Words that you are sure exist, but can't find

[Promac]

I know the fire part is missing but how do you feel about catharsis.

[bane2571]

cool thread, I've been trying to figure out a word for a while my self now, it means beautiful in its simplicity. Essentially the Antonym of Gaudy.

[RabbitWho]

I don't know what anyone could possibly mean by "pure cleansing fire". Arsonist? Pyromaniac? Since when can fire be pure or impure? It doesn't cleanse, it turns everything black. So how can we find a word for it if it's nonsense.

If we're being metaphorical then catharsis sounds fine, except that I wouldn't think of catharsis as a force in itself.

cool thread, I've been trying to figure out a word for a while my self now, it means beautiful in its simplicity. Essentially the Antonym of Gaudy.

Sexy! minimaltastic I don't think we need a word for that, but I imagine advertisers would love it.

[PM 2Ring]

cool thread, I've been trying to figure out a word for a while my self now, it means beautiful in its simplicity. Essentially the Antonym of Gaudy.

How about elegant? Although it may not have the connotation of simplicity in everyday usage, it is used with that sense in mathematics, science & engineering.

[bane2571]

How about elegant?

It's the best one I could think up, though I think common usage has caused elegant to refer more to graceful then anything. The science/maths association is pretty strong and that hadn't occured to me.

[gmalivuk]

I don't know what anyone could possibly mean by "pure cleansing fire". Arsonist? Pyromaniac? Since when can fire be pure or impure? It doesn't cleanse, it turns everything black. So how can we find a word for it if it's nonsense.

Given that Google has 209000 results for the phrase "cleansing fire", and given the whole idea of Purgatory, it seems there are plenty of people who would indeed make use of a word for this.

[prometheus89]

cool thread, I've been trying to figure out a word for a while my self now, it means beautiful in its simplicity. Essentially the Antonym of Gaudy.

I don't think we need a word for that

Not needing a word for that would be very ungood, in my opinion.

[bane2571]

Not needing a word for that would be very ungood, in my opinion.

It's a common device in Sci-fi to say aliens are so truthful tha tthey don't even have word for "Lie". It's always interesting to find comncepts that can't be easily expressed in one's own language.

[RabbitWho]

I don't know what anyone could possibly mean by "pure cleansing fire". Arsonist? Pyromaniac? Since when can fire be pure or impure? It doesn't cleanse, it turns everything black. So how can we find a word for it if it's nonsense.

Given that Google has 209000 results for the phrase "cleansing fire", and given the whole idea of Purgatory, it seems there are plenty of people who would indeed make use of a word for this.

Puppies are good.

Let's see you disagree with that.

[gmalivuk]

Stop saying wrong things that don't make any sense, and I'll stop disagreeing with you. Deal?

[RabbitWho]

No deal!

I don't know what anyone could possibly mean by "pure cleansing fire". Arsonist? Pyromaniac? Since when can fire be pure or impure? It doesn't cleanse, it turns everything black. So how can we find a word for it if it's nonsense.

Given that Google has 209000 results for the phrase "cleansing fire", and given the whole idea of Purgatory, it seems there are plenty of people who would indeed make use of a word for this.

The word obviously isn't needed if it doesn't exist. If there was a need for it it would exist, that's how language works. Otherwise we'd have a word for the ability of strangers to stand awkwardly in front of the thing you want to buy in the Supermakret.

[Argency]

Rabbit, the fire is pure because it purifies. It burns away disease and pollution. That's why it can be used in a spiritual sense, but also in a mundane sense. A fire which burns the impurities out of metal ore could be described by this word, but so could some versions of purgatory. So it's not nonsense.

Moreover, don't be so invective. English has a profusion of adventitious and periphrastic words. (see?) If we restricted ourselves to words we absolutely needed then we'd have a very bland language. What's your favorite word? I bet there's a 50% chance that you could cut it out of the language and just use a few simpler words to get the same meaning across. I mean, "argent". Noone ever says that anymore, but its my favorite. People could use it all the time if they wanted to, but they don't, because it's gone out of fashion. I bet all the words this thread has mentioned are awesome just because they're niche words that are mostly redundant.

