# Your Favorite Long Obscure Word to Knock Your Adversary Senseless?



## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

Mine is Toxicephalicrainialdeficit.  I made it up.  But I hooked together respectable root words. Usually leaves 'em speechless!


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## DavidRM (Sep 21, 2010)

I like using "specificity" whenever I can. I just like the sound of it. Always have.

But it's not superlong. Or really that obscure.

I find sticks and stones much more useful when dealing with adversaries. Names never seem to hurt them. ;-)

-David


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

"Antidisestablishmentarianism," of course -- not that I often get an opportunity to use that in conversation. Not as impressive but still with quite a few syllables and a lot of fun to say (and I've actually used a few times in conversation) is "onomatopoeia".


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## KMA (Mar 11, 2009)

It's not one word, but it can be fun to refer to your levator labii superioris alaeque nasi.



Spoiler



(It's the muscle that enables one to sneer)


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## HeadshotHeather (Jan 7, 2010)

I like Kinemortophobia The fear of zombies!


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## Chris Barraclough (Jan 25, 2011)

HeadshotHeather said:


> I like Kinemortophobia The fear of zombies!


Ha, surely everyone would suffer from that in a zombie apocalypse? Or are some people actually terrified of zombies right now?

I like Obfuscation. It's not particularly long, but I've found it confuses the hell out of people


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## Daphne (May 27, 2010)

I like to slip "effulgent" in where I can (and for alert Buffy fans; yes this is the word William the Bloody used in his poetry with disastrous results).


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## James Everington (Dec 25, 2010)

It's not long, but "plinth" should belong in more topics of conversations than it currently does.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I've always liked the word "desuetude" ever since I came across it in an Asimov novel. It's fallen into disuse though.

Not a long word, but certainly obscure.

Mike


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

This seems appropriate enough:

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia.



Spoiler



Fear of long words


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## tim290280 (Jan 11, 2011)

I am always trying to aim to have at least once character who is a _defenestrator_, or at least adept in the art of _defenestration_. 

Maybe I should include some acts of autodefenestration as well........


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## KatieKlein (Dec 19, 2010)

This isn't mine, but John Green (_Looking for Alaska_) in _An Abundance of Katherines_ calls a guy a sitzpinkler.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sitzpinkler

I toss this one around whenever I can.


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

DavidRM said:


> I like using "specificity" whenever I can. I just like the sound of it. Always have.
> 
> But it's not superlong. Or really that obscure.
> 
> ...


Agree, specificity will stop most blowhards in their tracks. They are always short on details


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

KatieKlein said:


> This isn't mine, but John Green (_Looking for Alaska_) in _An Abundance of Katherines_ calls a guy a sitzpinkler.
> 
> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sitzpinkler
> 
> I toss this one around whenever I can.


All wonderful words, cause skid marks in the road in the forward progress of windbags!


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

tim290280 said:


> I am always trying to aim to have at least once character who is a _defenestrator_, or at least adept in the art of _defenestration_.
> 
> Maybe I should include some acts of autodefenestration as well........


Cool thing about defenstrate is that you can add a prefix here, a suffix there, and turn it into a laser tornado to defenetrate the stuffing out of an idiot! E.g., pontificodefenesretration= throw their pontifications out of the highest window.


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

HeadshotHeather said:


> I like Kinemortophobia The fear of zombies!


 very cool.


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## HeadshotHeather (Jan 7, 2010)

Chris Barraclough said:


> Ha, surely everyone would suffer from that in a zombie apocalypse? Or are some people actually terrified of zombies right now?


I key medical records and had an order for a case of dementia with the patient having a temporary diagnosis of kinemortophobia. Also added, until a more technical/clinical diagnosis can be determined)


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## tim290280 (Jan 11, 2011)

Margaret Jean said:


> Cool thing about defenstrate is that you can add a prefix here, a suffix there, and turn it into a laser tornado to defenetrate the stuffing out of an idiot! E.g., pontificodefenesretration= throw their pontifications out of the highest window.


I just really like the idea that we needed a term to describe throwing someone or something out of a window. Shows how great the English language is. The complete antithesis of general language usage in society, where we are now making up words like bounce-back-ability due to people being unable to remember resilience is a word.


