Interesting and useful words
Discussion
Sorry, not the most exciting of threads.
I was going to call it 'Word of the day', but it won't be. If you do genuinely feel (and would argue until blue in the face) that 'Nice' isn't a place in France and is a good way to describe anything other than in a pathetic, sarcastic or in a derogatory way then this thread isn't for you.
This is for people to post up a great, rare or interesting English words and for others to learn from them and enjoy it too.
I do think it's a great shame that most of us survive on the same ten words every day when there are so many better and forgotten words to use.
Don't presume i'm any good at English or some kind of wordsmith. I am not, I just enjoy learning a good word or term.
I used to have an English teacher in high school who knew a thing or two, it wasn't just a job, he enjoyed the language. If the class was disrupted by an oaf he never lost his temper, oh no. He would fix them with an unwavering stare and let loose with such derogatory and fantastic describing words (adjectives) that the whole class would titter, the time waster would blush, have no retort and stand down. Job done. I remember him describing a scruffy gobby kid as a 'vagabond'.
He was the man who pulled me up on the use of the word 'nice'. I'd done one of those awful Monday tasks of writing 'What I did at the weekend' (how I hated those) and had just used it to describe everything, "There are better ways" he said sagely, "Nice is not a good word to describe anything at all".
30yrs on I can still remember it and agree with him, although interestingly it has changed over the years and originally did mean 'stupid', but by 1926, it was described as "too great a favourite with the ladies, who have charmed out of it all its individuality and converted it into a mere diffuser of vague and mild agreeableness."
Anyhow, today's word from me is 'Obfuscation'. It's used a lot on internet forums to try and win an argument and convince the reader that they know what they are talking about whether they do or they don't.
Obfuscation is the obscuring of the intended meaning of communication by making the message difficult to understand, usually with confusing and ambiguous language. The obfuscation might be either unintentional or intentional (although intent usually is connoted), and is accomplished with circumlocution (talking around the subject), the use of jargon (technical language of a profession), and the use of an argot (ingroup language) of limited communicative value to outsiders.
Over to you....
I was going to call it 'Word of the day', but it won't be. If you do genuinely feel (and would argue until blue in the face) that 'Nice' isn't a place in France and is a good way to describe anything other than in a pathetic, sarcastic or in a derogatory way then this thread isn't for you.
This is for people to post up a great, rare or interesting English words and for others to learn from them and enjoy it too.
I do think it's a great shame that most of us survive on the same ten words every day when there are so many better and forgotten words to use.
Don't presume i'm any good at English or some kind of wordsmith. I am not, I just enjoy learning a good word or term.
I used to have an English teacher in high school who knew a thing or two, it wasn't just a job, he enjoyed the language. If the class was disrupted by an oaf he never lost his temper, oh no. He would fix them with an unwavering stare and let loose with such derogatory and fantastic describing words (adjectives) that the whole class would titter, the time waster would blush, have no retort and stand down. Job done. I remember him describing a scruffy gobby kid as a 'vagabond'.
He was the man who pulled me up on the use of the word 'nice'. I'd done one of those awful Monday tasks of writing 'What I did at the weekend' (how I hated those) and had just used it to describe everything, "There are better ways" he said sagely, "Nice is not a good word to describe anything at all".
30yrs on I can still remember it and agree with him, although interestingly it has changed over the years and originally did mean 'stupid', but by 1926, it was described as "too great a favourite with the ladies, who have charmed out of it all its individuality and converted it into a mere diffuser of vague and mild agreeableness."
Anyhow, today's word from me is 'Obfuscation'. It's used a lot on internet forums to try and win an argument and convince the reader that they know what they are talking about whether they do or they don't.
Obfuscation is the obscuring of the intended meaning of communication by making the message difficult to understand, usually with confusing and ambiguous language. The obfuscation might be either unintentional or intentional (although intent usually is connoted), and is accomplished with circumlocution (talking around the subject), the use of jargon (technical language of a profession), and the use of an argot (ingroup language) of limited communicative value to outsiders.
Over to you....
Edited by 227bhp on Tuesday 15th January 11:17
Retcon to steal a description
revise (an aspect of a fictional work) retrospectively, typically by introducing a piece of new information that imposes a different interpretation on previously described events.
Personally I think its often used simply because the writers of TV or film stuff need to shift the story significantly and cant do it easily.
Perhaps the most famous example of a retcon is the Bobby Ewing/ shower scene.
There are others too more recently the plot of Spectre where they retconned Spectre into being a sort of umbrella organisation over Quantum.
