These are a few of my favorite words.

in Random Crap

I’ve had writer’s block for the past half year.

It sucks and it’s meant that I’ve missed deadlines and had to alter contracts and I doubted myself every minute of the day.  It’s mostly mental illness and also some auto-immune disease stuff and I’ve been afraid to write anything about it because acknowledging it might make it real and permanent. (Yes, I realize this is crazy.  I’m crazy.  We match.)

But I start to slowly come back to having a brain that doesn’t actively want to kill me (I’M KNOCKING ON WOOD RIGHT HERE, LIFE.  DONT FUCK ME.) and I can tell it’s working again because I wake up with words in my head.  Like, literally a word will be stuck inside my mind.  It taps around and says itself over and over until I write it down, and then I write more, and suddenly I have a paragraph.

It’s not a very good paragraph.  It’s the first shaky walk you take to your kitchen to forage for food after a week of food poisoning, or the song that you can’t sing well because your vocal cords have forgotten how to work.  But it’s better than where I was last week when I couldn’t remember a single melody and my feet went missing.  This is a metaphor.  Not a great one, but it’s a push that moves the rusty hinges and turns a useless broken wall into an almost door.

This might not make sense to you.  That’s okay.  Because it makes sense to me and that’s an incredible relief when you think your words are gone forever.

My words are still here.  They’re trickling back in.  Slowly, but I’m okay with that.

And to celebrate?  A few of my favorite words:

Tintinnabulation ~ The lingering sound of a ringing bell that occurs after the bell has been struck

Gloaming – The moment of dusk that’s best for playing as a child.  It isn’t so much a time as it is a place.  You go for a walk in the gloaming.

L’esprit de l’escalier – (Technically not a single word, but it counts as one since it’s French and when I say it out aloud it sounds like one big, beautiful word.)  The spirit of the staircase that tells you the witty thing you should have said when you were still in the conversation inside.

Cellar ~ It’s just pretty to say.  You can smell the must, and feel the bright, wet cold on your face when you say it.

Baffled ~ me, all the time.

Unintelligible ~ You can’t say this word without sounding very smart.  Unless you mispronounce it.  Which is still fine because you can say you did it ironically on purpose.

Ethereal ~ I mispronounced this until I was 20.  Even mispronounced it’s pretty.

Superstitious ~ This word is like a song.  When I’m in a bad place I whisper it over and over, like a chant or prayer.  It doesn’t have a meaning when I use it as a spell, but it pulls me out of my head.  It’s hypnotic.

Hypnotic.  I just remembered I like that one too.

Phosphenes ~ Those flashes of light and color that come out when you rub your eyes.

Dementophobia – The fear of insanity.  The word sounds like falling down a spiral staircase…but gracefully.

Velociraptor.  Happy.  Discombobulated.  Thundering.  Vapid. Exploratory.  Uninterrupted.  Cylindrical.  Elizabeth. Catastrophe.  Bewildering.  Grace.  Kindling.  Strangeling.  Foundling.  SWASHBUCKLING!

I’m back.

Your turn.

 

843 thoughts on “These are a few of my favorite words.”

Read comments below or add one.

  6. Bemused – You aren’t Amused, you’re B-mused. It’s just not that funny.

  8. Peripatetic – it’s fun to say and I learned it in an old Calvin & Hobbes strip!

  10. Shattered, but only if you sing “Shadooby” in front of it and do it all in a Mick Jagger tone. Go ahead, bite the big apple.

  18. Parsimonious – frugal to the point of being stingy – first taught to me by an accounting professor whilst she instructed us as to how she preferred our writing to be in reports.

  20. To this day I’m still fascinated with supercalifragilisticexpialdocious

  27. Synecdoche – I’d say it’s the capital of New York State, but I’m pretty sure that’s Albany.

  28. Defenestrate: the act of pushing someone out a window

    Hiraeth: if I’m remembering correctly, this word means a feeling of homesickness for a place or time you cannot go back to or may never have existed. It’s a welsh word with no direct translation in English and I think it’s beautiful.

    Nat

  29. I am sorry you are going through it. Just know you aren’t alone. And my favorite word is Galapagos, as in the island. It is just fun to say. G.a.l.a.p.a.g.o.s haha. I hope you feel better, I know that is hard, I go through it as well.

  32. Annihilate. It just sounds pretty. The fact it is so completely clean doesn’t hurt.

  33. I recently learned the word “bunglecunt”. It was used to describe Trump.

  35. Laugh, the word sounds so soft and easy
    Cacophony, I was in my 20s when I learned how to pronounce this. A pretty word for such a noise.

  37. Just the thought of ‘gloaming’ makes me homesick for a backyard in NC. Based on your amazing posts I would never have guessed you had writer’s block. Wow. You continue to amaze me. I’ve not laughed so much in years as I have at some of your posts since I ‘discovered’ you a month or two ago. Lord help me if this is not you at full tilt.

  39. Oh, welcome back! So glad you’ve found a way to write again. My anti-depressant seems to have stolen my writing ability – I’ve heard it’s happened to others. Prozac may have saved my life, but it’s taken some things away, also. I hope to be able to find them again.
    Anyway – I’m so glad you’re back! May the world get brighter and brighter (but not so bright you go blind!). 😀

  40. One of my favorite words is “smile” because when I look at it, it looks happy to me.

  41. Blimey, corrugated(cardboard factory would be utopia to me)and unbeknownst.

  42. Braggadocio, tarmac, undulating, cacophony, toast.

    I just really like toast. It’s like a celebration with bacon and eggs.

  43. It makes perfect sense to me! Glad you’re back.

    I’ve always liked the feel of “eutony”. And it’s a eutonic word, too! The pleasantness of a word’s sound.

    Snuggery is my all time favourite though. It’s like onomatopeia, except instead of sounding like a noise, it sounds like a feeling. Snuggery, a warm and comfortable place.
    I love beautiful, exotic, uncommon words.

    You might find “kintsukuroi” useful. I think it’s a Japanese word (but I could be wrong) meaning “to repair with gold”. Like repairing a dropped plate with gold or silver lacquer, and understanding that it becomes more beautiful for having been broken. It makes me think of you.

