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Words You Love/ Words You Hate

 
  

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Our Lady Has Left the Building
09:24 / 15.04.06
A word I love:
Bubble

There are some words that are the Widow Twankys of language, just there for comedy and, unless you're in the middle of an operation, bubbles are almost always funny.

A word I loathe:
kinda

I use 'kinda' too much, it's my 'umm' word, and all my mates at school started shouting at me every time I, kinda, said the word and, kinda, it's really irritating and I still kinda use it now rather than saying what I kinda mean because my mouth is kinda running faster than my brain. KnowwhatImean?
 
 
Jack Denfeld
09:29 / 15.04.06
Bubble is a horrible word in poker. It's the time in a tournament when everyone is just about to be in the money, but first a few more people need to be eliminated. If you finish on the bubble, you've just missed the cash.

During the bubble the people with very few chips will play godawful slow just hoping someone at another table will bust out before they do. This can be extremely frustrating, and sometimes tournament officials will have to initiate a play hand by hand ruling for each table until the bubble bursts.

The bubble is a good time for someone with a lot of chips to pick up blinds and antes from the scared low stack players who are scared they'll bust out before the bubble bursts and won't cash.
 
 
captain piss
14:49 / 15.04.06
When I was at school, I remember people using the word bubble as a verb meaning 'to cry'. I like the word 'bleak' but use it far too often, and slightly inappropriately... as in: "that was quite a bleak performance by Man City last night" and the like.
Words I hate: ermmmm, oh I really fucking hate "absolutely", the way people use it when they're agreeing with someone - it just conveys a kind of senseless enthusiasm, like they haven't bothered to think of anything to say
 
 
Mistoffelees
15:59 / 15.04.06
I can´t stand the word schwöre anymore. Many teenagers use it in their slang speech. They put I swear (="Ich schwöre") before or after they say something. I don´t know the purpose of this, but it sounds ridiculously stupid.
 
 
redtara
16:35 / 15.04.06
Overheard on a Liverpool bus 'R ay. Luq a du shnohw '

Shn'oh'w - crystaline presipitation found in the North West of England by school boys.

Shnohw, say it with me now. Isn't it lovley in your mouth. Shnohw.
 
 
Shrug
17:02 / 15.04.06
I'm quite fond of "defenestrate" (def: to throw out of a window). Not a word I ever use in conversation but still...

Similarly "glossolalia" (def: fabricated and unmeaningful speech).

Okay, I'll admit it, I just like uncommon words.

A word I dislike: "actually". I use it far too often "actually" and it doesn't "actually" add anything to the sentence and I always "actually" find it to sound either condescending or as if somebody is trying to clarify or rectify a misconception on the part of hir conversational partner.
 
 
sibyline, beating Qalyn to a Q
17:49 / 15.04.06
i hate "moist" and "preggers."
 
 
Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown
17:56 / 15.04.06
I like the word pneuma. It just sounds so cool, rolls off your tongue the way Zap Brannigan says "veleur".
 
 
Bubblegum Death
20:52 / 15.04.06
I like defenestrate, also. I also like discombobulate and ersatz, and I learned all those from '90s X-Men comics. And icosiduododecahedron.

There are lots of words I hate. Some of which I think I've never used.
 
 
Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown
22:40 / 15.04.06
Defenestration is a very fun word. Two great examples in the media com from Dark Angel:

Gang Boss: "You don't know what 'defenestration is, bitch?" He grabs the guy he's been beating up and throws him out the window. "THAT is defenestration. Now get me my Rockwell."

and Transmetropolitan:

Spider: "You wouldn't want me to hurt your fenestrates, would you?"
 
 
Tim Tempest
05:42 / 16.04.06
My favorite word is Revolution. Everything about it: it's meaning, the way it sounds, it's spelling...etc. It's just an all around good time.

A word I hate, is Shit. Terrible word. Disgusting to think about, and just as bad to say.
 
 
Mistoffelees
09:59 / 16.04.06
I love words that contain every vowel. I don´t know if words like that exist in english, but they do in french and german:

Gauloises, europäisch, Nikoläuse, Dinosaurier, and my favourite Promenadenmischung (dog that is a mix from all types of dogs).

Other beautiful words:
Bravado, Taklamakan, Pelikan, Gascoigne
 
 
matthew.
13:57 / 16.04.06
My favourite word is "antidisestablishmentarianism", one of the longest words in the English language.

My least favourite word is "slurp". What a gross sounding word.

Also, I love the word "fuck" and "damn". Well, I love curse words anyway.
 
 
Loud Detective
19:31 / 16.04.06
I am very fond of "vergnugen," in fact it's probably my favorite german word. I like to say it in a long, slow whisper; it makes me think of golden caramel oozing out of a chocolate egg, or somesuch thing.

I second "moist" for bad words. It's just sort of gross sounding.
 
 
Spaniel
16:29 / 08.05.06
UGH!!

I enjoy both giving and receiving pleasure

~Sibyline in the Hetero 101 thread

I really can't explain why I hate it, it just makes me want to run screaming... and vomit

(You weren't to know, Sib)
 
 
Ganesh
18:17 / 08.05.06
Perhaps the slimy, mealy-mouthed euphemism of it all? I have a similar reaction to the word "sex" when used to describe genitals eg. "he felt a stirring in his sex".

Bleurgh.
 
 
Lama glama
18:21 / 08.05.06
I second "moist" for bad words. It's just sort of gross sounding.

I know a huge amount of people (er, 2) who hate the word moist. Whenever pressed as to why they hate the word, they can't come up with an especially convincing reason. One person believes that the word goes on for far too long, for such a small word.

Moissssssst.

