words
 

A question I have to answer for my spoken word class: what is your favorite word?

Its more difficult for me than I expected, thought I'd see what interesting things yous guys have to say.

sesquipedalian

Ha. Ha. Ha.

I'm reading a niftly little book about the Oxford English Dictionary right now.. 'The Professor and the Madman'.

i duno... poop! ahahha... i cant say that word and not laugh.

Gnarly.


Just because.

kinda related.

compendium of lost and out of date words:

http://phrontistery.info/clw.html

some of my favorites...

brephophagist - one who eats babies
bajulate - to bear a heavy burden
crassulent - grossly obese
diffibulate - to unbutton or unbuckle
foppotee - simpleton
gnathonize - to flatter
historiaster - petty or contemptible historian
hiulcity - an opening or cleft
surgation - erection of the penis

that being said, i dont know what my favorite word is.

Cooter.

breasts

troglodyte


however that would be my first runner up.

uglyography.

quando

why quando?

why not?

vagina

Synecdoche! It sounds pretty awesome.

*tongue clicks*

doesnt have to be english, does it?

illicit and elicit

That's one of my favorite non-fiction books. Well, not one of my favorite, but a book that I really liked. If you like it, I'd suggest reading An Empire of Wealth, by John Gordon Steele ... they're both remarkably well told stories that are historically accurate... and you get a feeling for the weight of personality over Western history.

I don't have a favorite word... it all really depends on how the word is used and how often it is used. Often times, the writer's favorite word becomes his reader's least favorite.

But if I had to chose, it would be the word "gob," as in, a synonym for the word "mouth." For instance, "Biddy gave her a belt in the gob and left her sprawlin' on the floor."

Biddy gobbed in her gob.

"the weight of personality over Western history"?

You get a feel for what the personalities of important historical figures had over different events in Western history, especially American history... particularly American business and economic history. Madison and Jefferson's personal rift with Hamilton, which motivated them to scrap his National Bank; Commidor Vanderbuilt serving as the de facto national reserve for 60 years, rescuing the world from major more than one major depression; the unique relationship that went on behind the scenes to motivate "Madison v. Marbury," which established the power of the judiciary... It's a constant reminder that while policy, laws, and morality are important for guiding decisions and events, it's always the people behind them that make those events important.

It wasn't the assertion that people are important to human history i was questioning, but the delimitation of the western world.

And now that I've wrapped up The Professor and the Madman, I think I'll take you up on that and check out Empire of Wealth when I've got a free moment, though now I'd also like to read the similarly titled Empire of Words, also on the OED.