That is a good point chisue.

The people in my circle all have large vocabularies as well, we only encounter bizarre looks when others overhear us and, I can only presume that they ostensibly view us as pretentious.

Frankly, I consider such presumptions to be rather asinine. ;)

My husband and I don't dumb our speech down for anyone, including our kids. They frequently ask us what a word means, we explain it and then it becomes part of their vocabulary.

I think the latest was I said that a meal we were having was a delectable delight, quite sumptuous. They asked what delectable and sumptuous meant and I said allow me to elucidate.

To those who don't live under a rock and already know reddit, I apologize. I've mentioned reddit several times over on the kitchens forum and no one ever knows what I'm talking about. It happens often enough in real life as well that I made an assumption and we all know what happens when we assume. Sorry!

I actually have been a regular reddit aficionado for numerous years. I know many large words but these days don't use them. However one I have used recently was fortuitous, and I was asked what I said. I think having a self correcting keyboard helps some utilize it for expressing ourselves with words we didn't use much before because we weren't sure about the spelling. It's So much easier, if you can get close, the keyboard will predict the properly spelled word. Being in a medical profession forces one to be familiar with lots of very big words but in a regular daily conversation those are not words anyone would be using.

Nice thread.

I don't know reddit, so that will be a new thing for me to explore.

How interesting, Phyllis, ubiquitous is a word that I very often use, sort of a favorite at this time, but will probably be soon replaced by something else.

How funny about coprolites Adellabedella. Great malapropism. My late friend had a small company that was named Endangered Feces, and she used coprolites to fashion interesting things.

I love words, and although I don't have a formal education I've read quite a bit and even enjoy reading aloud. I love the way some words just roll off your tongue, particularly the way Dr. Seuss would use them. There are some words that to me sound unpleasant. Goiter or brassiere, for example. I just don't like the way they sound coming from my mouth.

Having worked in the medical field for a while I think the compound words, are so much fun. Hysterosalpingoopherectomy, for example. Not often one gets to say that.

It's interesting when a contestant on Jeopardy will mispronounce a word. You can tell he/she's a reader without much exposure to a wider world. I can identify.

Another here who has been a reddit fan for many years :)

I love the word "triskaidekaphobia". Such a fun word. On triskaidekaphobia day I would remind my kids before school, because I knew their teachers would ask if they knew what special day it was! Kathyg in mi

I usually pass all online word tests, because I read a lot . Vocabulary was always a strong suit in school ,but I rarely use words online which could make me appear pompous.

plllog- I had to look up several of the words you listed. Ichthian- titan quest?? Or did I search wrong?

Nanny98- I also love discovering the history of a word and I've passed that on to my older daughters, they sometimes ask me, "what is the etymology of ______"

Yes, they actually say etymology because it is the word I've always used with them. They are 6 and 8.

Thank you everyone who has commented so far, I've learned a few new words!

Redact was a new one for me. In my former life, I did a lot of recording of Minutes and had several occasions to learn about specific legal action(s) related to the publication or release of Minutes. Redact means to remove a word or two (generally a proper name or a number figure) to protect someone/thing and is allowable under the laws in my state. I assume that those in the legal profession are highly familiar with the word redact.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention about "exacerbate" which someone else listed. It was trendy in my former profession for a while. As one of our administrators said, it's just odd enough/sounds-similar-to-another word-which-would-be-unusual-to-hear in our profession, to make people sit up and listen. As in, "What did he just say?"

I think that most people who read something other than comic books and romance novels will have a good vocabulary by assimilation. Don't you think that reading is the most enjoyable way of accumulating new words?

As far as uncommon words, I use the term polygamodioecious whenever I'm speaking or writing about hollies. Earlier today, I noticed that a couple of the four lemon seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago were polyembryonic.

One of my favorite words say is ephemera or ephemeral, and will use it when applicable to describe a flower. It's such a pretty word.

