$20 Words

[MrHereWriting]

Big words aren't a problem, often it's the randomized usage of them that's the problem, and then you point this out to someone and they overcompensate instead of realizing that they write using mostly simple words and their big words are out of place and the next thing you know their writing loses all rhythm.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

'Villanelle'.

No wonder she called herself O.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I just used "philtrum" in a WIP.

 

[stickygirl]

I just used "philtrum" in a WIP.

Just paying lip service

 

[stickygirl]

I’ve got some more for y'all
‘regress’ the opposite of progress, think regression
‘vertex’ as in vertices, and intersection
‘votary’ a deeply devoted follower
‘chrism’ a consecrated, perfumed oil
These all appeared in the space of two paragraphs. There were other words like dissonance and proximate but I won’t trifle with you.

 

[MillieDynamite]

More Five & Dime words from the American Old West.

Cady – Hat, Calico Queen – Prostitute, California Collar – A hangman’s noose, Chickabiddy – A young chicken. Also used as a term of endearment for children, Choke the Horn – To grab the saddle horn, something no cowboy wants to be seen doing. Clap-Trap – An artifice for attracting applause, used chiefly in theatrical or political events. Later, applied to someone whose mouth is constantly making noise.

Dangler – An express train, Dash – Euphemism for damn, Deadshot – Strong liquor, Didn’t Have a Tail Feather Left – Broke, Diggers – Spurs (and yes, I have to pair of Diggers), Disremember – Forget or choose to forget.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Just for @EmilyMiller: aliquot.

It came up in a political discussion as a poetic metaphor. Really. (OK, sort of.)

 

[MillieDynamite]

A few more Five & Dime phrases from the Old West.

Ducky – Used in the early century as a term of endearment. Dude – Commonly, the term is applied to an Easterner, or anyone in upscale town clothes, rather than plain range-riding or work clothes. However, the term began as an insult, as cowboys first used the word to mean a pimple or boil on someone’s backside, caused by riding in the saddle all day when one wasn’t used to it. Hence, the cowboys called those “wanna-be” wranglers “dudes.” Dug-Out – A canoe or boat, hewn or dug out of a large log. Dug-Out – A canoe or boat, hewn or dug out of a large log. Dynamite – Whiskey and not the source of my pen name.

Eagle – A gold ten-dollar coin. Eatin Irons – Silverware. Equalizer – A pistol. Eucher, euchered – To out-smart someone, to be outwitted or suckered into something. Excuse-me-ma’am – A bump in the road. Exodusters – The Biblically inspired name taken by black emigrants who departed the post-Civil War South for the promised land of Kansas.

Fag – In cowboy talk, to get out fast. Fat In The Fire – To have one’s plans frustrated. “If I don’t get this job completed, the fat’s going to be in the fire.” Fetch Up – Stop suddenly. First-Swathe – First quality. Fish – A cowboy’s rain slicker, from a rain gear manufacturer whose trademark was a fish logo. “We told him it looked like rain, but left his fish in the wagon anyhow.” Five Beans in the Wheel – Five cartridges in the six chambers of a revolver. Westerners often left the chamber under the hammer empty for safety reasons. Flea-Trap – Cowboy’s bedroll. Fogy – A stupid fellow, as, “He is an old fogy.” Free-Soilers – People opposed to the extension of slavery. The name came from the Free-Soil Party, which existed from 1848 to 1854. Funkify – To frighten, to alarm. Fuss – Disturbance. “They had a little fuss at the saloon.”

More to come later!

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Millie, I'm unsure whether to be pleased or upset that I've used most of those in everyday conversation. Mind you, I've spent a lot of time in places where the full phone numbers had five digits.

More germane to this thread, ‘fellatrix’ has earned its pay on occasion. I owe ‘chthonian’ to the always-controversial, always-challenging Camille Paglia, but ‘Pythonesque’ should need no introduction.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Learned from Randall "xkcd" Munroe: apricity is the warmth of the sun.

 

[stickygirl]

I suspect this is a $10 word - cruciform, which I have just used

 

[StillStunned]

More germane to this thread, ‘fellatrix’ has earned its pay on occasion.

She's that character from Harry Potter, isn't she?

 

[stickygirl]

She's that character from Harry Potter, isn't she?

Germane was that Australian feminist from the 1970s

 

[TheLobster]

The Germane are alright, but the Frenche and the Dutche are pretty good, too.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Chary

Ecdysiast

 

[MillieDynamite]

You should be proud of yourself for knowing those things, unless you were, like me, raised by a history nut and an Old West writer of western fiction. I sure enough have a hankering to write some western fiction, but afeared he wouldn't like what I wrote!

Millie, I'm unsure whether to be pleased or upset that I've used most of those in everyday conversation. Mind you, I've spent a lot of time in places where the full phone numbers had five digits.

More germane to this thread, ‘fellatrix’ has earned its pay on occasion. I owe ‘chthonian’ to the always-controversial, always-challenging Camille Paglia, but ‘Pythonesque’ should need no introduction.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I smiled when I used ‘ecdysiast’.

I still do.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I smiled when I used ‘ecdysiast’.

I still do.

It isn't nice to refer to "using" the ecdysiast. Try saying "fucked" or "made love to" or something.

 

[stickygirl]

I used 'clachan' recently but I don't think foreign language deserves recognition here - same rules as Scrabble or else we'll have some Welsh nonsense, like poppitiping

 

[OralAllOver]

Who enjoys using big words that are written so damn well that it makes the reader rush to a dictionary to see what it means?

Example... music and memory are ubiquitous.

U imply copious inflation

 

[TheWritingGroup]

From a work in progress:

Instinct told her to make him wait. Not too long, but long enough. Liz bent to tongue his released sack, gently. Left hand reached under it, caressing and pressing on the sensitive skin between balls and asshole. The perineum whispered her biologist self. The scientist then retreated behind lusty desire to please.

Biology present entirely to amuse @EmilyMiller.

No, not really, it's because the character is a biologist, and because I have bio degrees. I do hope Emily likes it, though.

 

[stickygirl]

From a work in progress:


Biology present entirely to amuse @EmilyMiller.

No, not really, it's because the character is a biologist, and because I have bio degrees. I do hope Emily likes it, though.

I gentle kissed her episiotomy scar … So much more romantic than’Taint’

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I/ had thought this simply a dated word, but a real one: atiptoe. I write in Word and was surprised to see the red lines of misspelling appear. On checking, it is real and I feel better.

Oddly, the master bedroom lacked a closet. Stretched atiptoe, she hung the garment on a hook high on the wall, leaving her clad only in glory. I watched, mesmerized.

 

[stickygirl]

I/ had thought this simply a dated word, but a real one: atiptoe. I write in Word and was surprised to see the red lines of misspelling appear. On checking, it is real and I feel better.

Oddly, the master bedroom lacked a closet. Stretched atiptoe, she hung the garment on a hook high on the wall, leaving her clad only in glory. I watched, mesmerized.

We’re agog!

 

[caleb35]

I gentle kissed her episiotomy scar … So much more romantic than’Taint’

I will not stand for this slander against "taint," one of the English language's greatest and versatile words