Grossly underused words
 

God, there are some words that are so good it's nearly criminal that they are used as infrequently as some others.

My favorite: Chucklehead. It's a great word to use when describing someone of mild intelligence, or just someone who gets on your nerves. A universal word for the universal person.

What are some of your favorites?

I love chucklehead. I think the reason it's insultingly effective is because it's used so rarely.

Off the top of my head, I think alacrity and celerity could be used a little more often. They mean basically the same thing: with great speed.

I really enjoy the term "mollycoddled", but I only hear it about once a year. It cheers me up every time, though.

Porchmonkey Pollyanna. There was a hardcore sorority ditz I knew of in college and I called her a "blathering pollyanna" (pollyanna is an incredibly optimistic person. This girl was sickeningly cheerful and very giggly; you could hit her upside the head with an aluminum bat, knocking out half of her teeth in the process, and she'd still show her teeth like Mr. Ed). To which she said "NO, MY NAME IS JUST ANNE."

I seriously facepalmed myself.

I like the word 'tentative'. Its another word for 'hesitant', but I think 'tentative' is the better of the two words. It just... FEELS more like the action. But I rarely, if ever, hear anyone else use it. Maybe that's just me though.

Also, 'augment'. Its just FUN to say. "I've augmented my savings by taking another job." Its FUN.

I love to insert the word "troglodyte" into sentences when referring to inept coworkers or people I generally dislike.

"If I ever see that troglodyte trying to edit my student sheets again without my expressed written permission, I swear to god Andy, I'm going to talk her into suicide by the end of the week. She's Catholic; it'll be easy."

I don't think it's an ACTUAL word, but I absolutely adore the term 'clusterfuck'. I rarely use it myself, but when I do [or hear it used], it's well worth it.

According to Urban Dictionary, it IS a word so I think you're in the clear.

Interesting. I didn't know it came from the military.

=D My professors started pulling from their vocabulary and I was so impressed with some of these that I'm now making it a point to insert into mine to confuse others even further:


emaciated - extremely thin
Note: will probably replace "waif"

aegis - shield/protection, to act under the shield/protection of someone

hegemony - preeminence of one group over others

I've always liked brobdingnagian (really, really big). Actually comes from the Brobdingnag giants from Part II of Gulliver's Travels and somehow entered the English language. If you've even seen Justice League Unlimited, The Question uses this word once to describe his hate for Luthor.

Also, hodgepodge, 'cause man is that ever fun to say!

As an army person I hear clusterfuck all the time, as well as other colourful words and phrases such as 'disappear into a red mist', 'dog' (referring to a food), 'digging with your eyelids', etc.

I have to agree 'augment' is a beautiful word, with references to music and linguistics. Luckily it hasn't been abused in drab corporate-speak - which bastardized 'roadmap', 'moving forward', 'we're committed to...', 'core', 'milestone'.

Among some of the words I'd like to see more often (off the top of my head), cantankerous, lacuna, augment, dictum, expunge, profligate.. there are a lot more, but I'm having a brain fart as of now.

Foible.

I first learned about its existence from a song, and it's been stuck in my head as a funny word to say. All I need to do now is actually remember to use the word in casual conversation. I think I've only successfully deployed it once.

macadamia, ga-ze-bo...

Catawampus is one of those words that people don't know is a real word. But it's so useful for certain situations... though I usually pronounce it the hick way, 'cattywompas'.

You should define it then so we can be both entertained and educated.

extant. It just means "existing" or "still in existence".

condign (deserved, appropriate) is the domain name I use for GFWiki, and I chose it because nobody ever uses that word. Except this guy.

Ersatz is a fantastic word and I use it all the time. It means "makeshift" or "substitute", usually implying that the replacement is, in some way, inferior to the original.

Having discovered that the small, metal strip had become wrenched, disconnected and now lost during the wash cycle, Steve placed a paperclip through the holes in the tooth-fastener and fashioned himself an ersatz zipper tab.

I was going to use ersatz, but Crash beat me to it. That's always been a favorite of mine.

Defenestrate is one that's always held a place in my heart but is rarely seen or heard, even when I hear of one's possessions being forcibly ejected through a window. I'm also rather fond of old euphemisms like jinkies or golly jeepers - they make me grin idiotically.

Also, ubiquitous and magnanimous - considering their definitions, you'd think they'd be used far more often.

I'm a big fan of cretin, capricious and niggling.

"You cretin!" yelled Joson, scolding his capricious subordinate through the radio. John shifted uneasily on the spot, helplessly possessed by a niggling - almost negligible - urge to kill the demons.

Asinine. It's a fair game insult on virtually every single board.

I have a friend who uses this word too much. I think he learned it and heard me say it once, and now he says it all the time. The worst part is he says it incorrectly. Like, something will be just plain dumb and he'll say "that's so fucking asinine." I get a chuckle but it gets old after a while.

...I just had to respond to this. Partly out of humor and just to let Identity know that he's not the only one who knows of this "song".

..Bulbous bouffant...

Well, on this note, I might as well let everyone else in on this amusing sketch, for those that don't know what we're referring to.

Anyways, I kinda liked using the word "madness". It sounds more mature and refined than 'crazy' or 'screwed up'. "This is madness" used to be something I'd say sometimes for a "this is crazy/messed up" line, and mind you, it was well before the movie 300 was around.

I can hardly even say 'madness' alone online anymore without being inundated by "THIS IS SPARTA!!". :(

Omnipotent. I just like the feel of that word. And I like how the "ni" is emphasised. Hell, any word with prefix omni- (omnipresent, omnivorous etc). Good thread, this one; I'll be sure to use certain words, such as chucklehead. (My favourite thus far.)

I used to think "evanescence" was a grossly-unused word. Do you know how much I hate the band for running the word through the shit-grinder?

One of my favorite words is lethologica. "The inability to remember a certain word."

I have frequent need to reference it. :(