# Conversation Thread!



## AwkwardWriter (Oct 16, 2017)

Hey, everyone: why don't we just have a conversation here? 

Conversation starter: What's your favourite word and why?


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## dither (Oct 16, 2017)

I don't think I have a favourite word. Sorry.


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## bdcharles (Oct 16, 2017)

My favourite word is a German one: _ausgeflippt_. It means - you guessed it - "flipped out". As in:_ Ich bin sehr ausgeflippt_, or "I am totally wigging out here." It's almost onomatopoeic. Though I wonder if the verb goes at the back. Any passing Germans want to help out? 

_Iridescent _is a close second though. Beautiful word describing beautiful stuff. And I also like words with the _æ _digraph in them. Douple points if you can put an umlaut on them somewhere. They're cool, sort of steampunky.


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## PiP (Oct 16, 2017)

Good convo, Awkward... 

My favourite word is amanhã. The Portuguese use it a lot and was the first word I learnt when we moved here. Also 'Não problemo' ranks right up there because when they say the word the shoulders rise to the ears, the hands turn outward and the mouth turns down. I call it the Portuguese shrug ... usually when someone (namely our builder at the time, would not own the problem)

English... my favorite word to describe negative people is 'sappers' because they sap positive energy.


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## AwkwardWriter (Oct 16, 2017)

*walks to corner and cries*

That reminds me of backpfeifengesicht, which, if I recall, means a face worthy of being punched. The German language just has the best insults xD

Good word selections, 'sesquipedalian.'

Haha thanks.  And that's a great description and a beautiful word xD

Sappers are very tricky to be around, but also teach us patience haha.


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## PiP (Oct 16, 2017)

AwkwardWriter said:


> H
> but also teach us patience haha.



Well thank you, AW! That puts a positive spin on the word 'Sappers'. I like you already! :cookie:


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## AwkwardWriter (Oct 16, 2017)

Awh, thanks ^w^ You're great too.


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## PiP (Oct 16, 2017)

AwkwardWriter said:


> Awh, thanks ^w^ You're great too.



Compliments earn you extra cookie rations... :highly_amused:     
:cookie::cookie::cookie::cookie:


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## H.Brown (Oct 16, 2017)

My favourite word would have to be fiddlestick, it replace curse words when surrounded by small children and it makes me chuckle when I hear it.  

I like this topic thank you WA, it was insightful and delightful to see other member's favourite words.


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## Sara Ella (Oct 16, 2017)

Ha!  This is a fun thread AwkwardWriter! And Pip is handing out cookies!  Although I don't know German, it is fun to read these favorite words (out loud) as if I did and failing.  

One word I really love is Mellifluous - it just sounds beautiful <3


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## Elvenswordsman (Oct 16, 2017)

To join in, a quick tip. Bottom right corner of someone's post there's "Reply with Quote" and beside that is a "+

That button allows you to reply to multiple conversations by selecting each one you want to reply with, and then pressing "reply with quote" on the last one you've selected. It'll populate in a text box like the one you respond in, and by pressing "Go Advanced" you can really see and edit the message in a better/more organized way.

My favorite words exist in moments; oftentimes I'll find myself saying Toilet brush for no other reason than having thought it would be funny to just use as a red herring in conversations.

Onomatopoeia is a good one for sounds. I really like Erudite as a word to aspire after. I like Alluvione - it's Italian for flood, the sound of saying it feels like water. I like Enchante, which is French for charmed, because I grew up in a bilingual area and it felt like a word I wanted to encompass my first interaction with my to-be-wife. My favorite German word is "Nuscht", which is a variance found in some Bayerisch (or maybe Schwabish) areas of Germany for "Nicht" - not even close. The Korean word for Owl is pretty cool, but I'm not even sure how to start putting that in this text box. The Portuguese phrase "Look at me" (which I can say but have no idea how to start spelling) is fun to say as well.

Quasimoto is a fun name, "Je t'aime parce-que tu es mon petit poisson" is a ridiculously fun non-sensical French statement.


