murrayspeaks 1 Report post Posted April 12, 2016 People have displayed daedalian ingenuity in learning all those words Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lips 258 Report post Posted April 12, 2016 ai a three-toed sloth. good for scrabble. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
crazy-meiguoren 26 Report post Posted May 29, 2016 Lahar: (luh-HAR) a volcanic mudflow. Added to my vocabulary on May 18, 1980, when a nearby mountain blew its top. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gharial 130 Report post Posted July 5, 2016 omphaloskeptic ( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/omphaloskeptic ) tergiversation ( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tergiversation ) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
imron 5,246 Report post Posted January 22, 2018 brobdingnagian - huge; gigantic. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
889 1,751 Report post Posted January 22, 2018 Formication: the sensation that ants are crawling on your skin Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
roddy 5,435 Report post Posted January 24, 2018 Pleonasm Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lu 3,171 Report post Posted January 24, 2018 47 minutes ago, roddy said: Pleonasm It's funny, I've known this word since forever... in Dutch (pleonasme). I think I learned it as a child, even before 中学. It barely registers as a difficult word for me. But now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever seen it in English, so it must be rare in that language. Funny how such things can vary. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shelley 1,860 Report post Posted January 24, 2018 2 hours ago, roddy said: Pleonasm Having read the link, it strikes me that this word can be applied to chinese. So many words are pairs of characters or even 3 or 4, more commonly 2 to avoid confusion and ensure the meaning is transmitted even if the transmitting medium is not 100%. From the wiki page: "pleonasm can serve as a redundancy check: If a word is unknown, misunderstood, or misheard, or the medium of communication is poor—a wireless telephone connection or sloppy handwriting—pleonastic phrases can help ensure that the entire meaning gets across even if some of the words get lost." I would definitely describe chinese as Pleonastic language. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
edelweis 832 Report post Posted January 24, 2018 2 hours ago, Lu said: I think I learned it as a child Also a favorite word of French teachers. Don't say "monter en haut" (go up upstairs), it's a terrible pléonasme. (but most people say it anyway). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
imron 5,246 Report post Posted January 24, 2018 3 hours ago, Lu said: I don't think I've ever seen it in English In English, this is typically called a tautology which from the linked definition, it seems that a pleonasm is slightly different from that in nuance. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Geiko 358 Report post Posted January 24, 2018 "Pleonasmo" is also a normal word in Spanish schools. I'd say that in Spanish 'tautology' is used in philosophy and logic discourse and has negative connotations, whereas 'pleonasm' is used in language classes, to describe unnecessary repetitions, but it's also a rhetoric figure in poetry, and then it's seen as a way to embellish a literary text. The meaning is essentially the same, but the words are used in different contexts. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
imron 5,246 Report post Posted January 28, 2018 sesquipedalian - given to using long words. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Geiko 358 Report post Posted February 4, 2018 Ultracrepidarian: noting or pertaining to a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside the area of his or her expertise. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
realmayo 1,826 Report post Posted February 5, 2018 22 hours ago, Geiko said: Ultracrepidarian My middle name ....! 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
imron 5,246 Report post Posted September 19, 2018 Panchreston Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
roddy 5,435 Report post Posted December 16, 2019 Limerence. Which I found odd as I couldn't see they etymology of it, but it turns out to have been coined in the 70s by... well, it's on the link. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lu 3,171 Report post Posted December 16, 2019 4 minutes ago, roddy said: Limerence. I came across this word some years ago, when the English Wikipedia lemma was linked with the Dutch one for 'Verliefdheid'. 'Verliefdheid' is now linked to 'Infatuation', but really it has components of both and there is no English term that covers it exactly. What I found interesting is that limerence was considered something somewhat unhealthy, an obsession that one should get over to have a normal relationship, while verliefdheid is considered almost a necessary condition for a romantic relationship: if you're not verliefd, then perhaps you shouldn't be with this person. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
murrayjames 546 Report post Posted December 21, 2019 metastatic adjectival form of metastasis Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
roddy 5,435 Report post Posted August 6, 2020 In mining, gangue (/ɡæŋ/)[1] is the commercially worthless material that surrounds, or is closely mixed with, a wanted mineral in an ore deposit. It is thus distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or materials overlying an ore or mineral body that are displaced during mining without being processed, and from tailings, which is rock already stripped of valuable minerals. I could tell from context roughly what it was, but had to check to see it differs from tailings. And obviously you'll want to know where spoils fit in - spoils are the removed and dumped overburden. You're welcome. 1 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites