Eldorado Posted June 22, 2012 #1 Share Posted June 22, 2012 What's the most "splendid" word or words you've ever used or heard used? My own is highlighted below, which I heard on the BBC some years ago.. and never forgot. "Words, English words, are full of echoes, of memories, of associations -- naturally. They have been out and about, on people's lips, in their houses, in the streets, in the fields, for so many centuries. And that is one of the chief difficulties in writing them today -- they are so stored with meanings, with memories, that they have contracted so many famous marriages. The splendid word 'incarnadine', for example -- who can use it without remembering also 'multitudinous seas'? Words belong to each other, although, of course, only a great writer knows that the word 'incarnadine' belongs to 'multitudinous seas'." --Virginia Woolf http://atthisnow.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/craftsmanship-virginia-woolf.html I did indeed LOL. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schizoidwoman Posted June 22, 2012 #2 Share Posted June 22, 2012 In my capacity as 18th century enthusiast, I have too many to list. I shall have a think about my favourites, as well as what is suitable for a family friendly forum such as UM! Brilliant idea for a thread... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rashore Posted June 22, 2012 #3 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Wow, there's a lot of splendid words... Hmm, a plethora of them Accoutrements and haberdashery. I use those a lot. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schizoidwoman Posted June 22, 2012 #4 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Here are a few: Rantipole - A young person who behaves wildly (also a verb, so one can rantipole around town) Dimber damber - The leader of a gang of rogues Nicknackatory - Toyshop Gimcrack - A cheap and tacky bauble I like rantipole a lot, it's a nice word to say. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted June 24, 2012 Author #5 Share Posted June 24, 2012 From a work memo. "Enough of the garrulousness, please." (I had to google) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight Of Shadows Posted June 24, 2012 #6 Share Posted June 24, 2012 (edited) digs through the dictionaries hab habe something .. ahh to hell with it let's face it this topic is just not for me Edited June 24, 2012 by Knight Of Shadows 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+susieice Posted June 24, 2012 #7 Share Posted June 24, 2012 I like metamorphosis. Great word to indicate change. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight Of Shadows Posted June 24, 2012 #8 Share Posted June 24, 2012 metamorphosis !! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 24, 2012 #9 Share Posted June 24, 2012 I don't have any to add right now (I live in Oklahoma - I barely speak English according to some).. But Al Stewart had a very short little song that fits in... What the Who's "My Generation" would have sounded like if it were done in 'Proper' English... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schizoidwoman Posted June 25, 2012 #10 Share Posted June 25, 2012 From a work memo. "Enough of the garrulousness, please." (I had to google) Have you been too garrulous, El? You'll be being too frivolous next... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted June 25, 2012 Author #11 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Have you been too garrulous, El? You'll be being too frivolous next... I hope not... frothiness in business correspondence can be venturesome, Schizoid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keel M. Posted June 25, 2012 #12 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I have a day-by-day calendar for this year called Forgotten English. It's got some very interesting entries of words we don't use anymore. The one for today is... aporrhipsis - An insane dislike to clothes. (from John Coxe's Philadelphia Medical Dictionary, 1817) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keel M. Posted June 26, 2012 #13 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Well, Mr. El, if you don't mind, I'll continue adding the words from my calendar. Today's is... cully - One that maintains a mistress, and parts with money generously to her. (from B. E.'s Dictionary of the Canting Crew, 1699) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ealdwita Posted June 26, 2012 #14 Share Posted June 26, 2012 In the course of my work, I have encountered many slang words and phrases and I've been rummaging among my files for good examples. The best come from 16/17th.Cent Legal papers. Here's a few I've selected.... Frummagemmed = hanged or strangled High Pad = highwayman Lullypriggers = thieves who steal from washing lines Drawer-latches = burglars Pennyweighter = forger Underdubber = prison guard ...and so on! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rashore Posted June 26, 2012 #15 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Amalgamate. I like a good amalgamation of accoutrements. Forthwith. "Let us proceed forthwith to..." is a pretty common phrase amongst my friends. Jacknape- for that gentleman who is a mules behind. Spaulders- It's probably my favorite piece of armor. Toilette- there is just something refined about attending toilette rather than the morning s***, shave, shower or I threw some clothes on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah_444 Posted June 26, 2012 #16 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Some of my recent favourites: Sandillions - Numbers like grains of sand on the shore. (in other words... "a lot" of something. lol) Dalliance - Amorous Play; Trifling Aphotic - Having no light; relating to the region of a body of water where no sunlight can reach 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schizoidwoman Posted June 26, 2012 #17 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Some of my recent favourites: Sandillions - Numbers like grains of sand on the shore. (in other words... "a lot" of something. lol) Dalliance - Amorous Play; Trifling Aphotic - Having no light; relating to the region of a body of water where no sunlight can reach I love dalliance and use it fairly frequently, such a nice word. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted June 26, 2012 Author #18 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I love dalliance and use it fairly frequently, such a nice word. A dalliance a day? lol Excuse me while I circumambulate. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schizoidwoman Posted June 26, 2012 #19 Share Posted June 26, 2012 In the course of my work, I have encountered many slang words and phrases and I've been rummaging among my files for good examples. The best come from 16/17th.Cent Legal papers. Here's a few I've selected.... Frummagemmed = hanged or strangled High Pad = highwayman Lullypriggers = thieves who steal from washing lines Drawer-latches = burglars Pennyweighter = forger Underdubber = prison guard ...and so on! I'll add footpad, to keep your high pad company. A few more for you: Bastonaded - To be cudgelled Damber - A rascally fellow Flam - A tall tale So any dambers telling their flams round here better watch out or they'll find themselves in receipt of a bastonading! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keel M. Posted June 27, 2012 #20 Share Posted June 27, 2012 sistren - The ancient plural of sister. Chaucer speaks of the fates, or weird sisters, as "the fatal sustren." Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms [1848] says that the word is a "vulgarism sometimes heard from uneducated preachers [in] the West" ... It appears, however, that the word was not vulgar in Chaucer's time. It is, as such, as well entitled to a place in pulpit eloquence as its equally antique partner, brethren. (from Charles Mackay's Lost Beauties of the English Language, 1874) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Shadows Posted June 27, 2012 #21 Share Posted June 27, 2012 (edited) digs through the dictionaries hab habe something .. ahh to hell with it let's face it this topic is just not for me Habitual? Habitate? Just throwing my guesses out here... I like words like erudite and mellifluous, but personally I like Spanish words so much better... Edited June 27, 2012 by ScreamingSarcasm 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schizoidwoman Posted June 27, 2012 #22 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Another favourite of mine is meretricious. I love that word! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keel M. Posted June 28, 2012 #23 Share Posted June 28, 2012 green gown - To give a lass a green gown, to throw her down upon the grass so that the gown was stained. (from Walter Skeat's Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words, 1914) Skipping the alternative meaning. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beckys_Mom Posted June 28, 2012 #24 Share Posted June 28, 2012 (edited) What's the most "splendid" word or words you've ever used or heard used? Splendid <-- well I have used it on occasion lol Edited June 28, 2012 by Beckys_Mom 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted June 28, 2012 Author #25 Share Posted June 28, 2012 My sandwich was a touch parablastic. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/parablast 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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