this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2024
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Overmorrow refers to the day after tomorrow and I feel like it comes in quite handy for example.

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[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 102 points 1 month ago (4 children)

perambulation is a good one. My morning walk isn't quite grand enough to be called a 'constitutional'; nor scenic and leisurely enough to be called a 'stroll'; nor yet social enough to be called a 'promenade'; 'perambulation' is just the ticket.

[–] yngmnwntr@lemmy.ml 50 points 1 month ago

I thought the morning constitutional was taking a shit.

[–] DrSleepless@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

And what a lovely paragraph about it. Thank you.

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[–] Kushan@lemmy.world 90 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Interrobang.

It's this thing: ‽

More people should use the symbol because it looks cool and has a badass name, so for that you need to know what it's called.

Who's with me‽

[–] DrSleepless@lemmy.world 64 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Interrobang sounds like something from a porno about police work.

“Did you question the suspect?”

“Yeah, Chief, we interrobanged him and got the info.”

[–] Thassodar@lemm.ee 13 points 1 month ago

Hey, it's me, your suspect. I've got more info, step it up with the interrobanging, will ya?

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[–] moonlight@fedia.io 37 points 1 month ago (2 children)

While I like the concept, I can't help but prefer '!?' or '?!'. There's more granularity of meaning, and I think it just looks nicer having two or more separate characters.

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[–] alexc@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Only if you agree to stop calling them Hashtags and use their more-correct name of Octothorpes

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[–] Jordan117@lemmy.world 76 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Petrichor: The smell of rain on dry ground. One of those things everybody knows about but lacks a word for.

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[–] InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works 60 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Overmorrow refers to the day after tomorrow

Figured the other way around might be as obscure...
nudiustertian: relating to the day before yesterday

Yikes

[–] saffroncity@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

To add to that, "ereyesterday" is the noun version for the day before yesterday.

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[–] mcmodknower@programming.dev 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

the german version "Übermorgen" is widely used in germany.

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[–] 5oap10116@lemmy.world 54 points 1 month ago (13 children)
[–] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 17 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I actually dislike that term a lot.

It's like spunkgargleweewee. It seems immature and makes me feel more dismissive towards the argument. Maybe that also has to do with it being a catch all term and people seem less willing to give specific examples of how things are declining in quality.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (4 children)

spunkgargleweewee

You're claiming that is a term people use?

[–] JWBananas@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago (8 children)
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[–] FruitLips@lemmy.ml 50 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Sonder (noun): the feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles: In a state of sonder, each of us is at once a hero, a supporting cast member, and an extra in overlapping stories.

dictionary.com

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This one always makes me smile, because it's from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It's just some guy's blog in which he comes up with new words to express experiences and emotions that are difficult to describe, and that specific one has thoroughly broken containment

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[–] HessiaNerd@lemmy.world 43 points 1 month ago (3 children)
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[–] jonc211@programming.dev 42 points 1 month ago (6 children)
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[–] ProfessorPeregrine@reddthat.com 36 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Widdershins. It means counter to the sun's direction , and was seen as inauspicious. Counter-clockwise, before clocks.

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[–] TootSweet@lemmy.world 36 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"Thrice" is a somewhat obscure word that otherwise fits.

"Adventitious" is a good one. It means "non-inherent" or "acquired" (as opposed to inherent.)

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[–] Toto@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Avuncular - of or having the qualities of an uncle.

“His avuncular joke was both lazy and sexist”

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[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Gormless - Lacking initiative, foolish

Copacetic - correct, orderly, good

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[–] themadcodger@kbin.earth 32 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Borborygmus I use often enough, but it's not widely known. It's the gurgling sound produced by the movement of gas through your intestines.

Limaceous I almost never use, but I enjoy it anyway. It means characteristic of or pertaining to slugs.

And lastly, tawdry is one of my favorites meaning showy but cheap and poor quality.

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[–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 32 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)
  • Paramour

It sounds fancy, but means a casual lover. A fuck buddy. A friend with benefits. Though it can also carry the implication of being an out-of-wedlock lover, as it dates back to a time where having a fuck buddy was almost certainly a sign of married infidelity.

  • Kith

Means one's friends and other people they are close to that aren't family. Often paired with "kin". Kith and kin. Friends and family.

[–] Iunnrais@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month ago

A paramour is an “other lover”. Para = beside, amour = love. It’s not a casual fuck buddy, it’s your cheating partner. I’m surprised to hear you say it’s unknown as a word these days? Seems like just a normal word to me, albeit one I’m happy to go without using as cheaters suck.

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[–] Mobiuthuselah@lemm.ee 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Shemomedjamo - Georgian word meaning to eat past the point of fullness because it tastes so good or as I heard it, "I accidentally ate the whole thing."

