Fandom Discussion: The Increase Your Vocabulary Thread

[themostepotente]

Hello, and welcome to the 'Increase Your Vocabulary' thread. And really you can thank petulantgod for my next couple of discussions. Not only is he a brilliant writer, but *le gasp*, he's very entertaining.

I know that certain words in fics click with me -- just like some words leave me cold. Some just sound sexy. Some convey their meanings better. Others just look cool.

Now then -- what's the objective of this thread, you ask? Simple. Post a word you may have used in a fic of yours with the definition. This should be a word you don't see or hear in every day conversation -- hence the increasing your vocabulary bit :P

My word for this thread is sibilant -- having, containing, or producing the sound of or a sound resembling that of the s or the sh in sash [a sibilant snake]

Go to it. *G*

--P

Comments

[inathunderstorm.livejournal.com]

I love sibilant. I use that word a lot since I write Voldemort. ^__^

I really love the word susurration. It means a whisper or a murmur. I used that word in a knifeplay fic, as the sound the knife blade makes scratching over skin. *shivers*

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Isn't 'sibilant' great? *G* It works well in any Slytherin character based fic.

Good choice with susurration.

Tacit

[prettyclever.livejournal.com]

My word is tacit. tac·it (tăs'ĭt)

adj.

Not spoken: indicated tacit approval by smiling and winking. Implied by or inferred from actions or statements: Management has given its tacit approval to the plan.

Law. Arising by operation of the law rather than through direct expression.

Archaic. Not speaking; silent.

[Latin tacitus, silent, past participle of tacēre, to be silent.]

P.S. Can I share more than one?

Re: Tacit

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Of course, Seph! Hell -- you could probably write your own fandom dictionary. *G*

[mctabby.livejournal.com]

languid - adjective - moving or speaking slowly with little energy, often in an attractive way

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I do love languid :-)

[eudaimon.livejournal.com]

intercessor - someone who prays/petitions on behalf of another.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Good choice. I could see a number of characters petitioning on behalf of another.

[dementordelta.livejournal.com]

Mine is "arcadia":

imagined place of rural bliss: a place in which people are imagined or believed to enjoy a perfect life of rustic simplicity.

Isn't that just a *me* word?

:D

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Honey, that is you and Snarry in a nutshell :-)

[cedarlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Amalgamate: To combine into a unified or integrated whole; unite.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I pass a building every day in Detroit with a HUGE mural painted on the side that reads; The African Amalgamation of Ubiquity.

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

sward.

n. an area of turf or grass

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Perfect for making love on. *G*

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

My word is rhabdomacy, which means "divination by rods or wands." I extrapolated "rhabdomantical" from it as a way to describe a wizard's sexual prowess: "Lucius Malfoy’s rhabdomantical talents were the stuff of legend by his sixth year at Hogwarts . . . ."

I love my OED.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Yay! I have never seen that word before. And isn't that the truth -- about Lucius's sexual prowess? *G*

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

callipygian - Having beautifully proportioned buttocks.

This was a very fashionable word for a while.

I also like cordiform, meaning heart shaped. There's also pisiform, meaning pea shaped, but I'm not sure how you'd use that. "He stroked his partner's pisofirm nipples..." Nah, maybe not.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Great words to describe shapes. *G*

[thysanotus.livejournal.com]

Mine is antimassacar: \An`ti*ma*cas”sar\, n. A cover for the back or arms of a chair or sofa, etc., to prevent them from being soiled by macassar or other oil from the hair.

Macassar oil, it seems, is a hair oil that was popular in Victorian England. The primary ingredient of macassar oil is Ylang Ylang oil. Ylang Ylang means “flower of flowers” and is the common name for the tree Cananga odorata. In Indonesia, the petals of Ylang Ylang flowers are spread on the bed of a newly married couple.

[kaysha.livejournal.com]

Mine is antimassacar: \An`ti*ma*cas”sar\

Wait. Antimassacar or antimacassar?

[tipgardner.livejournal.com]

Dissipate, from the fic (http://www.livejournal.com/users/tipgardner/55352.html#cutid1) that I wrote today.

dis·si·pate ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ds-pt)
v. dis·si·pat·ed, dis·si·pat·ing, dis·si·pates
v. tr.

1. To drive away; disperse.
2. To attenuate to or almost to the point of disappearing: The wind finally dissipated the smoke. See Synonyms at scatter.
3.
1. To spend or expend intemperately or wastefully; squander.
2. To use up, especially recklessly; exhaust: dissipated their energy. See Synonyms at waste.
4. To cause to lose (energy, such as heat) irreversibly.

I particularly liked the word in this instance, because all of the meanings were in use in my fic.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Bonus points for you!

[froda-baggins.livejournal.com]

Copse.

A small cluster or group of trees.

[balfrog.livejournal.com]

Now that's a nice English word. Very "thingy."
*likes*

[djin7.livejournal.com]

I've used this one in a story recently:

Dissonance (dis·so·nance) noun
1. a) lack of agreement; especially : inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one's actions and one's beliefs,
b) an instance of such inconsistency or disagreement

2. a mingling of discordant sounds; especially : a clashing or unresolved musical interval or chord

*g*
Just love words.

