Increase your word power

Elegran, I only suggested a word a day so that we had time to discuss them. I could imagine some contributors presenting lists of words that we would not have time to discuss properly. Rules are made to be broken.

Horses for courses pom My technical abilities are zero.

I agree with you on limiting new words to one a day each - as you say, long lists are not what we want.

My DH did physics and spent decades designing telemetry systems but was hopeless at English. I proof-read his thesis to weed out the spelling and grammar mistakes. As a result I could once discourse reasonably intelligently on semi-conductors, but his spelling didn't improve reciprocally.

Our favourite family word is Brimborion, also known as Brimborium. Occasionally spelt Brimborian. It's such an obscure word that it's hard to find the meaning, which is why it's so useful. It means, utter rubbish. As a noun it means a valueless useless object. Thus it became my sisters' and my favourite utterance at school if we wanted to be rude about what the teachers were saying, without them being able to understand. Far more satisfying than misbehaviour. It's a very old word, only to be found in the most ancient of family encyclopaedias.

www.yourdictionary.com/brimborion

DBH loved it and taught it to our DS. I had many a sticky moment because of it, over the years, but it never fails to make me laugh.

That is, provided the person I was discoursing with knew nothing at all about them.

I used to read fiction when I was young, but I doubt I have ever read more than 10 fiction books until very recently. All my working life in engineering and computing required constant study to keep abreast of developments. My hobbies also tended to be technically biased.
My requirement for written English was limited to report writing, short, to the point and targeted at the specific reader (usually accountants). I had to get my point across in the first couple of paragraphs. Hence, most of my writing is succinct.

Isn't retirement wonderful when you can be an artist in the morning, an engineer in the afternoon and socialize in the evening.

Just as well I made my living in engineering, as an artist, I would starve.

and me but no-one need see what you produce and it is fun whilst you are dabbing!

I suspect, one's vocabulary is developed early in life, late teens. I find it natural to use the vocabulary that I used then, most of which was based on technical writing rather than literature.
Whilst I may now discover new and interesting words that I would like to include in my vocabulary, I usually fail to remember them.
One word that I particularly like is "singular" (exceptional), but I rarely remember to use it. Thanks to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for "singular"

My current favourite is 'juxtaposition'. I haven't always used it. It means when things are placed side by side for comparison.

I see what you are saying, but I don't think it applies to me, because I learn languages as a hobby. I really do love words, and whether they be Swedish or English, I still acquire them, like a magpie. They pop out when I lest expect them to, and some are very old English words that are no longer used, so I suspect I get more odd looks than I am aware of. I don't care! And I still remember the first time I heard 'theodolite'. 'Xenophobia'. Other such words. The thrill of a new word. Like elegran, I know what a theodolite is but haven't a clue how to use one. I suspect it may have been replaced by a laser now.

Perhaps I need a thread called "Increase your memory power" so that I can remember some of these wonderful words.
My brother was a civil engineer, he showed me how to use a theodolite when I was a kid. I suspect GPS and lasers have replaced the optical theodolites.

I love crepuscular - twilight, either dawn or dusk.

The Spanish have a lovely word for the early morning, pre-crepuscular period, for which we don't have a direct translation, madrugada. (Sorry, not really going above the one-a-day quota, because no-one needs to add a Spanish word to their vocabulary )

Mememe! It's a nice word.

DBH and I are quite competitive, we have a 'word of the day' thing going on and have done for years. We use a word without even thinking, and if the other can't remember the precise meaning, it becomes WOTD.

What does mememe mean? Is it a made up word?

I can't find it in any online dictionary.

Maybe it is a meme with a stutter?

Sorry, I was very bad there, it was me, me , me, I like new Spanish words! Madrugada is a nice word. I like Abogada too, a female lawyer. I like the idea of the dawn being feminine. Crepuscular is a lovely word, did you see 'A very Long Engagement'? In it, the trench inhabited by the hero of the film is called 'crepuscule'.

Shouldn't we have the meanings of the word as well?

Windfucker (archaic)

Means talkative braggart.

Oh that's funny petallus, though I don't think I'll be introducing it into my everyday speech .
It reminds me of when we moved house when the children were around 10 and 11. One day they came home giggling because they'd seen a house nearby called Fartwinds. Of course, we told them they must have been mistaken, but no, they weren't, as we found out when we wandered round to have a sneaky look

By all means post more than one word a day, just prefer not to have lists of words.
I quite like trying to guess the meanings of words before looking them up.

When I search for the definition of windfucker, it says it is a name for a kestral.

I got it from the glossary for Sam Pepys diaries. Word dates from 1602.

The kestrel is a windhover in Gerard Manley Hopkins poem. (There are some words in it that I don't know. Off now to Google]

The Windhover

To Christ our Lord

I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, kingdom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

Cor. More than I bargained for.
https://hokku.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/deciphering-hopkins-the-windhover/

Was trying to resist. Favourite, 2 words sorry, but belong together:
Eschew obfuscation.
Excellent bumper sticker.
But love 'windfucker' don't care what it means. Whole new bumper sticker.
And 'meme' would be a whole new thread.
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