  44. Shitake Mushroom…….okay, that is two words but they can be used together for a variety of reasons…..when cooking or cursing…..or when you’re bored. Try it!

  48. Throw. The English word that made me realize I have synesthesia. It feels like it sounds like you arm moves when you do it.

  49. I really like indubitably. It’s just fun to say. It sort of bounces in your mouth.
    Also effervescent because it feels like that when you say it. It’s like a mouth-feel onomatopoeia.
    Also, onomatopoeia.

  51. Miracle – the being that is Jenny Lawson, who makes me laugh, or cry with her, and whose books I am not allowed to read in bed, because, sleeping husband.

  52. My favorite word from French class was chouette (“shwet”), which meant “cool.” All the French class kids would wander around the halls going “C’est chouette, n’est pas?” just to sound smarter and more awesome than the non-French speakers.

    I’ve wanted to be able to write for years. I wish I had the time, and when I do have the time, I wish I had the inspiration. I’m working on it.

  53. I’m in a screenwriting course and suffering massive writers block & the anxiety of the deadlines and my brain not wanted to work to get things on paper has felt DIBILITATING! I’m so glad I stumbled across this. Thank you for sharing. You’re not crazy. You’re talented and it helps to hear talented people go through this too! If it helps you I was working for a big time produced that asked me to blog for one of his movies. We were talking about writing styles and he sent me your blog. He said you were funny and witty and his favorite blogger and that I should try to mimic you! So there! And has produced some big things!
    Good luck and let the past be the past, you’re a bad ass b will definitely overcome.
    Xo
    Bridget

  54. Cleave: it’s one of those paradoxical words, that means both to cut in two (“cleaver” is the same root) but also to cling tightly together, as in “to cleave” to something. Except I don’t think it’s paradoxical, really, or if it is, it’s in the amazingly metaphysical way we are always separate from the things we love, no matter how close we try to hold them!

    Also? “Chuffed”–that marvelous British term that means something like honored and pleased but also very humble.

  57. Throw. The English word that made me realize I have synesthesia. It feels like it sounds like you arm moves when you do it.

  63. Pulls out list

    Good words: Grace, Causeway, Sherpa, Hibiscus, Prairie, Phalarope, Empyrean, Escarpment

    Words that are never good: Fuselage, Catheter

    Words I read but never hear/can’t pronounce: Leitmotif, Eponymous, Trebuchet, Palimpsest, Antimacassar, Cinquefoil

    And I am coming back later to steal everyone else’s for my list.

  64. I just got my words back after several months of writer’s block (my publisher is thrilled). It feels like I’m finally myself again. I love your favorite words. These are a few of mine:

    petrichor: (the smell of dirt after a rain) because it is a beautiful word for a my favorite scent
    oxymoron: because it always makes me smile to say
    trebuchet: because it is fun to say
    shenanigans: this one always makes me think of my oldest friend who calls me a “shenanigator”
    seanchaí: this one is Irish for “storyteller” – it is a magical word to me

  68. CAPYBARA. Dog sized rodents (currently “on the lam” from the Toronto High Park Zoo).
    Even tho they’re overfed and overgrown rats they just Sound Fun

  71. Si vous plait! I like the word “please ” in English, but I like it even better in French : )
    Also, I’m so glad that you’re back to writing and this is an excellent first post!

  73. Wait, how do you pronounce Ethereal, and how Were you pronouncing Ethereal?

    I’m a fan of “colloquial” – used wicha homies, but an uppity as fuck way to describe it

  74. Affluent ~ because I never will be.

    Tirade – I go on many

    Emollient ~ sounds pretty and IS pretty

    And of course, “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”

  76. This isn’t a word, but to say that I’ve been scared that I’ve lost my words for a long time. I found some words, but there isn’t the joy to them that there were before. So NOW I’m scared that I’ve lost the joy to my words, and that I’ll never have that joy when I have my words again. And I don’t know if anyone understands, or how to fix it, and sometimes it makes things really lonely. (That and I don’t really have any friends. So, you know, there’s that.)

    Effervescent.

  78. I’m glad you brought this up because I’ve been thinking about just this topic lately… Here’s my list: acquiesce, bimini, substantive, surreptitious, obsequious

  79. Collywobble, the stomach ache you get from eating too much sweet stuff!!

  82. Epiphany (the concept, not the religious season), luxuriate, equality, equanimity, sufficient.

  83. Ladle! Pot lid! Smock!

    Do you know the Girl Guide/Scout campfire song that has the line ‘In the gloaming, draw nearer’ in it? It kind of sounds ominous when I type it out, but I like the song.

  84. Velociraptor is one of my favs! & i just got my “Feeling Stabby” shirt in the mail & I LOVE it!!! Thanks for being you Jenny!

  85. My favourite ever and I heard it here from you…douche canoe!!! Sounds like one word when you say it. So I’m going with it. 🙂

  87. Petrichor (for its meaning: the smell of rain hitting earth). Sidereal. Confabulate.

    (and others already mentioned: bemused, peripatetic, vapid… so many beautiful words!!)

  88. Watermelon – I say it over and over and over again. And pineapple. And asphyxiation. And vex.

  91. Chuffed, family and obstreperous- the last described the middle one sometimes 😃

  92. iawn – a Welsh word that can mean “truly, true, right, very” and so on – very useful word and fun to say.

    hiraeth – one of my favorite words of all time, slips beautifully off the tongue like a sigh of longing – and it means longing. The longing you might do for something you have only dreamed of.

    high-hearted – an adjective – used most memorably by Tolkien to describe Eowyn.

    ephemeral – fleeting, short-lived, impermanent.

    quotidian – every day, common – but doesn’t sound it.

  100. Chicken, monkey, pumpkin, munchkin – I love that swallowed k sound, it’s like I get to keep a bit of the word inside me when I say it. My favourite word to write is aluminium, you can just write the a and then go on for ever and ever.
    I like saying sociopathy and psychopathy. I just learnt how to say paradigm (who knew that was a silent g huh?) I still don’t really know what it means though, but that’s ok. I like names that start with the letter J. I like the word onomatopoeic, and I like nouns that are onomatopoeic, not adjectives but nouns really do it for me: rushes, clock, whip, locomotive…
    Ugh, words are just the best

  101. Tatterdemalion, which is a synonym for another fabulous word: ragamuffin. (A person who looks shabby or dressed in rags; often used to describe orphans, etc. back in the day.)