[scourgey.livejournal.com]

o.o You people have been going through my band's secret files! This is the second word I've come across in this thread that's been in the NAME of one of our songs - songs we haven't even recorded yet!

[biichan.livejournal.com]

conceit (especially the last few definitions):

A favorable and especially unduly high opinion of one's own abilities or worth.

An ingenious or witty turn of phrase or thought.

A fanciful poetic image, especially an elaborate or exaggerated comparison.
A poem or passage consisting of such an image.

The result of intellectual activity; a thought or an opinion.
A fanciful thought or idea.

A fancy article; a knickknack.
An extravagant, fanciful, and elaborate construction or structure: “An eccentric addition to the lobby is a life-size wooden horse, a 19th century conceit” (Mimi Sheraton).

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

That word has Lucius Malfoy written all over it. *G*

[madameceleste70.livejournal.com]

I used perfidy in a pornicators challenge fic (http://www.livejournal.com/users/madameceleste70/24950.html).

perfidy (per·fi·dy)
1. Deliberate breach of faith; calculated violation of trust; treachery
2. The act or an instance of treachery.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Voldemort + Severus = perfidy

[ponderosa121.livejournal.com]

dystopian

1.) of or pertaining to or resembling a dystopia (An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.)

2.) as bad as can be; characterized by human misery;

mmm dystopian...

[marksykins.livejournal.com]

I've had a dystopia hardon (both word and concept) since I was 16 years old. It's just so...anti-everything.

[starkittyn.livejournal.com]

I've used several of these.

rapacious:
1) Taking by force, plundering
2) Greedy, ravenous

voracious:
1. Consuming or eager to consume great amounts of food; ravenous.
2. Having or marked by an insatiable appetite for an activity or pursuit; greedy: a voracious reader.

and I also dig
somnolent:

1. Drowsy; sleepy.
2. Inducing or tending to induce sleep; soporific.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I love somnolent or any variation thereof -- somnolence for example.

[cmere.livejournal.com]

How much fun! I love vocabulary!!

Preternatural (adj):

1. Out of or being beyond the normal course of nature; differing from the natural.
2. Surpassing the normal or usual; extraordinary.

[cedarlibrarian.livejournal.com]

That word just hasn't been the same since I spent hours in my car listening to the audiobook of Interview with the Vampire and counting the number of times per CD Anne Rice used that word.

It's a great word; Anne Rice just ruined it for me and now I can't read or use it without laughing.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Oh, brilliant! Yay!

[innerslytherin]

halcyon
n. 1. A kingfisher, especially one of the genus Halcyon. 2. A fabled bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was supposed to have had the power to calm the wind and the waves while it nested on the sea during the winter solstice.
adj. 1. Calm and peaceful; tranquil. 2. Prosperous; golden: halcyon years.
(I've always meant to use that in an HP fanfic.)

And to go with the shape words:
cruciate
adj.
1. Arranged in or forming a cross; cruciform. 2. a. Overlapping or crossing, as the wings of some insects when at rest. b. Shaped like a cross: the cruciate ligaments of the knee.

definitions brought to you by Dictionary.com

I'm a ho

[the-mystic-s.livejournal.com]

I'm a word whore, that is. I actually named a pet butterfly fish Halcyon. Geeky, huh? Thought you might find that funny.

[kaysha.livejournal.com]

Gawds! For a non-native speaker like me this thread = information overload! ;D

And I didn't have Latin at school either, which would've made memorising some of these words a lot easier! I guess I'll have to come back to this post tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. And the day after that. And..

Heh.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Bookmark it, baby!

[mad_maudlin]

Two words that I almost mixed up in my NaNo last year:

catamite: n. A young boy you gives sexual favors to an older man, or any gay man who bottoms. Share etymology with "Ganymede," the cupbearer of the Gods, Zeus's bitch, and the largest moon of Jupiter.

caryatid: n. A pillar in the shape of a human or semi-human used in architecture.

And one I just made up for a fic once: "faggotry." No etymology necessary.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

schadenfreude (n., German) pleasure in the misfortune of others.
Oh, I've never felt that myself ... in the past half hour.

Oh, and while googling this, I came across the newly minted blondenfreude, pleasure in the suffering of powerful women - coined for Martha Stewart.

[charlotteschaos.livejournal.com]

That's one of my favorite words, too ;)

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Apanthropinizate: one who withdraws from human concerns.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

*coughsnapecough*

[shaychana.livejournal.com]

undulate
v. un·du·lat·ed, un·du·lat·ing, un·du·lates
v. tr.
To cause to move in a smooth wavelike motion.
To give a wavelike appearance or form to.

v. intr.
To move in waves or with a smooth, wavelike motion.
To have a wavelike appearance or form.
To increase and decrease in volume or pitch as if in waves.

adj.
Having a wavy outline or appearance: leaves with undulate margins.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Undulate is timeless :-)