Seldom Used Words (Cont'd)

Operose - involving or displaying a lot of effort.

Opsimath - a person who begins to learn or study late in life.

Orectic - having to do with desire or appetite.

I've got this big, satisfyingly heavy dictionary, the middle of it takes a detour from the mundane alphabetical listing of words and their meanings and lists under various themes instead. One such theme is 'fascinating words'. Sometimes I dip in to it to spice up my writing, sometimes I use some of the words in conversation: I called someone puddysticks just 'cause it sounds like an insult, apparently it's a word used by kids in South Africa and means 'very easy'.
 
Operose - involving or displaying a lot of effort.

Opsimath - a person who begins to learn or study late in life.

Orectic - having to do with desire or appetite.

I've got this big, satisfyingly heavy dictionary, the middle of it takes a detour from the mundane alphabetical listing of words and their meanings and lists under various themes instead. One such theme is 'fascinating words'. Sometimes I dip in to it to spice up my writing, sometimes I use some of the words in conversation: I called someone puddysticks just 'cause it sounds like an insult, apparently it's a word used by kids in South Africa and means 'very easy'.

Love it
 
The Return of Seldom-used Words

Upon return from my extended sojourn, I found my dear thread deactivated. Not one to be daunted, here is its resurrection, starting from the end of the Ns.

This happened to me last summer from severe dehydration;

nystagmus - noun a rapid involuntary oscillation of the eyeballs (as from dizziness)
 
Welcome back, Lady.
I think Tx may have suffered nystagmus or something similar. 'Flu [the real kind].
 
Oh I must go back and read the rest of the Ns!

Did you have naughtilicious? Not in the dictionary but is used around on the net.

:rose:
 
Oh dear! now I'm all at sea.

(I said that in hopes of being rescued by Ogg. :devil:)

I will await postings from the Doyenne of the dictionary and follow that thread (through the labyrinths of language usage, hopefully not meeting any bull-headed monsters en route, although Allard has gone on to Ns, so the Ms will not be far behind).

:rose:
 
Thanks Handley and Naoko for welcoming me back and posting to this new thread. There were a couple of O words that I skipped over to reach the end of the Ns. I will mention them here without definitions just for fun; obcordate, obconic and oakum. If anyone wants to define or discuss the last of the O words before proceeding, I am amenable. Otherwise back to the end of the Ns.

Everyone here knows nymphomania, but how about;

nympholepsy - noun 1. a demoniac enthusiasm held by the ancients to seize one bewitched by a nymph 2. a frenzy of emotion
 
Well, what are we going to do with two seldom-used words threads? Thanks Harold for giving everyone a place to land in my absence. But now what?
 
Furlong: distance of 220 yards, or about 1/8 of a mile
League: approximately 3 miles
Eyot: an islet, particularly in a river
Rede: counsel, advise, plan or scheme, more rarely, a tale or story
Mere: a lake or pond
Mead: a meadow
 
Onager- Wild Asian Ass

I found this doing research on ~2,000 BCE Mesopotamia, where I am setting a story, "Slave Girls Need Love Too!".

270px-Kulaani_Korkeasaari.jpg


Turkish Onager, cute but short.

PD_Kulan.jpg


Mongolian Kulan, a little taller.

Onagers are notoriously untamable. Equids were used in ancient Sumer to pull wagons circa 2600 BC, and then chariots on the Standard of Ur, circa 2000 BC. Clutton-Brock (1992) suggests that these were donkeys rather than onagers on the basis of a "shoulder stripe".[5] However, close examination of the animals (equids, sheep and cattle) on both sides of the piece indicate that what appears to be a stripe may well be a harness, a trapping, or a joint in the inlay.[6][7]

So if you need a word for wild Asian ass, there it is.
:D:D
 
Welcome, 1sickbastard, those are some great words, which also explain a few places I have run across.

Very nice, JackLuis. I did not know I was in need of a word for a wild Asian ass, but it is good to have one on hand, when I do.

I must admit I have a bad case of the following;

nyctalopia - noun NIGHT BLINDNESS
 
Welcome, 1sickbastard, those are some great words, which also explain a few places I have run across.

Very nice, JackLuis. I did not know I was in need of a word for a wild Asian ass, but it is good to have one on hand, when I do.

I must admit I have a bad case of the following;

nyctalopia - noun NIGHT BLINDNESS

Thank ye kindly, Ms Chardon.
I'm having a love-affair with archaic English words.
Hoary: White or grey with age, venerable, ancient, tedious familiarity.

I dated a girl once that could, in vulgar terms, be described as a piece of "wild Asian ass", but no mule was she (though she did have on hell of a kick if one drove her to anger).
 