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## AwkwardWriter (Oct 17, 2017)

That's such a strange word! It makes you wonder about the etymology haha. Some adult trying to protect children probably got angry and almost cursed, but said that. xD


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## AwkwardWriter (Oct 17, 2017)

Elvenswordsman said:


> To join in, a quick tip. Bottom right corner of someone's post there's "Reply with Quote" and beside that is a "+
> 
> That button allows you to reply to multiple conversations by selecting each one you want to reply with, and then pressing "reply with quote" on the last one you've selected. It'll populate in a text box like the one you respond in, and by pressing "Go Advanced" you can really see and edit the message in a better/more organized way.
> 
> ...



Oh, thanks! That's really helpful and makes the discussions easier to follow.

And I couldn't agree more with your word selections! The German words are often confused, but understandably so.

The statement about your favorite word being in the moment is a new concept, but it probably breaks the ice in conversations haha.


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## AwkwardWriter (Oct 17, 2017)

Sara Ella said:


> Ha!  This is a fun thread AwkwardWriter! And Pip is handing out cookies!  Although I don't know German, it is fun to read these favorite words (out loud) as if I did and failing.
> 
> One word I really love is Mellifluous - it just sounds beautiful <3



Haha like those Youtube videos of people trying to pronounce unusual words xD

Mellifluous....haven't heard that one before, but it certainly sounds like a word straight out of ancient literature. Do words paint pictures for you sometimes based on how they sound?

Mellifluous: pleasant to hear; like music or a melody.
It certainly lives up to it's definition!


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## Darren White (Oct 17, 2017)

*'Smithereens' *
I've used it far too often in poems, so now I don't use it at all anymore, which is a shame


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## Aquarius (Oct 17, 2017)

AwkwardWriter said:


> Backpfeifengesicht



That reminds me of 'ein Gesicht wie ein Feuermelder!' (Zum Reinschlagen!). A face like a fire alarm - for smashing in. 

Isn't Backpfeife a fine word for slapping someone's face? How about its synonym Maulschelle? 

Ouch!!! :sour::sour::sour:


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## Aquarius (Oct 17, 2017)

My husband's favourite German word is Schmetterling -  butterfly. :star:


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## AwkwardWriter (Oct 17, 2017)

Darren White said:


> *'Smithereens' *
> I've used it far too often in poems, so now I don't use it at all anymore, which is a shame



Give yourself permission to use it once every few poems; it's a good word XD You could look up synonyms that you like ::shrug::


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## PiP (Oct 17, 2017)

My word of the moment is 'snowflake'


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## Phil Istine (Oct 17, 2017)

My favourite word of the moment is "quitling". It's a made-up word in revenge for "remoaners". To anyone who knows a bit about WW2 history, it's potency lies in its similarity to "Quisling".


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## bdcharles (Oct 17, 2017)

Darren White said:


> *'Smithereens' *
> I've used it far too often in poems, so now I don't use it at all anymore, which is a shame



I wonder if a "smithereen" is actually something specific, not just the shard of plasticky glass I imagine it to be. I love words that seem so common-place but in fact have a particular historic meaning, like "thing", and "stuff".


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## SueC (Oct 17, 2017)

I liked the word nonplussed, even though I wasn't sure of its meaning. I tried to use it once in a story to convey apathy but after actually looked it up, I found it meant bewildered, which didn't make any sense to me. It was disappointing because I thought I was being clever. Ha ha.


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## Aquarius (Oct 18, 2017)

Elvenswordsman said:


> . . . My favorite German word is "Nuscht", which is a variance found in some Bayerisch (or maybe Schwabisch) areas of Germany for "Nicht" . . .



How about the word 'Nuschelkopf', which has nothing to do with 'nuscht'. It describes someone who speaks rather unclearly, for example Hans Moser used to do this in his native Viennese dialect.


