eloquent... exotic... esoteric... (please provide definitions)

[Chinook]

cajole

transitive verb;

1. To persuade with flattery, repeated appeals, or soothing words; to coax.


pejorative

1.having a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect or force: the pejorative affix -ling in princeling.

2.a pejorative form or word, as poetaster

Synonyms:
1. deprecatory.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Why did we allow this excellent thread to lapse into a moribund (approaching death, stagnant; without force or vitality; being in a stare of inactivity or obsolescence) state?

We need to revivify (impart new life, energy, or spirit) before it lapses into a permanently exanimate (being or appearing lifeless) condition.

 

[The Judge]

A splendiferous (splendid, excellent - though best used in informal or joking situations) notion.

More resplendent (bright, shining) words required, people. Or splenetic (bad-tempered, irritable - from the idea the spleen was the seat of temper in a person) words, if you are that way inclined or temporarily feeling less than affable (friendly, good-natured).

 

[Ursa major]

Perhaps we've been exhibiting:

• Lassitude n. Weariness, languor, disinclination to exert or interest oneself. (Note that it has never meant "study of young women".)
• Languor n. Faintness, fatigue, inertia, lack of alertness; soft or tender mood or effect; slackness, dullness, drooping state; (of air) oppressive stillness. (That's a longer list than you might have expected given all the apathy involved.
• Apathy n. Insensibility to suffering; passionless existence; lack of interest or desire.

And for those of a more lunatic frame of mind: apolune n. Point in body's orbit about moon where it is farthest from moon's centre.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Instead, we should be:

sedulous diligent in effort or application; persevering, tireless; assiduous

assiduous constant or unremitting, unceasing; industrious; marked by care and persistent effort

pertinacious holding tenaciously to a purpose, belief, or action; extremely or stubbornly persistent or unyielding

 

[Thadlerian]

My favourites:

Incarnadine - a red/pinkish colour, but also the process of making something this colour.

Incalescence - the process of being heated.

Hunky-dory - OK.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

perspicacious perceptive, acute, discerning, clear-sighted, shrewd

disconsolate dejected, downcast, so sad as to be past comforting; cheerless, dreary

compunction remorse for wrong-doing, a feeling of guilt; uneasiness or hesitation at the prospect of doing wrong

unregenerate unrepentant; obstinate or recalcitrant; not renewed or reformed (especially in a spiritual sense); unconvinced and unconverted

 

[Ursa major]

Just one word, this time:

Kowtow (also kotow) n. and v.i. 1. n. Chinese custom of touching ground with forehead, as sign of worship or absolutute submission. 2. v.i. perform the kowtow; act obsequiously (to person etc.).


I've just seen the associated gerund misspelt as "cow-towing" on another web-site; it gave me entirely the wrong mental image of the action.

 

[The Judge]

Is that why they have bull bars on some vehicles?

 

[Chel]

This thread is very helpful for us non-Native English speakers. Thank you!

 

[Pyan]

Interesting characteristics for your characters:

Hemeraphonic - able to speak only at night.

Hisbid - unshaven, stubble-y.

Paramnesia - remembering things that never actually happened.

Veriloquent - only speaking the truth.

Dendrophobic - afraid of trees (not Elvish, then!).

Koinoniphobic - afraid of entering a room full of other people.

Melolagnia - the state of being made amorous by music.

 

[The Judge]

Hello Chel. I'm pleased you find the thread useful.

One word of warning, though -- many of these words need to be used with great care. Sprinkle too many of them in your prose and it will become indigestible (of food, not capable of being digested; otherwise, not readily understood or comprehended), turgid (swollen; tediously pompous) and bombastic (ostentatiously high-sounding, but done to impress rather than inform).

They're still wonderful to know, though! And used correctly, and if need be sparingly, they will add a greater dimension to anyone's writing.

 

[Chel]

Indeed!

One of the first (?) or at least best remembered things from the English classes in school is to not use any words one is not 100% certain has the correct meaning in the context of what one is trying to say. ...err... that sentence hurts!

Nevertheless, I enjoy reading all those fantabulous (–adjectiveSlang.
extremely fine or desirable; excellent; wonderful) words.