    Also petrichor — the smell of rain, and it literally means stone + gods’ blood.

  106. Schadenfreude: pleasure derived from the misfortune of others. Not something I generally practice, but it seems so many people do and every time I see it I revel in thinking the word to myself.

    Also, revel.

  109. Susurrus / susurration —whispering, murmuring or rustling

    Petrichor — the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dried earth

    Shelter — (this one is just close to my heart for many reasons)

  110. Well, I’m gonna be that person!

    Fuck.

    It’s a good word, concise, pointed, strong. Can emote so many different ways. It’s my favorite.

  113. Recalcitrant – My husband called me recalcitrant and I told him to stop making up words. It’s been in almost every book I’ve read since….

  114. Cockwomble – my current insult of choice and funnily enough many people are one. Petrichor -slightly more grown up – the earthy smell after rain falls on dry soil. Shit biscuits (two words but I’m sure you’ll forgive me) – I blame Deadpool.

  115. languish.

    Your laying down,….and your’re feeling sort of squishy,, because you are decaying ever so slowly

  116. Kerfuffle, argy-bargy, bumbershoot, purfle, verdant, shall, shalln’t, ’tis, tisn’t, merf (not sure it is a proper word, but it’s one of those you can say and make into a sound at the same time.)

  119. I have a whole wall for my favorite words! As soon as I decide which wall will be the Wall of Words. Also, I worry that I will have to make tough choices if the Wall isn’t big enough to hold all the awesome words. Will I have to eradicate one word to put a new favorite word on the Wall?

    AND…..I hope you will soon squint your eyes at the brightness when you fully emerge from your dark place.

  121. Schadenfreude, delicious. Even when you’re saying you’re not at your best, you’re much better at writing than most people. Always glad to read anything you have to say!

  125. sphygmomanometer – the blood pressure cuff at the doctor’s office…It just sounds so Sciency! Spellcheck just said Sciency is not a word…when is Microsoft going to upgrade their spellcheck to understand “you know what I mean” words!!!!

  126. Your words make perfect sense, Jenny, and as always, they’re beautiful. My depression also steals my words from me when it gets very bad, so your metaphor… well, it sings true. 🙂

    As for words, I’ve seen defenestration mentioned already, and that’s a classic. I also like anemone. Like sea anemones, the little stinging critters that live in the ocean. I don’t know why, but it’s just satisfying to say. Anemone~

  127. Omphaloskepsis – the piercing or mutilation of the belly button. Great word, weird meaning.

  129. Thing-e-ma-bob
    Cat-e-whomp-us
    Slither – it sound like what it looks like – I LOVE words like that
    Unctuous
    Serendipity
    Voluptuous
    Superfluous – just the idea makes me go ahhhh
    Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

    And these are just a few of my favorite things…. (OH great – now I am singing Doe a deer a female deer, Ray a drop of golden sun) Your welcome – I know you love me.

  132. Touque, because i’m Canadian and it’s super fun to repeat in a singsong voice, borscht, unwittingly, swill, fuuuuuuuuck, bannock, subliminal, limen, supernova, bifurcated, finagle, essense, and torque

  133. Hapless. I’m not sure what hap is but I often feel I’m missing it. Herbivory. Maelstrom. Quintessence

  134. Sneedlebarp: a skinny, long bodied, fuzzy creature that burps and farts.

  136. nonplussed. The definition my brain has for this word shifts daily.

  138. I love a lot of the same words you do. I’ll also add: ghost, phantom, phase, crush, crash, vortex, prism, oceanic, cerulean, chrysalis, viridian, alabaster, whisper.

  141. Panache, fuck, asshat, fagoala (Fuh-goal-uh… a word I made up so I could use it as a cuss word when my kids were small… until they started saying it )

  142. Sneedlebarp, a term used to describe a long bodied furry creature that burps and farts

  143. Petrichor, Cacophony, velociraptor, smock, illustrious, effervescent, and of course, the F-word. The mother of all words, which you can use as a noun, an adjective, a verb, adverb….

    It’s beautiful, really.

  144. P.S. As I was working to improve my writing and began word collecting, it suddenly hit me one day: Every word, all by itself, contains a story.

    There are a gazillion stories in this comment section just waiting to be unleashed!

  147. lugubrious, because it is meant for things that look or sound sad, but the word sounds silly and feels fun to roll around in your mouth. And when I am depressed, I am still often too silly for people to realize it … though I don’t know how fun I’d be to roll around in one’s mouth. Very, I assume.

    periwinkle, because it is the ultimate calm down word. The color is soothing, and if you are extremely angry, then whisper “periwinkle” softly, slowly, and with a bit of menace, it does a fan-damn-tastic job of relieving stress.

    and finally, “congradudlion” which is absolutely not a real word, but one of the fab mispellings that Cake Wrecks posted one year in a “congratulations, grads” round up. Say it. Congradudlion. CongraDOOOODleeeeeonnnnnnnn. So fun.

  149. Some of my favourite words are puffling, opprobrium, addlepated, bumblebee, verisimilitude, jammy and pop. Can’t wait for the next book but no pressure or anything 🙂

  150. Corny, serendipity, cuticle, thirdly (with an Irish accent, so it sounds like “turdly”), and massive

  152. If I don’t have a word that fits I just make one up…of course I can’t think of one right now….but I love all of yours..

  154. Bonobos

    I once went a good day just repeating that word in my head. It’s one of those words that literally feels good to say.

  155. I’ve always loved oubliette – the place you put someone/something to be forgotten

  156. zaftig. which i then adopted as my name as an elf dungeons and dragons when i played eons ago in college.

  157. Onomatopoeia is fun because it refers to a word whose pronunciation sounds like the actual sound it makes — like MEOW or BOOM! But that’s not why it’s fun. Onomatopoeia is fun because it sounds like “peeing.” And who doesn’t enjoy saying that. Alabaster is another word. It’s just minerals (gypsum and calcite), but it sounds like a verbal middle finger. When someone cuts you off in traffic, roll down your window and shout “Alabaster!”