TG, not specifically Titan Quest, but I guess they have 'em. Man-fish, along the same lines as centaur. I got that from varied reading, however, as Rhizo mentioned. Apparently it's not in the dictionary. It's still a word but not officially acknowledged. Sorry 'bout that. :)

Whom is much easier than people who try to teach it make it sound. It goes where "him" goes (or her or them) though nowadays people screw up their pronouns all over the place. Whom is an object of a verb or preposition. And as these things go it's a really new word (400-500 years) so feel free to ignore it.

examples:

The Doors: Who Do You Love

You love him.

So correct use of whom = Whom do you love?

Also correct:

I bought a valentine for him.

Whom did you buy a valentine for?

If I tell DH the soup is hot, he will sometimes ask if it is supporating! (Awful, huh? He was a medical corpsman -- another proof of the storied military mismatch.)

As a child I always did the Reader's Digest vocabulary quiz. If I use a $10 word I get "the look" so I don't any more. Redact. It's always in the wrong place/time when I'm researching genealogy.

The old newspapers and novels/short stories are so vivid compared to writing nowadays. Gullywasher is always allowed ;-)

My favorite long word is "sesquipedalian" which as a noun literally means a long word. As as adjective it can be applied to someone who tends to use very long words.

ambivert!

You gotcha introverts,

you gotcha extroverts,

& then...

you gotcha ambiverts, who are sometimes intro & sometimes extro.

edited to add:
not quite the same thing, but sometimes people misuse words in funny ways.

just saw a craigslist ad offering "pompous grass".

I just hate it when grass behaves pompously!

I dabble in shenanigans, glitter, algorithms, debauchery, exuberance, and sassiness :)

I don't consciously use very uncommon words, so much as I use common words in unusual ways or combinations. But they are more frequently written, rather than spoken. When logging a geocache, what I write will seem cryptic and often not be understood by those that have not found it yet. And if I am logging more for my own memory than the knowledge of others, even those familiar with the cache may not have a clue what I am really talking about. But each of my logs is unique, even for my exceptionally rare LPC find, and I can read that particular log many years later and remember exactly what I experienced while searching for that individual cache, out of the thousands I have found over the years.

So, how many of you needed to look up the word geocache? ;)

"just having a nosey" came about because a friend was once married to a Kiwi.....a New Zealander. He would say that, and I do, just because I think it's cute. Just having a look around.

These are great words that you are all using, or know. Some are real tongue-twisters!

Good point Chisue. I too say "inadvertently", is there an "advertent"?

"Multitudinous". One of my acquaintances didn't believe it was a real word and looked it up. : )

I have always loved words, vocabulary and spelling bees were a delight in school as I was very good at them. Love using unusual words in ordinary situations (without sounding pompous, I trust, lol). My dad had a lovely set of oversized books - six or eight volumes, I forget -- of an etymological dictionary which I passionately desired to own, but unfathomably, by the time his estate was settled, the books were not to be found anywhere. Personally, I believe he managed to take them with him.... I still mourn their disappearance.

my favorite permanently-posted note on my fridge reads: "You know you are a history fan when YOU STILL GET UPSET THINKING ABOUT THE LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA." Yep. So true.

Roxanna, I'm LingOL. I'm more of a book fan than a history fan, but I always get upset if I think about the library of Alexandria, as well as several later bibliotical tragedies. (I made that one up. It ought to be a word.)

Jasdip, thanks for the explanation. It is a cute saying.

Junebug, next time, try multifarious on your friend. :)

Advertent is a word. It's just not used much nowadays.

A few of you have referenced the words in older writing. This is a cultural thing. In the late Victorian and Edwardian era, there was a great deal of what we can call "common scholarship". There were many educated men, and more educated women than ever, especially among the professional and middle classes. "Societies" (Geographic, Historical, Arts, Letters) were a social norm, and attending scholarly lectures was considered a normal way to spend free time. The style in that era, going along with this overtly demonstrative scholarliness, was for long, complicated oratory, and the use of obscure, long words. Really obscure. Words the audience would have to mull over and apply their educations in Latin and Greek to.

Nowadays, we like plain speech, using small words, which everybody will understand, not just the highly educated.

