this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2024
356 points (98.6% liked)

Asklemmy

43891 readers
984 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Overmorrow refers to the day after tomorrow and I feel like it comes in quite handy for example.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 102 points 1 month ago (4 children)

perambulation is a good one. My morning walk isn't quite grand enough to be called a 'constitutional'; nor scenic and leisurely enough to be called a 'stroll'; nor yet social enough to be called a 'promenade'; 'perambulation' is just the ticket.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 month ago

I thought the morning constitutional was taking a shit.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago

And what a lovely paragraph about it. Thank you.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 90 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Interrobang.

It's this thing: ‽

More people should use the symbol because it looks cool and has a badass name, so for that you need to know what it's called.

Who's with me‽

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Interrobang sounds like something from a porno about police work.

“Did you question the suspect?”

“Yeah, Chief, we interrobanged him and got the info.”

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago (2 children)

While I like the concept, I can't help but prefer '!?' or '?!'. There's more granularity of meaning, and I think it just looks nicer having two or more separate characters.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Only if you agree to stop calling them Hashtags and use their more-correct name of Octothorpes

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 76 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Petrichor: The smell of rain on dry ground. One of those things everybody knows about but lacks a word for.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Overmorrow refers to the day after tomorrow

Figured the other way around might be as obscure...
nudiustertian: relating to the day before yesterday

Yikes

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

To add to that, "ereyesterday" is the noun version for the day before yesterday.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

the german version "Übermorgen" is widely used in germany.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 month ago (13 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I actually dislike that term a lot.

It's like spunkgargleweewee. It seems immature and makes me feel more dismissive towards the argument. Maybe that also has to do with it being a catch all term and people seem less willing to give specific examples of how things are declining in quality.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (4 children)

spunkgargleweewee

You're claiming that is a term people use?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago (8 children)
load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (12 replies)
[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Sonder (noun): the feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles: In a state of sonder, each of us is at once a hero, a supporting cast member, and an extra in overlapping stories.

dictionary.com

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This one always makes me smile, because it's from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It's just some guy's blog in which he comes up with new words to express experiences and emotions that are difficult to describe, and that specific one has thoroughly broken containment

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 month ago (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 month ago (6 children)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"Thrice" is a somewhat obscure word that otherwise fits.

"Adventitious" is a good one. It means "non-inherent" or "acquired" (as opposed to inherent.)

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Widdershins. It means counter to the sun's direction , and was seen as inauspicious. Counter-clockwise, before clocks.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Avuncular - of or having the qualities of an uncle.

“His avuncular joke was both lazy and sexist”

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Gormless - Lacking initiative, foolish

Copacetic - correct, orderly, good

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Borborygmus I use often enough, but it's not widely known. It's the gurgling sound produced by the movement of gas through your intestines.

Limaceous I almost never use, but I enjoy it anyway. It means characteristic of or pertaining to slugs.

And lastly, tawdry is one of my favorites meaning showy but cheap and poor quality.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)
  • Paramour

It sounds fancy, but means a casual lover. A fuck buddy. A friend with benefits. Though it can also carry the implication of being an out-of-wedlock lover, as it dates back to a time where having a fuck buddy was almost certainly a sign of married infidelity.

  • Kith

Means one's friends and other people they are close to that aren't family. Often paired with "kin". Kith and kin. Friends and family.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

A paramour is an “other lover”. Para = beside, amour = love. It’s not a casual fuck buddy, it’s your cheating partner. I’m surprised to hear you say it’s unknown as a word these days? Seems like just a normal word to me, albeit one I’m happy to go without using as cheaters suck.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Shemomedjamo - Georgian word meaning to eat past the point of fullness because it tastes so good or as I heard it, "I accidentally ate the whole thing."

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (17 children)

Not a word, but there's a specific phrase uttered when you casually pass by someone working, stop for a chat, and then genuinely wish them well with their work as you leave.

