eloquent... exotic... esoteric... (please provide definitions)

[HareBrain]

I thought it was "not a noodle".

Ooh, that sent chills down my spine at the thought that I'd been obsessing about the wrong word for the last twenty-five years. But credible though it sounds, googling "not a noodle of" returns no pages.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

diatribe an abusive verbal attack, a tirade or harangue

harangue a long, vehement or angry speech

tirade a prolonged outburst of violent criticism

vitriolic venomous, acidic, caustic, scathing

 

[The Judge]

Dare we ask, Teresa, what led to those four particular words being chosen tonight? And are we able to offer any succour (assistance, support) or solace (comfort, consolation)?

J

 

[Granfalloon]

Google : 10 to the power of one hundred. (1 with 100 zeros after it; supposedly more atoms that exist in the known universe.

Antidisestablishmentarianism: Definition: originally, opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England, now opposition to the belief that there should no longer be an official church in a country
Example: When people are asked for the longest word they know, they often say antidisestablishmentarianism.

Phyllophagan "a fr roup of marsupials including the phalangists. (b) One of a tribe of beetles which feed upon the leaves of plants, as the chafers

 

[Interference]

Made-up words I like:

Pulsive: Something that evokes a strong reaction of indifference.
Subreal: Badly drawn surrealist art.
Pollyfolly: Silly on all levels.
Renumeration: A re-count

 

[Ursa major]

(Re: pulsive; evoking indifference, eh, Interference?)


Habitué - frequent visitor

Denizen - inhabitant

Scintillating - very lively and amusing

 

[Interference]

Ssssssibilants

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The danger with made-up words is that sometimes they are real words.

Pulsive actually means compelling or compulsatory

I like pollyfolly a lot, though. And there seems to be a lot of renumeration called for after elections these days, so that's a useful word.

But to reply to the Judge's post about why I chose my last list of words: No, it was just a train of thought that began with something else entirely and then one thing led to another.

In fact, I was in a genial (cordial, favorable, pleasingly warm) mood at the time.

 

[weirdside]

Abhor-hate, loathe
Fetid-rotting, decrepit
Paltry-small, meager

 

[Ursa major]

(Palty - chicken feed *cough*)


plausible - (Of argument, statement, ec.) specious, seeming reasonable or probable; (of person) persuasive but deceptive.


.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Paltry is the very word I wanted the other day. Thank you weirdside.

 

[Granfalloon]

Ssssssibilants

Ha ha. It is a word you know. (I suppose you did or you would not have used it that way). There was an episode of Saturday night live where Tom Hanks went around to all the microphones and used that word as a test for the sound system - which is actually common among sound engineers. Although I believe the adjective is spelled sibilance.

sib⋅i⋅lant  [sib-uh-luhnt] Show IPA
–adjective
1. hissing.
2. Phonetics. characterized by a hissing sound; noting sounds like those spelled with s. Examples include rose, pressure, pleasure, and certain similar uses of ch, sh, z, zh, etc.
–noun
3. Phonetics. a sibilant consonant.
Origin:
1660–70; < L sībilant- (s. of sībilāns), prp. of sībilāre to hiss), equiv. to sībil(us) a hissing, whistling (of imit. orig.) + -ant- -ant

 

[Granfalloon]

This is also one of my favorites:

Megalomania: –noun

1. Psychiatry. a symptom of mental illness marked by delusions of greatness, wealth, etc.
2. an obsession with doing extravagant or grand things.

A common word in science fiction, but not so otherwise: Terraforming:
(literally, "Earth-shaping") of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth to make it habitable by humans.

The term is sometimes used more generally as a synonym for planetary engineering. The concept of terraforming developed from both science fiction and actual science. The term was probably invented by Jack Williamson in a science-fiction story ("Collision Orbit") published during 1942 in Astounding Science Fiction, but the actual concept pre-dates this work.

 

[Boneman]

Hee hee, can't actually believe I did this, but have been examining 3rd year Osteopathy students, and I wrote that one such's case-history had been Lackadaisical: half-hearted, laidback in an uncaring manner, generally slapdash and lazy.

She came to see me to ask what it meant...

 

[Ursa major]

Given Pyan's post (#58) in the Choose your words carefully! thread, I half expected to hear that your student had come to moan about what you'd written.




Tantamount - Equivalent (to);

Tocsin - (bell rung as) alarm signal;

Loquacious - talkative, babbling.

 

[Boneman]

Given Pyan's post (#58) in the Choose your words carefully! thread, I half expected to hear that your student had come to

moan about what you'd written.

That is about the most convoluted (complicated, elaborate, drawn-out) pun I've ever had the pleasure of reading...very clever Ursa. I hope she didn't feel I was grassing her up, by putting this account on the chrons...

 

[HareBrain]

Katabasis - a descent, or journey downwards - such as to the Underworld, or the coast. (Or if the destination is Bognor Regis, both.)

 

[Interference]

Lol Hare

 

[HareBrain]

Given Pyan's post (#58) in the Choose your words carefully! thread, I half expected to hear that your student had come to moan about what you'd written.

Let it be known that today, two whole days after reading the above post, the punning meaning of moan finally popped into my head whilst I was lying in the bath.

Jobbernowl - a stupid person (obsolete, but worthy of revival)

 

[Ursa major]

(You should have known that it would be some sort of cutting remark, HB. )


coterminous - having same boundaries of extent (in space, time or meaning)

(and so appropriate for China Miéville's latest: The City and the City).
​

excoriate - 1. remove part of skin by abrasion; strip, peel off (skin). 2. censure severely (so excoriation).