Seldom-Used Words

[CarlusMagnus]

Driving on the left is tricky…

Walking is tricky in a place where they drive on the wrong (to you) side of the street.

When I visited London a few years ago, I almost came home in a box after—several times—looking to my left while stepping off the curb. (Or, in London, I suppose, the "kerb".)

 

[Handley_Page]

Walking is tricky in a place where they drive on the wrong (to you) side of the street.

When I visited London a few years ago, I almost came home in a box after—several times—looking to my left while stepping off the curb. (Or, in London, I suppose, the "kerb".)

The visitor needs to be awake under those circumstances.
That said it's not just London; any strange city is almost as deadly.

 

[PayDay]

Lethiferous Post

A Writerly Thread: Feel welcome to post your favorite obscure word, whether archaic or not and we can all expand our vocabularies at the same time.

This is pages and pages of good stuff, good thread. Mine is not so obscure as a noun, but is seldom used as an adjective. incorrect use= ftw

Appaloosa: n, A breed of saddle horse developed in northwest North America, characteristically having a spotted rump.

 

[AllardChardon]

Thank you, everyone for your contributions and welcome Atavist and Payday.

Og, after posting Pythia, I researched it and found it fascinating reading, especially the trances the vapors produced in the Oracle. Her words being gibberish did make me wonder about the priests doing the interpreting, and I concluded the same thing you addressed, a case for politically-biased prophecy. I am amazed the practice still occurs, whether at Delphi or somewhere else.

Pythagorean - noun one of a group professing to be followers of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras and stressing mathematics, astronomy, music, metempsychosis, and the mystical significance of numbers

 

[PayDay]

Thank you, everyone for your contributions and welcome Atavist and Payday.

Pythagorean - noun one of a group professing to be followers of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras and stressing mathematics, astronomy, music, metempsychosis, and the mystical significance of numbers

Thanks for the cool thread. There is bunches of fun to be had with these words. I'm actually going to steal Pythagorean, if you don't mind.

 

[AllardChardon]

Thanks for the thumbs up, Payday, and the kind thoughts, Jack Luis. I love words, so that is what prompted me to start this thread. I must admit, I had to look this one up;

metempsychosis - noun the passing of the soul at death into another body either human or animal

 

[vampwrrr]

Gloaming: twilight. It just sounds exactly like what it's supposed to be. ^.^

 

[chaohao]

wow, a big surprise here: http://www.100yeartrade.com/goods_aWQJMzQ0OQ==.html

 

[AllardChardon]

Welcome, vampwrrr, that is a great word and seldom-used, as well.

Pyrrhonism - noun 1. the doctrines of the founder of a school of skeptics in Greece 2. total or radical skepticism

 

[Handley_Page]

. I must admit, I had to look this one up;

metempsychosis - noun the passing of the soul at death into another body either human or animal

Wow; I have just the story to use that word as being just 'right'. Thank you kindly.


Re:-Pythagorean - noun one of a group professing to be followers of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras and stressing mathematics, astronomy, music, metempsychosis, and the mystical significance of numbers

They also had some strange ideas about the release of wind from the aft quarter (ie., a fart), so Beans may not have on too many menus.

 

[AllardChardon]

I wish everyone, who is celebrating Thanksgiving Day, a wonderful time without much familial dysfunction;

Pyrrhic victory - noun a victory won at excessive cost

 

[Tio_Narratore]

While we're in the pyrs, I'm rather fond of...

pyritic of or like that iron compound we call fool's gold, and

pyrogenic produced by or producing heat or fever.

I think there's a potential for both of them in erotica...

 

[AllardChardon]

I agree with you, Tio. The last word I posted comes from Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus in 272 B.C., who sustained heavy losses in defeating the Romans, in case you wanted to know a little more.

Does anyone have an example of this next word?

pyrrhic - noun a metrical foot consisting of two short or unaccented syllables

 

[Handley_Page]

Pyrrhic /prk/ a.3 L19. [Gk purrhikos, f. Purrhos, L Pyrrhus, king of Epirus: see -IC.]

Of a victory: gained at too great a cost, like that of Pyrrhus over the Romans at Asculum in 279 BC.

