cool words

you ever come across a word that piques your interest? have a favorite word? like browsing the dictionary for fun? or otherwise enjoy sharing and discovering new words? then, uh, maybe this is a thread for you

to start things off with a couple words i like (definitions from merriam webster):
cozen - to deceive, win over, or induce to do something by artful coaxing and wheedling or shrewd trickery
pondy - having many ponds

feel free to share words in whatever form you want, be it just the word on its own, or with a linked definition to whatever dictionary you prefer, or as a part of a quote, or with an explanation or additional information written by yourself, or anything else.
feel free to share non-english words and completely made-up words as well!

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churchyard is a good word

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oh actually just came across a good oneā€“

bizzarro e fantastico: a man who ā€œwithdrew himself from the company of men.ā€

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small list of words in english i like:

wind
window
cloud
slow
whirl, whirling (whirligig is fun to say)
winding
omen (also a good word in spanish, presagio)
twist/twisting

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portend

crepuscular

blotch

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I enjoy the word bibliomancy.

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Papillon - French for butterfly. Such a beautiful word and with the double L sounding like a Y it sounds even nicer than when written.

The kind of word I enjoy saying =)

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I learned the word ā€œinchoateā€ which means incomplete/not fully formed from reading ā€œKilling Commendatoreā€ by Haruki Murakami. I donā€™t stop and look up words very frequently at all when reading for fun but I didnā€™t have a clue what it meant.

The very next book I read was ā€œConsider Phlebasā€ by Ian Banks and halfway through the book -boom-: inchoate. It must be more common than I think but I also think Iā€™ve read a lot of books and would have heard the word before.

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i like when disciplinary words are applied more generally:

byzantine
baroque
rococo

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Ivy
Canopy
Foliage

A lot of plant related words sound gorgeous.

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verdant
lush
understory
moss

all good words. not ā€œlegumeā€ tho. that ones gotta go.

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I try to bring up the ineluctable modality of the visible in every conversation

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that sounds like a david berman lyric

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I reference ā€œthe infinite plasticity of the digitalā€ frequently which is a phrase from a William Gibson novel. I think it was from Virtual Light but Iā€™m not sure.

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susurrus
diaphanous
gossamer
pulchritude
hapax legomenon
bookkeeping, for all the double letters in a row
queueing, for all the vowels in a row
interesting plurals like cherubim, tableaux, lacunae, attorneys general

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more of a seraphim man myself

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darn, english has whisper and susurrus?

we just have ā€œsusurroā€ for that, still a good word but would love more options!

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Non-English:

ę©Ÿčƒ½ē¾Ž. I first learned about it from this Phantasy Star IV screenshot LP back in the early 2010s.

English:

Palimpsest. Itā€™s such a neat, biological looking word, and I can never remember what it means.

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dude i LOVE this word. i used it in a piece of writing once describing a son being a palimpsest of a father, which is how i always remember the meaning.

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fwiw i have never heard or read susurrus in a sentence heretofore (another good word)

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