Words You Like

[Steve C]

Sometimes I hear or read a word that resonates with me. I cannot recollect them all but thought it a nice idea to open a thread where we could share a word or two that we like. To kick things of I choose 'Buffoon' It has a nice sound to it and a clear meaning. Buffoons tend to be likeable but also unreliable.
Please post words you like and why you like them so we can all increase our vocabulary of words that convey more than they say.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Silver

Sil-ver

It sounds liquid yet burnished, like something elvish.

(I think buffoon is funny, and baboon is even funnier.) ie as an insult.

 

[Nikky Lee]

I recently discovered the word grimalkin, which an archaic word for a cat, and I think it is perfect (or, I should say, purrrfect?).

 

[georginaK]

I recently discovered Dentin. I was searching for soil compounds and wanted poetic terms for organic matter—only one reference and in a scientific context, so wasn’t confident enough to use it for my piece. But I enjoyed the discovery

 

[georginaK]

An inspiring article on favorite words:

The word-hoard: Robert Macfarlane on rewilding our language of landscape

For decades the leading nature writer has been collecting unusual words for landscapes and natural phenomena – from aquabob to zawn. It’s a lexicon we need to cherish in an age when a junior dictionary finds room for ‘broadband’ but has no place for ‘bluebell’

www.theguardian.com

 

[Lex Black]

Oubliette: a prison cell, often buried, where one can leave a prisoner permanently. Derived from the French verb "to forget".

Aquelarre: Spanish word for a ceremony to summon a demon, especially through a black mass. (Calm down, I'm a horror writer. I know these things.)

Psychopomp: Not so much a personal favorite, but as I pointed out in the WG recently, not a word one gets to use very often most of the time. Greek term for spiritual beings that guide departed souls to the next level of existence.

Schwarzchild radius: Show-offy nerd term for "this is the place around a black hole where you need to be going the speed of f(BLEEP)king light to get away."

And because I'm me:

Gargouille, Sirush, Amphitere, Tarasque: All names for obscure dragon species from various cultures and eras.

 

[Nikky Lee]

Gargouille, Sirush, Amphitere, Tarasque: All names for obscure dragon species from various cultures and eras.

Oo, I like those!

 

[georginaK]

A quote from referenced article above:
“When Gerard Manley Hopkins didn’t have a word for a natural phenomenon, he would simply – wonderfully – make one up: shivelight, for “the lances of sunshine that pierce the canopy of a wood”, or goldfoil for a sky lit by lightning in “zigzag dints and creasings”. Hopkins, like Clare, sought to forge a language that could register the participatory dramas of our relations with nature and landscape.”
A writer I discovered and fell head over heels in love with lately is Sara Baume—Spill Simmer Falter Wither—she is a shining example of using language, both existing and new, to evoke a precise and meaningful image or feeling like no other.

 

[Steve C]

Silver
Sil-ver
It sounds liquid yet burnished, like something elvish.

I like Silver. It sounds great but has so many uses. Money, second place, silver lining, money, colour, smooth etc

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Because my crime novels are set in Cornwall, I regularly use words that are common here, but unusual elsewhere—helping to establish a sense of place and also because they're fun to pronounce!

Zawn is a deep and narrow sea inlet cut into the granite by sea erosion. You could fall in if it's obscured by a sea mist, which is known as haar or sea fret. Best retreat to the relative safety of the towans, the shifting sand dunes which have buried many a chapel.

 

[Geoff]

Quintessential, elixir, codswallop and for some bizarre reason, the word urinal, particularly when spoken with a welsh accent! Does that say something about me, I wonder?

 

[Tim James]

Pulchritudinous.
Ironically, an amazingly ugly word meaning breathtakingly beautiful.

 

[Andrew Okey]

I have some sort of weird subconscious need to include the word "polyglot" in pretty much everything I write...

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Gloop.

It might actually be a rather delicious dessert. Think trifle, basically. I call it gloop. Or gloop might be a bit of revolting gubbins in a plug-hole wot needs cleaning.

Gubbins. There's another one.

They sound like what they are. Rather endearingly awful.

 

[Lex Black]

Oh, I can't believe I forgot these.

Quidam -- A Latin word. It can be summarized as "a faceless stranger". Attach as much poetic meaning to it as you want, I certainly do.

Also,

Verekai -- A Romani word meaning "anywhere." If I'm playing a video game where I'm allowed to name a horse, this will be the name I choose.

 

[David Weller]

Gopping means something tastes really bad.

 

[David Weller]

@Lex Black

Some Romani words I've used in one of my tales:

vardo = caravan.
bandolier = leader.
puts = a pouch which contains amulets and talismans.

 

[E G Logan]

Because my crime novels are set in Cornwall, I regularly use words that are common here, but unusual elsewhere—helping to establish a sense of place and also because they're fun to pronounce!

Zawn is a deep and narrow sea inlet cut into the granite by sea erosion. You could fall in if it's obscured by a sea mist, which is known as haar or sea fret. Best retreat to the relative safety of the towans, the shifting sand dunes which have buried many a chapel.

You'll find haar and towans on the west coast of Scotland, too. There is a Towans Hotel in Prestwick, Ayrshire. I always believed haar was a Norse loan word, but I have no proof!

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I was excited when I realised how to work the word firn into my latest dragon book. Firn is the snow that falls on a glacier, before it is compacted into ice.

I'm fond of the word defenestrate (to throw someone or something out the window).

 

[Steve C]

Ting tong. In Thai it means crazy/idiot but it is creeping into English use now. It has a nice sound to it and I have christened some crazy friends Sir Ting and Lady Tong.
Another Thai word for crazy/mindless that I like is ba ba bo bo which also has a nice sound to it and could be used in a book I think.. There's lots of ba ba bo bos around here so I hope it is not catching.

 

[Andrew Okey]

I was excited when I realised how to work the word firn into my latest dragon book. Firn is the snow that falls on a glacier, before it is compacted into ice.

I'm fond of the word defenestrate (to throw someone or something out the window).

Firn, spindrift, verglas - it is a weak truism that we have only one word for snow, and wintry weather produces some of the loveliest, most evocative words!!

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Another Cornish word that sounds nice to say, but which conceals an unpleasant meaning is quilik—which is used to describe a corpse that's swollen by intestinal gas making the skin loosen in a process called degloving. I used it in my last crime novel when a trawlerman's body is discovered snagged on rocks by Godrevy Lighthouse.

 

[georginaK]

@Lex Black

Some Romani words I've used in one of my tales:

vardo = caravan.
bandolier = leader.
puts = a pouch which contains amulets and talismans.

Lex—Gris Gris bag is another word for a puts I think

@Lex Black

Some Romani words I've used in one of my tales:

vardo = caravan.
bandolier = leader.
puts = a pouch which contains amulets and talismans.

Gris Gris bag is another word for puts I think—I came across it in Jesmyn Ward’s novel Sing Unburied Sing—which is absolutely brilliant by the way!

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Another Cornish word that sounds nice to say, but which conceals an unpleasant meaning is quilik—which is used to describe a corpse that's swollen by intestinal gas making the skin loosen in a process called degloving. I used it in my last crime novel when a trawlerman's body is discovered snagged on rocks by Godrevy Lighthouse.

I'd like to 'like' this comment, but I'm afraid of what people would think if I did.