Great Words That You Probably Don't Use

[Zootonius]

"Discombobulated" is a word I'm looking for an excuse to use.

 

[yowser]

I love the sound of 'sericeous' (covered with soft hairs) and 'discalced' (barefooted or sandal shod) needs a place somewhere in my efforts.

 

[Duleigh]

I love the sound of 'sericeous' (covered with soft hairs) and 'discalced' (barefooted or sandal shod) needs a place somewhere in my efforts.

I found this for discalced

Adjective

1. denoting or belonging to one of several strict orders of Catholic friars or nuns who go barefoot or wear only sandals.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I like the word "Petrichor," which is the earthy scent when rain falls on dry soil, because it's a great scent and I like that there's a word specifically for it. I have to use it sometime.

Wow! Another one I don’t know. I’m slipping.

Em

 

[SimonDoom]

Wow! Another one I don’t know. I’m slipping.

Em

A cool thing about the word is that even if people haven't heard of it, they know the scent that it names. I think many of us are familiar with that scent.

 

[EmilyMiller]

A cool thing about the word is that even if people haven't heard of it, they know the scent that it names. I think many of us are familiar with that scent.

I know it’s technical, but I’d like to find a use for gynodioecious in a story. I’m sure I can.

Em

 

[Duleigh]

I know it’s technical, but I’d like to find a use for gynodioecious in a story. I’m sure I can.

Em

Well, it is the evolutionary intermediate between hermaphroditism and dioecy, it shouldn't be that hard to work into erotica.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Well, it is the evolutionary intermediate between hermaphroditism and dioecy, it shouldn't be that hard to work into erotica.

That’s what I thought

 

[_Lynn_]

"Discombobulated" is a word I'm looking for an excuse to use.

I haven't used it in a story but I have said it many times.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I used flibbertigibbet in one of my stories ...

 

[MrHereWriting]

 

[MelissaBaby]

In If Only In My Dreams, I used the period (1945) appropriate word "jitney", but my husband convinced me that most people wouldn't know what it meant. So, I changed it to forklift.

 

[GrushaVashnadze]

I like to use haemorrhage a lot in conversation

I like to use haemorrhoids a lot in my stories.
Er, wait...

 

[Duleigh]

In If Only In My Dreams, I used the period (1945) appropriate word "jitney", but my husband convinced me that most people wouldn't know what it meant. So, I changed it to forklift.

Wait... you replaced a taxi cab with a forklift???

 

[MelissaBaby]

Wait... you replaced a taxi cab with a forklift???

In the forties, jitney was a commonly used name for forklifts. You can see why I changed it.

 

[alohadave]

I found this for discalced

Adjective

1. denoting or belonging to one of several strict orders of Catholic friars or nuns who go barefoot or wear only sandals.

Hmm, Catholic nun foot fetish story...

 

[RoperTrace]

I'm confident I have not yet used these words in a story, but it would be fun if they fit because I like the sound of all of them:

eleemosynary -- def. charitable

recrudescence -- the recurrence of something undesirable

impavid -- fearless

tintinnabulation -- ringing, as of bells

So that's where the word for my tinnitus comes from? Except it's the chirping of cicadas.

 

[Duleigh]

In the forties, jitney was a commonly used name for forklifts. You can see why I changed it.

jitney
ˈjit-nē
NOUN
plural jitneys

1. an unlicensed taxicab
2. bus sense 1aa small bus that carries passengers over a regular route on a flexible schedule
3. nickel sense 2a(1)

I can't find forklift anywhere, but I'm not saying that it didn't happen. I love collecting archaic words like this, and having been a forklift operator I'd love to see a forklift reference because the only slang name I've ever found for forklift was "than damn thing"

 

[MelissaBaby]

It may be a local colloquialism. I've only heard it used by my father in law, a retired Detroit autoworker. I did find this on Bartleby.com

 

[Duleigh]

It may be a local colloquialism. I've only heard it used by my father in law, a retired Detroit autoworker. I did find this on Bartleby.com


View attachment 2297170

Cool! Thank you! (I'm not going to argue with The Union)

 

[djrip]

I like fuliginous. I learned it from The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Just came across Philocalist. Great word we should all at least try to embrace if not use.

Philocalist: Noun: To be a lover of all things beautiful or to find the beauty in all things

 

[SimonDoom]

Piebald -- having white patches against otherwise dark hair, like a piebald horse

 

[cdstefi]

Autogynephilia.

Basically when a CD finds themself so sexy they have to jerk off

I'm sure there may be a more clinical definition available.

 

[nice90sguy]

eleemosynary -- def. charitable

I came across this word in an early 20th century novel a few years back. It's an adverb - it describes an act, rather than a person. It was used in the novel humourously, as, even then, the word was considered pompously arcane and erudite.

A lot of "big words" people have listed here would probably be taken in the same way, as, pompous, if used in anything other than a humorous context,