TL;DR - you are a negative nancy. Come join the party!

[PM 2Ring]

Argent - Hold Your Head Up

Spoiler:

And if it's bad
Don't let it get you down, you can take it
And if it hurts
Don't let them see you cry, you can take it

Hold your head up, hold your head up
Hold your head up, hold your head high

And if they stare
Just let them burn their eyes on you moving
And if they shout
Don't let them change a thing what you're doing

Hold your head up, hold your head up
Hold your head up, hold your head high


Written by Rod Argent & Chris White

[Rilian]

One time my year-ten English teacher told the class 'scape-goat' meant someone who got away with everything. I timidly raised my hand and said 'doesn't it mean the opposite?' 'no' 'I thought it meant..' 'shut up, Justin!'

Then she looked it up and well, me: 1, teacher: 0. She got me back, though. Wasn't pretty. Moral: the teacher is always correct, even when she's a flipping flip.

My 8th grade "english" teacher thought wherefore meant where. "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" She told us that Juliet was calling out to Romeo, asking where he was.

Tempo-RAH-ble.)

What is that H doing there? Don't you mean tempo-RAY-ble?

[Qaanol]

All right, I have this unshakable feeling that there are in fact at least two distinct words that share the meaning I want. But for the life of me I can’t think of any. Here’s the definition in my mind:

v. tr.
1. to walk gingerly upon (one or more feet or legs) so as not to further aggravate a recent painful injury thereto.

[GhostWolfe]

Limp?

intr.v. limped , limp·ing , limps
1.To walk lamely, especially with irregularity, as if favoring one leg.

/angell

[Chopperman]

v. tr.
1. to walk gingerly upon (one or more feet or legs) so as not to further aggravate a recent painful injury thereto.

I like the word "dodder" for this. It seems to imply less stability in walking than "limp" does, but perhaps a less painful injury or a safer environment in which to walk.

[Qaanol]

Thanks, those are good ideas, but I really want a transitive verb, so it is phrased as doing something to your leg. He <???>ed his foot every time he walked for a whole week after the rock fell on it. Moreover, the driving impetus behind treating ones limb this way is that it undergoes sharp sudden pain if not babied (no, “to baby” is not what I want, as it is too general and has other meanings). There is not likely to be a permanent injury, but it hurts. One could choose to walk normally, but that would cause a lot of pain and probably make the healing process take longer. I suppose “wince” is similar to what I want, albeit intransitive.

[gmalivuk]

You can favor an injured foot.

[GhostWolfe]

Mmm, "favour" was my first response too. Though, I personally find the every time he walked to be a little... redundant? Is that the word I want?

He favoured his foot for a whole week after the rock fell on it, reads a little more smoothly to me. You could expand from there, on how bad the injury was with something like: wincing every time he so much as bumped a pebble or loose stick lying on the ground.

/angell

[Rilian]

You can favor an injured foot.

I thought you favored the uninjured foot.

[gmalivuk]

Nope. From the OED: "To deal gently with; to avoid overtasking (a limb); to ease, save, spare."

[elasto]

Sounds likes one of those homographic homophones. Sort of.

I mean, if you said 'When John had to choose between eating the burger or the fries first, he always favoured the latter' you'd mean he's eating the fries, right? So he's definitely not 'easing, saving, sparing' the fries - he's doing the exact opposite.

Likewise if I said 'which hand do you favour?', and you're right-handed, you'd say your right. But you aren't 'dealing gently with; avoiding overtasking; easing, saving or sparing' your right hand from writing, say, you're doing the exact opposite: You're putting all work wherever possible onto your right hand!

To favour a foot in the sense of sparing it is more in line with 'performing a favour for the foot'. I can see the meaning but I personally wouldn't have thought of it in that sense. I guess I'm wrong.

I guess it's because there's an implied verb in the examples I gave: 'Which hand do you favour [using]?' or 'John favours [eating] the fries.' It's only when there's no implied verb that the sentence takes on the opposite meaning.

