This is just a thought, but I thought I might, and would encourage the rest of you to do so too, jot down a couple of words, I would prefer to not see disappear from the English language. I have no ethical reason for wanting this, it is more a quality of life sort of thing. So here are some, I'll be adding more now and then, and I hope you will too.
swizzle (as in swizzle stick)
welkin
swivel
guzzle
megrims
daft
palaver
jejune
muck
dreary
pustule
perambulator
catamite
filch
improbity
defenestration
truss
umbo
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trundle, of course
ReplyDeletecaterwaul - lopkhan
Fantastic, George, thanks for starting this off. I will have to look up some of those myself, I don't mind telling you. But Jesus God - defenestration is absolutely one of my favorite words.
ReplyDeleteAnd Robert, always important to keep the trundle front and center, I agree. if i may put together two of your words, gentlemen, i am currently enjoying the thought of a caterwauling catamite.
And, if may add -
germane
legerdemain
desultory
onomatopoeia
clearly legerdemain popped into my head because it rhymes with germane; desultory was in a movie last night, and i honestly couldn't remember what it meant - i was happy to see it's something of an opposite to germane. and, finally, onomatopoeia reminds me of John Prine (thanks again for HIM way back in 1984, George), and anything that reminds me of John Prine keeps me happy.
miff
ReplyDeletepshaw
pivot
splatter
dovetail
tootle
splice
verge
sprinkle
whisk
wheedle
whiffle (as in "whiffle ball")
blunder
caboodle (of "kit and caboodle" fame)
If we're thanking George for musical introductions, I think I must add my intro to John Coltrane (circa 1988) also. I recall it being somewhat of a begrudging intro, but that only piqued (a fine word to add to your list) my desire to delve deeper as I took it as a bit of a challenge. Now almost the only new (well new to me) music I add to my collection are those bands that Mike turns me on to or jazz. In fact the only music on my iphone is jazz. I'm still hardly an expert or even close to it, but I do thank you George for turning me on to Mingus and Coleman and Hargrove et al via Coltrane - though maybe I picked up Brubeck and Tjader through other influences. For that, I will do my best to keep your words alive even if I occasionally blunder one. - Lopkhan
ReplyDeleteOh the first night I heard "The Planets". Still not sure that I can handle that one to this day.
ReplyDeleteAs for words, today I bring you-
wend
chattel
mm
Cattywampus
ReplyDeleteDiscombobulated
Wanted to add lugubrious. Just saying it should clear away whatever brought on the need to use it in the first place. And it also makes me think of Bela Lugosi. - Lopkhan
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBela and Boris K - TWO icons of my childhood.
ReplyDeleteTinntinnabulation, which goes so well with the above listed onomatopoeia and reminds me of 2 fine poems I remember learning in grade school - The Bells by E.A. Poe
ReplyDelete"Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
...."
and this one by Carl Sandburg:
Jazz Fantasia
Drum on your drums, batter on your banjoes,
sob on the long cool winding saxophones.
Go to it, O jazzmen.
Sling your knuckles on the bottoms of the happy
tin pans, let your trombones ooze, and go husha-
husha-hush with the slippery sand-paper.
Moan like an autumn wind high in the lonesome treetops,
moan soft like you wanted somebody terrible, cry like a
racing car slipping away from a motorcycle cop, bang-bang!
you jazzmen, bang altogether drums, traps, banjoes, horns,
tin cans — make two people fight on the top of a stairway
and scratch each other's eyes in a clinch tumbling down
the stairs.
Can the rough stuff . . . now a Mississippi steamboat pushes
up the night river with a hoo-hoo-hoo-oo . . . and the green
lanterns calling to the high soft stars . . . a red moon rides
on the humps of the low river hills . . . go to it, O jazzmen.
-Lopkhan
I *just* read a book that used the word defenestrated! It's like you're in my head or something.
ReplyDeleteI always liked the verb "befell".
ReplyDeletemoola
ReplyDeletedelapidated, disheveled, discombobulated
fuckin-A
xylem
fingerling
slurry
verdigris
spatulate
jizz