OTOH, I remember the playwright Eleanor Harder's reaction to some kind of teaching "innovation" which didn't allow the reading material to have words in it that the children hadn't been taught (i.e., boring). She told of how much her toddler son had loved Peter Rabbit, and would go around saying, "..implored him to exert himself." Bleaching all the color out of the language is so wrongheaded.

Some other good words:

Physiognomy

Visage

Philology

Undertaking (a project, not a funerary profession)

Mellifluent

Beneficent

Euphonious

Catamount

Inveigler

Rapscalion

Reprobate

Stemwinder

"This is a cultural thing. In the late Victorian and Edwardian era, there was a great deal of what we can call "common scholarship". There were many educated men, and more educated women than ever, especially among the professional and middle classes. "

The masses in Victorian and Edwardian Britain didn't spend their spare time strolling in gardens and reading fiction and philosophy. The vast majority of the population, maybe 2/3rds or more, were working class and lower, often illiterate, spending long hours in often dangerous jobs, and barely managing to make ends meet. That's why there was so much immigration to the US from the lower classes of Britain (which included Ireland until 1921) in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Life in Britain for the common man was miserable and the class structure prevented any possibility of upward social mobility for most.

It's true that technical subject areas have technical words, but people who use such words or other pseudo-grandiose words in inappropriate circumstances or with people who don't share their knowledge in such technical areas are simply bombastic and priggish. (irony intended).

My father ran an excavating business when I was young, so backhoe, track hoe, and feller-buncher were part of our everyday language. I like doppelganger, sesquicentennial, onomatopoeia, and acciaccatura, but I can't often work those into a conversation.

SW, you're right about the masses, though there also was a time (though I can't remember when--certainly after free education became standard) when Welsh miners were known to be particularly well read. It's thought that that was because books were so expensive that the only ones they could buy were used old classics that could be had for a penny. You'll notice where you quoted me (since you're back to your hobby of disagreeing with me as often as possible, even when you aren't really disagreeing, like now) that I wasn't referring to the masses, though I was referring to the mode that prevailed both in Britain and in the U.S. at that time. The oratory of the period, which often might have been bombastic and priggish (no irony intended), was quite intelligible by the people to whom it was directed.

One of the things that people used to do back then, was to be able to say back what they'd heard. Few people do now, and more often can do it with a new song that they've heard once and can repeat than with speeches. Back then, people would write them down verbatim (possibly with mistakes, but close overall when not perfect). I think the skill developed from some of the teaching practices of the times.

Mama Goose, acciaccatura is a new one to me. Excellent word!

Gyr-falcon--I know about geocaching because my computer geek son received one for Christmas one year from his dear wife. I went with him and DGD on his first expedition and was pleased to be helpful when one of the clues referred to "kings" and I understood that we were in front of Los Reyes Mexican restaurant.

We say "pandalerium" all the time. Thanks, Foxworthy! LOL

junco, the rest of my family enjoy searching, too, but only with me and I am the only one that logs. I mainly cache while traveling. Unfortunately, I haven't been traveling much for the past few years.

----------------

As expected, some of the uncommon words don't seem so to me. For example, doppelganger gets used often enough by Talisman players. Otherwise, it would not be uttered often!

I like to make a contribution when I read something I disagree with. I try to say why. It doesn't matter to me who (not whom) the author is.

The art of listening carefully and remembering what was said is especially essential for people who are illiterate. As illiteracy declines, so too would the need for that skill. My house cleaner speaks only Spanish and can't read or write. I doubt if she has ever held a pencil or pen in her hand. If I ask her "Can you come one day earlier or one day later next time", she can tell me her complete schedule for the week, and any other week for that matter and what time slots are open on what days. For phone numbers, she will make an entry in her cell phone. We mark cleaners by color and with tape markings. When I tell her what to use where, she never forgets. She has no choice, she can't read labels or take notes.

Your contribution was valuable! It just wasn't counter to what I had said so needn't have been stated as a disagreement. And, yes, "who" is correct in that sentence. :) While I'm sure you're right about memorization being useful for illiterates, the cases I was referring to were about very literate people indeed who would write whole passages of a lecture out when they got home, often in letters, with reasonably good accuracy.

