How about some words we love?

[Anna Holland]

hullabaloo

I was sooo proud when I got that in a headline.

[Jim Thomsen]

For me, that would be the basis of a marriage proposal.

[editer]

kerfuffle

ecdysiast

callipygian

agog

zymurgy

zyzzyva

possum haw

[Jim Thomsen]

I'm guessing you're an absolute bastard at Scrabble.

[editer]

Hah! I wish. I haven't played in years.

I saw that documentary about the tournament Scrabble players a year or so ago. Those people are hardcore.

Bet we could even the odds by requiring definitions of each word played. Opponents could challenge the word *or* the definition.

[editer]

opprobrium

ne'er-do-well

meerkat

miscreant

mascarpone

[HCFeldman]

Friday
Beer

On an only slightly more serious note, a second for mellifluous. I also love glissando. And I seem to use egregious a lot more than is probably warranted.

But I think some of my fiercest love is reserved for "street" English words that rarely, if ever, can be used in print: signifying, respresent, and, above all others, the irreplaceable trifling. Lord, is there any word in standard English so rich with scorn, so succinct in its dismissal of the subject described, as that one?

[Jim Thomsen]

weaksauce

[HCFeldman]

Belatedly: Weaksauce! Har!

[bthrock]

susurrus
foofaraw
audacious
auspicious
festoon
vexing
oyster
besmirch
vespertilian
rhabdomancy
fork
psychedelia
mod
defenestrate
gazebo
starlet
arabesque\
anvil

Foreign language chapter:
péronnelle, which my Cassell's defined as "a pert hussy; a saucy baggage."

Least favorite:
dipsomania, which knocked me out of the finals of the 1975 National Spelling Bee (18th place)

[csmount]

OK, I'm less than 12 hours from my flight back to Midwest reality after a nice, long vacation in Florida, reading the most recent posts here.

The cursor is sitting way off to the right in the middle of Brian's list, when a little box pops up: "Look in the iTunes Music Store?"

Just as I was thinking, damn, no dictionaries in this place ...

[Gerri Berendzen]

Late to tell you this Candy, but it's still winter here.

Now there's a word I hate, for reasons completely unrelated to copy editing or the language.

[Powderhorn]

I managed to get "defenestrate" into the student directory in college. I was quite pleased.

[kschwing]

fisticuffs!

[Jim Thomsen]

coiffure

[daniel]

some favorites:

languid
effulgence ("languid in the effulgence of the moon ...")
propinquity
neurasthenia
oh, and of course, British English:
gob-smacked
sod off
rotter

[editer]

whomperjawed

crepuscular

("Dammit, Harris! I don't ever want to see you use the word 'crepuscular' in a memo again!")

[LisaMc]

"Crepuscular" always makes me think of some awful disease.

[ImperviousJackson]

Seems a fitting thread for my first post.

impervious

also:

sarcophagus
crescendo
chasm
nefarious
propensity
savvy
trepidation
stigma
cacophony
recant
gregarious

[jljzen]

ubiquitous

[Stu Kelly]

I've got to second scurrilous. (I've described copy editors as such.)

[Stu Kelly]

...with tongue in cheek, of course.