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Increase your word power

(86 Posts)
pompa Fri 10-Apr-15 06:56:15

I have started his thread as in another thread there seems an interest in discussing lesser known/used words and phrases.
I suggest each contribute posts only one word for discussion per day (too many words will be confusing)

Thanks to Readers Digest for the title.

jo1book Sat 11-Apr-15 11:17:01

I like "jingle it". The amount of problems solved by jiggling it is more than you think.

pompa Sat 11-Apr-15 09:59:47

WOW Mini Mouse what conglomeration of wonderful words.

This mornings BBC came up with a word I had not heard/noticed before "Lothario"

MiniMouse Fri 10-Apr-15 23:31:17

I was very discombobulated this afternoon when a lightbulb exploded shock and it left my ears very tintinnabulated grin Luckily the cat wasn't trans mog rified!
(BTW The bulb really did explode!)

absent Fri 10-Apr-15 22:55:45

Fissiparous always sounds more interesting than it is.

Jomarie Fri 10-Apr-15 21:02:24

Yes Pompa - glad you like it plus it is a perfectly acceptable word to use in front of the grandchildren or persons of a refined disposition!!

pompa Fri 10-Apr-15 20:13:40

Ho Jomarie, what a lovely word, I would normally say p.....ed off.but mulligrubs describes it much better.

Jomarie Fri 10-Apr-15 20:02:50

Love this thread! My favourite old word has got to be "mulligrubs" as in "I've got a touch of the mulligrubs" meaning I feel pretty fed up and out of sorts. I find it brilliantly describes a down day that has no obvious reason for it.

pompa Fri 10-Apr-15 17:24:06

Soutra, arcane is one of those words that sound right, even if you had never heard it before, I think you could guess.

Soutra Fri 10-Apr-15 14:17:56

I love the word arcane it just seems to have been specifically coined to describe current tax legislationgrin

AshTree Fri 10-Apr-15 11:05:27

grin pompa

pompa Fri 10-Apr-15 11:01:04

The nearest I get to the digerati is digging the garden until I'm called in for tea. smile

AshTree Fri 10-Apr-15 10:46:54

Pompa I have just realised you are one of the digerati smile

AshTree Fri 10-Apr-15 10:41:46

Yes, absent, the first was in 1419.

absent Fri 10-Apr-15 10:09:41

1618 Defenestration of Prague – funny how you remember stuff isn't it? Although now I think about it, wasn't there one a couple of hundred years earlier?

pompa Fri 10-Apr-15 10:04:56

Absent, I think that is very relevant, it is interesting to know the origin of common words. It surprised me that Gadzookery is a relatively modern word.

Eloethan Fri 10-Apr-15 10:02:35

It was only in relatively recent years that I realised "discombobulate" was a real word - I'd thought it was a jokey, made-up word. A great example of a word that sounds like what it means.

pompa Fri 10-Apr-15 09:59:10

discombobulation, I am confused as to it's meaning. confused

AshTree Fri 10-Apr-15 09:56:40

I too love tintinnabulation, a very onomatopoeic word.

Another favourite is defenestration, the act of throwing something or someone out of the window. How lovely to say, casually, when asked where something is, "Oh I defenestrated it." grin

Marmight Fri 10-Apr-15 09:20:20

I love the word 'discombobulation'. Never mind the meaning, it has a cosy , rounded, bobbly feel to it ! [duh emoticon]

Elegran Fri 10-Apr-15 09:09:15

I wish all those words had been in the word list in the link on the Other Thread. I know all of them, but there were some on that link that foxed me. I was discombobulated.

Jane10 Fri 10-Apr-15 09:02:16

I always liked tintinabulation after I first read it in the John Betchemin (sp?) poem 'summoned by bells' but its a hard word to introduce in everyday conversation -or at all!

Grannybug Fri 10-Apr-15 08:56:59

Transmogrify....applied to bread that I have forgotten about!grin

Teetime Fri 10-Apr-15 08:54:52

Lovely I enjoy a nice word- here's mine - praxis. I shall go off and fossick about on the golf course today and see if it improves my score.

absent Fri 10-Apr-15 08:42:10

Not exactly relevant, but Charles Dickens can claim the first use of the word cocktail in a written work – Martin Chuzzlewit I think.

feetlebaum Fri 10-Apr-15 08:36:20

It was Charles Dickens who invented the 'Circumlocution Office' in Little Dorit - the means by which action on almost anything could be delayed almost infinitely.