Do you have a favourite word?

[Laura Corin]

Mine is 'schadenfreude', and Calvin has picked it up from me:

Two conversations (http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/laurainchina/476182/)

Laura

[Remudamom]

Well shoot, I can't repeat mine here.

[stephanie]

Mine is 'schadenfreude', and Calvin has picked it up from me:

Two conversations (http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/laurainchina/476182/)

Laura

My favorite word this week is "snap!" Yes, it's so intellectual, don't ya think!:tongue_smilie: This is what happens when you hang out with your kids too long who watch Disney Channel. Here's how you use it in case you don't know.
Mom dropped a full gallon of red kool-aid all over the newly mopped wooden floor and she said, "Snap!"

[Mamagistra]

I have two:

onomatopoeia
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

:)

(No, three: pamplemousse...French for 'grapefruit.') :D

[j.griff]

Woof, it's what I say when I am wiped out (after doing laundry, dealing with kid problems, etc.) or when I am frustrated.

[nmoira]

"peripatetic" rather describes my mind since giving birth...

[nutmeg]

Mellifluous. :001_smile:

[Friederike in Persia]

"Sapperlot", it's German, too, but not half as intellectual as "Schadenfreude". It's used (a lot in this house!) to tell someone off in a friendly-ish manner. Nobody else has picked it up though, cause in our house you're not allowed to tell people off in German, if you don't use it for normal communication, too. Dh loved to use "harsh sounding" German words for telling off, that I put an end to it.:smash:

[Laura Corin]

"Sapperlot", it's German, too, but not half as intellectual as "Schadenfreude". It's used (a lot in this house!) to tell someone off in a friendly-ish manner.

I speak French and Chinese, and can read some Spanish and Latin, but never learned German. What does 'Sapperlot' actually mean?

Laura

[Amy in Orlando]

I don['t have a favorite word, but I have a few words I despise. http://www.thefoilhat.com/insidethefoilhatblog.htm?blogentryid=635025 You can read about it here if you like, I can't bring myself to type the word. ::::shudder::::::

[Amy loves Bud]

Some of mine:

Hackneyed, preposterous, cheeky, flabergasted, trollop, bellicose, hellion, bassackwards :blink:.

[Barb F. PA in AZ]

I don['t have a favorite word, but I have a few words I despise. http://www.thefoilhat.com/insidethefoilhatblog.htm?blogentryid=635025 You can read about it here if you like, I can't bring myself to type the word. ::::shudder::::::

Oh LOL Amy! My dh has refers to wet wipes as "moist toweletts" which always makes me howl. I wasn't aware there was anyone else besides me (and now my daughters) who finds that word so funny.

Barb

[Mamagistra]

I can't bring myself to type the word. ::::shudder::::::

LOL! :lol:

[Barb F. PA in AZ]

LOL! :lol:

Debra, what are you still doing up?? Isn't it like 2am in TX?

Barb

[Friederike in Persia]

"Sapperlot" is rather unspecific, along the lines: "I've told you a million times to be careful, don't do that, get off, pay attention,....." it's just more succinct.

However, it seems it's Southern German only, a Northern friend though for months that I was telling my children off in Tajik, lol. I wouldn't do that though, cause I'm a firm believer in not using another language just to tell somebody off, how unfair is that?!

[Colleen]

"Sapperlot" is rather unspecific, along the lines: "I've told you a million times to be careful, don't do that, get off, pay attention,....." it's just more succinct.

Now that's one I've never heard, despite my familiarity with German. I looked it up and yeah, the translation, such as it is, is pretty unspecific, like you said. Several sources cited it as "sackerlot" and one stated that's an archaic curse formed from the French "sacre nom". Who knows?!

[Friederike in Persia]

:glare:

Did you have to look that one up? Now I'm not so sure if I want to continue cursing my children in French?!:ohmy: And it was one of my favourite words so far.

