Forthright's Favourites. Forthright's Favourite Words I've often been consulted by those wishing to express their love for a particular word, such as defenestration, sesquipedalian, syzygy or aglet. While these are all fine choices, I've chosen fifty of my favourites from the International House of Logorrhea and put them here, with pronunciation, etymology and full definitions. Some of the criteria that I use to find a really great rare word are: it has to be pretty rare (less than five occurrences per 1 million words of text); it should be very euphonious (it has to sound good); it should be of use in a modern context, if not necessarily usable on a daily basis; it should not have a simple one-word synonym; it should not be so long and complex to be useless in conversation.
The majority of the words are nouns (most rare words are), though there are also verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Aegrotat'ee-gro-tat, n (Latin aegrotat, he or she is sick, 3rd person singular of aegrotare, from aeger, sick) Navel-gazing. Site.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object) World Wide Words. The Vocabula Review - Best Words. IdiomSite.com - Find out the meanings of common sayings. Dictionary of English slang and colloquialisms of the UK. Night Quotes, Sayings about Nighttime. Related Quotes Dreams Sleep Morning Fear Light Night time is really the best time to work.
All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep. ~Catherine O'Hara There they stand, the innumerable stars, shining in order like a living hymn, written in light. ~N.P. Willis I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand. There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. Most glorious night! Night is a world lit by itself. Night, the beloved. By night, an atheist half believes in God. O radiant Dark! Moonlight is sculpture.
Metaphor for the night sky: A trillion asterisks and no explanations. Research is the name given the crystal formed when the night's worry is added to the day's sweat. Twilight drops her curtain down, and pins it with a star. Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels. Fooey! Malapropisms > Mondegreens. BORED? Play our free word games – INTERACTIVE HANGMAN Mondegreens are a sort of aural malapropism.
Instead of saying the wrong word, you hear the wrong word. The word mondegreen is generally used for misheard song lyrics, although technically it can apply to any speech. They are oronyms (homophones) which are discussed on a separate page of this site. The term mondegreen was originally coined by author Sylvia Wright, and has come to be quite widely used. As a child, Wright heard the lyrics of The Bonny Earl of Murray (a Scottish ballad) as: Ye highlands and ye lowlands Oh where hae you been?
It eventually transpired that Lady Mondegreen existed only in the mind of Sylvia Wright, for the actual lyrics said that they "slay the Earl of Murray and laid him on the green. " Here is a selection of misheard lyrics from popular songs, hymns, and carols: "Gladly, the cross-eyed bear. " Do you know anyone else who would enjoy this? Affixes: the Building Blocks of English.