Post a word you don't think most people know.

[elperromagico]

I'll start:

perspicacity
n.
Acuteness of perception, discernment, or understanding.

Your turn.

[specter]

1. the magic dog?

[elperromagico]

5. I knew all three of those words already.

;)

[specter]

17. LOL

ur funny :)

[Hello_Kitty]

2. Sangfroid

[GAspnes]

3. syzygy

the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) in a gravitational system

[qnr]

11. Also the original name of Atari

[CO Liberal]

4. "Ferrule"

The little hard tips on each end of a shoelace.

[Dookus]

42. I always thought that was

an "aglet"

[rwenos]

6. "Disintermediation"

What happens when money flows out of a financial institution (usually for loans) faster than it's flowing in, at a low interest rate, and the financial institution can't borrow money to cover the outflow, because interest rates are rising at the Federal Reserve.

Basically, a precursor to the financial institution failing.

Kind of like the national budget under Bushie's tax cuts for the rich, eh?

[ZenLefty]

7. obloquy

obloquy \OB-luh-kwee\, noun:
1. Strongly condemnatory or abusive language or utterance.
2. The condition of disgrace suffered as a result of public blame, abuse, or condemnation; ill repute

[auntAgonist]

13. heh ..

too good for shrub methinks "The condition of disgrace suffered as a result of public blame, abuse, or condemnation; ill repute"

[Baja Margie]

8. Morbilli

Technical term for measles.

[auntAgonist]

9. tetrachotomous

divided into fours

[AngryAmish]

10. Defenestrate

To throw from a height.

[crispini]

18. Actually I believe it's to throw out a window. :) n/t

[Ediacara]

51. it actually sounds to me

like the root means to remove a window :-)

[Nag Champa]

12. Misunderestimate

I don't know the exact definition. I didn't attend Yale.

[drhilarius]

14. Catachresis

cat·a·chre·sis ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kt-krss)
n. pl. cat·a·chre·ses (-sz)
The misapplication of a word or phrase, as the use of blatant to mean “flagrant.”
The use of a strained figure of speech, such as a mixed metaphor

[Lefty48197]

15. Roe

fish eggs

[HEyHEY]

16. Converter

Tv remote!

Found out you yankee types don't use that word

[elperromagico]

19. I hear Canadians call their carholes "garages."

Your strange ways perplex and amaze me.

:P

[mulsh]

20. erudite

adj. very learned, scholarly

most people seem to pronounce this word er-ee-oo-dite, guess there's an invisible vowel.

[DS1]

21. Compassion

Oh wait, that's a word I don't know

[AZCat]

22. "Ignoratio Elenchi"

ignoratio elenchi

n : the logical fallacy of supposing that an argument proving an irrelevant point has proved the point at issue



Note: I know it's not one word, but I like it anyway!

[Elidor]

23. Triskaidekaphobe

Afraid of the number 13.

[DulceDecorum]

24. Philtrum

http://depts.washington.edu/fasdpn/lipguide.html


Tant pis

[NuttyFluffers]

25. just in english?

well, considering modern culture we can be here all night.

let's start easy, small words people normally don't know:

puce
vole
fletch
turgid (iffy, depends on romance readers)
pith
tine
pip

:) add your faves!

[starroute]

39. I know voles

My cat leaves them for us on the doormat all the time.

[NuttyFluffers]

45. congrats! welcome to the fancy pants elitist club!

:toast: :grouphug:

god i still love the fancy pants elitist pic someone has as an avatar here!

[doc03]

26. twyeer

[Brucey]

27. chiaroscuro

the arrangement or treatment of light and dark parts in a pictorial work of art

[AGiordino]

28. catenary

n/t

[CanuckAmok]

29. Aglet.

That's what the plastic is called on the end of a shoelace.

[Ivan Sputnik]

30. octothorpe

#

[chaska]

31. Gruntled

[tuvor]

32. sprandocious

I just made that up, so I'll bet it's not very well-known.

[NuttyFluffers]

46. give it 10 years, it'll be in an english dictionary by then

i feel sprandocious is ... the sensation of whipporwills tapdancing on chocolate sprinkles.

use in a sentence: watching George W. Bush fall from bicycles and Segways gives me a most --sprandocious-- feeling up along my spine.