The French connection has a true ring to it, since quite a few of the colloquial words used in the area where I come from ( around Stuttgart) were brought there by Napoleon's soldiers and then adapted.

My dh has a knack to do this to me too. I pick up a new word, like "spunky" and he tells me it originally meant having high sperm count, or lively sperm, or whatever. Now I tell him I'm not really interested in the origin of my vocab, as long as I won't offend people too badly with it.:D
He's a rather proper Brit and I love him very much.

[Laura Corin]

My dh has a knack to do this to me too. I pick up a new word, like "spunky" and he tells me it originally meant having high sperm count, or lively sperm, or whatever. Now I tell him I'm not really interested in the origin of my vocab, as long as I won't offend people too badly with it.:D
He's a rather proper Brit and I love him very much.

My Chambers dictionary has the origin of spunky as 'sponc', meaning tinder, therefore a spark, so 'spunky' means sparky or fiery. I think that it came to be used for someone presumed to be very fertile, but that's not the basic meaning.

Laura

[Lorna]

I have really fallen in love with the Danish language here. The words are so 'hygge' (a special Danish kind of cosiness). I love 'smuk' meaning beautiful, handsome or charming. A landscape can be 'smuk' or a person. It is such a funny perfect little word.

[Volty]

My favorite word is an insult we invented in the football cesspool I usually post at is : momofektard

In our depravity, we also discovered we could use ass- as a prefix and make an insult out of anything: "Nobody wanted to sit next to the asshat on the bus since he hadn't showered in a week."

Real words that I like are shampoo and pajamas.

[gandpsmommy]

surreptitiously. Ds4 mostly just likes the way it sounds, because I don't think he has a good grasp on the meaning.

[Marie in Oh]

defenestrate.

My kids tell each other they are going to do it to each other. :ohmy:

[A.J. at J.A.]

parasitism

I've always liked the way it rolls off my tongue. :tongue_smilie:

[AmyinPA]

I picked it up from Simon Cowell of AI and I love it. Of course, I had to look it up before I started to use it. It means cheesy or corny.

[AmyinPA]

I just love it when my friends and family pick it up too!

[Plaid Dad]

Tintinnabulation and wretched are two I love.

[Mrs. Readsalot]

The only place I ever see this work is G A Henty book. It just makes me smile. I have no idea why. Usually I am read the books aloud and ds and I both like the word and count how many pages we get into a Henty before it appears.
As a side note Laura I like your British spelling of words. This is also another aspect of reading Henty books that is fun. The "u" must feel like a much more special letter in British literature than American

[kalanamak]

disingenuous for its double negative, pastoral for what it makes me feel.

[Jenny in Atl]

I have a few rated G that I can share...

Addlepated
Smorgasbord
Malfeasant
:biggrinjester:

[Laura Corin]

As a side note Laura I like your British spelling of words. This is also another aspect of reading Henty books that is fun. The "u" must feel like a much more special letter in British literature than American

I'm glad you enjoy it. I used the word 'fulfil', the other day, and had to check that Brits really spell it like that. We are standardising on British spelling for the boys (as they are heading for UK exams) and I have to check UK/US spelling differences for them almost every day.

Laura

[Jenny in Atl]

I forgot..

Verbose :glare:

[Melissa in NC]

Serendipity

[Jennifer in NH]

Omphaloskepsis

That has been my favorite word since I was about 12. it means: meditating while contemplating ones navel.

I also like ameliorate.

[crazycoffeechic]

I like ya'll... I feel so countryfried when I say it:D

[Virginia Dawn]

I don't have a particular favorite but I LOVE Italian words like millefiore, tagliatelle, liguine, arrivederci. Italian is so mellifluous. ;-)

[Jenny in Atl]

Yes, they almost send edible...:001_wub:

[Laura Corin]

I like ya'll... I feel so countryfried when I say it:D

When DH (Texan) and I were thinking about courting, it was very useful to be able to understand if he was inviting me out on a date or including my flat-mates in the invitation. That was twenty years ago this year....

