What is your favorite word, when did you first learn it, and why is it your favorite?

Aneeda72

Aneeda72

Well-known Member
I love the word plethora.

I first heard heard it on a TV news show, I was probably in my 20's. I had to look up its meaning.

I think it is, as my dad would say, a 50 cent word. Lol. Using it makes someone sound knowledge and highbrowed, IMO. It is rarely used, which is a shame.
 

Aneeda, out of all the plethora of words that I've learned and loved over the years, I'd really have to think about "the one" that I first learned and love the most.
 
Without a doubt, my favorite word is "inestuable".

Pronounced in -EST-you-a-bull.

It's an adjective.

To me, it sounds rather impressive when used properly.

It means . . . absolutely nothing.

Backstory: During my early professional career I had the good fortune to employ quite a number of very bright students from a nearby private college. It was a longstanding campus prank for students at that school to make up words and then try to slip them past their professors in papers they submitted. I first learned of this unusual tradition from a girl named Mary. Inestuable was Mary's favorite "pseudoword".
 
Gary O' said:
paraprosdokian

maybe not my fav, but right up there
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  • “If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.”
  • Winston Churchill: “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing—after they have tried everything else“
  • Albert Einstein: “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
  • Mario Andretti: “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.“
  • Zsa zsa Gabore: “He taught me housekeeping; when I divorce I keep the house.”
 
I love words. I love to learn new ones. I've thoroughly enjoyed learned a couple of new ones here. Gary, thanks for yours!!! I love it!

One of my all time favorite ones is deliquesce; deliquescence; deliquescent

I first came across it in a Dean Koontz book of all places, in the opening chapter. I had no idea what it meant, but I loved the sound of it, loved its sibilance, the way it just seemed to roll effortlessly off my tongue. And I loved it even more when I found out what it meant! What a perfect word! There is a science definition, but then a more general one too.

To melt or dissolve. To disappear as if by melting.

The fog slowly deliquesced in the morning sun.

Such a pretty word.
 
Someone told me about "cellar door" years ago- apparently it's true.

"Cellar door
In phonaesthetics, the English compound noun cellar door has been cited as an example of a word or phrase which is beautiful purely in terms of its sound, without regard for semantics. Wikipedia
 
Ronni said:
  • “If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.”
  • Winston Churchill: “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing—after they have tried everything else“
  • Albert Einstein: “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
  • Mario Andretti: “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.“
  • Zsa zsa Gabore: “He taught me housekeeping; when I divorce I keep the house.”
Click to expand...

great applications
 
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