I find it funny that a word meaning "surpassingly beautiful" has gorge as its root, given that the only time anyone uses the word gorge in that sense today is talking about vomiting.
I've always liked this word because it's the longest word in the language with just one vowel: I have this goofy image of the e in the middle as a bodybuilder lifting a massive barbell composed of the other letters.
Another word that, to me at least, communicates something of its meaning through its sound-I always picture the light playing along the word as the syllables roll out.
Comments by kingrat47
kingrat47 commented on the word assignation
Has anyone ever seen this word used to mean anything other than tryst?
December 12, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word gorgeous
I find it funny that a word meaning "surpassingly beautiful" has gorge as its root, given that the only time anyone uses the word gorge in that sense today is talking about vomiting.
December 11, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word strength
By gum, you're right. And now the barbell is even more lopsided...
December 11, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word strength
I've always liked this word because it's the longest word in the language with just one vowel: I have this goofy image of the e in the middle as a bodybuilder lifting a massive barbell composed of the other letters.
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word snippid
If we are to believe Hobbes, the way that wet leaves smell
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word hot-diggety-dog
It helps if you imagine that you're Archie Andrews when you say this.
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word coruscating
Another word that, to me at least, communicates something of its meaning through its sound-I always picture the light playing along the word as the syllables roll out.
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word skiver
I use this as a synonmym for "shirker," which is apparently not a terribly common usage. Huh.
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word carcharodon
Literally, "ragged tooth"
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word cacophony
I actually think it's a great word because it sounds like what it is-a particularly complex onomatopeia.
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word haver
To hesitate
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word rannygazoo
The run-around, nonsense: "Don't give me any rannygazoo." P.G. Wodehouse era slang.
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word intelligentsia
There's an connotation to this word of futile oppositionism; I'm not entirely sure I'd use it for most groupings of intellectuals.
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word inexactitude
This, like sesquipedalian, is a word that describes itself, or so think I.
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word awesomeness
No one's got this yet? Awesomeness!
December 10, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word psephology
Derived from the pebbles used to vote in ancient Greece.
December 9, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word selachophobia
A fear of, among other things, Carcharodon carcharias.
December 9, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word catalanotto
It's a name, but it's a good one.
December 9, 2006
kingrat47 commented on the word carcherodon
Ragged tooth.
December 9, 2006