Laura

[chai]

I like oof-dah. It was normal to use this in MN, but now that I've moved, it really sticks out when I say it.

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

Well shoot, I can't repeat mine here.

;)

[elegantlion]

I'm going with y'all. I a midwest gal living in the south, I'm even working on the accent.

I enjoy using it with my friends from Minnesota, it drives 'em crazy. (Bless their hearts :D)

[Antonia]

I like the word "intifada", although I have no idea why nor in what instance I would ever use it!

[percytruffle]

Words are so cool. How's a person to pick a favorite?! That said, I do especially like: gemutlichkeit. I also adore the word aluminum as pronounced the British way.

Dd has two words she coined and used regularly while she was high school age: flarpenheimer and flarp. Hence, "Mom, my pencil just flarped onto the floor again!" "Oh flarpenheimer, where's that stupid lab sheet!"
Dd also loves the words spleen and sock. They just make her crack up. Just this morning as dd was leaving for the tutor center at the college where she works, she opined about her new found joy over the word coagulate.

We all get a kick out of everyday words that when said seem so unusual, like spatula or skillet. We have a lot of good, spleen massaging laughter here over words of all sorts.

[PrairieAir]

There are words I just love the sound of. Several have been mentioned here already: onomatopoeia, tintinnabulation, and intifada. I get a kick out of a lot of the names I hear while listening to NPR news. They're just so much fun to say. Muqtada al-Sadr (yes, I had to look it up to spell it correctly!) is one. There was an (I think) Indian one a while back, but I can't remember what it was--something that sounded like it had fudge in it. Hagia Sophia is another.

For me, the sound of a word is very important in determining how much I like it. The word interstices drives me out of my freakin' mind! I swear it sounds like some particularly nasty symptom or disease. Panties is another word I don't like. It just sounds dirty. (Like that should matter to me.) I don't like the words moist and moisture either, but they make me laugh like Amy said. I think Saturday Night Live is to blame for that.

The ability to put words together in writing in a way that is pleasing to the ear often makes the difference in whether or not I like an author. Even if I'm only reading quietly, I hear the words. One of the reasons I love Steinbeck is because of how his words sound in my head. It's also the reason I do not care for Hemingway--short, choppy, no music. I love poems like Poe's "The Bells" because of the sounds. (Tintinnabulation anyone? And in discussing it, I can use another favorite word: onomatopoeia.) It took me a long time to warm up to free verse.

As for words that I use often, well, I'm afraid they can't all be listed here. Some of my favorite words have to do with elimination and intercourse. The elimination word is used alternately in English and German. I also like "holy crapola" and a few other forms. I use y'all frequently. No music in those words:ohmy: I don't know what else. I'll have to think about it more.

[GothicGyrl]

Yes, and according to my baby book, it was my first two words:

"ahh sh*t" I was only 9 months old. ;) And mom wrote "said when she couldn't get her blocks to stay up"

And I still say it more than anything else.

[Perry]

Widdershins.

[Friederike in Persia]

I picked it up from Simon Cowell of AI and I love it. Of course, I had to look it up before I started to use it. It means cheesy or corny.

"schmaltzy" (correct spelling!), is German in origin. "Schmaltz" is lard, but it does get used in the above stated meaning in German, too.

[Tracey in TX]

drømmer --Norsk for dreams, vision

[momo4]

Escondido with a exaggerated Spanish accent. I just love the way it sounds. I want to name my next child that or at least our next pet.:001_tt2:

[KidsHappen]

I just love the way it sounds. There are afew others like that but I can't think of any of them right now.

[HollyDay]

superfluous

[mcconnellboys]

No favorites, but my husband periodically teases me about my vocabulary usage. He's still mentioning 'mendicant' from at least a year or two ago - and his current favorite is 'rube'......

Regena

[Kalah]

Means Firey Lust in Old English. Not that it applies to me :001_smile: I took several semesters of OE in college and just loved the sound of this word. It has remained my favorite ever since.

