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

[J Riff]

Limn (v) delineate, describe, there's a lot of synonyms for limn. Same for:

Lamia occultist, conjurer, witch.

Lexicon collection of word meanings, dictionary, vocabulary, word stock.

Nice little lexicon we have going here.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Anyone have a nice word for 'very, very hot'? Something a little more emphatic and/or evocative than scorching or searing?

Also, a word for someone who is dying or near death? Especially if the word can also convey agony.

 

[The Judge]

What's the context for the "very, very hot"? Not that I have many suggestions, whatever the context. This might be one of those occasions where you need a good metaphor/simile.

Blistering -- if hot on the tongue/skin, especially
Hellish -- if generally unpleasant
Fervid -- if passionate
Fevered -- if crazed with heat
Torrid -- more usually used metaphorically, its literal meaning = very hot and dry
Sultry -- if weather (or women!) though moist heat, ie humid

Any of those help?

I can't think of any good ones for "dying", sorry. Just the usual suspects like fading, sinking, slipping away, which are somehow pain free. Again, it might help if we know context. A person ravaged by cancer, whose body is fighting a losing battle against an internal enemy, would have a different death bed scene from a thief hanging on a gibbet whose life is slowly being squeezed from his body -- and therefore different verbs/adjectives are needed.

 

[Moonbat]

I like Pyretic (relating to, producing, or affected by fever) though it depends on the context as this is more of a fevered one, I also like Torrid

For near death, although I'm not sure how relevant it is, Perishing (to die or be destroyed through violence, to pass away or disappear, to suffer destruction or ruin)

 

[The Judge]

Perishing is one of those words I always see as a euphemism or alternative for swear words** -- like flaming or flipping -- so I can't take it seriously when I read it! Not helped by the fact it is also slang (?Midlands dialect even?) meaning extremely cold.

** sorry, Moonbat, probably showing my age here...

 

[Devil's Advocate]

The context is a character who is on an arduous quest, and is currently in an environment where he is passing through <insert word here> heat and wind. And I don't mean hot like the Dubai summer, I mean hot like Ejlk!f^a#&nell7 (or whatever the volcano's name is*). From the list you gave, I guess blistering suits best.

Dying: the above character keeps a journal/log of his adventures, and is writing (for the last time?) an entry, but the pen-strokes** are thin, written by a weak hand, all scraggly and shaken, barely legible, because the man in question is <insert jaw-droppingly good word(s) here that will leave the reader in sheer awe of the author's masterful and evocative prose>.


* Has there been a funnier subplot to an otherwise serious story than watching news anchors trying to update us on the volcanic ash situation, while struggling to pronounce the name correctly and with a straight face?
** Let's not worry about the plausability of a writing instrument functioning in this harsh environment.

 

[Ursa major]

For what it's worth, Eyjafjallajökull is the name of the glacier under which the volcano is situated.

Apparently, Icelanders** colloquially refer to the volcano as Eyjafjallajökull, but that doesn't make it correct: jökull is the Icelandic word for glacier, an entity not normally mistaken for a volcano, active or otherwise.


To the best of my knowledge, the volcano itself is called Eyjafyoll.





** Though perhaps only the yokels amongst them.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I think you're right. From Wiki:

The name Eyjafjallajökull is made up of the words eyja (genitive plural of ey, meaning eyot or island), fjalla (genitive plural of fjall, whose nominative plural is fjöll, meaning fells or mountains) and jökull (meaning glacier, cognate with the -icle in icicle). A literal translation would thus be the "island-fells glacier" or the "island-mountains glacier". The name Eyjafjöll describes the southern side of the volcanic massif together with the small mountains which form the foot of the volcano. The village and museum of Skógar are also part of the region undir Eyjafjöllum (meaning "under the Eyjafjalls").

I much prefer my version, though.

 

[The Judge]

Wind could be desiccating, (drying but with a harsh feel to the word) but that is more desert summer than volcanic. Perhaps it's a synonym of fiery you need, not that I can think of any which would do exactly. Incinerating, perhaps? Smelting, or seething? Perhaps making compound words using furnace and forge might given you something.

I can't think of anything which would fit easily into the dying sentence. Harrowing (distressing, but with a stronger, more visceral feel) and agonising are good words in general if you changed things around a little. Sorry can't help more with that.

