What's your favourite word?

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man, juxtaposition was the first to come to mind. let me think of some others...
transcend
dichotomy
troglodytic
antediluvian
labyrinthine
panchronic (which i originally thought i had invented but have since found used in linguistics and evolutionary science circles. shucks.)

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Saturday, 19 June 2004 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

jocund
sardonic
grandiloquent
deduce
fathead
august (the adjective)

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Saturday, 19 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

bellicose
pedant
cromulent
gubernatorial
banana

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Sunday, 20 June 2004 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

diarrhea? (There was a terrific local band called Diarrhea Roses-- for some reason they never caught on regionally, O the injustice! -- but they claimed in their promo material that diarrhea was the most beautiful word in the language. Greek, of course, to flow through. I guess it just stuck in my mind, and I belived them. My fave.)

― donald, Sunday, 20 June 2004 01:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Right now it's inchiostro -- the Italian word for ink. INCHIOSTRO hee.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Sunday, 20 June 2004 01:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Cilantro. Silver. Violin. Meridian. Hmmmm. Ugly words: Cow. Uncle. Oyster, Employ. Gas. Whimsical words usually double the consonants: Figgy, sizzle, nipple, jazzy, sassy. Pig, for instance is rather ugly, but piggy is kind of cute. This little piggy went to market.... belly is a funny word. Work is not a funny word.

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Sunday, 20 June 2004 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

ha ha I love cromulent too!

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Sunday, 20 June 2004 02:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, wait! Intaglio. Chrysalis. Cicada.

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Sunday, 20 June 2004 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"Fuck" is underrated.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 20 June 2004 03:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Do you think so? I use it frequently, with great zeal and gusto, as does my husband. I think the merits of "fuck" are widely respected and understood.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Sunday, 20 June 2004 03:41 (twenty-one years ago)

tmesis. There's a genus of fern-like plants calle Tmesipteris.

Favorite words include glaucous and scabrid.

― isadora (isadora), Sunday, 20 June 2004 07:33 (twenty-one years ago)

And yet you so rarely see "fuck" on a list such as this. One of our language's greatest words, and you can't even say it on tv!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 20 June 2004 08:28 (twenty-one years ago)

bellicose
effulgent
ineluctable
insouciant

i love words so much.

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Sunday, 20 June 2004 10:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Schaharazade. Bread. Sleep.

― pepektheassassin (pepektheassassin), Sunday, 20 June 2004 12:24 (twenty-one years ago)

chiaroscuro
cantankerous
salutation
mnemonic
petulant
sanctify
calliope
haberdashery
accordion
perfunctory
colonnade
peristyle

― Joelle Burdette (sparkle j), Sunday, 20 June 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to add:

positron
shimmer
fortuitous
etymology
onomatopoeia
spasm
diaphragm
linguistic

― sparkle j (sparkle j), Sunday, 20 June 2004 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)

clavical
conniption
defenestration
ciabatta
impetigo

― Jessa (Jessa), Sunday, 20 June 2004 20:51 (twenty-one years ago)

smarmy
facade
effervescence
virtuosity
oxymoron

can't think of anymore. when i stumbled upon the word 'smarmy' i like it so much that i started calling my friend smarmy even though she is neither unctuous or sycophantic. what a great word! it sounds positively oily- exactly like it's meaning.

― unfazed, Monday, 21 June 2004 01:50 (twenty-one years ago)

defenestration!!! I forgot about that word. It used to be one of my favorites. Great thread!

― sparkle j (sparkle j), Monday, 21 June 2004 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I also like "feening".

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 21 June 2004 03:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Embiggens. It's a perfectly cromulent word.

I too love the word 'fuck', but it is because I love it so much that I decry its use as a placeholder word. I also like the Irish word 'feck', which can mean 'throw' or 'steal', or can be substituted for 'fuck' as a swearword, but not for 'fuck' as a description of a sex act.

It's not a real Irish word, btw. It's just a word the Irish use.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 21 June 2004 07:22 (twenty-one years ago)

More and more: 'like'.

If I am allowed to be wankerous: 'unloven', I think.

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Monday, 21 June 2004 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Pretty much any Yiddish word. Fukaktuh, pisher, gonisht. . .

― Moti Bahat, Monday, 21 June 2004 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Hullaballoo

― Slump Man (Slump Man), Monday, 21 June 2004 21:45 (twenty-one years ago)

*giggle*

― Slump Man (Slump Man), Monday, 21 June 2004 21:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Oubliette
Enigma

― Caenis (Caenis), Monday, 21 June 2004 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

oh my god! I FORGOT! JESUS!

PANTALOONS

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Monday, 21 June 2004 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)

bloomers is up there too.