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## Jack of all trades (Oct 18, 2017)

> Smithereens | Definition of Smithereens by Merriam-Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com/.../ ... Although no one is entirely positive about its precise origins, scholars think that smithereens likely developed from the Irish word smidiríní, which means "little bits." That Irish word is the diminutive of smiodar, meaning "fragment." Written record of the use of smithereen dates back to 1829.


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## Jack of all trades (Oct 18, 2017)

SueC said:


> I liked the word nonplussed, even though I wasn't sure of its meaning. I tried to use it once in a story to convey apathy but after actually looked it up, I found it meant bewildered, which didn't make any sense to me. It was disappointing because I thought I was being clever. Ha ha.


The Harry Potter characters were often nonplussed.


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## bdcharles (Oct 18, 2017)

SueC said:


> I liked the word nonplussed, even though I wasn't sure of its meaning. I tried to use it once in a story to convey apathy but after actually looked it up, I found it meant bewildered, which didn't make any sense to me. It was disappointing because I thought I was being clever. Ha ha.




_Nonplussed _seems like an odd word, as in "this mathematically adds nothing to my understanding or the situation". If I'm really bemused (which is not an _amused_-lite as I used to think!) to the point of understanding less than I did before, then am I _minussed_? It is as if computer code has crept into our lexicon, which is of course completely okay. I feel a bit !+'ed about all this. Things can be exponential, so if something peaks and plateaus out, is it logarithmic? The possibilities are ∞. I'm going off on a tangent. 

I suppose, to me _nonplussed _is a smidge too careworn for my tastes (see Jack's HP comment; and _darkly _is another offender there, particularly as a dialogue tag). Same with words like _wince _and _grimace_. Every time I read those words I ... I wi-, no, I gri-, no I do this kind of clenchy spasm and my face folds up like I've been fish-hooked in the gut. Darkly.


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## Kevin (Oct 18, 2017)

Nonplussed= minussed


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## bdcharles (Oct 18, 2017)

Kevin said:


> Nonplussed= minussed



Great minds, Kev, great minds.


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## Kevin (Oct 18, 2017)

My current fave's : 
Mandilon
Pedo-stache

So, the first one I hear at work and I always have go through my mental Spanish/English dictionary, and then my Mexicano-Spanglish one. Then I laugh, remembering what it is and the married-state implications for half of us. No, it is not a musical instrument. 

The second my son used the other day:

Me: Hey, today I saw that tour guide that we had on that tour of...

Jr. : Oh, the guy with the pedo-stache?


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## Jack of all trades (Oct 18, 2017)

> Nonplussed | Define Nonplussed at Dictionary.com www.dictionary.com/browse/nonplussed to render utterly perplexed; puzzle completely. ... "to bring to a nonplus, to perplex," 1590s, from the noun (1580s), properly "state where 'nothing more' can be done or said," from Latin non plus "no more, no further" (see plus). Related: Nonplussed


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## The Fantastical (Oct 19, 2017)

How can you not love these words? 

colporteur - a person who peddles books, newspapers, or other writings, especially bibles and religious tracts

concinnity - elegance or neatness of literary or artistic style

effable - able to be described in words. Its opposite, ineffable, is more widely used.

eucatastrophe - a happy ending to a story

incunabula - books printed before 1501

nugacity - triviality or frivolity

sesquipedalian - (of a word) having many syllables or (of a piece of writing) using many long words

fabrefaction - act of fashioning or making a work of art

flosculation - an embellishment or ornament in speech

gardevisure - visor of a helmet as shown on heraldic devices

igniparous - bringing forth fire

magastromancy - magical astrology

omniregency - universal rulership; state of complete authority

patration - perfection or completion of something

perantique - very antique or ancient

quibbleism - practice of quibbling

sagittipotent - having great ability in archery

senticous - prickly; thorny

sophronize - to imbue with sound moral principles or self-control

tremefy - to cause to tremble

vadosity - fact of being fordable

xenization - fact of travelling as a stranger

artigrapher - writer or composer of a grammar; a grammarian

autexousious - exercising or possessing free will

autonym	a writer's real name; work published under writer's own name

cryptonym - secret name

euonymous - appropriately named


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