 

[Moonbat]

but the pen-strokes are thin, written by a weak hand, all scraggly and shaken, barely legible, because the man in question is

languishing

I feel there is a better word out there, but I don't know what it is, something more medical, that states the person is close to death, that he is dehydrated, starving, weak and feeble.

 

[HareBrain]

From the list you gave, I guess blistering suits best.

Beware of "blistering". Although most people don't read it as such any more (because it's lost almost all its original impact from overuse) it means, believe it or not, causing blisters. Is the environment hot enough to cause blisters on your character? If not, then is the rest of your prose filled with such exaggeration?

That might be a bit picky, but either way, I think you'd be better off showing us the heat by relating the effects on the character (especially if it really is something as extreme as blistering the skin), rather than relying on an adjective. The same goes for your "dying" word -- rather than trying to think of a single verb or adjective or adverb, show us his dying by his struggling to write legibly, his physical weakness, maybe his eyesight going, etc. In my opinion.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I appreciate your post, HareBrain, and I agree with the point, but I'm not concerned about that.

The man isn't dying right now; rather, my protagonist's knowledge of the events comes from (supposedly) having read the dying man's aforementioned* journal. He is a bit of a gregarious** raconteur^, and one who is not averse to embellishing^^ his tales.

Further, the 'dying man' in question likely didn't bother with the technical definitions of things when jotting down his adventures. He himself might have exaggerated.


* Something that has been mentioned previously
** Someone who is quite social
^ A gifted storyteller
^^ Exaggerate, or add fanciful details


I thought I might as well throw in some definitions, so we can at least pretend these last few posts were on-topic.

 

[J Riff]

Hmmm. hot, hot hot....
well Hellish can work .. uhh...blast-furnacy ? Nooo....
Tropical. Muggy.

Zorch - is a slang word from way back. My old aunt had it written on her baseball glove, right next to 23-skidoo. I asked her what it meant and she said : Zorcherino, kid !

Zygote - from Greek zygotos - joined or yoked
The initial cell produced in a new organism, from the union of 2 gametes

Zonk - to stupify or stun- intoxicate with drugs or alcohol

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

equable steady, unvarying, uniform; temperate, placid, serene, tranquil in mind

equivocal of uncertain meaning, open to different interpretations; questionable, dubious

equivocation the use of equivocal or ambiguous language or expressions, especially with an intent to mislead; an ambiguous statement; to avoid committing oneself to what one says

 

[J Riff]

eeeeee

That's hard to keep straight ...all those Equ- meanings.
Hope I'm not duplicating here - I've read the whole thread but it's a lotta woids now ! Here's some words that suit my boss.

penurious stingy, penny-pinching, scrooge-like, chintzy, ungenerous, cheese-paring ! Cheap n' miserly.

parochial regional, narrow, insular, local, petty , restricted.

pusillanimous spineless, craven, spiritless, yellow-bellied.

 

[The Judge]

As the politicians smarm their way across the TV screens for the day, and we in Britain are faced with a slick as unpleasant as anything beseiging the American coastline, some politician words (which may well have been listed before but which deserve a re-hearing):

Oleaginous -- oily (literally, as in something producing oil, and metaphorically as in Peter Mandelson)

Obsequious -- servile

Sycophantic -- behaving in a flattering way to gain advantage

Disingenuous -- insincere, especially admitting to less knowledge than one has in reality

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Obsequious -- servile

Could you define that definition?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

servile slavishly submissive, abject; flattering, fawning

abject utterly hopeless, humiliating, or wretched; shamelessly servile; contemptible, despicable


(I removed your duplicate posts, Judge.)

 

[The Judge]

Thank you Teresa. I tried replying to DA but the formatting made it look peculiar - do you have super powers that you're able to bold and paragraph break?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I do have superpowers, of course, but this was not a display of them. For an explanation of how to bold, etc, look here: http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/527463-problems.html

I don't know about the paragraph breaks. I just hit enter a few times as usual, and it seems to be working now.

confound to perplex or amaze; to throw into confusion or disorder; to contradict or refute; to mingle so that the elements can't be distinguished or separated; to damn

perplex to cause to be puzzled or bewildered over something that is not understood or certain; to make complicated or confused