  158. Fave not words: intelligence-ness, over-technologizing, blondecident.

    Felonious.

    Good to have you back in the neighborhood of wordness.

  159. Verklempt. As in, your post has made me verklempt. That’said a good thing.

  160. Booboise. Fisticuffs. Calaboose. Shenanigans. Assclown. Bombastic.
    I’m also coming back into myself right now, after about seven months of depression, apathy, high stress, low motivation, high guilt, and low creativity. My broken body also played a role, as did my husband coming down with his own major health problems that I felt obligated to manage full time. It feels good to be back, even if I’m still fighting feelings of guilt about all the business inquiries I completely ignored, all the money I haven’t been making, and the clients who I didn’t provide my best service. I’m trying to be kind to myself and just celebrate that I’m back.

  161. And just when I’m ready to scream because no one quite understands what I’m feeling down deep inside and can’t quite put into words because words ARE the problem and I haven’t written anything without it feeling like teeth are being drawn… Then here you are, saying it all for me. Thank you. I’m trying to take those first shaky steps back myself and the food poisoning has been an awful long time in going away.

    As for words?

    Gretzy. Kerfluffle. Pierogie. Halupki.

    Oh great googly moogly, my heritage is showing!

  162. I have to test this now that I’ve fixed it, and yay, it works, so I’m adding more words! I’m quite fond of the words flibbity-gibbet (from the Greer Garson version of Pride & Prejudice), twatwaffle, and fuckery.

    Signed,
    The commenter formerly known as thornfield523

  163. flibbertigibbet
    a frivolous, flighty, or excessively talkative person.

  164. Haberdashery!

    I just like the sound of that word.

    I sympathize with your inability to write. I’ve been so overwhelmed and stressed lately that the best I could manage was to sit in my writing chair like a sack of old potatoes. I couldn’t even write crap. I needed to back away from the keyboard and recharge.

    Oh, the pain of not writing!

    For me, the trick is to know when it’s a lack of oomph, and when it’s a fear of writing badly. Sometimes it’s perfectionism that’s driving the car. For all ye writers who battle with that demon, I have tips for overcoming it, here: http://ow.ly/5Udu301929s

    Don’t discount the writing you’ve done on your blog, dear one! In spite of your block, you’ve managed to eek out words regularly, that readers have eagerly lapped up.

  167. I like sesquipedalian. It’s a long word that means long word.
    I’m also fond of codswallop, poppycock, and balderdash.

    And fuck. I love that word. It’s so useful.

  169. I am right in this same place right now. I spent a month in bed and another month since then trying to pull myself out of it. But progress is progress and every day that I spend one more minute among real people and not hiding away is a good day. Thank you for your words – all of them! They help me put the strange moods and emotions together with concrete thoughts. Words help and I’m so glad you are getting yours back!

  170. Loquacious. Ennui. Plinth. And thank you for petrichor. I always learn things here.

  172. Crepitation. It’s a bit of an onomatopoeia (another good word) when I think of dry snow crepitating beneath the weight of winter soles.

  173. Shenanigans
    Hullabaloo
    Flibbertygibbet
    Fall
    Lovely
    Indigo
    Rapscallion
    Chiarascuro
    Zanzibar
    Kerfuffle

  174. Calliope: fun to say, and mispronounced it’s calli-ope which is also fun to say, double bonus!
    vehicle: just say it: veHicle veHicle Mr Rogers pointed this one out to me years ago and I have to say, I agree with the king of sweaters and tennis shoes

  176. pixelated – the way my mother (born in 1923, so this is a very old usage) used it meant “to be slightly tipsy”, not the tiny fuzzy pixels you get on your TV when the cable goes out or they’re blurring out someone’s bits and bobs
    perambulation – to walk or stroll about
    nalga – Spanish for buttocks, my roommate used to say I had a shapely nalga, always cheered me up
    Gemütlichkeit – German word that describes a space or state of warmth, friendliness, and good cheer; considered untranslatable and covers a lot of territory, more of a feeling than a noun

  179. I also have 3 boys – some our favs are wenis, sphincter, and for some readon dougong.

  180. Oh. And eviscerate.

    My old happy place wasn’t a very good time for the things that pissed me off. Still mad I could never fully visualize the texture of getting stabby on gravity.

  182. Here are just a few of my favorites: Obstreporous. Recalcitrant. Persnickety. Perspicacious. Brilliant. Penchant. Cattywhompus.
    I learned most of my Really Good Words from my grandmother, who loved her some fifty-cent words. I’ll never forget her telling me that I was not allowed to feed my chicken bones to the dog, because “they will perforate her gut”. I was FIVE and I could figure out what that meant. Gods, I miss her.
    (There are two words on this green earth that I absolutely cannot stand, to say or to hear. “Honkytonk” and “nipple”. Gahhhhhh.)

  183. Gruntle. It’s a perfectly good word (meaning “to make happy”) that we totally neglect in favour of its negative. I don’t know when we stopped talked about people being gruntled and started focusing on the disgruntled, but clearly that needs to change.

  184. Funky (Do i FEEL it, feel bad or have the Fun KEY?)
    stacky (because it’s been my nom de plume ever since the librarian misspelled my name on my first library card – age 6 – and really funny when you’re blossom into a DD)
    PEACE (well because it means so many things – pie/peas/see ya later and let’s make up)

    PS: Your words were just hiding – they like to play games to:) YOU’RE IT JENNY!

  185. Serendipity — sounds pretty and means good fortune. What could be better?

    Ethereal

    Ineffable — because Douglas Adams once wrote, “Let’s think the unthinkable, let’s do the undoable, let’s prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”

    Uvula

    Ululation

    Hagiography

    Limn

    Wanderlust

    Portmanteau

  187. I’ve always loved the word “oxymoron” because it’s super fun to say. Oh, and “asshat”, that’s a fun one too.

  188. Diaspora (because I never knew how to say it until recently). Catastrophe (because how could something bad sound so beautiful?). Clutter. And passeggiata, the Italian tradition of taking a walk at sunset to see and be seen before having a snack and cocktail. My husband loves “bedroom” and “fusillade,” a relentless violent unleashing. Wow. I promise those are unrelated.

