aesc | out of curiosity

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out of curiosity

What is your favorite word of all time, the word that fills you with bizarre, ineffable happiness whenever you get the chance to use or say it?

Mine is 'sloth,' although my favorite not-English word is Old English neorxnawong, which is the word for Paradise (as in, the Garden of Eden). Nay-orx-na-wong! Say it!

I ask this question periodically because I love words and I love it when people talk about them and enjoy them. It makes me happy and it relaxes me.

Back tonight with fic! \o/

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Precipice. Although the way it's actually pronounced sounds totally wrong wrong wrong in my head. Bah.

Ooooh, good one! How would you pronounce it, if you had control? :D :D

Flabbergasted. My English teacher used that a lot, and it still makes me giggle like mad.

Excellent! "Boggled" is also quite enjoyable :)

Mine's not actually English, but rather Spanish - I love the word for cod. Bacalao. Bacalaaaaooooooooo. Just say it - bah-cah-lahohhhhhhhhhh. So fun.

Bah-cah-lahohhhhhh!!

\o/ I think any word can sound funny with the proper treatment, but some are just inherently funny/amusing :D

I have a weird thing with words for light.

Brilliant, luminescence, incandescent, illuminate.

They all bring to mind this warm glow and make me happy. Irrationally, sometimes I will think about the words when I am in a bad mood. Brilliant works the best, though incandescent is a very very close second.

Isn't that interesting? I am actually working on something right now that has to do with synaesthetics in reading and what's called iconic language... That words for light (like brilliant, for example) have such a deep association with visual brightness that they sound light. That's a very simple way of putting it, but that is about as far as I've advanced in comprehending what these sorts of scholars are talking about :D

Funnily enough

cinderlily.livejournal.com - 2008-08-15 04:17 (UTC) - Expand

I've always liked "quiescent" and "mellifluous."

Ooooh, quiescent is quite nice :D

Astronaut. Ever since I took Latin and learned it meant "star sailor."

But fuck is by far the most fun word to say!

Oh, I didn't know that.

*loves*

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aesc.livejournal.com - 2008-08-15 02:22 (UTC) - Expand

Well, I have two. Fuck is probably the one I use the most. Really, I love the versatility of it, and it feels so satisfying to say it. The other is entropy. Also great fun to say, and the thought of entropy fascinates me.

"Fuck" is indeed very nice... I think it's my preferred obscenity, because even if I have to mutter it, it's still so emphatic and furious-sounding :D

Plethora. Uffish. Melvin.

Uffish!

And the Jabberwock with eyes of flame
Came whiffling through the tulgy wood
And burbled as it came!

"Whiffling" is also very nice, as is "burbled" :D

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girly-curl-3.livejournal.com - 2008-08-15 02:30 (UTC) - Expand

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aesc.livejournal.com - 2008-08-15 03:10 (UTC) - Expand

Lithe. I love the shape of it when I say it, the long i before the soft th, and I love what it means, strong and sinuous and graceful.

I also love pamplemousse (french for grapefruit). Its just a cool word.

Lithe, glistening sea-panthers! \o/

crepuscular.

Not that I frequently get a chance to say it. I should work it into sentences more often.

Crepuscular seems like one of those words that went out around 1892 or so, alas, alas. I know it's in the nature of language to change, but some losses are sort of depressing.

"Crepuscular" is also one of those words for which I know the meaning (used to describe things associated with twilight), but it sounds like it has to do with some kind of seizure.

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geeklite.livejournal.com - 2008-08-15 02:39 (UTC) - Expand

I don't have one word - it's two, used in conjunction with one another that just - disheveled coiffe - fill me with glee. (And this is literally Joe Flanigan's fault although I didn't know it until I got into SGA last year.)

I'm also a big fan of fruition and verisimilitude.

Disheveled is a great word! And I've had many occasions to use it ever since Joe Flanigan came into my life :D

Ubiquitous.

I also enjoy lackadaisical, hoi polloi (which amuses me for some reason) and archaeopteryx (my favorite extinct animal).

On second thought, I also like pratityasamutpada. If only because it's fun to (try and) say and has part of my name in it.

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aesc.livejournal.com - 2008-08-15 03:03 (UTC) - Expand

Duodenum is mine. Hard to work into a sentence, generally.

But with effort, it can be done! Everything comes back to the small intestine, really.