 

[J Riff]

I'm gonna wing it, and c what I can come up with.

corruscating , blazing, scorching, scathing ? - good for SciFi rayguns or to describe a savage book review. I have probed various and sundry online data banks of English verbiage, with unsatisfactory results in re: corruscating.


cannonading booming, echoing, high-velocity impact... popularized by hockey announcer Foster Hewitt. " Here's Hull at the line..and a cannonading drive just wide !

cataleptic ... . uhhh.... *

and I wanted to include carborundum but it was too hard.

 

[Ursa major]

I'm gonna wing it, and c what I can come up with.

corruscating , blazing, scorching, scathing ? - good for SciFi rayguns or to describe a savage book review. I have probed various and sundry online data banks of English verbiage, with unsatisfactory results in re: corruscating.

Lots of people think that this is what it means, but it doesn't, not exactly.


Coruscate v.i. Sparkle, flash

Coruscating wit is sparkling wit, which doesn't have to be anything other than glittering to win this adjective, whereas blazing and scorching both suggest something like your third definition: scathing.

 

[The Judge]

I agree, Ursa, but I think this may be one of those words which will change (?is slowly changing) its meaning, simply because so many people now use it as J Riff has. It reminds me of the progress of sophisticate[d] - originally meaning adulterated, ie mixed with a foreign substance, so decidedly not a quality one wanted, it is now seen as knowledgeable, experienced and a quality to admire.

Fortunately, we still have coruscant, the adjective, meaning sparkling, glittering, which hasn't been hi-jacked yet. (I was just thinking it would be an excellent name for a celestial body, when I remembered Star Wars.)

Chel, your English teacher was absolutely right. If only more published authors obeyed that precept (a general rule regulating conduct or thought)!

J Riff, cannonading is also a word undergoing change, if this is how you've heard it used. A cannonade** is a period of continuous heavy gunfire, so cannonading is discharging guns -- ie big field guns -- continuously. It's clear how the sports use has arisen in the circumstances, but I think it's a word to be a little careful of using for the present in other than dialogue or in relation to armaments.

** as opposed to a carronade which is a short type of cannon used in the navy in the 18th and 19th centuries (I read too many Patrick O'Brien's).

 

[HareBrain]

It reminds me of the progress of sophisticate[d] - originally meaning adulterated, ie mixed with a foreign substance, so decidedly not a quality one wanted, it is now seen as knowledgeable, experienced and a quality to admire.

Interestingly, my dictionary gives only negative-sounding definitions for the verb sophisticate (the first one being: "to make (someone) less natural or innocent") but a more positive mix for the adjective sophisticated (the first one being: "having refined or cultured tastes or habits")

The connection with the more postive philosophy (from the Greek: "lover of wisdom"), and the name Sophia (the feminine aspect of divine wisdom) is shown by the etymology for sophism (an argument that is invalid, specious, or misleading, and the root for sophistic, itself the root of sophisticated) thus: [C14: < L sophisma, <Gk: ingenious trick, < sophizesthai to use clever deceit, < sophos wise]

Now that I know that, what do I do?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

rodomontade arrogant boasting or bragging, bluster; a ranting speech

propitiate to conciliate, to appease; to make a sacrifice to the gods to atone for something or regain their favor after losing it

propinquity proximity; close kinship; affinity

 

[J Riff]

Odds Bodkins ,,, it was late and I made misteaks.
I meant Corundum, not carborundum...
Also, it was Danny Gallivan who used cannonading.. not Foster Hewitt. )
Lots of six years olds knew 'cannonading' from the educational hockey games. Corruscating shows up fairly often in CAS.

adumbrate to silhouette or outline, portend, suggest etc.

perforce by neccessity

macrocosm complex strucure, large world, totality

I recall looking up nacarat once, as in ' he fell into a swirling nacarat limbo. I really wondered about nacarat. Turned out to be a shade of orange as I recall.

 

[Precise Calibre]

Necroclasm - Noun - Slang - A bulk, typically of supernatural origin consisting of many dead bodies amalgamated into one mass; often depicted as being sentient and hostile.

Amalgamate - Verb - To mix or merge so as to make a combination; blend; unite; combine: to amalgamate two companies.

Withershins - Adverb - In a direction contrary to the natural one, esp. contrary to the apparent course of the sun or counterclockwise: considered as unlucky or causing disaster.