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[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (17 children)

Not a word, but there's a specific phrase uttered when you casually pass by someone working, stop for a chat, and then genuinely wish them well with their work as you leave.

This phrase does not exist in English:

  • "Break a leg" is close, but more reserved for some grand performance

Nor does it exist in German:

  • "Viel Spass/Glück" (Have fun, Good Luck) is also close, but has an element of sarcasm and/or success through chance.
  • (Edit) "Frohes Schaffen" (Happy 'getting it done') is pretty spot on.

In Turkish, you just say "Kolay Gelsin", meaning "May the work come easy so that you finish sooner".

Its such a useful unjudgemental phrase, easily uttered, that I've seen nowhere else. Maybe other languages have it too.

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[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 25 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Indubitably!

It means most certainly, beyond questioning.

And it's fun to say!

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[–] YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Grok

It means to know or understand, like "yeah man I can grok that."

[–] NakariLexfortaine@lemm.ee 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Being pedantic, but it's beyond that.

To grok is to know or understand so completely, it becomes a part of yourself. To know something fully. You can understand the concepts of astrophysics, but you might not grok the concept.

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[–] fool@programming.dev 15 points 1 month ago

Specifically, it refers to a deep understanding.

[A critic] notes that [the coiner's] first intensional definition is simply "to drink", but that this is only a metaphor "much as English 'I see' often means the same as 'I understand'". (from Wikipedia)

When you claim to "grok" some knowledge or technique, you are asserting that you have not merely learned it in a detached instrumental way but that it has become part of you, part of your identity. For example, to say that you "know" Lisp is simply to assert that you can code in it if necessary – but to say you "grok" Lisp is to claim that you have deeply entered the world-view and spirit of the language, with the implication that it has transformed your view of programming. Contrast zen, which is a similar supernatural understanding experienced as a single brief flash. (The Jargon File; also quoted on Wikipedia)

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[–] NostraDavid@programming.dev 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (12 children)

I've got six of them:

  • Tittynope: "A small amount left over; a modicum."
  • Cacography: "bad handwriting or spelling."
  • Epeolatry: "the worship of words."
  • Kakistocracy: "a state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens."
  • Oikophilia: "love of home"
  • Tenebrous: "dark; shadowy or obscure"
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[–] No1@aussie.zone 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Sesquipedalian: A user of big words

I like that saying sesquipedalian makes you sesquipedalian.

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[–] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (9 children)

It's German but 'Rucksackriemenquerverbindungsträger', the thing between the straps of a backpack that you can connect to lighten the load on your shoulders.

I made the word up but I use it pretty often.

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[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 month ago (8 children)

I'd settle for not seeing "should/could/would of" typed out anymore.

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 month ago

Brobdingnagian.

It's a very big word that means very big.

It comes from Gulliver's travels. The Brobdingnagians are giants, 12 times the height of humans. The word isn't limited to that scale, but it's definitely for things that are unusually large compared to us.

It's the literal opposite of Lilliputian, which is from the better known race from "Travels" that are 1/12 our size.

It's my absolute favorite word. Not just because it's a literary reference but it's fun to say. Brob ding nag ian. It just burbles off the tongue like a drunken stream stumbling among the rocks of its bed. And, it's a big word that means big, which is just fun wordplay. Like the phobia of big words, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, which was inevitable as soon as the idea of a phobia of big words was conceived.

[–] Silentiea@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Gloam/gloaming

The onset of twilight/becoming gloomy

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[–] fri@beehaw.org 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

Propreantepenultimate. Fifth to last.

  1. Ultimate
  2. Penultimate
  3. Antepenultimate
  4. Preantepenultimate
  5. Propreantepenultimate
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[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] NineMileTower@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

Duodenum.

Doo-odd-in-umm.

The duodenum is the first section of the small intestine in most higher vertebrates, including mammals

[–] Doxatek@mander.xyz 16 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Defenestration. Throwing someone out of a window. Example the defenestration of prague

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[–] Boomkop3@reddthat.com 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

overmorgen, in Dutch. I heard this 'overmorrow' word a couple times as a response in that they wish it did exist

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[–] SorryforSmelling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

ereyesterday is the day before yesterday. as a german i am used to refer to two days in the past and future without useing weekdays.

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[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

I have a double whammy: Nonplussed.

Bewildered; unsure how to respond or act. Double whammy because it does not mean not-plussed like many people seem to think.

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[–] Doxanarchy@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago

Obstreperous - noisy or difficult to control (as in "the boy is cocky and obstreperous")

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Meant to say in my Nero Wolfe comment - there's a Lemmy community for interesting words at !wotd@lemmy.world - it's not very busy, but still.

[–] Floon@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

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