what is my favorite word? pull-ease!

but here is a word that I really like:
transpontine - situated on the other side of the bridge

try this at your next board meeting, when the chairman brings up his favorite topic for the nth consecutive meeting: "That issue is transpontine in the extreme." meaning that you will cross that bridge when you come to it, when actually it has long since been crossed. (I much prefer this to "overcome by events" [OBE]. : )


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My favourite word at the moment is "disingenuous". It's much less direct, but still as effective as saying simply that someone is a liar: "It's disingenuous to suggest that I neglected to perform that duty".

Very nice in company emails. Will have most people rushing for the dictionary.

I subscribe to the same theory of wordplay that The Police did in their song "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da": "when their eloquence escapes me, their logic ties me up and rapes me"; I love tying people in knots with vocabulary.

>I love tying people in knots with vocabulary.

A noble pursuit, and one I also enjoy, but you should be warned: That's not likely to happen here :)

A word I like a lot these days is "dissemble."

The use of "suppose" in phrases like "you are not supposed to walk on the lawn" has always thrilled me as a similarly indirect English way of giving orders.

I read recently that fear of palindromes is called "aibohphobia".

Makes it hard to describe your condition to your doctor...

Can anyone confirm or deny this?

I wonder what the fear of anagrams would be?

... and the fear of acronyms? and acronym redundancies?

I thought that all fears had been named, but I guess I was wrong! Here are some that have been:

agyiophobia - fear of crossing busy streets
amaxophobia - an abnormal fear of sitting or riding in a vehicle
blennophobia - a morbid fear of slime
deipnosophobia - a fear of dinner conversation
epistemophobia - the fear of knowledge
ergophobia - an abnormal fear of work
gamophobia - the fear of sexuality
gephyrophobia - a terror of crossing bridges
hagiophobia - the fear of saints [pretty rare, I'd guess]
pantophobia - the fear of everything
taphephobia - an abnormal(?) fear of being buried alive

and of course:
phobophobia - the fear of fear itself
nihilphobia - the fear of nothing

oh, and I almost forgot:
arachibutyrophobia - the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth

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APS phobia - Acronym Phobia Syndrome phobia
(or fear of APS syndrome :)
ragamanphobia - fear of anagrams

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Love it! I've been busting myself to think of an answer to ths one. Thank you, tsuwm.

Thank you, tsuwm. I've been busting myself to think of an answer to that post!

Please don't ask me why I replied to this twice. It's embarassing. Sorry.

So is there a word for fear of repetition (it happens to us all as we get older).

So is there a word for fear of repetition (it happens to us all as we get older).

what a chintzy way to up your post count!

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Reminds me of dejanesia, which I think I used to have.

Reminds me of dejanesia which I think I used to have.

>... and the fear of acronyms? and acronym redundancies?<

FOAphobia, and FOARphobia

I love the sound of mellifluous, onomatopoeia, and
hemidemisemiquaver.

>So is there a word for fear of repetition (it happens to us all as we get older).

the fear of growing old: gerascophobia

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here's one I suffer from: psellismophobia

tutu... can you guess what this is? <g>

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>psellismophobia?

Is it something to do with smelly socks???

The fear that your smelly socks will be flea-infested? (Greek root: psylla = flea) ???

Psellismophobia: is that f-f-f-f-fear of st-st-st-stammering or, more generally, a fear of misenunciation?

you got it, meta4. Psellism is the technical term for stuttering, stammering or lisping.

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my cat suffers from psyllaphobia! (thanks davidx)

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I was thinking about "favourite words" today (for no particular reason) and two words came to mind which to me sound exactly like what they describe (I can't remember the term for this):

braggodocio (which has such a swagger to it)

triste (the drawn-out vowel sound seems so sad)

Anything to get this thread active again!

One could say that were onomatopeia - but I think that word's reserved more for things like 'bump', 'woof', 'drip' or 'broomhandle'.

One of my favourite words is the rather innocous 'shelf'. It has a great element of support to it....I think. 'Luggage' is great too. And 'timber'. Oh! I could go on for hours!

>timber

There was a big discussion in one of the later Monty Pythons (sorry to MP phobics here, just sleep awhile) about "woody" and "tinny" words. I think it is true - all the best words are woody words.

and for those who are MP-philes (and those who are merely curious), here is a link to "The Woody Sketch"...
http://www.montypython.net/scripts/wood.php3

Heard on our national public broadcaster this morning in their 'Word of the Day' segment, and apparently coined by an Australian musician:

Anatadiphobia [spelling uncertain]: the fear that somewhere a duck is watching you.

Anatidae is the Latin name for the family of swimming birds -- ducks, geese, swans, etc. A little Latin +phobia will give you the fear of everything!

pantophobia - the fear of everything
nihilphobia - the fear of nothing
phobophobia - the fear of fear itself
deipnosophobia - a fear of dinner conversation
arachibutyrophobia - the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth

>Anything to get this thread active again!

and thanks for that, paulb!

here's a few more of my fav's:

(a)estivate - to pass the summer in a state of torpor
colporteur - a peddler of religious books (not to be confused with Cole Porter)
coprolite - fossilized excrement
feckless - ineffectual; worthless
muliebrity - femininity
pixilated - slightly unbalanced mentally, bemused
vomitory - the entrance piercing the banks of seats of a stadium

and, of course:
sesquipedalian - given to the use of long words

[try running that through the spelcheque]

Here's a great one from the AWAD archives. It is from Oct.
7th, 1994 :
ddiippllooppiiaapphhoobbiiaa ---fear of double vision!