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

For years (ever since I read _Moby Dick_, I've loved the word _ubiquitous,_ although it isn't really a long word. If you're really looking for a long, obscure word, the one that I've really had fun with is 
_pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis,_ which was originally thought to be a lung disease, but which now is used to describe lung ailments that are without specific diagnoses.


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

Sartorial.

Learned it first from an old Elton John song


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## 4Katie (Jun 27, 2009)

anecdotal

I used it at work once and completely confounded the other supervisors. I actually had to define it for them!


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

jmiked said:


> I've always liked the word "desuetude" ever since I came across it in an Asimov novel. It's fallen into disuse though.
> 
> Not a long word, but certainly obscure.
> 
> Mike


Funny! Ironic! Desuetude (a state of inactivity or disuse) to have fallen into disuse!

Love old words and resurrecting them for contemporary speaking/writing.


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

Half-Orc said:


> This seems appropriate enough:
> 
> Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia.
> 
> ...


hahahaha!


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## Ciareader (Feb 3, 2011)

@Margaret Jean....I love the way you think!


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## Shayne Parkinson (Mar 19, 2010)

I quite like "solipsistic". One of our former Prime Ministers used it of the Aussie PM of the day, causing a certain amount of discussion.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

napcatcatnappin'

of course


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

I like ostensibly. But the problem with making someone speechless is that they might be thinking you're an idiot.


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

Jon Olson said:


> I like ostensibly. But the problem with making someone speechless is that they might be thinking you're an idiot.


I like to think that they are speechless because they're thinking about what an idiot they are for not knowing the word that you used in conversation with them.


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## G. Henkel (Jan 12, 2010)

*Superfragilisticexpialidocious!*


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## barbara elsborg (Oct 13, 2010)

Batrachian - I saw it in Balderdash game - looked it up- means froglike  and have been desperate to use it in a book. Finally managed it -batrachian eyes of one of my characters.


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## Indy (Jun 7, 2010)

There's a Neil Gaiman short story featuring some batrachian characters: Shoggoth's Old Peculiar.  It features a line I think about every time I try a new beer.  "The beer had the kind of flavor which, he suspected, advertisers would describe as full-bodied, although if pressed they would have to admit that the body in question had been that of a goat."

The story is featured in Smoke and Mirrors, for those what, two or three of ya that haven't read it.


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

tim290280 said:


> I just really like the idea that we needed a term to describe throwing someone or something out of a window. Shows how great the English language is. The complete antithesis of general language usage in society, where we are now making up words like bounce-back-ability due to people being unable to remember resilience is a word.


GAWD, ain't it the truth. The poverty of expression in the media is truly alarming.


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

Cindy416 said:


> For years (ever since I read _Moby Dick_, I've loved the word _ubiquitous,_ although it isn't really a long word. If you're really looking for a long, obscure word, the one that I've really had fun with is
> _pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis,_ which was originally thought to be a lung disease, but which now is used to describe lung ailments that are without specific diagnoses.


Well, it certainly sounds like a whammy lung ailment with a very poor prognosis!


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## AJB (Jul 9, 2010)

I learnt this word from my best friend at school: floccinaucinihilipilification, which means 'the categorizing of something as valueless trivia'.

Can't say I've actually managed to use it in any writing. Until today, right here, that is.  

Amanda


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

tim290280 said:


> I am always trying to aim to have at least once character who is a _defenestrator_, or at least adept in the art of _defenestration_.
> 
> Maybe I should include some acts of autodefenestration as well........


Now that's a stunner. I have a few folks in mind just ripe for using that one on, as in would they please autodefenestrate themselves from my presence.


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

Shayne Parkinson said:


> I quite like "solipsistic". One of our former Prime Ministers used it of the Aussie PM of the day, causing a certain amount of discussion.


That one is appropriate for so much of the drivel we read and hear clothed as "Commentary," eh?


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

Jon Olson said:


> I like ostensibly. But the problem with making someone speechless is that they might be thinking you're an idiot.


Forgive me, but so big what? It's only fair. You think your pinhead auditor is an idiot too, right? All of this reminds me of a twisted article I wrote a few years ago called "Fighting Words" for a magazine. I'm going to see if I can dig it out.

Later: Found it! Warning: Silly but fun vocab of annihilating words. http://garnetsullivanlivefromflorida.com/fighting-words/


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## caseyf6 (Mar 28, 2010)

I shared your blog on my Facebook- it has some WONDERFUL words.  Pecksniffian is wonderful, isn't it?  Embroccoliation is pretty funny, too.


