Originally Posted by
UVa1981
I love the word "only" for its suppleness; depending upon placement it can give a sentence very different meanings (which also means you must think before using the word, which is not a bad practice, of itself):
1. Only I threw Tim over the wall. Nobody else did.
2. I only threw Tim over the wall. I didn't shoot him.
3. I threw only Tim over the wall. I didn't throw John.
4. I threw Tim only over the wall. I didn't throw him over anything else.
5. I threw Tim over only the wall. See #4.
6. I threw Tim over the only wall. There were no other walls.
7. I threw Tim over the wall only. See #4 and 6.
Some other words I like:
Coda - somewhere upthread someone mentioned segue, which I also fancy. In similar fashion, I like coda.
Paralipsis - simply because it occurs so commonly and clumsily: "It would be unseemly for me to dwell on Senator X's womanizing," which is what I just did by mentioning it, all the while trying to disclaim it. Like "schadenfreude," it captures a relatively complex human behavior in a single word.
Ineffable - indescribably joy, unspeakable disgust; on the same order as pornography, which I know when I see, but a precise definition of which remain inexpressible.
Mordant - a biting sense of humor, the etymology of which may reach back to roots resembling morbid, but which I've not looked into.
Anserine, obloquy, jape, bruit - all for their economy of words
Similarly, some words and phrases in other languages (which I usually try to avoid using, but something other cultures have found a way to express something better than english does):
Ignis fatuus - alternatively, "will-o'-the-wisp" or something that is false or misleading. I like the interplay between the physical phenomenon--the will-o'-the-wisp--and the concept of misleading, but ultimately lacking substance.
Cri de coeur - encompasses any passionate appeal, complaint, or protest.
Auto-de-fe - file this under the same rubric as paralipsis and schadenfreude, inasmuch as it refers back to the ritualistic passing of judgment against, and the burning at the stake of, heretics during the Spanish Inquisition.
Shibboleth - closely related to auto-da-fe.
Lagniappe - a word that I particularly like (who doesn't like a little something extra) for its redolence of Nawlins.
A word in some usage that I don't like: "like." This is when it's used as a sort of placeholder, noise to fill a mental pause because the thought was not fully formed before uttered. "I am, like, so happy that..."
Special note to Rich:
"Meshuggeneh" is a great word I use to take myself down a peg or two when necessary.
Special note to HereBeforeCoachK:
"Mynez" is a word I use from time to time, both in writing and orally, simply because it brings back memories of the Roast Beef Po' Boys at Mother's Restaurant in Nawlins, thickly slathered with mayonaisse. See "lagniappe," above. Some great memories.
Special note to devildeac:
About curmudgeons: I'm doing my best to shake my past as a curmudgeon, but I'm swimming upstream, no doubt. That said, two of my favorite people to walk this earth, and father-and-son curmudgeons, were the Drs. Griffith of Westmoreland County, Virginia. The son, Lloyd Tayloe Griffith (addressed as "Dr. Lloyd" by this patients, staff, and the country's residents generally as "Dr. Lloyd") didn't fall too far from the curmudgeon tree that was his father, "Dr. Charles," for Charles Young Griffith. Notwithstanding that, Dr. Charles had the ineffable ability to sit a young child (me and many like me) in front of his desk in his office, discuss our medical conditions, and make us feel like we mattered. Fabulous physician. His son too.