How would you interpret the sentence 'If both children had broken the rules, when it came to handing out the punishment, Alice always favoured her daughter'? It's sort of ambiguous, isn't it. It could mean:
'If both children had broken the rules, when it came to handing out the punishment, Alice always favoured [punishing] her daughter'
or
'If both children had broken the rules, when it came to handing out the punishment, Alice always favoured [ie gave special treatment to] her daughter'

English r hard...

[GhostWolfe]

I interpreted it more in a "give preferential treatment to" sense.

'When John had to choose between eating the burger or the fries first, he always favoured the latter' you'd mean he's eating the fries, right?

So he's giving preferential treatment "to" the fries (be that preferring to eat them first or last).

Likewise if I said 'which hand do you favour?', and you're right-handed, you'd say your right.

IIRC, you tend to use your preferred hand for fine actions, so that kinda works in my "preferential treatment" sense, I think.

/angell

[Velifer]

When it came to handing out the punishment, Alice always favored her daughter.

This is unambiguous to me. In my flavor of English it will always mean the daughter was not punished with sufficient severity. Favoring children is implicitly understood to be to their benefit. Making explicit statements to the contrary would work, but might be a bit weird.

[Qaanol]

You can favor an injured foot.

Thanks! That is definitely one of the words.

I still feel like there is a second word with the same meaning, which does not have the ambiguity of ‘favor’. Can’t think of it for the life of me though.

[elasto]

When it came to handing out the punishment, Alice always favored her daughter.

This is unambiguous to me. In my flavor of English it will always mean the daughter was not punished with sufficient severity. Favoring children is implicitly understood to be to their benefit. Making explicit statements to the contrary would work, but might be a bit weird.

Interesting, isn't it. It was unambiguous to me too until this thread. I always would have read it as 'favoured' in the sense of choosing. Just like favouring the fries would mean choosing the fries [for eating], so favouring her daughter would mean choosing her daughter [for punishing].

It's only since reading this thread and thinking about it it's become ambiguous! In a way it's becoming like the 'vase/faces' illusion to me - flipping the meaning of the sentence as I look...

[khanh93]

Is there a word for dying of thirst that could be used to complete the sentence "Without water we will all..?"

Dehydrate?

What about desiccate?

[yndayngo]

Also, does anyone know the term for when a brand name replaces the name of the actual product? Like saying, "I need some Tylenol" instead of "I need aspirin," or saying Band-Aid instead of...well, anything else. I'm not sure if there's an actual term for this, but I remember a teacher telling me about it in middle school and it's been bothering me for at least 10 years now.

Bandage?

[gmalivuk]

No, the question was not "What's the generic name for a Band-Aid?", the question was "What's the word for the process by which 'Band-Aid' came to replace 'bandage' as a generic term?"

[RabbitWho]

Oh oh oh!
A proprietary eponym!

That's the noun though, not the verb. Dunno if there is a verb.

[GhostWolfe]

Wikipedia suggests genericized trademark.

/angell

[Qaanol]

The obvious solution here is to come up with a new word for that process. And trademark it.

[RabbitWho]

It's probably just
"To become a proprietary eponym" ©
We say "to become eponymous".
Rather than "to eponymize"©

[gmalivuk]

What's wrong with "genericize"?

[RabbitWho]

What's wrong with "genericize"?

The fact that it doesn't necessarily mean the same thing? Maybe the person who was looking for it originally will be happy with that though.

[RabbitWho]

There's a question on me:

Is there an adjective to describe a story that is present in all the related religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam etc. etc.

Like say God being all like.. Hey Abraham! Get your arse in gear and kill your son! And Abraham being all like! "No problem!" And God being all like "Ha ha! Fooled you! You don't have to do that, I was just caressing your dingelberries" And Abraham being all like "Phew!"
That story.

[Aiwendil42]

I've seen 'Abrahamic' and 'Judeo-Christo-Islamic' (or other permutations of the three names).

[Mazuku]

I remember coming across an obsure word which translates as "Your neighbour's house is on fire" but for the life of me, I cannot recall what that word was.

Word for today
Epicaricacy {ip-p-carri-r-c}: Deriving joy from the misfortunes of others.

[sir2you]

Is there a word (verb) that means slander or belittle but begins with the letters im?