Overmorrow refers to the day after tomorrow and I feel like it comes in quite handy for example.

  • themadcodger@kbin.earth
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    9 months ago

    Borborygmus I use often enough, but it’s not widely known. It’s the gurgling sound produced by the movement of gas through your intestines.

    Limaceous I almost never use, but I enjoy it anyway. It means characteristic of or pertaining to slugs.

    And lastly, tawdry is one of my favorites meaning showy but cheap and poor quality.

    • Zorg@lemmings.world
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      9 months ago

      The are all great, but tawdry is fantastic!

      Rolls of the tongue, and we all come across several tawdry things/people in a given day.

    • Alice@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      At least 20 years of having slugs as a special interest and I never heard the word limaceous?? Thank you for correcting this!

      Now to find out if it actually has specific academic usage and the biologists will execute me if I use it regarding slugs outside the superfamily Limacoidea.

    • wewbull@feddit.uk
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      9 months ago

      For those that can’t believe it’s not a racial slur.

      Niggard (14th C) is derived from the Middle English word meaning ‘stingy,’ nigon, which is probably derived from two other words also meaning ‘stingy,’ Old Norse hnǫggr and Old English hnēaw.[2] The word niggle, which in modern usage means to give excessive attention to minor details, probably shares an etymology with niggardly.[3]

  • Jarlsburg@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Ultracrepidarian

    An ultracrepidarian—from ultra- (“beyond”) and crepidarian (“things related to shoes”)—is a person considered to have ignored this advice and to be offering opinions they know nothing about.

    The word is derived from a longer Latin phrase and refers to a story from Pliny the Elder

    The phrase is recorded in Book 35 of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History as ne supra crepidam sutor iudicaret[1] (“Let the cobbler not judge beyond the crepida”) and ascribed to the Greek painter Apelles of Kos. Supposedly, Apelles would put new paintings on public display and hide behind them to hear and act on their reception.[2] On one occasion, a shoemaker (Latin sutor) noted that one of the crepides[a] in a painting had the wrong number of straps and was so delighted when he found the error corrected the next day that he started in on criticizing the legs.[2] Indignant, Apelles came from his hiding place and admonished him to confine his opinions to the shoes.[2] Pliny then states that since that time it had become proverbial.[2]

  • Doxatek@mander.xyz
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    9 months ago

    Defenestration. Throwing someone out of a window. Example the defenestration of prague

    • loudambiance@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Sometimes I feel like I’m still the only person who still uses it. I’m teaching my daughter the proper way to use it because the schools aren’t.

  • viralJ@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Something I learnt recently and which is rampant on gay social apps: sphallolalia - flirting that doesn’t lead to meeting irl.

    • Corroded@leminal.spaceOP
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      9 months ago

      What a great word in today’s dating scene. Is it an older word that has been modified to be more modern?

  • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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    9 months ago

    overmorgen, in Dutch. I heard this ‘overmorrow’ word a couple times as a response in that they wish it did exist

  • TootSweet@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    “Thrice” is a somewhat obscure word that otherwise fits.

    “Adventitious” is a good one. It means “non-inherent” or “acquired” (as opposed to inherent.)

      • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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        9 months ago

        Yes, I learned English here in Austria and I remember classmates asking the teacher how to say “vorgestern” and “übermorgen” in English.

        We didn’t learn the words “ereyesterday” and “overmorrow” that day, only “the day before yesterday” and “the day after tomorrow”. :(

      • JimBeann@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Never saw this one before and not sure how to pronounce it while the German Vorgestern is as commen as Übermorgen.

        English on the other hand has fortnight which I think is very cool as we don’t have a special word for 14 days

        A little off topic but I find these words extremely interesting that have no direct translation as they often give a new perspective on things or concepts.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    Brobdingnagian.

    It’s a very big word that means very big.

    It comes from Gulliver’s travels. The Brobdingnagians are giants, 12 times the height of humans. The word isn’t limited to that scale, but it’s definitely for things that are unusually large compared to us.

    It’s the literal opposite of Lilliputian, which is from the better known race from “Travels” that are 1/12 our size.

    It’s my absolute favorite word. Not just because it’s a literary reference but it’s fun to say. Brob ding nag ian. It just burbles off the tongue like a drunken stream stumbling among the rocks of its bed. And, it’s a big word that means big, which is just fun wordplay. Like the phobia of big words, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, which was inevitable as soon as the idea of a phobia of big words was conceived.