this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2024
354 points (98.4% liked)

Asklemmy

44144 readers
1077 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I like penultimate, next to last.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

"scruple" as a verb, meaning "hesitate due to conscience".

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

People probably know a word based on it, unscrupulous, meaning having or showing no moral principles

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Yeah, and folks know "scruples" as a noun which some people have and some don't, but "scruple" as a verb is a nice archaic version that I really like, which you don't encounter much outside of, say, a Jane Austen novel.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 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]

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Internecine, meaning "destructive to both sides in a conflict".

Petty bickering like that divorce where they had a judge adjudicate the distribution of their beanie baby collection was internecine.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

I'm currently reading through all of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries, and one fun feature is that he almost always includes one or more very obscure words. It's a nice little thing to look out for.

In the one I'm currently reading it's, "peculate," meaning to embezzle or steal money. Others include:

  • Plerophory - Fullness, especially of conviction or persuasion
  • Apodictically - From apodictic: clearly established or beyond dispute
  • Usufruct - The right to enjoy the use and advantages of another's property short of the destruction or waste of its substance
  • Acarpous - Not producing fruit; sterile; barren
  • Yclept - By the name of
  • Eruction - A belch or burp

I had a look to see if I could find a full list but sadly not. However most Wikipedia entries for the individual novels include a section called, "The unfamiliar word," if you want to find more.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Autodefenestration is one of my faves. The act of throwing yourself out of a window.

If you’re throwing someone or something out, then it’s just plain defenestration

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Übermorgen, the german word for overmorrow, is in abundant use in Germany. It's far from obsolete or obscure over here.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Vituperative. Means vicious.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Grandiloquent/sesquipedalian. It's what you get when you use everything in this thread ₍^ >ヮ<^₎ .ᐟ.ᐟ

~/s~

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I agree that we should use overmorrow more. Japanese has a similar word and it gets frequent use.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I am now adding overmorrow to my vocabulary. I can't wait to confuse the shit out of people I hate.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

übermorgen

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

"Philomot" was always pretty charming. "The color of a dead leaf."

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

philalethist, A lover of truth.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Scrofulous - a) having a diseased run-down appearance. b) morally contaminated

I learned this word when I heard someone being described as a 'scrofulous drinkist' lol

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Vulgar Argot - a word or phrase that is obsolete or incredibly obscure.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Uxorious: devoted to one's wife.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Twaddle: something insignificant or worthless or another word Nonsense.

Discovered this word while reading the dictionary during silent reading in English and they wouldn’t let me play games.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wait overmorrow is correct English? We have "morgen" and "overmorgen" in Dutch which is tomorrow and overmorrow respectively, so I always missed an overmorrow in English. Is it actually commonly understood or will people look at me like I'm a weird foreigner when I use it?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's archaic english. So yes, I think people will think you're weird. But maybe if you start using it with your dutch friends/colleagues in english-speaking contexts, you can slowly introduce it into common usage in your community. Might be cool.

Also don't forget "ereyesterday" for the day before yesterday.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›