Word of the day

[ad_orientem]

I like learning new words. Maybe we can have a thread where we post words we like, or are unusual, or whatever.

Today I'll introduce you to a Finnish word "kalsarikännit". Translated literally it means "underpants drunk". You sit on the sofa, get drunk, with no intention of going anywhere or doing anything. That's what I'll mostly be doing today.

[Nearly Sane]

I like learning new words. Maybe we can have a thread where we post words we like, or are unusual, or whatever.

Today I'll introduce you to a Finnish word "kalsarikännit". Translated literally it means "underpants drunk". You sit on the sofa, get drunk, with no intention of going anywhere or doing anything. That's what I'll mostly be doing today.

I'd heard there was a word for it but not the word.


One of my favourites is callipygous - which basically means 'nice arse'.

[Aruntraveller]

Excellent idea Ad-o.

Suzie Dent of Countdown does a word of the day thing on Twitter which occasionally pops up on my FB feed. Please don't ask me why, it is the internet innit!

Anyway, some of hers are very good. This is a list of her 10 most popular words of the day:

‘Ingordigiousness’: extreme greed; an insatiable desire for wealth at any cost. (141,387 likes)

Maw-worm’ (19th century): one who insists that they have done nothing wrong, despite evidence to the contrary. (114,681 likes)

‘Sparple’ (14th century): to deflect unwanted attention from one thing by making a big deal of another. (109,082 likes)

‘Recrudescence’ (17th century): the return of something unpleasant after a period of relief. (103,422 likes)

‘Malversation’ (16th century): the corrupt administration of power. (92,425 likes)

‘Filipendulous’ (19th century): hanging by a thread. (88,913 likes)

‘Circumlocutionist’: one who consistently speaks in a roundabout way in order to avoid addressing a question directly. (77,277 likes)

Spuddle’ (17th century): to work ineffectively; to be extremely busy whilst achieving absolutely nothing. (75,219 likes)

‘Sequaciousness’ (17th century): the blinkered, unreasoning, and slavish following of another, no matter where it leads. (69,710 likes)

‘Zugzwang [tzoog-tzwung]: a situation in chess (and life) in which a move must be made, but each possible one will make the situation worse. (68,422 likes)   

Today for example I have been mostly spuddling.

[Outrider]

See, I'm always a fan of a neologism. Some of my recent favourites:

Askhole - someone who responds to everything with a question so as to avoid having to take a stand on something
Nonversation - small talk
Unlightened - when technically you've learnt something, but you somehow feel more stupid than before
Epihanot - the aftermath of realising that the sudden insight you had was only spectacularly insightful to you, and everyone else already realised it.

O.

[ad_orientem]

All excellent! So many new words to digest.😊

[Gordon]

This one is a bit pedestrian - as a child I remember all the cowboy TV shows of the late 1950's/early 1960's and on one of those shows I remember hearing the word 'hornswoggled'.

It's stuck in my memory ever since: I just like the sound of it, and have even used it occasionally (and probably wrongly) as an exclamation.

[SteveH]

I'd heard there was a word for it but not the word.


One of my favourites is callipygous - which basically means 'nice arse'.

Also steatopygous - fat-arsed.
rhodomontade - boast.
crapulent - to do with boozing.

[SteveH]

From Dr Johnson's Dictionary:

"Jiggumbob, noun: A trinket; a knick-knack; a slight contrivance in machinery.
He rifled all his pokes and fobs
Of gimcracks, whims, and jiggumbobs. Hudibras, p. iii." In other words, a thingy, a wossname.

[Aruntraveller]

From Dr Johnson's Dictionary:

"Jiggumbob, noun: A trinket; a knick-knack; a slight contrivance in machinery.
He rifled all his pokes and fobs
Of gimcracks, whims, and jiggumbobs. Hudibras, p. iii." In other words, a thingy, a wossname.

Possibly the forerunner of a THINGUMMYJIG or a Thingummybob?

[SteveH]

Possibly the forerunner of a THINGUMMYJIG or a Thingummybob?

Probably. It's a conflation of the last syllables, with "um".

[SteveH]

Persiflage - banter. A favourite word of PG Wodehouse.

[Nearly Sane]

Ecdysiast - erotic dancer

[Aruntraveller]

I'm hesitant about posting this because I don't think it is a particularly unusual word. Still, it is one that I was ignorant of until my late twenties when it proved a pivotal plot point in a crime novel I was reading and I had to look it up. Plus I love the sound of the word.

That word is: antimacassar.

[Nearly Sane]

I'm hesitant about posting this because I don't think it is a particularly unusual word. Still, it is one that I was ignorant of until my late twenties when it proved a pivotal plot point in a crime novel I was reading and I had to look it up. Plus I love the sound of the word.

That word is: antimacassar.

I think it's becoming more and more unusual. Oddly the reason I know it is a novel, but a different one.


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6771815-antimacassar-city

[Nearly Sane]

Quafftide

.
https://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-quaffing-quafftide-quaffsmanship-but-were-afraid-to-ask/amp/

[Nearly Sane]

Used this last year in a memorial speech for a friend, fascinating how a technical word has become a figurative one.


https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/smeddum

[Dicky Underpants]

I'm hesitant about posting this because I don't think it is a particularly unusual word. Still, it is one that I was ignorant of until my late twenties when it proved a pivotal plot point in a crime novel I was reading and I had to look it up. Plus I love the sound of the word.

That word is: antimacassar.

To be paired with doily in the same sentence.

[jeremyp]

From Dr Johnson's Dictionary:

"Jiggumbob, noun: A trinket; a knick-knack; a slight contrivance in machinery.
He rifled all his pokes and fobs
Of gimcracks, whims, and jiggumbobs. Hudibras, p. iii." In other words, a thingy, a wossname.

My most enthusiastic contrafibularities.

[Nearly Sane]

Mephitic - poisonous smelling


https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/mephitic

[Dicky Underpants]

This one is a Norfolk dialect word:
Bishybarnaby - a ladybird.

[Nearly Sane]

Mephitic - poisonous smelling


https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/mephitic

And following on another word for unpleasant smell - hogo

[Dicky Underpants]

And following on another word for unpleasant smell - hogo

Let's continue with smelly things - wilmot (possibly wilmott) Anyone having a late lunch should look away. A stray nodule of cack caught in the anal hairs.

[Nearly Sane]

Sonder: the feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles:

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sonder

[Nearly Sane]

Having just used it in another post

Stramash


https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/scottish-word-of-the-week-stramash-1571432

[Nearly Sane]

New one on me


https://www.yourdictionary.com/epicaricacy