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Monday, 21 June 2004 23:23 (twenty-one years ago)

besmirch

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Monday, 21 June 2004 23:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I wrote a poem about the word Oubliette and it used to be online but I guess that zine isn't around anymore. Oh well.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 04:26 (twenty-one years ago)

cornucopia - which is what I found on my first visit in 4 days

― sandy mc (sandy mc), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 07:34 (twenty-one years ago)

avuncular
piquant
lithe
dapple
traipse
squeegee
fecund
shingle
jaunt

― mck (mck), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Judging purely from my actions, my favourite word is: the.

― Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

ooh ooh!
I forgot: brouhaha

― Joelle Burdette (sparkle j), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 19:12 (twenty-one years ago)

shtupping
transcendental
dickensian
bugs

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

oh god yes, shtupping. It's right up there with fuck. uck uck uck.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

lozenge
maladroit
free

― Docpacey (docpacey), Tuesday, 22 June 2004 21:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Cocophany

― Beth, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 13:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Cacophany...for those who like correct spelling :)

― Beth, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 13:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Cocophany sounds lubricious and delectable.

― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Perhaps cocophany is what Chanel's lovers called her pudenda.

― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

mewl

― kelsey (kelstarry), Thursday, 24 June 2004 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

parapluie (and its English equivalent, brolly).
pousse pousse.

and for some reason I have never been able to explain, I always wanted to get ELBOWS on my personalised license plate.

― Catty (Catty), Saturday, 26 June 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

What about bumbershoot?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 27 June 2004 08:07 (twenty-one years ago)

'cozen'.

― egozen (Cozen), Sunday, 27 June 2004 08:11 (twenty-one years ago)

couscous

― Jessa (Jessa), Sunday, 27 June 2004 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

sycamore
hoover
axonometric

― jasonm, Monday, 28 June 2004 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

[Found this site via Bookslut blog.]

"Multiplicative" is fun to say, as is "taradiddle".

― Janet Miles, Monday, 28 June 2004 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Is 'multiplicative' a word? Cool.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 28 June 2004 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

queue
creche
gyroscope
stoichiometry (we all swore our chem teacher was making this up)

And as long as "made up" words are kosher, the adjective "craptastic"

― Eric, Monday, 28 June 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 128 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

i know lachrymose from a heaney poem

― k¸ (darraghmac), Tuesday, 7 September 2010 01:58 (fifteen years ago)

lambent is a pretty good word.

― estela, Tuesday, 7 September 2010 02:01 (fifteen years ago)

"undulate." it's descriptive and efficient.

― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 7 September 2010 02:03 (fifteen years ago)

also: "mellifluous."

have a mellifluous day!

― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 7 September 2010 02:04 (fifteen years ago)

in my head that always translates to 'lke a mandolin' for some reason

― k¸ (darraghmac), Tuesday, 7 September 2010 02:06 (fifteen years ago)

i love the word treasure. i don't know why i love it so much. i also love most words that start with the letter f or the letters ph. flimflam. philanderer. phrenology. philoprogenitiveness. fuzzy.

― scott seward, Tuesday, 7 September 2010 02:32 (fifteen years ago)

a professor friend of mine had a student named treasure! sounds like a made-up name, but it was apparently real.

the name sort of fit, tbh.

― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 7 September 2010 03:02 (fifteen years ago)

'treasure' = name of a stripper on 'how i met your mother'

― j., Tuesday, 7 September 2010 07:23 (fifteen years ago)

eleven years pass...

verb: scarper; 3rd person present: scarpers; past tense: scarpered; past participle: scarpered; gerund or present participle: scarpering
run away.
"they left the stuff where it was and scarpered"

Origin
mid 19th century: probably from Italian scappare ‘to escape’, influenced by rhyming slang Scapa Flow ‘go’.

― Are You Still in Love With Me, Klas-Göran? (Tom D.), Wednesday, 22 September 2021 11:25 (four years ago)

rebozo

― adam t. (abanana), Thursday, 23 September 2021 08:30 (four years ago)

two weeks pass...

Bumptious. Very useful word, not used often enough,

― Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Sunday, 10 October 2021 17:33 (four years ago)

Just the fact that words exist in such fantastic multitudes is one of the profound miracles of the universe. It's even more so when you realize so many of them have subtle and unique personalities!

I just dropped in to say that 'payday' is an excellent word, even apart from what it connotes. Humble, playful, endearing.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, 10 October 2021 19:15 (four years ago)

Moist

― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Monday, 11 October 2021 06:25 (four years ago)

"undulate." it's descriptive and efficient.

― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 7 September 2010 02:03 (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

damn, came here to say this one

― imago, Monday, 11 October 2021 08:40 (four years ago)

Spoodge

― look on my guacs, ye mighty, and dis pear (Noodle Vague), Monday, 11 October 2021 10:04 (four years ago)

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