  191. I hope this does not come off the wrong way, but I wanted to chime in and say that even though you may have had writers’ block, you haven’t been… totally blocked. You’re just… partially clogged, not… completely stopped up. You just need a little mental Draino! I’m sorry, that analogy got away from me. I just mean that even though you are struggling with your other projects, you still have produced some beautiful writing, on this blog, within the past year. You words were never gone; they just slowed down a bit.

  192. Manana (means “tomorrow” in Spanish, but I just like how it sounds…maan yaaaa naaa) and tumpt (as in “she cried after her wine glass tumpt over”)

  193. Foible. Defenestration. Maladroit. And I struggled with my writing the last year too. Just came up with my first new idea in ages that makes me want to smile when I think about sitting down to write it. Hang in there.

  194. Aw, my name is one of your favourite words. 🙂 Some of my favourite words are ineffable, tenuous, enliven, and evanescent.

  195. I was trying to think of a word, but it’s hard because I’m native German, and I can’t come up with something in English at the moment.
    So I asked my 13-year old son what his favourite word is.
    “Slather!” he said without hesitation. I wondered why, and sunscreen slathering came to my mind. I asked him why it’s his favourite word, and he responded because it reminds him of slathering stuff on food. Then his eyes lit up, and he said,
    “Food. Food is my favourite word, actually.” Leave it to a preteen boy not to think of food for one minute.

  196. Mmm… so many! Whisper, zither, petrichor, tsundoku (though, that more for the meaning than the sound), cattywampus, albondigas, verdant, rasp, hum … hummmmmm 🙂

  197. For their sound:
    fünf (the word “five” in German. It sounds like a pillow fight in progress); spelunk; fluffy; twang; high-falootin’.
    For their meaning:
    shambolic (chaotic; in a shambles); atavistic (high-falootin’ way of saying “throw-back.”)(I once used it in a sentence and the fellow I was talking to (who I had a crush on) looked at me in surprise and admiration, exclaiming, “Tish! You spoke French!” That might be part of why I like it, to be honest); coprolite (fossilized doo-doo. Seriously. I think what I like best is that there is actually a word for that).
    For their construction:
    facetious, because it uses all the vowels in alphabetical order; apron, because it used to be “napron” back before we could write, and the “n” moved over to the article, transforming “a napron” to “an apron.” I am also tickled by any palindrome I run across: bob, madam, deified…
    And the phrase “Boy, howdy!” just because.

  198. Synchronicity. It makes me happy. Because when I am where you just were, in the dark– it always finds me.

  200. symbiosis. discombobulated. exhilerating. atmosphere.

    so good to have you back! <3

  201. Agapantha. Agapanthaaaaaaaaaaa. The word and the pretty purple flowers make me happy.

  204. I know that fear of the words not coming back. Glad to hear they’re trickling in again.

    I’m half asleep right now and can’t remember all of my favourites so I offer a selection of those closest to hand (brain):

    Miscellaneous
    Simultaneously
    Petrichor
    Murmuring
    Truffle
    Breathe
    Soft

  206. Baffled – used all the time
    Petrichor – I love the scent of rain on dry earth after warm days, and I love the word for it too
    Pluviophile – I am a lover of rain
    Marvellous – my friends
    Bugger – the best swear word ever

  210. Superfluous. Fenno-scandian. Inauspicious. Fern. Antigonish (a place in Nova Scotia). Loamy. Tuckamore. Frabjous.

    Also, there is a street in my hometown called Chuckley Pear Place, and I have always wanted to live there; it sounds so cheery!

  213. Pixilated. I love this word. And approps of the word cellar; when I lived in Chile, students from the English college asked none English speaking people a series of words in English. The least favoritevword was Butterfly. The best sounding word was Cellar door.

  215. Verklumpt, olecronon(elbow)calcaneus(heel)flange, puggle(a baby echidna and Platypus)

  217. This post is like porn for bibliophiles. I’ll be in my bunk 😉

    But I’ll add a couple of my favorites too:

    *moist (because most people hate it and I’m contrary like that)

    *Petrichor: the smell of rain on dry soil

    *most of the words from “The Jabberwocky”: brillig, slivy, toves, beemish, mimsy, gimble

    *my favorite sentence comes from the opening line of a book told to us by my junior high English teacher: “The towers of Babel aspired above the morning mist.” I love that iteration of “aspire” and it’s stuck with me two decades later.

  219. Backpfeifengesicht. A German word which means ‘a face crying out to be slapped’. We need more words like this.
    Kerfuffle. So much fun to say and lightens the mood when you’re truly in a kerfuffle.
    This one time I asked my Chinese friend if I had gotten a Chinese word right and he told me that his rule of thumb was just to mash syllables together and it would most likely be an Asian word.
    Also fuck. Short. Simple. To the point. Says a thousand words at once.

  221. Desirous (thanks to Jack Tripper on Three’s Company), Not sure if it’s a word, but it’s a favorite. PLETHORA, seriously, truly, salty, axe. The next time someone needs to axe me a question, I’m going to axe their head off. And SHITBALLS. That’s not really a word, but I use it all the time.

  227. I like to say Rachmaninoff, and I like “gobsmacked”.

    I’ve also had the song “Roamin’ in the Gloamin'” stuck in my head since I read this…

  228. Cleave – because it means both to split or sever something as well as to join something together. It literally is the opposite of itself.

  229. The first ones are French
    Pantoufle – slipper
    Ananas – pineapple

    But I also love
    Ubiquitous
    Serendipity
    Fluffy

  232. Epitome. Segue. Tickety-boo. Asinine. These are a few of my favourite words. Because they are extremely fun to say.

  236. Bitch. It’s a very powerful word for me. It means a strong girl, woman or mommy. Bitches make the world go round.

  241. Unique, Obscurity, Ridiculous…Phantasmagoric Splendor…Fancy…:)

  244. Oh! And pamplemousse is pretty awesome, too. I think it’s French for grapefruit.

  245. Peduncle. (Puh-dunkel) Because it sounds epically insulting in a smart way and you could probably get away with using it in wildly inappropriate ways in conversation. But it’s an actual word that refers to the muscle between the dorsal fin and tail of a whale (and some other stuff).