I'm pretty fond of 'dichotomy'. And 'mnemonic'.

"Mnemonic" is one that I'm finding I use a lot more lately \o/ Yay work!

I can't pick just one (don't make me pick just one!), but I love the family of British slang words, particularly the insults. Barmy trollopes and such.

Heee, but that is the delicious torment of it! :D

I have an unnatural affection for the word 'smite', in all its conjugations. It makes me cackle, for no real reason. Hard to work into your average conversation, perhaps, but now and again it pops up in my dad's crosswords and he'll save them to show me. Yes, I come from a long line of dorks. *g*

*giggles*

I love smite, but I prefer 'smut' for past tense. ;)

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aesc.livejournal.com - 2008-08-15 02:48 (UTC) - Expand

I've always been partial to jubilation.

*is jubilant!* And I have always been partial to that particular Calvin and Hobbes installment :D

I have a couple favorites: abscond, toddle, gleek, and malfeasant. Gleek is my current number one. Just. Gleek! You can squeak it, you can speak it, you can put it in your pocket!

ABSCOND! \o/ I like!

It's the combinations and the context that count, though!

I do love words for concepts that everyone understands but no one has words for, if that makes any sense. The meaning of Liff is a book that Douglas Adams co-wrote which uses the names of obscure English towns to cover concepts such as that moment where you see someone at the other end of a corridor that you know, and you realise you'll have to either pretend you haven't seen them or do elaborate pirate impressions until you're close enough for a greeting.

*grins*

I love heek, though, which is the phonetic interpretation of a word that means 'tastes like the smell of'. It's awesome.

It's the combinations and the context that count, though!

Oh, of course! But there are words I just like to say, by themselves, not necessarily with reference to a wider context. I just love "sloth," how it sounds, how it perfectly describes the sort of inertia that overtakes me when I decide maybe the thing to do is refresh icanhascheezburger for the tenth time. So I ooze down in my chair and murmur "slothhhhh" to myself and click refresh again.

so something great about spanish is that it has more words to express love. i'd say is richer and i like them all.

Oh yes yes! I think Italian has a similar range in words used to express different forms of love. English has, as far as I know, just the one word; there used to be a sort of compound used to translate the Latin word caritas, which is the love God has for creation and the love creation (especially people) has for God, in order to differentiate it from carnal or sexual love, but we don't have that anymore.

Australopithecus. This was the first genus of hominid that stood up to look over the tall grasses, just to see what was out there. Australopithecus. We've always been explorers at heart, haven't we?

Yay, an awesome word on many levels! Thank you!

Sublimate, in its meaning of "to transform from ice to vapor without going through a liquid stage." I just - it's always been my favorite.

And it's related to "sublime," which is also rather nice--that lovely l-glide in the middle.

Transcendent. I love the meanings, I love the etymology, I love the way it feels to say it.

Trans words (transform and transition, especially) are very nice :)

Tough question! I have a favorite letter (J) but IDK for a favorite word. I do tend to get words stuck in my head for certain periods of time. Probably the longest two to ever get stuck in there were "death" and "moo." Each got stuck for a couple of years. I'd think these words constantly, and just randomly say them out loud without thinking. If I were having a conversation and I couldn't think of anything to say, I'd say the word stuck in my head. It became an automatic response, a sort of reflex. However, I don't really have any words stuck in my head right now. (Probably because I'm doing a better job of medicating for my OCD, heh.) So I don't know! Argh! Um.

Maybe "defecate." XD

Maybe "defecate." XD

XD Does that tend to get stuck in your head a lot? Because that could signify... something.

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bitter-crimson.livejournal.com - 2008-08-15 09:03 (UTC) - Expand

Favourite word ever?

Cwtch.

It's Welsh, and has no literal translation; I know it mostly means hug to people, but it's more a 'safe place', and I just love that.

Oh! And Hiraeth.

This also has no real English translation, it's just... a homesickness, an always there longing (even if it's just a background, semi-conscious thing) for home no matter where you are or what you're doing.

Apart from being me, it kinda describes how people write John and Atlantis without realising it...

This also has no real English translation

It sounds almost like what "nostalgia" formally means (not the way most people use it now)... Originally, it was the painful longing for home experienced by soldiers fighting foreign wars, although now it means longing for some time that was, or has to be, better than the current one. But it doesn't seem to have the same poignancy.

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