I myself find the word lad unmercifully annoying when used in the context of lad's magazine, or even worse, when appearing in the form of laddish. I also find that the longer a person holds the vowel in lad, the more I find myself disliking them. I suppose it's something to do with alpha male posturing and the whole lad culture, that I find myself nominating this word and rambling incoherently about it for an entire paragraph.

I really like the word manage and it's verby form "managing", when used in a colloquial (there's another nice word) sense, as in "I'm managing away [with life]." It also sounds nice when people say it and sigh really heavily afterwards, as if wanting to be pressed about how exactly they're managing and so it becomes a gateway into conversation.

I'll go over here now.
 
 
Spaniel
18:40 / 08.05.06
"he felt a stirring in his sex"

Can't stand that one neither. I think it does have something to do with it's euphemistic qualities, but also it's rock solid, straight faced seriousness. And I'm not too keen on the way - at least to my mind - it reduces gender to some kind of genital certainty.
 
 
GogMickGog
19:55 / 08.05.06
*Threadrot*

Further to Ganesh and Boboss, something I loathe is when a sex scene is described thusly:

He put himself in her

Admittedly, it only seems to happen in the tawdriest of fiction (Lookin' at you, Jilly Cooper) but it's still a horribly mucky sentiment and oddly sentimental to boot.
 
 
Spyder Todd 2008
20:18 / 08.05.06
You know, it didn’t use to bother me, but I’m really learning to hate the word “snark”. Every time I see it my little bubble of hate grows. And I think it may be because it’s so ill-defined here on the board, yet it seems to be used every fucking where. (Blatant judgmental perception, obviously) In fact, I’ve seen it in a half dozen threads today and the only place I saw it in that didn’t make me want to throw the monitor across the room was the “Hunting of the Snark” thread, trying to better determine what it’s supposed to mean. Oy.
 
 
stabbystabby
20:22 / 08.05.06
fnord is a fave. Asterix i hate (it's asteriSK) - bloody french comic ruined a generation of spellers.
 
 
Whisky Priestess
13:22 / 26.04.07
I like the word "natch" and have been using it for years and years without ever quite knowing what it means.

It suddenly dawned on me the other day that it might be an abbreviation of "naturally", which would kind of make sense. Is this true? If not, where does it come from and what does it mean?
 
 
Benny the Ball
13:28 / 26.04.07
I think it is, it's an old journalistic short hand - I think?
 
 
Benny the Ball
13:30 / 26.04.07
I had a look, and it said that as an abbriviation it was first used in 1945 - but also saw a definition saying that it was a cut of beef (never heard that before - will check my dictionary at home tonight though)
 
 
Shrug
13:34 / 26.04.07
I had always thought of it as such, wp. Out of interest had you been employing "natch" in a similar context of meaning as "naturally" without ever making the connection between the two words? If not how did you use it and what did it mean to you?
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
16:23 / 26.04.07
Mist - I love words that contain every vowel. I don´t know if words like that exist in english, but they do in french and german:

There is such a word. "Eunoia," the shortest word to contain all the vowels, means "beautiful thinking." It's the title of a slightly pretentious book of poetry.

I love many words, including "Distantly," "door," and "womb." Plus billions of others. I actually quite enjoy "moist" even though it seems to be an ugly word to a lot of people; I love that it seems to quiver quite provocatively.
 
 
Kali, Queen of Kitteh
16:26 / 26.04.07
For some reason, I really love the word "ostensibly."
 
 
All Acting Regiment
16:29 / 26.04.07
I hate all those words like "kinda", "sorta", "guys", that while capable of perfectly powerful expression in America where they are from, in English English create an insufferably weak, pasty language - where you cannot express anything definite. I personally think all these little weakling words exist to stop us breaking down ideology.
 
 
Kirin? Who the heck?
16:39 / 26.04.07
I’m rather fond of ‘loquacious’ right now. Nice word, just rolls off the tongue. Loquacious. Loquacious. Mmm. The fact that many I know can’t spell it makes it even better.

My most hated word of the moment is ‘mashup’. Just try saying it. Now say it again. See what I mean? It’s an awful combination of sibilant ‘sh’ and hard, popping ‘p’ sounds. Plus, it’s used in contexts where other, much nicer words would do so much better. ‘This recipe is a mashup of Thai and French cuisine’ (or something similar) is probably the worst context I’ve seen it in. It just shouldn't be applied to food. Plus, Cory Doctorow likes it.
 
 
Dead Megatron
17:08 / 26.04.07
I know it's a popular choice, but I love "serendipity":

1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.
3. An instance of making such a discovery.

Also, I love untranslatable words. ha-ha

a little poem now:

A Word I Love? "Hate"
A Word I Hate? "Love"
 
 
Triplets
17:09 / 26.04.07
I like 'zhuzh' (pronounced zj-uh-jz), having picked it up from the Chocolate Accomplice. It means to spruce up or tweak things a little aesthetically.

Also fond of eclectic, which is practically an onomatopoeia.

Word to hate hate: moist. Horrible word.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
17:12 / 26.04.07
Zest & spice are good words. I've always preferred "synchroncity" to "serendipity." Flat, garden, dictionary, eloquence, marsupial...
 
 
fish confusion errata
17:20 / 26.04.07
I like "athwart": crosswise or transversely.

What does it mean to say we use a word too often? I wonder why we complain about using "kinda" too much, but not words like "the" or "in".
 
 
Whisky Priestess
22:29 / 26.04.07
"Kinda" is not as necessary. Usually. It's not language-glue. More like Pritt-Stik.

With you on "ostensibly", Kali.
 
 
Whisky Priestess
22:31 / 26.04.07
And Triplets, is your C.A. from the U.S.A.? Cos that's the only place I've heard "zhuzh" before.

What a great word, though, visually.
 
  

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