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#225238 07/27/2016 7:09 AM
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About 20 years ago, I started collecting ‘colorful’ words. I realized that some words sound a bit funnier and
have a somewhat greater emotional impact than others.

Some examples: aghast, amok, begrudge, besmirch, bliss, bogus, chafe, coy, crave, cringe, dawdle, dote, dwindle, eke, feisty, ferret, fester, festoon, fickle, finagle, finicky, flabbergasted, flutter, foible, frazzled, frenzy, frolic, frumpy, garble, gawk, gibberish, glimmer, glitch, gloat, gruff, guffaw, hubbub, ilk, irk, lush, mayhem, mollify, mull, nab, ogle, paltry, pander, penchant, plight, plummet, posh, pummel, quibble, raucous, ravage, rebuff, rubble, scoff, scour, scrimp, scrounge, sham, shenanigans, sizzle, splurge, spree, squalid, squeamish, squelch, squirm, sully, surly, swath, throng, thug, thwart, trounce, trudge, woo, zeal.

Whenever I read or heard a colorful word, I added it to my list. By 2001 I had about 200 such words. But the
list was burned up on 9/11 because I worked in 7 World Trade Center, a building that came down in the afternoon.

So I continued to compile the list. As of now, I have almost 1190 words, all gems

AkivaLane #225239 07/27/2016 4:18 PM
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I, too, collect words. Not as many as you, however. Getting to
use them is the trick.


WELCOME


----please, draw me a sheep----
AkivaLane #225252 07/29/2016 9:02 AM
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stranger
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I don't know the etiquette of this forum - is it possible trade emails?

LukeJavan8 #225254 07/29/2016 10:51 AM
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I'll offer you two more for your list of colorful words, on behalf of former Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz. They were his two favorite words, he said.

eleëmosynary - linguistic precursor of "alms"

and

phantasmagorical - a double-dactyl, if you're into such things...

AkivaLane #225255 07/29/2016 10:52 AM
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(P.S. Click on the flashing envelope.)

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Akiva: as wofa said above - click on the flashing envelope at the top.


----please, draw me a sheep----
AkivaLane #227966 02/09/2018 4:18 AM
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Pooh-Bah
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Some more good words:

altazimuth
angelology
buckminsterfullerene
cancrizans
clanjamfrie
mesembryanthemum
noumenon
oological
paraprosdokian
tintinnabulation
tmesis
umquhile
xenoglossy
zugzwang
Ftatateeta
Schiermonnikoog
Witwatersrand

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there is a university in Witwatersrand


----please, draw me a sheep----
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Pooh-Bah
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Witwatersrand means "ridge of white waters" in Afrikaans, in reference to the waterfalls there.

Schiermonnikoog, an island off the coast of the Netherlands, means "Grey Monk Island".

Ftatateeta is a character in George Bernard Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra.


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