Some more good words from my active vocabulary:

Luminosity

Diaphanous

Hirsute

Ruminant

Susurrus

Whelk

Mendacity

Virgule

Aglet

Plllog- I suspect we are both logophiles (I'll admit I had to look up what the word was)

I don't use grandiose language to show my intelligence or to look down on others.

I love our language and I love that we have such a huge and varied vocabulary that, chances are, if you are trying to express an idea, feeling, etc, there is an EXACT word for it that you can use instead of piecing together a cluster of smaller, more well known words to get the general idea across.

Some I used last night and tonight in speaking with my husband about his father, these aren't unusual words, just words you might not use on a daily basis.

Untenable

Macabre

Largesse

Crux

Surmise

Troglodyte

Lucidness

Amiable

Also, can I just say I love knowing what an aglet is because I've seen the question pop up on random trivia quizzes frequently enough that others are astounded that I know the answer.

I must say I owe my vocabulary, in large part, to my parents, particularly my dad.

Growing up, they never used motherese with us and any time I asked what a word meant, they would point to the bookshelves that lined an entire wall in the living room and say, "look it up!"

If I used a wrong word or phrase, I.e. "can I go ride my bike?" I was always answered with, "I don't know, can you?" I would usually reply with an exasperated "ugh, you know what I meant" to which my dad would reply, "no, I don't. Say what you mean and mean what you say"

I find myself repeating the same things to my own children now. :)

plllog, you posted a new one for me--I had to look up susurrus. Thank you for such an onomatopoetic word. ;)

Just noted that I used the word "hence" in a recent post. Not often used these days.

We also use the word "prophylactic" in the sense of doing something ahead of really needing to do something to rectify a problem -- in this case, before it exists. Unfortunately, that word has gotten other connotations and now is used by most of the public in the most narrow sense.

I have also gotten to like the word, "limpid" -- which means something clear, not remotely like I once thought the word sounded.

Reddit -- heard about it, but didn't check it out until something recent under Cooking forum had me curious enough to look.

M.G., you're very welcome.

T.G., I am, but I also had a similar upbringing without any dumbing down for the kids. I was unaware of having an extensive vocabulary until some kids at camp teased me when we were first moving in, and I wasn't aware of having used any big words. At home, we also were told to look things up, and my father would leave the table to look things up in the dictionary or encyclopedia rather than leaving the question fester during a meal.

I don't use big words to puff myself up, look important or intimidate someone. I'll gladly explain or restate if asked, and I try, most of the time, to adjust my speech to fit the circumstances. It's SO much easier to express myself clearly with specific words, however, than having to mold a context where a more general, more common word will mean what I'm trying to say, that when I'm tired, they all leak out! I don't use captious or bumptious in common speech because they really aren't understood by many, but all the other words I've listed (except maybe whelk, because, really, how often does one discuss whelks?) are words in my active vocabulary that I use as unthinkingly as any on a second grade spelling test. Your list too, T.G.

Some favorite words (still off the top of my head):

Virulent

Puce (note that it's a red-purple, though many people seem to think it's a yellow-green, perhaps because it's a letter away from "puke")

Heliotrope

Magenta

Isosceles (equal, mirror sides on opposite sides of a center line--the artistic ideal of natural beauty)

Idiosyncratic

Bumbershoot

Pinchpenny

Cheeseparing

Fiddly

Frock

Artemis, we use "prophylactic" too. :) But mostly at home because of the narrow meaning you mentioned. :) If you think hence is rare, give a ponder to whence and thence!

Dypsomania/dypsomaniac, not that I use it, when alcoholism/alcoholic is much more recognizable.

Concatenation

Indubitably

Isosceles reminds me of hypotenuse.

Yes, because of the triangle, though even in geometry there are other shapes that are isosceles. :) We tend to use hypotenuse for streets that cut across the grid. :)

Discontiguous is another useful word outside of math.