---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from Oxford Talking Dictionary
Copyright © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

While we're in the pyrs, I'm rather fond of...

pyritic of or like that iron compound we call fool's gold, and

pyrogenic produced by or producing heat or fever.

I think there's a potential for both of them in erotica...

Pyroclastic is also a likely candidate.

 

[AllardChardon]

Thank you, Handley, but I still don't quite get a metrical foot and should look that up myself. In the meantime, is anyone experiencing any of this, after today's feasting;

pyrosis - noun HEARTBURN

 

[Handley_Page]

Thank you, Handley, but I still don't quite get a metrical foot and should look that up myself. In the meantime, is anyone experiencing any of this, after today's feasting;

pyrosis - noun HEARTBURN

As I understand it, the "metric" bit comes from meter (metre) as in poetry.
the "foot" bit is a measure of length of said metre in the poem.

 

[AllardChardon]

Thanks, again, Handley, now it makes more sense. Somehow, metric and foot don't jive with syllables in my limited brain.

pyrophoric - adj 1. igniting spontaneously 2. emitting sparks when scratched or struck esp. with steel

 

[PayDay]

While we're in the pyrs, I'm rather fond of...
pyritic of or like that iron compound we call fool's gold, and
pyrogenic produced by or producing heat or fever.
I think there's a potential for both of them in erotica...

Vouch. Do it, I'll read it guarenteed.

pyrosis - noun HEARTBURN

Pro word joke, by the way. I'm giving it a five.

 

[AllardChardon]

Welcome, Payday. I am a Capricorn, born in January, and garnet is my birthstone, so this one caught my eye;

pyrope - noun a magnesium-aluminum garnet that is deep red in color and is frequently used as a gem

 

[PayDay]

Threw Pythagorean into one of my shorter stories today, thanks again for that, it fit well, and saved me from re-using a description for a male character.

My addition, since it seems like a letter P kind of series:

palanquin - n, a litter borne by several persons

Now if only I can figure how to use it...

 

[AllardChardon]

Payday, I am glad this thread expanded your vocabulary. That is one of its many purposes.

How about this? The dark-haired woman looked like a princess, lounging on her palaquin, while being carried across the desert by six sweaty slaves.

pyromancy - noun divination by means of fire or flames

 

[trysail]

hooplehead • n., (slang?) a member of the ignorant masses; an uneducated commoner; an idiot. word popularized by HBO's Deadwood.







Sonofabitch. I need help from Handley_Page (or someone else with access to the OED on-line) because I don't have access to the on-line Oxford English Dictionary and, thus do not know if this word is slang or has been officially blessed by the powers that be at the O.E.D. I first heard it used in Deadwood ( what a fabulous series— one whose demise I still lament). Because of its obscurity, I hesitate to use it more frequently for fear that I will not be understood.

 

[Handley_Page]

hooplehead • n., (slang?) a member of the ignorant masses; an uneducated commoner; an idiot. word popularized by HBO's Deadwood.





Sonofabitch. I need help from Handley_Page (or someone else with access to the OED on-line) because I don't have access to the on-line Oxford English Dictionary and, thus do not know if this word is slang or has been officially blessed by the powers that be at the O.E.D. I first heard it used in Deadwood ( what a fabulous series— one whose demise I still lament). Because of its obscurity, I hesitate to use it more frequently for fear that I will not be understood.

This word is not in my on-line OED.
It seems to be in the Urban Dictionary, but I wonder where "Hoople" comes from unless it really is a reference to Deadwood?.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

This word is not in my on-line OED.
It seems to be in the Urban Dictionary, but I wonder where "Hoople" comes from unless it really is a reference to Deadwood?.

I think "Hooplehead" originally applied to the greenhorn Scandinavian farmers who headed west looking for opportunity, and I'd guess the word derived from their accents, which featured the Scandinavian "yump" and a lot of umlauted o's. Deadwood's in South Dakota, and it makes sense that the majority of greenhorns migrating there would have come from N. Dakota, Minnesota, and the Upper Midwest, all of which were predominantly settled by Scandinavians. In time the word came to be applied to any rube or blockhead.

There actually is a Hoople, ND (as any fan of PDQ Bach knows), founded in 1890, but it's very small (population in 2010: 242). Still, that shows that the word was extant around the time of Deadwood.