  247. cromulent. as in embiggen is a perfectly cromulent word.
    also: embiggen

  248. I like phrases. “I didn’t like it. I slang it forth” “She threw up her hands in reckless abandon”.

  249. Velociraptor is one of mine too!!

    Effervescent (People used to describe me as such when I was younger. Then age, anxiety, depression and chronic pain kicked in). Lunar. Bibliophile. Snapdragon. Puppy and kitten (for obvious reasons). Challah (because it’s so damn good). Brie (favorite cheese and just an all around great word. Almost named a dog this). Tidal. Downpour. Loquacious (because once I get going, I SO am). Afghan (like the blanket, because I have some nice memories wrapped in them). Musical. Artistic. Vampire (because of Anne Rice, not twilight). Lionine. Vulpine. Gelfling (because Jim
    Henson). Labyrinth. F**k (not very educated I know, but a great word.)

  250. Tumultuous, Yonder, Anenome and Synonym (acrobatics for your mouth!), and not yet a word but it should be: Schizzlewizzle (fancified version of ‘stuff’). Also, Please.

  251. English:
    dingus
    wonky
    kaleidoscope
    sensational
    patronus – because i wish i had one

    Arabic:
    zifta – brat
    yullah – let’s go!
    ba’sha – engineer
    habibi – sweetie

  253. Defenestration. It’s a neat sounding word, and I love the fact that a word was made specifically for the act of throwing something out of a window.

  255. Fuck. Smuddle. Unrelationship. Lover. Love. Chawesome. Brinner. Linner. Caboose.

  256. Gruntled – pleased, satisfied, contented. Opposite of disgruntled. I only discovered this word a few weeks ago….it is now one of my favourites.

  258. Omphaloskepsis – contemplation of one’s navel for mystical purposes
    Borborygmus – the sound of your tummy rumbling

  259. Antigodlin and cattywompus. Which is what I am after spending the day in 90 degree heat. My grandmother used these words (and others) all the time. . 😌

  260. Dendrophilia (what?!)
    Plop (it just has a nice mouth feel)
    Defenestrate (just good clean fun)
    Menagerie (obviously)
    Decimate (mostly because it is constantly misused)

  261. I like my name too. 🙂

    Also, reciprocity, phantasmagoric, cathartic, and treat. Treat makes me think of happy things, like your mom picking you up from school as a surprise and taking you to get ice cream or to the bookstore.

  262. Sometimes I just wander in my brain, creating dramatic sounding stories that I can actually see as printed, but they never get that far. Gloaming is frequently used. So are quixotic, discombobulated, and hoarfrost. I don’t know while that last one pops into my head.

  263. Onamotopoeia
    Hyperbole
    Superfluous
    Preposterous
    Daft
    Hysteria
    Absurd
    Contrary
    Noncomformist
    Jim

  264. inhume. which spell check is telling me isn’t a word, but it is.
    opposite of exhume. which, of course, the spell check dictionary knows.
    get it together, spell check!

  266. I’m not realky a word person, though i can appreciate them. I love concepts. Which are hopefully more than a string if words
    Someone brighter than me can explain tge relationship. Like..love.

  267. I’m a Veterinarian so naturally “gubernaculum” is one of my favorites. Along with “waffles” and my personal favorite on describing something weird is “fucky”. I also like the term “cloacal kiss” (which means bird sex). And I have to agree that the word “velociraptor” is pretty awesome too.

  268. Flibbertigibbet — it’s just so much fun to say! 😀
    And “dafuq?”, because it’s a polite, non-cursing way of saying WTF.

  270. Litigious (not the meaning, just the sound). I’ve always thought it would make a lovely name. “I’d like you to meet my daughter, Litigious.”

  272. Oblong, susurrant, terpsichorean, liminal, crepuscular, mither.

  275. Carpe diem- Seize the day
    I tell my students all the time to make every day count if for yourself or someone else. 🙂

  276. Tristan, because it’s my son’s name. Scheherazade, one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever composed. And Demerol, because I just had surgery.

  278. Persnickety. Grace. Suptabaddhakonasana. (a yoga pose. I think it’s really 3 words, but when my yoga instructor says it, it sounds like one, and you got to use the french phrase, so I’m taking the liberty.

  279. Fuck. It never let’s me down. Happy, sad, excited, scared, hurt. Works for them all.

    I also like whatchamacallit, thingamajig, thingamabob, (holy shit spell check totally had those!), whatchamajigger. Cuntwaffle. Son of a whore. Piddle. Twat.

    Finally, a sentence using the words I had to work to not use.
    Being as how my worshing matching broke I had to go down to thee crick to worsh my clothes.

  281. Based on frequency of usage, “ummmmmm” is my favorite word. But I really loved “foxen” — silly AND logical. How can you beat that.

    Glad you’re doing better.

  282. Tweeted this, too. Marsupial. It’s fun to say. Marsooooopial. Plus marsupials are amazing animals, so bonus! Other faves: Eglantine. I don’t know why. It just sounds elegantly silly. So does escarole. Penumbra. It’s poetic and mysterious. So is the word. 🙂 Noodle. Because there’s nothing not to love about noodles. And it’s a useful word, too, applicable in so many different ways.

  283. “Autophagia”, literally eating one’s own body or self-cannibalization, because that’s it feels like is happening to my brain sometimes. Also “soup” is fun to say out loud. Sssooooooouuuuuuuuppp!

  287. Flecainide. It’s a cardiac drug. Great word, Kind of pops off your tongue.

  288. Dilemma – it means a problem without an easy solution, and it sort of glimmers in my mind

    Labyrinth – a sort of walking path that helps you focus and clear your mind; I like saying it better than saying “maze”

    Deserascanço – a Brazillian(?) word for the quality of being able to improvise solutions as needed, like MacGyver, which is just cool

    Tsurara – Japanese word for icicle; I like the playful way it skip-slides off the tongue

    Snowlight – light reflecting and glowing off of snow (Terry Pratchett put it in one of his books, and it’s also in a story by Lafcadio Hearn. The Japanese is yuki akari, which doesn’t sound as cool

    Llawennyd – Welsh for joy or delight; it sounds good to the ears

    Aventurescence – something to do with jewelry; I just like the way it brings to my mind a sort of sparkling adventure

    Ruby – it’s deeply, beautifully red

    Emerald – same as for ruby except with a note of misty rain forests, somehow

    Meander – wander aimlessly, the word sort of dies the same

    Callipygian – makes me giggle

    Ineffable – sounds like what it is

    Evanescence – it glows off the page and in my mind

    Tierce – old words are so cool

  290. Floccinaucinihilipilification. Because after reading it in Heinlein’s Number of the Beast in high school, it took me two years to find a copy of the OED so I could look up the definition: “to judge as worthless”.

