Your New English Words

[markhavemann 194]

floccinaucinihilipilification 

(often humorous) The act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant, of having no value or being worthless

 

Also the longest non-technical word in English.

[mungouk 988]

OK it's a portmanteau, but possibly of interest when discussing 漫画.  Stumbled across it yesterday.

 

Scanlation

 

Quote

Scanlation (also scanslation) is the fan-made scanning, translation, and editing of comics from a language into another language. Scanlation is done as an amateur work and is nearly always done without express permission from the copyright holder. The word "scanlation" is a portmanteau of the words scan and translation. The term is mainly used for Japanese manga, although it also exists for other national traditions on a lesser scale. Scanlations may be viewed at websites or as sets of image files downloaded via the Internet.

 

[roddy 5,435]

The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters

[Demonic_Duck 1,355]

1 hour ago, roddy said:

The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters

 

Surely not to their face, though!

[roddy 5,435]

I did consider an Only Fools and Horses reference. 

[889 1,751]

Formication has always been one of my favourite obscure words. No, it's not a typo, and it has nothing to do with redecorating your kitchen.

 

Spoiler

It's the feeling that ants are crawling on your skin. When they really aren't.

 

 

[Shelley 1,860]

@889 I guess from the formic acid they use as a defence. Very clever.

[mungouk 988]

"formica" is Latin for ant, apparently. 

[889 1,751]

According to Wikipedia, the plastic stuff "was originally used to replace mica in electrical applications" thus the name because it was "for mica."

[matteo 93]

based on my knowledge of italian (which is very closely related to latin) - plus google -  my guess is that you are all right at the same time

formìca is the insect (from which the name of the acid) and the word derives from latin

fòrmica is the material and the word derives from english as 889 says

 

 

[Demonic_Duck 1,355]

Courtesy of @Polyhistor in this post

 

moil

(archaic, dialect)

verb

1. work hard
2. move around in confusion or agitation

noun

1. hard work; drudgery
2. turmoil; confusion

[roddy 5,435]

cinereous - ash-gray in colour. See ceniza, ash, in Spanish, but can't think I can come up with any other English words with the same root. 

[Lu 3,171]

15 minutes ago, roddy said:

cinereous - ash-gray in colour. See ceniza, ash, in Spanish, but can't think I can come up with any other English words with the same root.

Cinders, perhaps?

[roddy 5,435]

Hmm. 

Quote

Old English sinder ‘slag’, of Germanic origin; related to German Sinter . The similar but unconnected French cendre (from Latin cinis ‘ashes’) has influenced both the sense development and the spelling. Compare with sinter.

 

[Lu 3,171]

1 minute ago, roddy said:

 

Quote

Old English sinder ‘slag’, of Germanic origin; related to German Sinter . The similar but unconnected French cendre (from Latin cinis ‘ashes’) has influenced both the sense development and the spelling. Compare with sinter.

 

Okay, well if they say it's really not related, I guess that must be true...

[889 1,751]

Bokeh.

 

It's the effect created in a photo when the foreground object is in sharp focus and the background blurred. Apparently derived from Japanese.

 

[Demonic_Duck 1,355]

This one is kind of cheating — it's Old English (but hey, the thread title never specified modern English...)

 

Anyway, I just found it too delightful not to post:

wandeweorpe

- mole (animal)

[Shelley 1,860]

I had to look this one up - Etiolated

 

Etiolation /iːtiəˈleɪʃən/ is a process in flowering plants grown in partial or complete absence of light.^[1] It is characterised by long, weak stems; smaller leaves due to longer internodes; and a pale yellow colour (chlorosis). The development of seedlings in the dark is known as "skotomorphogenesis" and leads to etiolated seedlings.

 

I extrapolated the meaning from context - The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter (sequel to The Time Machine) He used it to describe pigeons living in almost complete darkness - total lack of Sun and only artificial light.

 

Having looked it up I was sort of confused as to whether or not it could be applied to animals. but he did and it made sense.