New word!

[Cynde Route]

Gruntled: Pleased, satisfied and contented.

“I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”
―P. G. Wodehouse
Read more at http://izquotes.com/author/p.-g.-wodehouse/3

 

[Jason Byrne]

How about ululate, a word that sounds a bit like its meaning? I'd love to use it in a story but hesitate for fear of annoying readers

It would be good to describe a singer of an unknown language, while in a fantastic land. A fantastic setting comes with the expectation of fantastic language.

 

[Jason Byrne]

“I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”
―P. G. Wodehouse
Read more at http://izquotes.com/author/p.-g.-wodehouse/3

Hahaha, I love it. I invented a couple languages for a book about ten years ago, and had a lot of fun delving into the roots of common words, such as disgrunted (can something gruntle? Yes!) Or making a word for cohere, so I could build incoherent out of it...

And great find by the way.

 

[Marc Joan]

Therianthropy: the mythical ability of humans to change into animals.
Therianthrope: half-human, half-animal.
I was aware of lycanthropy but not the more generic term above.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I love cool words like that. The real problem is that if you actually use one of those words, no one understands you. *sigh*

 

[Richard Sutton]

Warg is easier to say, though.

 

[Jay Aitch]

And great find by the way.[/QUOTE]

How about ululate, a word that sounds a bit like its meaning? I'd love to use it in a story but hesitate for fear of annoying readers

The only time you will annoy a read with a word is if you use it too often.

(My two bugbears with Rowling were her obsession with the colour gold, and her constant use of a vocal mannerism for far too many characters: when discussing another character, said speaker mentions their name at the end of the sentence as a reminder to the reader about whom they were speaking.)

 

[J. Rook]

Came across a new word last night, while reading my bedtime story [Justine, by Laurence Durrell]. I love finding new words. Thought I'd share it:
BANAUSIC: Mundane, not operating on an elevated level: banausic - definition of banausic in English from the Oxford dictionary
Anyone else found any good ones recently?

Banausic is good. I have not come across that one before. I like "eleemosynary" (adj. - provided through charity). Charlotte Brontë used it once - I forget where. Has anyone else ever used it? I haven't. Is it social custom which causes some words to become outdated? Or, like "banausic" why are some words not in common currency?

 

[J. Rook]

Some great discoveries! Recently I had cause to check the specific definition of 'nihilism' for a book I've been working on. That definition led to a new word for me - 'anomie'. I wrote about it here : James Marinero's Blog: Nihilism, Anomie and Quests

And very nicely written too. The quest is fundamental. We don't do enough questing.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

We're currently reading Oliver Twist aloud to the kids--what a gold mine of fun words Dickens is!

 

[James Marinero]

@J. Rook Thank you for your compliment!

 

[Marc Joan]

Pandiculate: To fully stretch the torso and upper limbs, often while yawning.

I love this one.

 

[Marc Joan]

Catoptric: relating to a mirror or reflection.

From Foucault's Pendulum (Umberto Eco)

 

[Marc Joan]

Ecpyrosis: utter destruction by fire

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Pleonasm: the use of more words or parts of words than are necessary or sufficient for clear expression—as in a tiny little child or my own bugbear, which is often heard on television, very unique.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I started reading Selected Verse, by Don Paterson last night. He's new to me, a highly-praised Scottish poet who's won lots of poetry prizes.

In the first poem in the collection, The Ferryman's Arms, I came across a new word: 'mussitates.'

The boat chugged up to the little stone jetty

without breaking the skin of the water, stretching,

as black as my stout, from somewhere unspeakable

to here, where the foaming lip mussitates endlessly,

trying, with a nutter's persistence, to read

and re-read the shoreline.

Mussitate means to talk indistinctly and quietly—to mumble—it's nicely onomatopoeic. I don't think it will be of any use in my Cornish Detective novels, but it might appear in some of my poetry.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I found a word new to me, that I first thought was a printing mistake as the character was examining his canities reflected in a mirror. I figured he was checking his teeth, but then he patted his canities into place.

Canities are hairs that have lost their pigment, turning them grey, silver or white.

I have lots!

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I'm currently writing a second story set in war-torn North Carolina in 1868. My protagonist, a Union army veteran, meets a gold prospector in a general store who is smoking a corncob pipe, puffing out some pungent fumes.

I briefly wondered about making his tobacco marijuana, but a quick bit of research showed that the Cannabis sativa plant didn't make it that far north until the early 20th-century. Then, I thought of the herbal mixture that Native Americans smoke in their medicine pipes.

It's called kinnikinnick and the ingredients vary, depending on location, but include tree bark, roots, leaves and flowers.

It's not a word that anyone would use, other than in a story set in the American West, but it's really fun to say!

 

[Quillwitch]

Hey, I got a word for you guys. Maybe you´ve heard it before--procrastination. LOL!

 

[James Marinero]

Ah well, here are my contributions, discovered when researching a forthcoming voyage to Cuba:

Syncretism is the combining of two or more different belief systems and it is the basis of Cuban art

Santeria is the fusion of West African religion with Catholicism and focuses heavily on saint worship which is where the word Santeria comes from

 

[Paul Whybrow]

It sounds unlikely, but funambulism is the proper term for tightrope walking...which is probably best done when not suffering from somnambulism!

It can also be used to describe a feat of mental agility.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I've known this word for ages, but it's one of those words that I keep forgetting—mainly because I don't use it very often.

Aglet is the word for the plastic or metal sheath used on the end of shoe laces, cords and drawstrings. It stops the threads unravelling, and makes it easier to push the lace through eyelets.

I tend to think 'ferrule' when trying to remember aglet, but that's the sleeve used on pencils to hold an eraser in place, or on pool and snooker cues to secure the tip, and on tools, such as a screwdriver, to clamp the blade.

TOP TIP: If you lose the aglet off the end of your lace, making it tricky to thread through the eyelet, apply a match flame to the end of the lace to melt and harden the fibres.

Aglet would be a good surname for a fussy person!

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I live in a very noisy location, so listen to music played through earbuds while I write. I was playing Tom Waits' album Rain Dogs album this morning. I always smile at his lyrics, and curious about a line in the song Cemetery Polka, where he declares a character is "As independent as a hog on ice," I looked up the derivation of the expression.

It always conjours up an image of a hog madly scrabbling for purchase on a frozen pond, but apparently it comes from the currently topical Olympic sport of curling, where the granite stone that curlers slide across the ice is known as a 'hog.'

 

[Paul Whybrow]

In reading a book of philosophy, I came across a phrase that made me smile—'divine afflatus'. It was in a section on the art of writing.

I knew that 'flatus' is a posh way of saying 'farting', but the definition of 'afflatus' is "a strong creative impulse; divine inspiration."

Just as well that I'm a windbag!

 

[Charles Ott]

sternutatory -- something that makes you sneeze. This word is nothing to sneeze at!

 

[Charles Ott]

I also have to mention this: I like playing a game called "Wordament", which turns up a lot of words I've never heard. Fortunately, I can go to Google on the same smartphone and get a definition instantly. This morning I looked up "flamen," which turns out to be a Roman pagan priest with special duties toward a particular god. By complete coincidence, this will work well in a fantasy novel I'm trying to write. My readers can just go look it up themselves.

 

[Tim James]

I have always thought that pulchritudinous was a particularly ugly word, given that it means breath-taking physical beauty

 

[Amber]

GORMLESS!

 

[Jay Aitch]

GORMLESS!

If one can be gormless - without a clue - can one also be gorm - presumably clued up?

 

[Marc Joan]

If one can be gormless - without a clue - can one also be gorm - presumably clued up?

No -- it's one of a small group of words which ca't be treated like that.