Obscure and underused words

[Ekserb]

I think there are lots of words that are interesting and/or just plain fun that don't get used enough in normal conversation. Maybe they've been long forgotten by regular folks, maybe their meaning has changed over the years and they've fallen from favor, or maybe they're just so obscure that not many people have ever heard them. They can also be words that everybody knows, but you feel could be used more often - just because.

Here's your chance to resurrect those words that you feel could use a boost.

Only two suggestions:

1) It has to be an actual word - we need to be able to verify the word with a dictionary or thesaurus. You can't make up phony words.

2) You can't use it in a sentence or define it here (EDIT: unless your word has more than one meaning and you'd like to see the less obvious definition used more often). If anybody is curious about its meaning, they should look it up on their own.

 

[Ekserb]

I'll start:

Stymied. Just 'cause it's fun.

 

[Steelboot]

oleaginous-

only heard that word used once in my life

 

[Ekserb]

oleaginous-

only heard that word used once in my life

And did you have to look it up like I just did?

 

[College_geek]

Din

Short and sweet.

 

[Steelboot]

And did you have to look it up like I just did?

That I did.
Here's one Henry Kissinger is fond of- opprobrium

 

[TitilateMe]

dun

It's also short.

 

[Ekserb]

I have a feeling this thread is going to see repeated use of my Mac's Dictionary app. I hope so, anyhow!

 

[pookies]

 

[Leftwriter]

I admit I'm guilty of actually using the word "oleaginous", but only because the slang origins of "oily" didn't seem appropriate for the occasion in question. Well, that and I'm a bit of a snot for accuracy, which is the same reason I refuse to use normalcy instead of normality.

How about: cacophonous

 

[C.S.]

none of these words seem particularly obscure to me, I wonder if it's a difference between American English and British English, or just how much I read...

anyway, my appropriate for this forum entry is; pudenda

 

[trysail]

Sesquipedalian

 

[trysail]

oleaginous-
only heard that word used once in my life

Pinguid

 

[mrjdoedevil]

my favorite:

Callipygous

 

[Daizie]

Behest

 

[monique1971]

rodomontade

 

[trysail]

Steatopygous

 

[Ekserb]

I fear some are taking this thread in a different direction. I didn't mean for it to be filled with the most obscure words you could think of, but for the suggestions to be words that could be used in normal conversation but aren't, for whatever reason. Some of the posts have been words that are pretty esoteric and would hardly find their way into day-to-day language.

 

[pookies]

 

[trysail]

Galactophagist
(I am one!)

 

[bluebell]

Some from my crazy mind.

I may never leave this thread. I'll just camp out until my eyes wear out or I die. Won't that be fun?

Flummox(ed)

Dearth

Malady, Maladies

Rankle

Churlish

Obstreperous

 

[monique1971]

I fear some are taking this thread in a different direction. I didn't mean for it to be filled with the most obscure words you could think of, but for the suggestions to be words that could be used in normal conversation but aren't, for whatever reason. Some of the posts have been words that are pretty esoteric and would hardly find their way into day-to-day language.

I use my word, thank you very much. I admit that I don't use it often, but sometimes there's no other word that will do.

Here's another: malediction.

Bluebell, I love all of your words! You clever girl.

 

[sparklebear00]

superflous

i used to love that word.

 

[Lorali82]

Defoliate.

Also, I think "refoliate" should be a word.

 

[Lorali82]

Din

Short and sweet.

Mark Steines used your word recently in a story about Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer-husband-guy:

"Mark said, 'Howard, in tears, at times unable to speak, shares with me that his daughter is the light helping him go on. As the plane lifts above the clouds, Howard thinks of those his precious Anna Nicole left behind. In a voice barely heard above the din of the jet engines he tells me, ‘I want her friends to pray that Anna Nicole is safe, happy and with Daniel.’ After the plane touches down in the Bahamas, watching Howard hold Dannielynn for the first time since her mother’s death is heart wrenching. With tears rolling down his face he reveals the depth of his pain: ‘I wouldn’t be here now, but I had to get back to Dannielynn. I held her in my arms and couldn’t believe her mom is gone. I know Anna loved her more than anything in the world.’”