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Oh "deliquescent" is another great one. I think Amira taught me that one, maybe on some earlier incarnation of this very thread. Posts: 968 | Registered: Sep 2003
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the only cool word in english i can think of now is philologist. i think thats how you spell it. but a cool word in spanish is equipaja. com to think of it, a lot of foreign words sound funny
Posts: 283 | Registered: Jan 2003
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There are lots of Aztec words that roll off the tongue well--Tezcatlipoca (the image of the god of the smoking mirror is just incredibly cool, too), Tlaloc, etc. And of course, the coolest name for a volcano that I've ever heard is Popocatepetl. Mayan sounds pretty cool too; I don't know any Mayan words off the top of my head, but I had an ESL student once whose first language was Mayan, and I loved to hear him use it.
For some reason, ever since last night, I've been kind of infatuated with the word thaumaturge. Somehow it never seemed like an especially interesting word until yesterday, but now I can't get it out of my head. Go figure.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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zyzzyva: any of several species of tropical american weevles.
This is the last word the the American Heritage dictionary.
My first reaction on finding this word, was "wow that would be worth so many points in scrabble.", which was followed shortly by the sad realization that it could never be used in a real game because scrabble has only one Z.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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Deuteronomistic is a another good one. Mostly 'cause I have to say it slowly to get all syllables in.
Posts: 499 | Registered: Jan 2003
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I remember being in about 7th grade, riding home on the school bus. A kid on the bus had just learned the word antidisestablishmentarianism, which he insisted was *ahem* THE LONGEST WORD IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. I told him he was full of crap, and the only proof he would accept was a longer word, which I was at that point unable to produce. That very evening I was reading some Asimov short stories and one of them contained the word counterelectroencephalography, which out-letters the former word by one. HA. In your face, pseudo-intellectual seventh grader.
It's been a favourite of mine ever since.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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Yeah, "arugula" is a great one. I've always liked "rubidium" too--it's fun to stretch the first syllable out, and then say the next three really quickly, almost as a single explosive sound. Ruuuuuuuuuu-bidium. Lots of fun.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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The British pronunciation of "aluminium" is really fun too.
In The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K Leguin uses a phrase that I've always liked, and that sticks in my mind. It's "Barsoomian syllable". I just love to say that one.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:My first reaction on finding this word, was "wow that would be worth so many points in scrabble.", which was followed shortly by the sad realization that it could never be used in a real game because scrabble has only one Z.
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You guys are amazing. I just got so many strange looks for laughing in the library! They're just lucky I was only sounding out the words in my head...
Posts: 3420 | Registered: Jun 2002
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Of course I thought of the blanks, but it kind of ruins the point if you don't get the points for all three z's.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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No reason we couldn't start! I actually don't like the sound of "discombobulate", but I like "combobulate" quite a bit.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I've always been fond of the word "googleplex" myself, because it sounds like some silly, made-up word, and because it sounds like a theater with way, way, way, WAY too many screens.
Posts: 2473 | Registered: Jan 2000
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Andrew, I *love* googolplex as a description of a too-many screened theater. I'm going to be using that one, just to warn you.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote: "We'll have to see," Belbo said. He rummaged in his drawer and took out some sheets of paper. "Potio-section ..." He looked at me, saw my bewilderment. "Potio-section, as everybody knows, of course, is the art of slicing soup. No, no," he said to Diotallevi. "It's not a department, it's a subject, like Mechanical Avunculogratulation or Pylocatabasis. They all fall under the category of Tetrapyloctomy."
"What's tetra...?" I asked.
"The art of splitting a hair four ways. This is the department of useless techniques. Mechanical Avunculogratulation, for example, is how to build machines for greeting uncles. We're not sure, though, if Pylocatabasis belongs, since it's the art of being saved by a hair. Somehow that doesn't seem completely uselss."
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Noemon! Dude! I have never forgotten that phrase either! But it's Barsoomian bisyllable! JorJor for George Orr. Apparently the people on Barsoom (I never read Edgar Rice Burroughs myself, but I'm guessing) are all called JarJar and BingBing and so on.
The alliteration of that phrase is so great! Barsoomian bisyllable. Truly, Q, these are, as you say, my people!
Posts: 968 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Faulkner seemed to be quite fond of the word "effluvium" esp. in its plural form of "effluvia." I love Faulkner, but because of that, I've never been tempted to use the word in my own writing -- he kind of ruined it for me cause otherwise it's a cool word.
----- zyzzyva is also the name of a West coast literary/arts journal. But The Rabbit probably already knew that.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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How could I forget about googolplex? I completely fell in love with both googol and googolplex when I first heard them in high school. Which explains why I was tickled pink when Google first came around, though I was also a bit annoyed that they spelled it wrong.
And yeah, a googolplex of movie theaters boggles the mind! That'd be, like, a theater for every molecule in the universe. Posts: 1805 | Registered: Jun 1999
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I asked my history teacher what defenestrated meant, because it was in a history article I was reading, and he gave the dictionary. It wasn't in there, I asked him, and turned out he didn't know.
It is a cool word.
Adding a pro to antidisestablishmentarianism makes it an even better word (and very confusing- you are for the people who fight against people who fight against the establishment.)
"Hello, I'm proantidisestablishmentarianism. Are you?"
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Dear Friend, I am a former genral in the Canadian Armed forces, eh, who has escaped the recent conflicts with two hundreds million dollars (Cdn) and twelve Skyhawk helicopters--I am at present sitting in one, the other eleven have been stored in Newfundland--the bombs are falling now. I need a secured bank account in a developed nation in which to deposit this money (and some safety-deposit boxes for the Skyhawks). If you will only--wjhat is that smoke coming out of the turret?--if you will, dear friend, only respond with your persoanl account number I will condider sharing 1% (Cdn) of this koney with you. That is.......200 dollars (Cdn), for only your secured bank account number (and the safety-deposit boxes)--is that oil pressure gauge correct?--then fix it you fool!, eh. I eagerly await your prompt response--Mayday! Genral Lance "Contiki" Bay
Posts: 1154 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Then there's "intermestic" although I'm pretty confident that the guy who invented the term pulled it out of his hat.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Priapism--best medication side effect ever. My doc thought it amusing that I knew what it meant. Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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This is a funny thread. Tons of vocab fun!! I like Transubstantiationalist myself, but that's because when I say it with my fake speech impediment it sounds hilarious.
One of my favorite words though has to be puissant. An old friend commented on his discovery of it a long while back and we both got really good at using it in sentences. Then, I found it in Return of the King in a conversation between Faramir and Eowyn. I was very very pleased to say the least!!
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Tintinnabulation. Great meaning, and fun to say.
And for longest word-- Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. We learned it in the fifth grade. If I remember correctly, it is a disease in which the ultra-microscopic silicon dust of a volcano gets in the lungs.
Posts: 274 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I have another friend that can say that really long word on command Jill. I'm SURE it's the same word and it's funny that he's not the only one in the world that has it memorized to impress his friends. *goes off to memorize the word*
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Narnia- Good luck! (it's pronounced pretty much the way it's spelled, and if you memorize the meaning the rest will come quickly)
And I forgot humuhumunukunukuapuaa, the coolest Hawaiian fish (also pronounced the way it is spelled).
Posts: 274 | Registered: Apr 2002
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