1sickbastard, until I started this thread way back when, I had no idea of the amount of English words I had no knowledge of, and have also become a word lover due to this.

Although this next word is not really a seldom-used word, I do think it needs another entry for breastfeeding infants, especially since all of my four children were definitely nuzzlers in that respect.

nuzzle - vb 1. to work with or as if with the nose; esp: to root, rub, or snuff something 2. to lie close or snug: NESTLE ~ vt: to root, rub, or touch with or as if with the nose: NUDGE
 
1sickbastard, until I started this thread way back when, I had no idea of the amount of English words I had no knowledge of, and have also become a word lover due to this.

Although this next word is not really a seldom-used word, I do think it needs another entry for breastfeeding infants, especially since all of my four children were definitely nuzzlers in that respect.

nuzzle - vb 1. to work with or as if with the nose; esp: to root, rub, or snuff something 2. to lie close or snug: NESTLE ~ vt: to root, rub, or touch with or as if with the nose: NUDGE

My own affair with words began when, as a young lad, I started noticing the etymology of words, which for me, enriched and enhanced what the words themselves meant.
For example, the words villain and idiot:
The the first case, a villain was derived from a late Latin word villanus which meant nothing more than a farm worker (literally a person on a ville). The word came to English from the French where a villain meant a person from the village. How it now means an evil person says something (to me at any rate) about perceptions of different social classes.
In the second case, idiot come from the old Greek and meant nothing more than a person who had no professional expertise. In one dictionary, the etymology describe it as an Old French term meaning a person who was uncommonly unique and/or individualistic.

In a similar vein, the term "dyke" meaning lesbian, is shortened form of the idiom "dyke-jumper" which meant a person who disregards set boundaries.

Gaol: Middle English for jail (and pronounced just the same).
 
I disagree with you on that point, you have been a wonderful host. And your posters have included some great words and information, just like they did on mine. This is not a competition, you see, and there must be a way to resolve this without either one of us feeling left out. How about an archaic-only word thread, encompassing all the words no longer used by anyone? I would certainly post to that thread, when I come across them in my seldom-used searches.
 
My own affair with words began when, as a young lad, I started noticing the etymology of words, which for me, enriched and enhanced what the words themselves meant.
Gaol: Middle English for jail (and pronounced just the same).

This word is still in use today; mostly in the Prison Service.
 
I disagree with you on that point, you have been a wonderful host. And your posters have included some great words and information, just like they did on mine. This is not a competition, you see, and there must be a way to resolve this without either one of us feeling left out. How about an archaic-only word thread, encompassing all the words no longer used by anyone? I would certainly post to that thread, when I come across them in my seldom-used searches.
I'd suffer from brain-lock trying to figure out if a word was archaic, obsolete, or just seldom used. :p

Perhaps we can can get Laurel or Manu to merge this thread into yours: http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=972395
 
1sickbastard, thank you so much for sharing the roots of villain and idiot, as well as dyke. Of course, I had no knowledge of any of that. I do agree with you, whole-heartedly, that words contain more history than most people grasp at first sighting.

nux vomica - noun the poisonous seed of an Asiatic tree that contains several alkaloid but chiefly strychnine and brucine; also: the tree yielding nux vomica
 
That is a good idea, for sure.

But, just for the record, my dictionary says when a word is considered archaic. To be honest, there are not very many of those words overall, so whatever you want to do is fine with me. I bear no ill will towards you, my dear Harold.
 
1sickbastard, thank you so much for sharing the roots of villain and idiot, as well as dyke. Of course, I had no knowledge of any of that. I do agree with you, whole-heartedly, that words contain more history than most people grasp at first sighting.

nux vomica - noun the poisonous seed of an Asiatic tree that contains several alkaloid but chiefly strychnine and brucine; also: the tree yielding nux vomica

Nux: From the Proto-Indo-European word, knu (or kneu) meaning nut (English or Irish) or gnarl (Albanian)
Vomica: From the Latin, vomere, to throw up.

My second-year English call at university was taught by a grad student doing his Master's thesis on how word come to have meanings. I think most of the assignments he gave his students were given with the aim that we were, essentially, doing his grunt research. Still, it was an interesting class.
 
I must go offline and get a few things done, but it has been a blast to be back here, doing what I love to do, after such a long absence.

nutria - noun 1. COYPU 2. the durable usually light brown fur of the coypu (otter)
 
I must go offline and get a few things done, but it has been a blast to be back here, doing what I love to do, after such a long absence.

nutria - noun 1. COYPU 2. the durable usually light brown fur of the coypu (otter)

Please do not confuse the Coypu and the Otter.
 
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