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## Philip N (Oct 8, 2010)

I recently read a book in which the author was clearly fond of the word _rodomuntade_. _Sockdolager_ is fun, too.

And defenestration always reminds me of Calvin & Hobbes.


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

caseyf6 said:


> I shared your blog on my Facebook- it has some WONDERFUL words. Pecksniffian is wonderful, isn't it? Embroccoliation is pretty funny, too.


Word play is wonderful. I write full time. It's what I do all day. Laugh myself sick!


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

caseyf6 said:


> I shared your blog on my Facebook- it has some WONDERFUL words. Pecksniffian is wonderful, isn't it? Embroccoliation is pretty funny, too.


Have to confess I myself coined "embroccoliation" while staring at a head of broccoli trying to think of the next stupid/silly word to stick in the chart.

Another laugh riot: You can pull this on just about anyone who only speaks English (most of us): Put some phrase, perhaps quotidian and trite, into the google translator as English and change it into Latin, Albanian, Swahili--anything. Instantly--bam--you've got 'em. Fun!

PS I have a devilish word-crazy friend who does this and adds a different foreign phrase confounder to his e-mail signature periodically. So fun, silly! To figure it out, I have to first zero in on which of the thousands of languages other than English the obfuscating con is couched in. VERY tough for me with Asian languages! Totally different alphabets!


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## R. H. Watson (Feb 2, 2011)

Cindy416 said:


> For years (ever since I read _Moby Dick_, I've loved the word _ubiquitous,_ although it isn't really a long word.


I'm rereading Moby Dick right now, and although there are a lot of good quotes, the one that has stuck with me is, "Immortality is but ubiquity in time."

A nice, obscure word I came across recently is, xenization, the fact of traveling as a stranger.
I can't claim any special word skills; I found it here, http://www.savethewords.org/


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## Guy Dragon (Feb 6, 2011)

I actually had a chance to use _formication_ in the novel I'm currently working on, but I just couldn't myself to use it. I first ran across this word in a book by Stephen Donaldson. I could swear he used it a dozen times, at least.


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## Chris Northern (Jan 20, 2011)

I'm sorry to report that I have sesquipedalophobia and am therefore struggling to get a grip on the subject matter of this thread. It's a burden. You can imagine.


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## tim290280 (Jan 11, 2011)

Chris Northern said:


> I'm sorry to report that I have sesquipedalophobia and am therefore struggling to get a grip on the subject matter of this thread. It's a burden. You can imagine.


Lol. We have a word of the week at work and that was one of our earlier ones. Nicely used 


ajb said:


> I learnt this word from my best friend at school: floccinaucinihilipilification, which means 'the categorizing of something as valueless trivia'.
> 
> Can't say I've actually managed to use it in any writing. Until today, right here, that is. Wink
> 
> Amanda


I can say that I slipped that into a meeting recently. I figure that if my bosses are going to be naive and stupid then they can at least feel it occasionally as well.


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

barbara elsborg said:


> Batrachian - I saw it in Balderdash game - looked it up- means froglike and have been desperate to use it in a book. Finally managed it -batrachian eyes of one of my characters.


I came back to re-check this. Going to add to-use it in a new story (i just finished) LIVE ALIEN: HANDLE WITH CARE. In one scene two over-educated women with not enough to do (Real Housewives of "Never-Never Land" with air for brains) Fed Ex a frog they are unfamiliar with to the President of the United States and add this cautionary comment to the outside of the parcel. THANK YOU FOR THIS BON MOT!


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## S.J. Harris (Feb 10, 2011)

Not long but obscure: Fustigate. It means to beat with a stick.


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## nomesque (Apr 12, 2010)

AJB said:


> I learnt this word from my best friend at school: floccinaucinihilipilification, which means 'the categorizing of something as valueless trivia'.


Ahhh, good old Heinlein managed to use that word a scary number of times.


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

Chris Northern said:


> I'm sorry to report that I have sesquipedalophobia and am therefore struggling to get a grip on the subject matter of this thread. It's a burden. You can imagine.


Touche', Jose' I bet it's tuff going back and forth 2 and fro from dictionary.com and kindleboards all the time.


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## ToolPackinMama (Feb 18, 2011)

I love throwing out quaint, funny sounding words like flibbertigibbet or addlepated.  People are often momentarily discombobulated by them.


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