It seems to me that the best words are ones I never have an excuse to use. To save the Oxford dictionary from collapsing into "Hw 2 txt" by 2020 I suggest we fortify a collection of rarely used but excellent words. My recommendations are:
1. Paraphernalia
2. Smithereens
3. Cockles
4. Leviathan
5. Humbug
Anyone else have favourite words on the brink of extinction?
[mumbles to self]I hope this thread is considered silly rather than stupid...[/mumbles to self]
The entire English language (at least in the States) is slowly but surely being butchered.
Some of my favorite words include (but are not limited to):
Adalpated
Boolean
Hypothesis
Latitudinal
Strumpet
if there are any comments on my spelling please direct them to the brick wall over there ->
fandabbydosey
Gaunt
fanstastical
juxtaposition
english is fun!
(http://www.sylpher.com/kafka/afredux/2003-08-17eric.gif)
Mos' def'!
Also,
(http://www.sylpher.com/kafka/junk/callipygian.jpg)
Look it up
'Fandabbydosey' isn't a real word, is it, Zooty?
Parafernalia es very common is Spanish. ^_^
Mysogonistic
Effeminant
Catalyst
Nifty
Sentinal
Anachronistic
Entropy
Hadoken
Incredulous
Cannabalistic
Semi-demi-hemi-quaver
Effeminant isn't even a word, and I would hardly say 'effeminate' isn't used often... (unless the 400 hits on Google I suspect are misspelled, as opposed to the 194,000 hits for 'effeminate', are actually correct...)
And I dunno what kind of people you know, or what books you read, but I'd say at least half of the words posted so far in this thread are used every day.
You seem to mix words that once were common but now are dying, with words that are simply very technical and specialised.
Half of Flippy's words are probably just as common today as one generation ago.
I use the word paraphernalia almost every day....And until they legalise all illegal drugs I'm sure it will be used into perpetuity...
I never said they were rare, I just like them.
And I figured that someone was gonna come down on me because I wasn't being 1337 enough. Boo hoo. What's the point of making a communal topic if you then criticise the participants.
Because the topic is "dying words", NOT 'words you like'.
AGA, you wanna find fault in people all your lives? What a good way to make friends. All you ever do is criticise, I suggest you find a new hobby.
And 'dying words' is not the same as 'rare words'. And even then, this isn't 'rare words', this is 'rarely-used' words. I don't hear any of the words I listed used frequently by many people I know. And let me guess, you're going to now say that the people I know must be fucking stupid, eh?
Flippy, I didn't come onto you because you weren't leet enough. I don't know what you mean by that, even.
I just pointed out that there's a distinction between dying words and uncommon words. Just for the sake of respecting the topic. I don't really care, personally. Write any words you want.
Meh. I didn't mind what you said at all. It's fine.
So even though Andail said EXACTLY the same thing as me, I'm the one who's finding fault with any- and everything, and Andail's doing nothing wrong?
He didn't say the same thing as you, you do it constantly, and you're incredibly rude and obnoxious whereas he wisely employs some tact.
In fact, I was EXPECTING you to reply in that fashion to me. You seem to delight in it.
I shan't bother taking this particular conversation any further, it's just spam now.
I have always liked:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
It really is a word check here:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Flippy: AGA mentioned your spelling of one word. The rest of the post was directed at everyone. He is not coming down on you in particular. If you expect to see some behaviour, you'll probably see it whether it's intended or not.
HOWEVER, this is off topic. So I continue
remonstrate
quixotic
haberdashery
superfluous
mercurial
foreasmuch
bamboozle
abashed
You're all a bunch of no good sesquipedalianists.
gah, logorrheah
Malapert
Inbuilt
Unhouse
Ed
Zenana
(If you've ever played Literati with me, you'd understand. :P)
I think "poobungies" is slowly dying, although I personally use it almost every day, along with a few people I know who've unwittingly assimilated it into their vocabulary.
What about "Pneumonoltramicroscopicsilivolcanoconiosis" or somin' like hat (some wierd desease). :P
I have a strange case in Spain... Some time ago, like 5 years, things "exploded" (Explotaban) now the people doesn't use that verb, they use "Explosionated" instead (Explosionaban). It is very weird, and I think there must be similar cases in every country. How happens this? The media decides a word is old fashioned and start to use another one? And why we copy all we see in TV? :-\
Quote from: Ize on Wed 10/11/2004 22:56:18
What about "Pneumonoltramicroscopicsilivolcanoconiosis" or somin' like hat (some wierd desease). :P
It's a lung disease often suffered by coal miners. The correct spelling is 'PNEUMONOÂULTRAÂMICROÂSCOPICÂSILICOÂVOLCANOÂCONIOSIS' (thanks, Google)
Snapplelicious!
Antidisestablishmentarianism.
Gerrymander.
Misanthrope.
Sagacity.
Boondoggle.
Feminazi.
DOS.
Hobby
Seriously, how many of you still speak of your hobbies?