    Juxtaposition, azalea, erudite
    I’ll need to second: defenestrate, cerulean, fruition.

    Now I’m going to be remembering cool words all week, wishing I’d written them now.

  291. Stratigically. I pride myself as a former Long Islander to be able to spit that word out. We have a weird accent. Some words just won’t come out right. But I can say that one. And it’s kind of a big important word. I love the sound of it. I use it every chance I get. I’m a Texan these days and avoid words that I can’t spit out right. But I got stratigically. Hope I spelled it right! My tree trimmer even gave me a high 5 as she said she couldn’t say it. HA! Yes,
    I used it on my tree trimmer.

  292. Haberdashery. That word always takes me back to the little shop of my grandpa, a tailor. My grandma was always busy with the little things, hence and for a long time I never knew they had a name: Haberdashery. Haberdashery. Haberdashery. In Dutch it is even more beautiful: fournituren!

  293. Pluviophile – petrichor (which I see is also one of someone else’s favorites) and akimbo.

  294. I enjoy: debacle, discombobulated, nincompoop, cucamonga, cerulean (smooth-sounding), azure (pretty)… and… ass-monkey (hubby uses this one, not sure why… hmmm…).

  296. Cinnamon and cassia – both words for spice in the same family, the sibilance adds to the sense of exotic flavors from far off lands and gives off a cinnamony ‘scent memory’ too. Plus I love Cinnamon Carter

  298. Ahhh! I just found out about (and tweeted about) l’esprit de l’escalier this morning, I love that one. <3

  299. Ass Jacket. That idiot in front of you at the stop sign who is fucking with their phone forever. “Don’t worry about me, Ass Jacket! I will just sit here until you are done playing Candy Crush.”

  301. I love ‘shenanigans’ – mischief; mostly it;s just for the sound, but I love the idea too.
    Another favorite is ‘defenestration’ –
    the act of throwing a thing or especially a person out of a window;

  302. Diaphanous, Nefarious, Juxtaposition, Boondoggle, Kibosh, Verisimilitude, Scintillating
    Also not a word but a phrase,I love saying great googly moogly.

  304. Quintessential! I used that in a presentation in high school history and the teacher accused me of plagiarizing…But it’s just my favorite word!!

  306. Petrichor-the smell that happens when rain first falls.

    Fart- it makes people laugh
    floxinoxinihilipilification – the naming of an action as nothing

  308. Discombobulated, kerfluffle, and lyckost (luke-ohst). The last one is Swedish and literally means “happy cheese.” It’s used as an expression of happiness or good-natured jealousy, or at least it was 20 years ago when I learned it… Oh, and I also like ЁЖ (yawszh), which is Russian for hedgehog. That was the first word I learned. Very practical. 😀

  311. “But it’s better than where I was last week when I couldn’t remember a single melody and my feet went missing. This is a metaphor. Not a great one, but it’s a push that moves the rusty hinges and turns a useless broken wall into an almost door.”
    That makes perfect sense to me. Love your writing!

  312. Fisticuffs. Manubrium. And Berserkus. Which is what m daughter used to call ” the circus” when she was 3. 🙂

  313. Pandoric (adj): A piece of information that you want to know until you know it and then wish you had never learned it. This is a neologism by Mottelz over on HitRECord, submitted for a dictionary challenge. I love the way it sounds, and I love the way it calls up the Pandora’s Box myth and is just perfect.

  314. Philharmonic has always been one of my favorite words. And husbandry, though I don’t use it as it’s defined. I use it more like this: “Frank is really good at husbandry; he’s been married four times!”

    I love the words you write.

  315. lugubrious – looking or sounding sad and dismal; I think it is a perfect word as it sounds like its meaning….

  316. Also the hilarity of German!

    English: Hospital Butterfly
    French: Hôpital Papillon
    Spanish: Hospital Mariposa
    German: KRANKENHAUS SCHMETTERLING

  320. Periphery
    Haberdashery
    Perspicacious
    Chesterfield
    Toque
    Poutine (Canadian delicacy of fries with cheese curds and gravy – soooo much yum)
    Eleventymillion
    Chrysanthemum
    Cunt

  322. Foible. It’s fun to say and it just seems more gentle to all of us to say “we all have foibles” than “man, we are really screwed up.” I also love that my family knows it’s my favorite words, because we have talked about favorite words and that’s awesome.

  323. Tintinnabulation was my 4th grade English teacher’s favorite word. It appeared on many spelling and vocabulary tests that year.

  326. Rectashitilitus – when you are backed up so far your eyeballs turn brown. Full of it. Not an actual word but should be. Thanks to my dad, I learned that one. Also a good insult when you want to insult someone to their face, behind their back.

  328. Farallon (islands near San Francisco), Sepulveda (like the way it sounds), misty, adventure, graceful, chime, kitty-corner, euphemism, pffft, exactitude. And many more, but my brain is more interested in chocolate right now 🙂

  329. Brouhaha. I mean, it has “haha” in it. How is that not a happy word?

  331. I love words too. I wrote a thriller novella once called The Ethereal Darkness. Here’s the poem that goes with that story.
    Saying Goodbye
    The dust covered trail lead to the moonlit field.
    The light bounced off the cars, long forgotten, silent dinosaurs.
    Rusted wrecks, playing silent witness to the night.
    Their hollow eyes stared ahead and he felt them burning into him.
    He touched her face, her eyes still open, blank, facing toward heaven.
    The whippoorwills were calling back and forth through the trees.
    Lightning bugs, blinking out their Morse code, danced about her.
    He left her in that wild place, to sleep. Too late for dreams though,
    much too late for dreams.

