Author Topic: Favorite Words?  (Read 20717 times)

Offline Dom

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 255
  • "I can't believe it's not Butters!"
    • View Profile
Favorite Words?
« on: June 29, 2006, 12:12:07 AM »
Do any of you have favorite words, or at least words you think are interesting?

I'm partial to these:

dual - it's a fancy way of saying "two"!  And it's better than "bi". (...I'm not bisexual, I'm dualsexual!...sorry, random thought.)

hex - it's not as taboo as sex, it's not as bitter as an ex, it's not as southern as tex or mex, and it has nothing to do with Superman.  And it's fun to say.

I'm also a fan of "defenestration" (the act of throwing something or someone out a window), but I'd be surprised if I ever manage to use it in conversation.
- has put $0.10 in the pun tip jar as of today.

Offline neminem

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 95
    • View Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2006, 02:53:28 AM »
Defenestration has always pissed me off - if you parse it, it should really mean, "to remove one's window"!

On that note, I've always been a fan of words whose etymologies are amusing and obvious to those in the know - words like, say, antediluvian. Literally - before the flood. I.e. really freaking ancient.

Also always enjoy new slang, especially when it fits a niche that previously lacked any sufficient word. For instance, from the world of cs-hackery, words like "hack" (in the original, MIT sense, that is), or "munge", or "frob", or for that matter, "foo" and "bar". Especially when such slang also has amusing etymology - for instance, it's common at my school to refer to anything particularly nasty with the nounal form, "nast". You can have, therefore, things "made out of nast", or "looking like nast", or etc. I've even heard phrases like "liquid nast". And of course, there's a shelf in our dorm that always collects dust and never gets cleaned, so it's been named "the nast shelf". :D

Offline Dom

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 255
  • "I can't believe it's not Butters!"
    • View Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2006, 03:02:39 AM »
New slang!  Forgot about that category. :)  Foobar/fubar is a good one too.

I'm fond of "frex" myself.  "For example" is just too darn long.  "Frex" is to the point...and it has that x at the end, which I like. :D
- has put $0.10 in the pun tip jar as of today.

Offline James

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 178
    • View Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2006, 08:53:31 AM »
über is my current favourite word, I have changed it slightly to überly as it rolls of the tongue better in my opinion. 'That is über good.' or 'That is überly good.'
Text arriving soon...

Offline Mickey Finn

  • Encyclopedia Salesman at the Gates of Mordor --- http://tinyurl.com/Amazon-Page-for-Finn
  • White Council
  • Posty McPostington
  • *****
  • Posts: 8382
  • Moderator, Thematic Consultant for Comic
    • View Profile
    • Amazon Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2006, 01:07:50 PM »


I'm also a fan of "defenestration" (the act of throwing something or someone out a window), but I'd be surprised if I ever manage to use it in conversation.

Hastur manages to use it quite often. Usually in reference to computers.

I tend to use "penguin" as a place holder in conversation.


"Can you hand me that um...."

"Penguin?"

We are not nouns. We are VERBS. -Stephen Fry
The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms. -Muriel Rukeyser

Podcast: http://thegentlemennerds.com/

Wormwood Mysteries:
"All The Pretty Little Horses" http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W8FE3FS 
"Sign of the Times" http://tinyurl.com/DirtyMagick

Offline Jon Crenshaw

  • Lurker
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2006, 04:09:29 PM »
I've always been fond of defenestration.

I used it frequently during college, dealing with uppity freshmen.  :)

"ostensibly" is another good one to make people go "huh?"

Offline Benchleyfan

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 26
  • Now I have Spidey's theme song stuck in my head...
    • View Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2006, 05:13:09 PM »
Serendipity-like the concept, the word is just fun (for me) to say and yet I never really get to use it. 

Names I like:  Walla Walla, WA  and Armand Assante.   :)  Shelley
A lot of people say: "I'm no good in the morning until I've had my coffee." I'm no good in the morning even after I've had my coffee.-Robert Benchley

Offline Zydruna

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 19
    • View Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2006, 10:29:38 PM »
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia 

means fear of long words.

gotta love that!   ;)
Never trust a prophet in a party dress.

-Ellis Paul

Offline James

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 178
    • View Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2006, 11:51:29 PM »
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia 

means fear of long words.

gotta love that!   ;)

That person had a good sense of humor ;D.
Text arriving soon...

Offline neminem

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 95
    • View Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2006, 08:26:35 AM »
A friend of mine just used "gorram" completely naturally, earlier today. It made me happy, a lot.

Incidentally, "frell" is a fun word, too, even though I'd much rather be thought of as a Firefly fanboy than a Farscape one.

Offline Tersa

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 73
  • J'aime le beau vampire <3
    • View Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2006, 05:04:28 PM »
 ;D Frell is one of my favorite words, even though I didn't really watch Farscape all that much.  I love the word forsooth as well, even though I never have a place to use it. But my favorite word of all time, in any language?

Pamplemousse.  It's French for grapefruit.  ;D
My avatar hosted by the folks at www.flickr.com.  This link is included so their TOS guys don't hunt me down. O_O

Though the French under my avi is probably incorrect, please don't hurt me...

Offline Kiriath

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 172
  • We rise or fall...
    • View Profile
    • Sa Souvraya Niende Misain Ye
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #11 on: July 02, 2006, 04:20:58 AM »
Frell. Heck yes. :D
Dr. Juruna: What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?
Dr. Haas: Well, he profits by one entire world for starters...
A Miracle of Science

Bonded to the Traveler of the Ways

Offline Berry

  • Lurker
  • Posts: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #12 on: July 02, 2006, 06:27:14 PM »
I like the word "hope". I like it as a name,a concept....as the only thing that gets me through some days.  :)

Offline BigMama

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1498
  • Bemused and Beguiled
    • View Profile
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #13 on: July 04, 2006, 05:13:21 PM »
One of the boards on which I have posted for years has a word filter that eliminates sexually charged words and replaces them with "bunnyslipper". I have always found this hilarious--especially the context in which you often find it.
I love the words "mystical" and "serendipitous".
Words in the heart cannot be taken. Dorfl

Offline Amber

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 4256
  • Enchanted Storm
    • View Profile
    • My Own Message Board
Re: Favorite Words?
« Reply #14 on: July 04, 2006, 06:31:06 PM »
One of the boards on which I have posted for years has a word filter that eliminates sexually charged words and replaces them with "bunnyslipper". I have always found this hilarious--especially the context in which you often find it.

*grin*

That reminds me of when I was doing sexual harrassment training for TAing.  We got an example of an "inappropriate" e-mail one might receive from a student:

I want to [verb] you.  I want you to [verb] me in my [noun], while I'm [verb] you.

It went on like that for quite some time.

Oh... topic...

I can't say as I actually have any favorite words to write with.  Someone mentioned "pamplemousse," my favorite French word was always "ananas," or pineapple ;)

When I'm reading, I love it when authors make up words.  It's always amused me to see a word made up, and wonder if it will make it into common usage.
"I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale."
- Marie Curie