However the first example that stuck in my mind was in the Omen movies. In the first two there is a clear timeline that starts in 1976. The second movie effortlessly flows from the first one. But the third one where Damien has grown up is set around the same time period yet the events of the previous two are made to appear from several years before. It sat uneasy with me and unfortunately spoiled the movie for me a bit.
Likewise I am sure the James Bond movies started using retcon way before Spectre. Possibly as way back as OHMSS. If not then then surely when Timothy Dalton came a long.New Bond new M new Moneypenny but same old Q.
So retcon a plot device that may or may not work depending on how you view it and if like me you may be an anally retentive anorak.
revise (an aspect of a fictional work) retrospectively, typically by introducing a piece of new information that imposes a different interpretation on previously described events.
Personally I think its often used simply because the writers of TV or film stuff need to shift the story significantly and cant do it easily.
Perhaps the most famous example of a retcon is the Bobby Ewing/ shower scene.
There are others too more recently the plot of Spectre where they retconned Spectre into being a sort of umbrella organisation over Quantum.
However the first example that stuck in my mind was in the Omen movies. In the first two there is a clear timeline that starts in 1976. The second movie effortlessly flows from the first one. But the third one where Damien has grown up is set around the same time period yet the events of the previous two are made to appear from several years before. It sat uneasy with me and unfortunately spoiled the movie for me a bit.
Likewise I am sure the James Bond movies started using retcon way before Spectre. Possibly as way back as OHMSS. If not then then surely when Timothy Dalton came a long.New Bond new M new Moneypenny but same old Q.
So retcon a plot device that may or may not work depending on how you view it and if like me you may be an anally retentive anorak.
I too am a lover of our gloriously diverse language and its various forms of use. Like you, I wouldn’t claim to be a particularly proficient wordsmith but do enjoy listening to clever expression.
In this respect one of my all-time screen heroes was Sir Humphrey Appleby on Yes Minister / Prime Minister who regularly delivered some tremendous monologues to leave poor Jim Hacker in mental knots.
Stephen Fry is another master-craftsman I enjoy too.
Good thread, hopefully we can all show we’re not entire knuckle-draggers
In this respect one of my all-time screen heroes was Sir Humphrey Appleby on Yes Minister / Prime Minister who regularly delivered some tremendous monologues to leave poor Jim Hacker in mental knots.
Stephen Fry is another master-craftsman I enjoy too.
Good thread, hopefully we can all show we’re not entire knuckle-draggers
So happy I found this thread 
Vocabulary is really important in my job, I try and give myself a word of the week to learn or start incorporating into conversation, few of my recent ones:
Skeuomorphism – Design depicting real life (think textures, drop shadows etc – basically the opposite to the 'flat design' trend we've seen in the last 5-10 years)
Arbitrary – based on random choice or personal whim, rather than reason (this one is great for when you have no real justification for a choice made)
Idiosyncratic – peculiar or individual
Ubiquitous – present and/or found everywhere
Congruent – in agreement or harmony
Vocabulary is really important in my job, I try and give myself a word of the week to learn or start incorporating into conversation, few of my recent ones:
Skeuomorphism – Design depicting real life (think textures, drop shadows etc – basically the opposite to the 'flat design' trend we've seen in the last 5-10 years)
Arbitrary – based on random choice or personal whim, rather than reason (this one is great for when you have no real justification for a choice made)
Idiosyncratic – peculiar or individual
Ubiquitous – present and/or found everywhere
Congruent – in agreement or harmony
madcowman said:
Tmesis:
the separation of parts of a compound word by an intervening word or words, used mainly in informal speech for emphasis (e.g. can't find it any-blooming-where ).
most recently used in conversation relating to the Guinness book of records ; "Norris Mc-****ing-quirter"
Also referred to as a "split infthe separation of parts of a compound word by an intervening word or words, used mainly in informal speech for emphasis (e.g. can't find it any-blooming-where ).
most recently used in conversation relating to the Guinness book of records ; "Norris Mc-****ing-quirter"
kative" 
Timmy40 said:
Discombobulation is a lovely word. Meaning to make things confusing, thrown into a sentence it usually has the same effect as it's meaning.
However it's a shame that you can't then combobulate something that's been obfuscated. Such a concept would leave me feeling very gruntled.techiedave said:
Cunnilingus
I find it rolls easily off the tongue.
Its such a shame it cant be used more often in conversation
"I find it rolls easily off the tongue. " Pun intended? I find it rolls easily off the tongue.
Its such a shame it cant be used more often in conversation
Can I give you 'Hyperbole', you can just imagine Blackadder saying it.
Although it's supposedly pronounced 'Hy-perbilly' It means to speak like Jeremy Clarkson; exaggeration, overstatement, magnification, amplification, embroidery, embellishment, overplaying, excess and overkill.
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