Overmorrow refers to the day after tomorrow and I feel like it comes in quite handy for example.
Vituperative. Means vicious.
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.
The chest strap?
Yes
Well … I knew exactly what you meant, as you know what I mean when I say: “Rucksackriemenquerverbindsungsträgerersatzschnalle” and I think it’s beautiful.
Also: “Getriebeschmiernippel”
fuck germany
Albeit.
My favorite English word… I use it quite often because it fits the German Ductus.
Gloam/gloaming
The onset of twilight/becoming gloomy
Meant to say in my Nero Wolfe comment - there’s a Lemmy community for interesting words at [email protected] - it’s not very busy, but still.
Sorry
I see you’ve never been to Canada.
Smaragdin which means “green”
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.
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.
I will steal that one!
“May the odds be ever in your favor” works in almost any situation!
Would “Have a good one” maybe serve that purpose? It’s not exactly the same, but similar sentiment.
Very true! At the same time, I feel like you would only say that to something that will happen and not something that is currently happening. Is that right?
Yeah, I’d say so. Maybe something like “Take it easy” would fit better.
“… and if that don’t work, take it sleazy.”
I think it’s used more often in computer science, but the difference between contiguous and continuous. Continuous means “without end” and contiguous means “without break.”
As in the continuous United States 🦅🦅🦅
I’m currently reading through all of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries, and one fun feature is that he almost always includes one or more very obscure words. It’s a nice little thing to look out for.
In the one I’m currently reading it’s, “peculate,” meaning to embezzle or steal money. Others include:
- Plerophory - Fullness, especially of conviction or persuasion
- Apodictically - From apodictic: clearly established or beyond dispute
- Usufruct - The right to enjoy the use and advantages of another’s property short of the destruction or waste of its substance
- Acarpous - Not producing fruit; sterile; barren
- Yclept - By the name of
- Eruction - A belch or burp
I had a look to see if I could find a full list but sadly not. However most Wikipedia entries for the individual novels include a section called, “The unfamiliar word,” if you want to find more.
It’s curious to see how things merge between languages. In Spain, both usufruct (usufructo) and eruction (eructo) are quite common words.
Oh really? That’s cool, thanks for the info. Language is so fascinating 👍
I had a look to see if I could find a full list but sadly not. However most Wikipedia entries for the individual novels include a section called, “The unfamiliar word,” if you want to find more.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Yeah, I was thinking I might. I ly thing is, I haven’t got all the books, nor do I have a website on which to host such a list. However I might still have a go 👍
If you start it, just put a tag that the list is incomplete and the wiki crowd will finish it.
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”
‘Tenebroso’ is commonly used in Spanish, at least in Spain. This whole thread is very interesting.
Feel like tenebrous being on a list of obscure words is tenuous, but maybe I just have esoteric interests.
Unlike many of these I’d heard it before but didn’t know its true meaning. It fits.
That list is going to send me down a rabbit hole looking for the etymology of words
I’m a master in Cacography!
Oh, I also really like Mammonism: “the greedy pursuit of riches”, from the Biblical “Mammon”.
Twaddle: something insignificant or worthless or another word Nonsense.
Discovered this word while reading the dictionary during silent reading in English and they wouldn’t let me play games.
There used to be a Scottish football ⚽ player called Kevin Twaddle. Always amused me.
Defenestration. Throwing someone out of a window. Example the defenestration of prague
I like to make the joke whenever someone mentions a Russian doctor falling out of a window or something:
There’s defense and there’s defenestration.
See also, defenestration trilogy
And Russian oligarchs
It’s composed of de- an fenestra, the latter meaning window.
So literally de-windowing
Verantwortungsbewusstsein. Let’s get back to our roots.
Is that obsolete or obscure (in German speaking areas)?
The concept might be, but the word itself is a compound of the words “verantwortung” and “bewusstsein”. They mean responsibility and consciousness respectively, and are both perfectly common and simple words. The whole thing means what you think it does, nothing special.
German doesn’t really have those hyper specific super obscure words, they’re almost always compound words made up of common words.
I am now adding overmorrow to my vocabulary. I can’t wait to confuse the shit out of people I hate.
übermorgen
You know that episode of Seinfeld where someone eats a candy bar with a knife and fork and it just spreads into the wild because people don’t really question it?
That’s what I’m hoping happens with overmorrow
