous
pusillanimous
succor

[there are doubles in these lists, no need to notify me]
 
Old March 25th, 2012 #60
Alex Linder
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[sheet #5]

rotundity
corpulence
grandiloquence
magniloquence
hirsute
horripilation
setaceous
itinerant
couth
procrustean
twee
arcadian
frowsy
cloying
exegesis
apocalypitic
apocryphal
pernicious
expectorate
salinize
salient
abrade
antiseptic
compos mentis
sardonic
fillip
philippic
feral
apothegm
dessicated
littoral
autodidactic
formication
lascivious
epicurean
voluptuary
homily
abject
offal
cloaca
jejune
politic
propriety
proprietary
specious
epithet
epitaph
epitome
clairvoyant
psycopath
sociopath
double entendre
piquant
acrimony
acrid
acerbic
astringent
celerity
alacrity
mordant
pyrotic
castigate
censure
censor
flay
flagellate
decimate
ganch
comeuppance
rusticcate
catspaw
expiate
vestal
Lilliputian
quaff
morass
stipulate
throes
sophism
sentient
quiddity
hoi polloi
canaille
inveigh
harangue
merengue
maunder
meretricious
transport -- access of (older uses of; 'transport of' - older uses that can be revived not for old time's sake but because they work)
tenuous
rarefied
reporbate
jerkwater (may have been misusing this, means town or village not just backwater area)
ratiocination
casuist
infer
sapient
esoteric
sententious
tendentious
didactic
hortatory
eristic
heuristic
susceptible
suggestible
maw
englician
englsmith
coffers
carafe
recluse
tergiversation
recondite
abstruse
amanuensis
tu quoque
schism
refurbish
rasorial
incongruity
quotidian
ruminate
ruminant
remonstrate
expostulate
rasorial

Last edited by Alex Linder; March 25th, 2012 at 02:29 PM.
 
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