Esoteric Words...

[sbrothy]

As you can guess im pretty bored!

What are some of the most esoteric words you've used in either speech or writing recently? I figure a good deal of you have some pretty hardcore ones what with your technical specializations and all....

As I'm from Denmark I have very few peers I can talk to. Also, you'd probably laugh if you heard me talk. Not that my Danish accent is that bad, mind, but instantly noticable of course. Also I stutter. Not really bad but still some. Sometimes I cringe when I hear our politicians talk Danglish, but since I've picked up my English vocabulary mostly from books, I'm probably putting emphasis (or accentuation whatever the right term is), on the wrong syllables in a lot of cases. Just off the top of my head.....


bellicose
suzerainty
stereoisomerism
adiabatic
offal

 

[wrobel]

Esoteric Words...​

I read somewhere that heavy swearing in Slavic languages has literally esoteric origins

 

[WWGD]

As you can guess im pretty bored!

What are some of the most esoteric words you've used in either speech or writing recently? I figure a good deal of you have some pretty hardcore ones what with your technical specializations and all....

As I'm from Denmark I have very few peers I can talk to. Also, you'd probably laugh if you heard me talk. Not that my Danish accent is that bad, mind, but instantly noticable of course. Also I stutter. Not really bad but still some. Sometimes I cringe when I hear our politicians talk Danglish, but since I've picked up my English vocabulary mostly from books, I'm probably putting emphasis (or accentuation whatever the right term is), on the wrong syllables in a lot of cases. Just off the top of my head.....


bellicose
suzerainty
stereoisomerism
adiabatic
offal

That is a very short list, it's offal, please add some more. I am adiabatic, so I must control my sugar. And my bellicose it's hurting now.

Flamboyant
Rueful
Diatribe
Perspicacity ( very nice city, btw).

 

[sbrothy]

Point taken. Let me think for a moment.

EDIT: A favorite insult of mine is: "You disgusting piece of human offal!" But as I said it's wasted on my peers.

 

[sbrothy]

Antediluvian
Macadamization
Cerebroenergic (not quite sure this one is a real word)
Neurodegenerative

EDIT: Although I admit these I havenøt used recently. Except perhaps for macadamization.

 

[sbrothy]

I read somewhere that heavy swearing in Slavic languages has literally esoteric origins

Russian should be a good a language to swear in, but I guess all languages are. I like the German expression: "Total abgedreht"

"Yob tvoyu mat", "Ёб твою мать". You look it up. (NSFW)

NB: saudumm, schwachsinning, verblödet, verkorst, vertrottelt, *voll* abgedreht, dumm wie die nacht finster sein

 

[sbrothy]

BTW, someone, on here I think, told me that the English idiom expression "tough as nails" has mostly positive connotations. Is this correct?

 

[WWGD]

BTW, someone, on here I think, told me that the English idiom expression "tough as nails" has mostly positive connotations. Is this correct?

Yes, in my experience.

 

[sbrothy]

I have something to correct then... Thanks.

 

[sbrothy]

What would be an equivalent but with negative connotations?

 

[WWGD]

Maybe of interest: Average vocabulary worsening: https://psychnewsdaily.com/why-are-americans-vocabulary-skills-stagnating/

 

[sbrothy]

Thanks. I was actually under the erroneous imression that the US college SATs where predominantly about understanding words but I see that it is not so.

Curiously, the scores seem to be stable over time, but it could be because the tests are tailored to the pupil's level:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_SAT

 

[gmax137]

Wet noodle.

 

[sbrothy]

spaghettification

 

[gmax137]

One of my favorite words is "epexegetic" or epexegetically

Edit-- it's an example of an esoteric word

 

[sbrothy]

O...K. Ouch. I'm gonna need Merriam for those.

 

[WWGD]

Exegesis, entumesce

 

[sbrothy]

Also a classic: "immanentizing the eschaton".

 

[sbrothy]

Ooh yeah and this pearl from the movie "Training Day"(?):

Exigent Circumstances

 

[sbrothy]

One of my favorite words is "epexegetic" or epexegetically

Edit-- it's an example of an esoteric word

A little like "exposition" really?

EDIT: Very little.

 

[wrobel]

Russian should be a good a language to swear in

Russian is good for it, yes, but to my taste, Polish is a bit richer, and English is far behind these two.

 

[sbrothy]

I've had Russian, in what americans would call high school i guess, but I didn't learn much. Basically just the Cyrillic alhabet and some veyry basic grammar most of which I've forgotten. German and Russian are good command languages though.

Dawai, tempo, although I guess Arabic can too (Yallah?).

I guess for a native speaker this can be said of any language more or less.

 

[Bystander]

Just seen this a-noon (23 August 2026) on "The Weather Channel:" "Flash Drought."