M.G., wasn't there some kind of popular rhyme about the dyspeptic dypsomaniac? A google search just brought up a couple of fictional characters. This seems to be a description that floats around British light journalism. :)

I thought of another word that is common in our household: diatomaceous. Gardeners who have slugs are sometimes familiar with it. People generally look at me open-mouthed when I use this word. I like it - it rolls off the tongue smoothly and sounds impressive.

Interesting thread. T.G., would circumlocution suffice?

Snidely, is there a literacy group in your area?

Reading would help your cleaning woman so much.

"Advertent" reminded me of the puzzle that some words mean the same thing even though they sound like opposites, but the only example I can think of right now is "flammable" & "inflammable".

I agree, sylviatexas, but she is really from very modest (and dare I say, Central American peasant) roots and doesn't fully appreciate what she's missing out on. I asked her why she never bothered to at least learn some English and her response was that she's happy to rely on her 3 kids (in their thirties and mosly fluent in English) when she has a problem. She has a green card and has been here over 25 years. Dealing with her has improved my Spanish considerably.

The list of words that would seem by their form to have an opposite but don't is long - untoward, incessant, incognito, inept, nonchalant, nonsensical, inscrutable, etc. George Carlin did a routine about flammable, inflammable, non-inflammable ("why are three words, either it flams or it doesn't flam") and oxymorons like jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, near miss (for airplanes, why isn't it near hit?), etc.,

'Bloviate' is getting a lot of use from me of late--but then it usually does during election years. (Although, it seems to be particularly appropriate for the 2016 go-round.)

Is "bloviate" anything like "obviate"?

o j

Discombobulated.

Its a real word meaning to upset or confuse. Its a word I picked up from my mother-in law. She loved tossing words like this into a game of scrabble just to see if someone would challenge it.

Persnickety

Phoenix

Xylem

Elastomer

My grandfather liked to use slumgullion and loblolly (in the mire, mud hole, mud puddle sense, not the pine) in everyday language. He was a character. Houzz hates both words, but I know they're real.

Oh Jemdandy--discombobulated is one of my favorites. It conveys the perfect mix of upset and confused.

I always picture an old cantankerous prospector (one who mines for gold, etc.) when I hear discombobulated. I also expect to hear dagnabit and tarnation to come out of their mouth shortly after I see them in my head.

Yosemite Sam!

rob, we have a family friend who calls her recipe 'slumgully.' :)

I remember learning prestidigitator, numismatist, and philatelist, studying for a spelling bee when I was a kid. Copacetic, pneumatic, symbiotic.

joyfulguy:

Not really. But you can use them in the same sentence:

A poor showing in the (state of choice) primary obviated (candidate of choice)'s chances to bloviate on a national level.

Lovely words today! I'd never heard slumgullion, ever! And there are recipes for it posted on the 'net!

One that I love but isn't really common enough for general speech is obfusc. Even the dictionaries are unclear [teehee] on the word, though obfuscation is in general use. (Obfusc has a general meaning of murkily dark, though it has some kind of special meaning in music)

Then there's subfusc, which means dully dark or dusky. Drab (in its coloration meaning) :) It is also what they call the academic dress at Oxford and other universities that have robes and uniforms.

Arcane is particularly useful if your audience knows it, but it's not easily discerned from context. And an appropriate description of these words. :)

Remonstrate

Macerate

Masticate

Gesticulate

Pseudobulb

Syllabub

Shortfall

Windfall

Deluge

Disarticulate

Disgorge

Your last post almost sounds like Shel Silverstein, my son's favorite poet when he was young.

Can't think of any at the moment ... but I sometimes use some that may seem a bit unusual, here.

Our offspring tend to use a fairly substantial vocabulary, as we told them when they were growing that it's important to learn the precise meaning of a variety words, as it enables us to explain our ideas more exactly as we tell others an idea that's in our head.

We felt that the worker, especially in knowledge-related situations, who could transfer an idea from his/her head into another person's head with what turned out to be only minor variations would gain more respect in the workplace.

Their Mom had a four-year degree in hospital diet.

ole joyfuelled