  332. Grammie. . . Lookit!
    These two together warm my insides until my heart melts.
    ‘Show me, show me my darling. What do I need to see?’

  334. Chartreuse. Enchanting. Brickabrack. Hullabaloo. Taron. Melody. Fort/Fork (repeating both these words in an alternating fashion is calming, I find). Amulet. Petrichor. Elegance. Gloaming (I know you mentioned it, but it’s one of my favourite words). Serendipity. Christmas.

  335. Well, I can say that my second most favorite F-word is Friday….

  337. Does anyone have a word for the blooming and swirling that cream does when added to coffee? I feel like there must be one, but I don’t know it.

  339. NUMINOUS! a spiritually mysteriousness feeling…kind of like the heebie jeebies but in a good way.

  342. Persnickety, plethora, lingo, discimbulate (d)… I love ampersand, but it’s hard to appropriately fit into conversation.

  345. homunculus and apoplectic – the two big words my husband brought into our marriage. Now they are littered all over our lives.

  346. rhabdomancy, n., the use of a divining rod for discovering subterranean water (Granny Clampett had the skill, although I never once heard Jethro call it that. And no, I don’t know a single person who might need to use this in real life, but come on … it’s a really cool word.)

  351. Che palle! (keh PAL-leh)
    Equivalent to “What a pain in the ass!”

  352. Fidget, fiddlesticks and fiddle-de-dee. Miracle. Tempestuous. Ease. Alackaday. Orange, because it makes whatever word you put next to it brighter, and also it doesn’t rhyme – it’s like a word prime number. Flaunt. Frabjous. Fubsy, which was one of my special nicknames for my darling Marmeee.

  355. I want to know how you mispronounced ethereal. My friends and I used to make entire sentences out of words we mispronounced on purpose.

  356. Crepuscular – that colour blue you see in the winter, on the snow, at dusk.

  357. Bafflegab – Confusing or generally unintelligible jargon.
    Collywobbles – Intestinal cramps or a feeling of fear. Perhaps a feeling of fear over intestinal cramps.
    Fugacious – fleeting; transitory
    Snuggery – A snug place or position.

  360. Perplex
    Pseudonym
    Congruent
    Dollop
    Exaggerate
    Existential
    Dubious
    Contiguous
    Metatarsal (sounds like a dinosaur name)
    Embellish
    Pontificate

  361. Lovely. Because it sounds that way when I say it – and it makes me smile even if I’m in a crappy mood. Lovely

  367. Waffle. don’t know why just love to say it

    but I know what you mean. I used to write fiction all the time. then I had two strokes 8 years ago and I’m recovered from those, and the one I had two years ago, but I can’t do math in my head anymore (I used to do calculus like some people do crosswords) and I haven’t written anything good or even bad and of a decent length in 8 years and it scares the crap out of me that I never will again, so thanks for this and sorry for the run on sentence

  370. Caddywhompass: crooked, uneven, broken, ass backwards, & sideways.
    The story of my life.

  371. Doppelganger, flummoxed, gargoyle, skedaddle, argle-bargle, and any kind of British slang, like putting “bloody” in front of everything, i.e. “I went to bloody work and my bloody tosser boss was being a bloody arsehole so I shouted ‘bollocks’ and told him to bugger off.” I love cussing in British.

  378. Wabi-sabi: finding the beauty in imperfect things. The Japanese have all the good words.

    Hygge from Denmark: It is an all-encompassing word meaning basically the essence of coziness. Like the idea of lighting candles on a dark cold night and snuggling up with cocoa and a book and a blanket. One of my favorite words!

  380. Awkward. Ever since a college professor said it was fun to type “A-W-K-W-A-R-D,” she half-sung like a jingle in a southern accent. It is fun to type.

  382. Petrichor- a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather. my favorite word and favorite small all in one.
    Bombastic is another good one

  383. Ablutophobe: one who fears bathing. (It’s fun to say and if you smile when you say it, the stinkers don’t know they’ve been insulted.)

  386. Compartmentalism
    Duality
    Serendipity
    weird
    epiphany
    ethereal
    rummage
    gin (this one should’ve been listed first, actually)

  387. mauerbauertraurigkeit – the inexplicable urge to push people away

    liberosis – the desire to care less about things

  388. Cacophony and ubiquitous. Two of my favorite words, taught to me by my favorite English teacher. And segue, because it doesn’t look anything like it sounds. It’s a trickster word.

  389. Taciturn – I never remember what it means but it became my favorite word last year.

  391. Well crap I have some more so I’m posting again: Uroboros, sybaritic, liminal, petrichor, librocubicularist!

  392. You have such nice words, me on the other notso nice. My most favorite words are fuck, cunt and whore. I especially like them when I am driving. Road rage reigns supreme in my little corner of the world. I adore your writings and your pets!

  396. Petrichor – the smell that comes with rain hitting hot, dry pavement or soil

  397. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia: the fear of long words.

    Circumlocution: the use of many words to say little.

  404. I lost my words years ago when my vindictive ex stole my journals to use against me in a custody battle. I was scared to put any words down anywhere for so long. Thank you for reminding me how much l love them and that they’ve waited for me. You brought me home and I am forever grateful.

    oh and there’s a kind of grass called kikuyu that is just a mouthful of joy! You will be the first to know when I remember the words that I love to write.

  405. Discombooberated- something my super conservative father used to say in place of the ‘bobulated’ correct pronunciation. It made me laugh every time. Pizerinctum, another made up word that I use when I’ve seen someone fall but don’t know what hurts, as in: “Did you break your pizerinctum? Ouch. That smarts.”

  407. to clarify… kikuyu is a joy to say, not to eat, though maybe I’ll try that too; saying it while eating it might be orgasmic or gross, not sure

  408. PS. I love the name Elizabeth as well. I don’t know why as it sounds like someone too prim and proper for my tastes. It must be the rhythm and sound/order of the syllables.

  412. Discombobulated because it’s one of the few vocab words I remember from high school, it’s often how I feel, and it sounds like bubbles so much more than effervescent which sounds like this hiss of a soda opening.