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About a month ago, there was a post on HN of "unusual and amusing English words" (http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/unuwords.htm http://users.tinyonlin
by grellas 16y ago
About a month ago, there was a post on HN of "unusual and amusing English words" (http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/unuwords.htm http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/unuwords.htm), which drew the astute comment from pg that the "best sort of obscure words are ones that are obscure because they're old or highly specialized, not because someone made them up and they never really became part of the spoken language" (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1355056 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1355056).
Though educated people will tend to know a good number of the words on the list posted here, I like this list because it generally sets forth old English standbys that tend to mark the vocabulary of the speaker as being above the average or the mundane while not being pretentious or artificially fanciful.
There are many similar words: gossamer, latitudinarian, exegete, perforce, resplendent, and on and on.
The key to such words, and to their strength, lies in the fact that they are not used day-by-day by most people, that they often have classical hooks, and that their use in modern forms of expression adds variety and interest precisely because they come at the reader from an unusual angle (basically, pg's point as made above). One can differ about this or that word, of course, but the broader point is that lists of this type are helpful and fun to review.
- jokermatt999 16y ago> or highly specialized This is what makes me love a word. When I can find a word that just perfectly and succinctly expresses what I'm trying to communicate, I love it. I don't use large or obscure words to show off; I use them because I enjoy having exactly the right word to say what I mean.
- presidentender 16y agoThus your working vocabulary lacks orthogonality, but compensates with brevity.
- daeken 16y agoI know you were making a joke (I think? I laughed, at least), but I wouldn't say that he's compensating with brevity; rather, he has depth and not (much) breadth.
- presidentender 16y agoThat man can use few words but they are good words and so we can know what they all mean. If we have to use words that are not as good we have to say them more, but we do not need to know as many words.
- electromagnetic 16y agoMy biggest problem growing up was that I could latch onto these highly specialized words at an early age and wholly grasp the meaning. I then knew simple and advanced words, yet if someone didn't know the word I used I would have a hell of a time explaining it because I didn't have the moderately difficult words to still explain it in a rather succinct way. I love talking, however I like being precise with my wording. It creates an elegance without trying to create artificial elitism. Knowing words isn't a cause of intelligence it's a correlated result and faking the latter to mimic the former is a fools quest.
- btilly 16y agoThe difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. -- Mark Twain