Actually, I think I just did. 8)
I had to define Gerrymander in an exam this morning
No, it wasn't a scrabble exam.
You couldn't spell 'gerrymander' in Scrabble, given the 7 letter limit.
Quote from: Farlander on Wed 10/11/2004 23:16:01
they use "Explosionated" instead (Explosionaban). It is very weird, and I think there must be similar cases in every country. How happens this?
The US has done one or two things like that to English if I'm not mistaken. "Buglarized" instead of the perfectly functional "burgled" and "normalcy" for "normality".
Quote from: AGA on Thu 11/11/2004 09:37:13
You couldn't spell 'gerrymander' in Scrabble, given the 7 letter limit.
Witness:
Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, h
GERRYmanDER
Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, Ã, t
(capitalisation indicates newly added letters)
I would say that it is not very perspicacious of you to proclaim boolean a deprecated word. We should act posthaste to quell, quash and thwart such dastardly fallacious confabulation lest some credulous buffoon, through sheer happenstance, blunders upon and propagates this erroneous statement.
And Ali: You've still added 8 letters
one of the most annoying word changes to me is the american "ironic" to "ironical". it really bugs me for some reason. And no, fandabbydosey is not a real word. i hear it less often now than i did two years ago.
One would befit from simmering down a trifle. You're both comporting very disadvantageously cogitating your prestigiousness.
I propound ataraxis and let us all misremember this contingency.
Oh, and I'd like to broach this gobbledegook:
nincompoop
poobungies
tergiversate
kvetch
and
grizzle
:D
EDIT: Oh, the altercate between Flippy and AGA appears to be concluded an epoch ago
Favourate dying word:
Brouhaha (preferably spoken in drawn-out, over-dramatic fashion, with rolled 'r's etc).
Favourate dead words:
Blaggard (as in: "have at ye, blaggard!").
Swive (i.e. 'to screw').
Quote from: Ali on Thu 11/11/2004 10:30:01
Quote from: AGA on Thu 11/11/2004 09:37:13
You couldn't spell 'gerrymander' in Scrabble, given the 7 letter limit.
Witness:
h
GERRYmanDER
t
(capitalisation indicates newly added letters)
You think I didn't bother checking my statement? :P
As Punch already said, that would involve adding eight letters, which can't be done...
cribbage
r_ r_
GERRYmanDeR
b a
d
(and numerous variants)
Whoops!
I haven't played Scrabble for a while, but isn't that illegal anyway? IIRC the letters laid down in one turn have to be contiguous.
I think it's legal, certainly in the games I've played. Yahoo Scrabble Clone has never seemed to be too upset by it either...
anti-macassar - what IS an anti-macassar? For that matter, what is a macassar? Is that even how it is spelt? The one thing going for it is that is sounds great
hemlock - I guess the word fell out of use along with the poison
thespian
malady
There was also a word for that green blob thing in Quest for Glory 1. I think it also had another meaning, and I was quite taken by the sound of it.
*EDIT*
Purple, sorry, purple. I had played a long time ago, and my memory would mesh anything "blob" with green
You've gotta love Antwerp. I mean, you combine ant with twerp, and you get a place in Belgium
Green blob thing? Don't recall that. There were purple blob things (Antwerps), and Antwerp is a place in Belgium...
Or did you mean something else I've forgotten about?
Scrutinize is a dying word
Heh, there's a kid in my class, who is fairly popular, and he always says ridelcher. Its a fun word to use if people dont know what it is.
Argh! No! I know what ridelcher means, and I wish I didn't! Baaaaaad....
AGA, I think you didn't bother to check that scrabble-thing :)
example:
S R
gERRyMANder
T T
caps are laid out letters. You add g,y,d,e and "r", around and between the words ERR and MAN. Just five letters. Don't worry, AGA, to err is human.
In conclusion, I could have had gerrymander in a scrabble exam, even though I didn't.
Exempleary work fellahs.
Quote from: Punch on Thu 11/11/2004 10:37:09
And Ali: You've still added 8 letters
It took me several minutes to work out how I'd added the 8 letters in:
GERRYmanDER
It seems I read double-R as one letter. Thanks to Andail for doing what I meant to do, but with less blindingly obvious mistakes.
hence
satisfice
funereal
queer (meaning strange)
The awesome thing about English is that few words truly die. They linger on in the OED and Shakespeare plays, and now and then they resurface into the daily vocabulary, like "crony".
And although US may be blamed for the deterioration of the language, it's also home to spelling bees that keep some obscure words from vanishing.
When Babar mentioned the green blob thing from Quest for Glory 1, he likely meant the spokesperson for the Meeps (Or perhaps spokesmeep?)
As for dying words:
Violet - commonly used by artists, but rare in the USA. Even the code to make that violet used the word purple. Hmph!!
Beta-carotene
Stockings
Disco - long forgotten by everone except me, seems like
It's quite common for Chinse students to adopt western names when studying abroad, and there's a girl at uni who adopted the name Disco.
Disco Wang.
groovy.
derelict