Nice thread. Thanks, Laura.

[Mamagistra]

Debra, what are you still doing up?? Isn't it like 2am in TX?

Barb

Yeah...no rest for the stuffy! ;) I feel better today though, thanks to...COFFEE! :D

[Musical Belle]

Persnickety and perspicacious -- what does that say about me?? :eek:

[Audrey]

Just say it slowly e g r e g i o u s. :glare:

It sounds much like its meaning. I love it.

[Baseballmom]

"Air balls and skip!" This is my answer to "what are we having for dinner?"

[Lorna]

Yes, and according to my baby book, it was my first two words:

"ahh sh*t" I was only 9 months old. ;) And mom wrote "said when she couldn't get her blocks to stay up"

And I still say it more than anything else.

My first 'word' was 'cuppatea' translated as 'cup of tea'. My mother was mortified that I said this. She always said it to me when we got back from an outing.

[Jenny in Atl]

I love my oldest dd first word... burrito. Of course she said it more like bree-toe. We even recorded it but sadly lost the tape. :001_unsure:

[Mrs Mungo]

I don't know that I can think of just one or two words. There are too many words that I love. However, Moe's Southwest Grill has a saying that goes: "If You Don't Have Fun Saying Guacamole, You're Probably Pronouncing It Wrong!" I think I need that sign for my kitchen.

[KarenNC]

defenestrate.

That's been my favorite since encountering it in high school English class (well, technically, my favorite is "defenestration").:)

[Jean in Newcastle]

fiddle-faddle, aardvark and pfefferneuse (did I spell that right?!)

[PrairieAir]

fiddle-faddle, aardvark and pfefferneuse (did I spell that right?!)

Yes, that's correct:) Dh's grandma makes peppernuts every year for Christmas. The family had never heard the German word for them though. Have you had pfefferneuse or do you just like saying the word?

[OnTheBrink]

Escondido with a exaggerated Spanish accent. I just love the way it sounds. I want to name my next child that or at least our next pet.:001_tt2:

I used to live in Escondido. I'd not name a child that, though. LOL It means "hidden."

[Jean in Newcastle]

Yes, that's correct:) Dh's grandma makes peppernuts every year for Christmas. The family had never heard the German word for them though. Have you had pfefferneuse or do you just like saying the word?

My college room-mate's mom used to make us pfefferneuse - yummy! But actually, I mostly like saying the word - like "Oh, pfefferneuse!" :angry:

[Laura Corin]

Was 'daydo', meaning 'radio'. I used to lose my portable radio in the house somewhere, then would put Calvin on my hip and walk around saying, "Where's my radio? I wonder where I left my radio!"

Laura

[GothicGyrl]

My first 'word' was 'cuppatea' translated as 'cup of tea'. My mother was mortified that I said this. She always said it to me when we got back from an outing.
Poor thing, why was she mortified that you said something so innocent? (I think I'm missing something)...

All I know is when my now 12 year old first learned to talk, she was clearly following in her mother's footsteps :D

She got mad one day and shouted "F***" as loud as she could. Now I cuss, but I did try to watch my mouth around them, so you can imagine my shock when she said this. She was a bit of a late bloomer anyway, so this came much older than I was at that.

[ncmomo3]

Bunburyist - from The Importance of Being Earnest.
It sounds best with a strong British accent.

[3lilreds in NC]

Omphaloskepsis

That has been my favorite word since I was about 12. it means: meditating while contemplating ones navel.

I also like ameliorate.

I have never heard of omphaloskepsis, but it might have to be my new favorite word just for the meaning! :lol:

[3lilreds in NC]

No favorites, but my husband periodically teases me about my vocabulary usage. He's still mentioning 'mendicant' from at least a year or two ago - and his current favorite is 'rube'......

Regena

My mom used to call people rubes when I was a kid. It's so funny that you use it too! What a great word.