Favourite Words

[AndyM]

dehiscing of summer lawns

If we had a smiley icon I'd be plonking one here.

[Des]

Me too.















...and why DON'T we have smileys btw?

[judith]

Soramimi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soramimi

[Des]

I've always liked Purloined

Somehow, if I got burgled, I'd feel slightly better about my stuff being nicked if I used that word instead.

(And before anyone says I'm being insensitive, I have been burgled twice!)

[NormanD]

Luppers. A word from my childhood my folks often used, to describe someone's hands, or an animal's paws. I can't find it in any Yiddish lexicon - suggestions are that it's Polari.

[AndyM]

I think 'luppers' was Polari for fingers, so pretty close.

[Des]

Largesse - always sounds slightly boastful.

[AndyM]

S

A large s

[Des]

Very good.

[Philellinas]

Oxymoron. This delightful word has "charted" 16 (and now 17) times on SoTW. "Festive cheer" could be a curmudgeonly example. "Curmudgeon" is such a splendid word it almost sounds like a compliment (of the season).

[kas]

"Oxymoron" was also among the strange creatures / inhabitants in satirist Stefano Benni's oddball scifi-novella "Baol" (as was "trendsetter" I believe).

What kind of naturists, then, would it take to study local populations of oxymora?

[Chris P]

What kind of naturists, then, would it take to study local populations of oxymora?

do you mean 'naturalist' Kari, or are you aware that naturist = nudist over here in the UK, and you have the notion that you'd need to have no clothes on to put an oxymoron at ease ?

[kas]

Oops, bit of a slip there. Thanks for the correction, Chris.

Although you could think that even camouflage clothes would be too loud for the naturalists at it...

[AndyM]

Hibernaculum

A scientific term used to describe a cave or mine-shaft or any large dark area where bats form colonies. Plural, presumably, hibernacula.

[Des]

Anal jelly

As deposited by Otters - almost as obvious as their spraint.