This phrase does not exist in English:

  • "Break a leg" is close, but more reserved for some grand performance

Nor does it exist in German:

  • "Viel Spass/Glück" (Have fun, Good Luck) is also close, but has an element of sarcasm and/or success through chance.
  • (Edit) "Frohes Schaffen" (Happy 'getting it done') is pretty spot on.

In Turkish, you just say "Kolay Gelsin", meaning "May the work come easy so that you finish sooner".

Its such a useful unjudgemental phrase, easily uttered, that I've seen nowhere else. Maybe other languages have it too.

load more comments (17 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Indubitably!

It means most certainly, beyond questioning.

And it's fun to say!

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Grok

It means to know or understand, like "yeah man I can grok that."

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

Specifically, it refers to a deep understanding.

[A critic] notes that [the coiner's] first intensional definition is simply "to drink", but that this is only a metaphor "much as English 'I see' often means the same as 'I understand'". (from Wikipedia)

When you claim to "grok" some knowledge or technique, you are asserting that you have not merely learned it in a detached instrumental way but that it has become part of you, part of your identity. For example, to say that you "know" Lisp is simply to assert that you can code in it if necessary – but to say you "grok" Lisp is to claim that you have deeply entered the world-view and spirit of the language, with the implication that it has transformed your view of programming. Contrast zen, which is a similar supernatural understanding experienced as a single brief flash. (The Jargon File; also quoted on Wikipedia)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Being pedantic, but it's beyond that.

To grok is to know or understand so completely, it becomes a part of yourself. To know something fully. You can understand the concepts of astrophysics, but you might not grok the concept.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (12 children)

I've got six of them:

  • Tittynope: "A small amount left over; a modicum."
  • Cacography: "bad handwriting or spelling."
  • Epeolatry: "the worship of words."
  • Kakistocracy: "a state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens."
  • Oikophilia: "love of home"
  • Tenebrous: "dark; shadowy or obscure"
load more comments (12 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Sesquipedalian: A user of big words

I like that saying sesquipedalian makes you sesquipedalian.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago

Brobdingnagian.

It's a very big word that means very big.

It comes from Gulliver's travels. The Brobdingnagians are giants, 12 times the height of humans. The word isn't limited to that scale, but it's definitely for things that are unusually large compared to us.

It's the literal opposite of Lilliputian, which is from the better known race from "Travels" that are 1/12 our size.

It's my absolute favorite word. Not just because it's a literary reference but it's fun to say. Brob ding nag ian. It just burbles off the tongue like a drunken stream stumbling among the rocks of its bed. And, it's a big word that means big, which is just fun wordplay. Like the phobia of big words, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, which was inevitable as soon as the idea of a phobia of big words was conceived.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (8 children)

I'd settle for not seeing "should/could/would of" typed out anymore.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (9 children)

It's German but 'Rucksackriemenquerverbindungsträger', the thing between the straps of a backpack that you can connect to lighten the load on your shoulders.

I made the word up but I use it pretty often.

load more comments (9 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Gloam/gloaming

The onset of twilight/becoming gloomy

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

Propreantepenultimate. Fifth to last.

  1. Ultimate
  2. Penultimate
  3. Antepenultimate
  4. Preantepenultimate
  5. Propreantepenultimate
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

overmorgen, in Dutch. I heard this 'overmorrow' word a couple times as a response in that they wish it did exist

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Defenestration. Throwing someone out of a window. Example the defenestration of prague

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

Duodenum.

Doo-odd-in-umm.

The duodenum is the first section of the small intestine in most higher vertebrates, including mammals

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

I have a double whammy: Nonplussed.

Bewildered; unsure how to respond or act. Double whammy because it does not mean not-plussed like many people seem to think.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

ereyesterday is the day before yesterday. as a german i am used to refer to two days in the past and future without useing weekdays.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

Obstreperous - noisy or difficult to control (as in "the boy is cocky and obstreperous")

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Meant to say in my Nero Wolfe comment - there's a Lemmy community for interesting words at [email protected] - it's not very busy, but still.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (4 children)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I like penultimate, next to last.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›