There is a wonderful discussion notice here, on just this
topic.
And, Tsuwm (good heavens, now I'm trying to make your name
into sue 'em), on Oct. 4th of that year, begins the
search for the correct word for the fear of p-nut butter
sticking to the roof of your mouth, if you haven't seen
it already.

>good heavens, now I'm trying to make your name
into sue 'em

yes, that is approximately how it is pronounced.

>>Psellism is the technical term for stuttering, stammering or lisping<<

What a shame!
Given the posts above I was really hoping psellismophobia was going to be the fear of misspelling!

yeah, why not.

one of my favourite words is: diaphanous.

saw it first in 'heart of darkness' by jc. loved the usage there

>>'heart of darkness' by jc<<
I know I should know this, but who is jc?

James Conrad:

We felt meditative, and fit for nothing but placid staring. The day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance. The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marsh was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds. Only the gloom to the west, brooding over the upper reaches, became more sombre every minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun.

>>James Conrad:<<
Thanks. I have to ask this, Tsuwm:
do you have an amazing memory, or an amazing (to me at least) facility w/ the Internet, or both??

thanks tsuwm,

just a minor correction : Joseph Conrad

>do you have an amazing memory, or an amazing (to me at least) facility w/ the Internet, or both??

well, I guess it must just be the second since I butchered Conrad's first name!

Tsuwm--
I went to the anagram server (thanks, David, for the reminder) and put in "I butchered Conrad".
Two apt ones were:
He'd don't err a cubic, and
A cherub cried don't.

the 4th of July wwftd is: petard

don't be hoist on your own petard on this (US) holiday.

This is a night when petards go off all over my neighborhood--so many that the air is hazy!

My favorite word is palindrome. Can anyone guess what it means? I've loved this word since third grade. It's a fun word.

Welcome, Us...!
Well, let's see: palindrome, eh? Sounds like it ought to
be an entertainment facility where you take your friends.
So, perhaps, would rats star there?

Palindrome
Famous Example : Able was I ere I saw Elba

I like words that are phonetic exemplars of the things they stand for... for best effect, say them out loud :

silk
mellifluous
gregarious
opaline
limpid
shatter
glitch
and on the ugly side : hate.
wow

Favorite words

Last night, while pretending to read my Physical Anthropology textbook and suffering intense Wandering Mind Syndrome (I wonder if that's akin to Restless Leg Syndrome? Whoops, there I go again) I came across the word pilfer and realized that I like the way it sounds. Other words that have "p" and "f" in them came to mind as well-- piffle, puffy, perforate... I guess it's the combination of sounds that I like.

Another favorite word of mine: Praxis.
I don't know if it's a "real" word, but I like the sound of it. If I ever discover a planet, I think I will name it Praxis.

If I ever discover a planet, I think I will name it Praxis.

You might rename Jupiter that. According to Kant, and I can't remember where or what his reasoning, the people on Jupiter have such a superior work ethic, they work 24/7--and love it!

tsuwm>>what is my favorite word? pull-ease!

This is just the funniest phrase I have read so far this evening, considering where we are and what we are doing.

I met a new word last month while reading Harper's Magazine.
The word is deliquescence. The word deliquesce means to dissolve and become liquid by absorbing mositure from the air.
Michael Hitchens used it in an unusual way in this article. He wrote" Kissinger now argues, in the third volume of his memoirs, “Years of Renewal”, that he was prevented and distracted, by Watergate and the deliquescence of the Nixon presidency, from taking a timely or informed interest in the crucial triangleof Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus."
Harper’s Magazine
March 2001p.54 paragraph 1




chronist

Dear wordcrazy: deliquescence is a handy word in chemistry, where something you have worked hard to make can have its appearance spoiled if you don't get it into a jar quickly.
Both sugar and salt have this problem to a minor degree.

Deliquescence is not a good fit for the disintegration of the Nixon administration, which did not become liquid from absorbing moisture, but underwent autolysis from the enzymes liberated by corruption.
Below is a link giving complete discussion.
http://antoine.fsu.umd.edu/chem/senese/101/compounds/faq/why-hygroscopic.shtml

Hey wordcrazy and Bill

We learned, in Chemistry, of both deliquescence and hygroscopy. One of them referred to substances that merely absorbed moisture from air without changing form, while the other referred to substances that, effectively, sowed thesseds of their own solution... But I had always remembered hygroscopy as the latter. Shows what years away from the classroom can do, eh?

cheer

the sunshine warrior

Re:Deliquescence vs. hygroscopy
Dear Shanks: I guess my chemistry must be at least twenty five years older than yours, and my recollection of it less than half yours. I can't remember the product I made that would completely turn to liquid if left uncovered. I had totally forgotten "hygroscopy". Looking at dictionary, I now have impression that things like sugar and salt are merely hygroscopic. Deliquescence has to be rather uncommon. Link below gives complete explanation.

http://antoine.fsu.umd.edu/chem/senese/101/compounds/faq/why-hygroscopic.shtml

Bill

Do you remember an Isaac Asimov story about a substance that was so hygroscopic/deliquescent it dissolved before it actually touched the water? He used this as the base for some interesting/farcical time travel paradox stories. I think the substance was called thio-something.

Any ideas? Anyone? Google, for once, is not really helping...

cheer

the sunshine warrior

Got it!

"The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" - Isaac Asimov. First published in 1948.