Wednesday, February 10, 2010

For fun: favorite words

My brain was bored today, and I don't get to use my SAT words anymore now that I teach a bunch of dumb little kids. So I made a list of my favorite words, for their sounds, their spellings, and sometimes their definitions. In the end, I think this list says horrible things about the kind of person I am.

Amalgam
Bamboozle
Cahoots
Dongjak
(Okay, so it's a proper noun, but I can't help giggling every time I pass this station on the subway.)
Eviscerate
Fizzle
Gobsmacked
Halcyon
Ignomy
Jezebel
Kvetch
Lascivious
Machination
Niffeneger
(Another proper noun, author of "The Time Traveler's Wife." But I can't find a better N word.)
Ogle (It's not oogle or oggle, dumbasses!)
Penultimate
Queue
(The most ridiculous spelling of a word.)
Reconnoiter (A very silly word typically used to describe very serious missions of very serious soldier-types in novels)
Shussboomer (A fast downhill skier)
Tryst
Ukulele
Virile
Witticism
Xenomi
(a fish)
Yoni
Zuit suit


Honorable mentions: adage, lackadaisical, undulation, titillate, manipulative, rut (as animals do), presage, wanderlust, loquacious, renege, sycophant, malapropism, bailiwick, praxis, silhouette

What are yours?

6 comments:

  1. I thought I was the only one who giggled at the sound of Dongjak.

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  2. I don't really think about having "favorite" words, but just off the top of my head, since I am a fan of words, keeping with the alphabet theme and avoiding duplicates:

    Adroit
    Bated
    Cannonade
    Defenestrate
    Esoteric
    Facade
    Götterdämmerüng
    Hyperbole
    Indefatigable
    Joie de vivre
    Klaxon
    Lacerate
    Masticate
    Nebulous
    Obfuscate
    Pulchritude (since Penultimate was taken)
    Quizzical (ditto Queue)
    Raison d'être (so useful AND cool-sounding!)
    Schadenfreude
    Therapists (I love SNL Celebrity Jeopardy's Sean Connery)
    Uvula
    Xeriscape
    Yonder
    Zealous

    Honorable Mention:
    Austere, Abeyance, Deus ex machina, Hierarchical, Manoeuvre (but only the British spelling), Rapport, Veracity

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  3. Just noticed that I failed to transcribe V: Vorpal

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  4. oh i love this question - i miss words!! not for their sound or spelling, but their meaning, sigh. not SAT words, common words that I can't use any more.... indifferent, scalloped, rectify, ratify, hypo-anything, psychosocio..., cacophony, ferel, rescusitate, implications, liable, miriad, time-honored, miandering, barage, gnawing at, delectable, publications. sorry i didn't spell chack my boss is coming!!

    ReplyDelete