[tuvor]

52. LOL

The word's been defined. Use it in good health.

:)

[elperromagico]

33. Clerestory.

An upper portion of a wall containing windows for supplying natural light to a building.

[Tsiyu]

34. Ochlocracy

Mob rule

[yvr girl]

35. Sennight

Half of a fortnight

[philosophie_en_rose]

36. Effulgence.

:loveya:

[Seabiscuit]

37. Wunderlust

[Seabiscuit]

38. Remember the Watergate hearings?

"Specificity"

[Dookus]

40. callipygian

"having beautiful buttocks"

[T Bone]

41. tardive dyskinesia

ok, it's two words, so sue me...

tardive* dyskinesia*

Function: noun

Etymology: tardive* tending toward late development (from French, feminine of tardif, from Middle French) + dyskinesia*
: a central nervous system disorder characterized by twitching of the face and tongue and involuntary motor movements of the trunk and limbs and occurring especially as a side effect* of prolonged use of antipsychotic drugs (as phenothiazine)

[starroute]

43. Philoprogenitive, eleemosynary, erysipelas

Philoprogenitive - loving one's children. I got that out of one of Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd books when I was in high school.


Eleemosynary -- charitable. My mother was particularly fond of that one. The word "alms" is a sort of cut-down version of it.


Erysipelas -- a nasty kind of strep infection under the skin of the face. (My husband had it some years ago, and my aunt almost died of it back in the 30's.)

[WildEyedLiberal]

44. solipsism

sol·ip·sism ( P ) Pronunciation Key (slp-szm, slp-)
n. Philosophy

1. The theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified.
2. The theory or view that the self is the only reality.

[u4ic]

47. Oxer

In showjumping, two parallel sets of rails together that create a spread jump. The back rail is either the same height or higher than the first.

[ilovenicepeople]

48. Skearn's

=money

[JSJ]

49. defenestrate

means go out a window

[jadedcherub]

55. family guy?

[Ediacara]

50. Taphonomy

Which is a discipline made up of studying the processes of necrosis, biostratinomy, and diagenesis.

[Rabrrrrrr]

53. homoousia and homoiousia

[trigz]

54. Effervescence

Don't know what it means, though.

A Norwegian word almost no-one knows: "Omkalfatre" (ie "to change things around in an orderly fashion")

[ze_dscherman]

56. Weird words

That's where I landed when I googled up some of the words in this thread: http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/index.htm

[Whoa_Nelly]

57. obfuscate

Date: 1577
1 a : DARKEN b : to make obscure
2 : CONFUSE

Something Bush does consistently, and, without a doubt, would never be able to pronounce, much less understand and use correctly in a sentence.

[donheld]

58. I'll give you 3 words

Please and Thank you. Ok maybe i'm being sarcastic, but it does appear very few know these words.

[Pert_UK]

59. Sesquipedality = "using long words". "Disinterested" = "unbiased"....

although it has come to mean "uninterested", which is a shame.

P.

[Pert_UK]

60. Ooh! I forgot my fave - "chthonic"....

It means, "Of or relating to the underworld" or "Pertaining to the earth; earthy".

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=chthonic

I remember looking it up when reading an Umberto Eco novel.

[China_cat]

61. Ignicolist

A fire-worshipper

[SarahB]

62. doula

[DelawareValleyDem]

64. rotl

and its plural artal

[SarahB]

65. I don't mean the original Greek meaning.

This:

http://www.childbirth.org/doula123.html
more
http://www.dona.org/

[non sociopath skin]

63. Persiflage

The Skin

[Amaya]

66. meatus

[FunBobbyMucha]

67. Coachwoody.

I coined this word based on my anecdotal experience with friends and family. Whenever you lose someone in your life, for instance the stoner but lovable roommate you say goodbye to after college, the void is filled by someone similar but different, like the beery neighbor that you begin to share cookouts with, frequently commenting "You remind me so much of..."

[DelawareValleyDem]

68. splendiferous