28 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Love That Word

  1. Gobsmacked is a fun-sounding word I love. Originally British English, meaning “utterly astonished; astounded.” A few years ago one of my ARC readers, who is English, said she was “gobsmacked” by my then-latest fantasy novel I had sent to her. That made my year.

  2. A Dozen Candidates:
    Bamboozled❇ = see hornswoggled
    Decapus = 10 tentacled octopus
    Dumpadeedus = posterior
    Geovolvometer = when you don’t want to call a spade a spade
    Hornswoggled = see bamboozled
    Hoskaplop = horse poop
    Lalapalooza = knockout dame
    Proctocraniosis = having one’s noggin up one’s dumpadeedus
    Skedaddled = vamoosed
    Tintinabulation = ringing, tinkling
    Ululation = yodeling
    Zizipompom = (onomatopoetic) = horizontal mambo on a cot

    ❇ my favorite

  3. As a few of my favorites (gobsmacked – which I used earlier this week – bamboozled, hornswoggled, and skedaddle – which is what I call quittin’ time at the day job) have already been listed, how ’bout:

    Hoosegow – prison or jailhouse or “lock-up”…

    and at the risk of being sent to to TKZ hoosegow, a close second;

    Scuttlebutt – rumor or gossip, or, in the Navy, the drinking fountain around which rumor or gossip is heard and/or spread… “scuttle” being “drill” and “butt” being “cask” which is how water was shipped on ships back in the days of sail – or is that wind-powered maritime vessels? – and the crew would gather to share the latest edition of the final word…)

    …and a the risk of denial of bond or parole, a third:

    Boondoggle – a wasteful, pointless, or useless project, – into which, I fear, I may be turning this exercise…

  4. My favourite fun word was invented by my late father. He had quite a fund of made up words, but this was one reserved for me – Twertle, an extension of twit that leans more towards the daft (rather than the foolish).

    For years I used as my moniker on a scouting/guiding forum ~ so much so that it stuck, and people are still calling me Twertle a decade or so later.
    Fun times, fun name, fun word.

  5. I love these. It’s hard to come up with one that hasn’t been mentioned., but since Jim brought up Yiddish, how about “schnorer”? That’s the relative who comes to visit and stays. Sleeps on the sofa, eats everything in the house, and doesn’t offer to do anything.

    My all-time fav is a word my husband coined: kinestatic. It means moving in one frame of reference but still in another.

  6. Well, you didn’t say English, so I’m going with: pendejo and its ally: cabrón in Spanish. Both related pejoratives as in: a**hole, idiot, moron. They pack a good punch if used correctly, and my latest book has these sprinkled throughout. But one of my foreign favorites is from the old VW commercial: Fahrvergnügn. Remember that one? See it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOnne-90CLI

  7. I have two that aren’t mentioned…one, because it’s unique to just my family.

    “Kerfluffle”, which means a dust-up. I love the way it just rolls off the tongue.

    And, “oppercollar”. It’s what my little brother used to call a helicopter. I still use the word today. Don’t judge…

    🙂

  8. Perpendicular makes me laugh. I don’t know why. It just tickles me.

    My children used to call rollercoasters “hollercoasters” – always struck me as appropriate.

  9. Copacetic – as in “Zippidy Doo Dah”, meaning things are great. Often used by Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.

    Cybrarian – just learned this one. “A librarian or researcher who uses the internet.”

    Twitterpated – “infatuated, in a state of nervous excitement.”

    Defugalty – “inconsistency, especially with regard to forms of communication (i.e. text documents, radio or video transmissions).”

  10. “Mushrump.” It’s an older form of “mushroom.” It was used in the Regency period for an upstart or hanger-on of a titled person or family like a mushrump grows on the roots of a noble oak tree.

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