#obscure vocabulary

[joncronshawauthor]

The Impact of Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" on Fantasy Literature

When pondering the vast, often impenetrable wilderness of fantasy literature, one cannot help but stumble upon Gene Wolfe‘s monumental series, “The Book of the New Sun.” Often hailed as a masterpiece for its intricate narrative and deep thematic complexity, this series has cast a long, ominous shadow over the genre. It’s the kind of series that lures you in with its promise of escapism, only to…

[melancholyfleurs]

life has been so rough lately but on the plus i turned back to my original favourite (healthy) coping mechanism of reading and i’ve finished almost 2 books this week. i forgot how fast i can read when i enjoy a book and im trying to distract my brain lol.

[arconinternet]

1000 Most Obscure Words (Book, Norman W. Schur, 1990)

You can digitally borrow it here.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

trick to fun dialogue is just to make it a little hard to understand. maybe thats a cheap trick but i dont care

[swallowtail-ageha]

My teacher complimented my prose??? Sobs

[just-a-random-aroace]

Mate, I had to tell my friend that the proper English term that means the opposite of a Tomboy (a girl who portrays qualities that are considered boyish) , isn't a femboy (a modern slang term) but a Janegirl (a boy who portrays qualities that are concidered girlish)

And she looked at me like I just defined the most obscure word in the English dictionary.

Am I the only one who knew this?

[lawhimsy]

Word Nerd: Heliotropic

Heliotropic is the property of some plants of turning under the influence of light. Heliotropic is derived from helio- (a combining form meaning “sun”) and -tropic (a combining form with the meanings “turned toward, with an orientation toward”). Heliotropic was first used around 1870-1875. Heliotropic is a word often used in the plant world since many flowers and plants are heliotropic. I think…

[stellifymyheart]

I got the Top 4.47% on this English Vocabulary test

[thatsecretthirdthing]

from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig

[noteless-vocabulary]

-=- Welcome! -=-

Hello there folks!

Welcome to Noteless vocabulary!

Noteless not as in without notes (I hope, at least), but as in "Unknown" or "obscure"!

Essentially, I'll be posting a word or two a day with their definitions! You may submit obscure words into the ask box if you'd like!

You may call me, the one who runs this account, Sun. I use she/her pronouns!

Be safe, hydrate yourselves, and make sure to eat something!

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Tags:

#nouns

#Adjective

#verb

#Adverb

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[foldingfittedsheets]

When I graduated high school my folks decided to go on a family trip to Europe. I was extremely surly about this as I had an undiagnosed UTI but I was extremely excited to speak German with native speakers, convinced I would be an asset to my family across our travels.

Tragically, it was immediately apparent that three years of public school German meant I could communicate at the level of a first grader.

I was nonetheless elated when a child approached me at the train station to ask “Haben sie ein Kuli?” “Do you have a pen?” I was able to say, “Nein, aber ich habe ein Bleistift!” “No, but I have a pencil!” The kid seemed confused by my triumphant tone but borrowed my pencil anyway.

But my absolute greatest victory in vocabulary came during an airline check. They had me go through a metal detector, and they assumed my belt had set it off. I knew my belt was non reactive metal but! My favorite jeans had lost their zipper and I had them safety pinned shut.

The man approached me with a metal detector and seemed puzzled my belt wasn’t reading. I remembered the safety pin in the front of my jeans and I happened to know the word so I joyously announced, “Ich habe ein Sicherheitsnadel!” “I have a safety pin!”

As if to an infant, the man said slowly, “Nein, das ist sein Gürtel.” “No, that is your belt.”

I waved at my crotch and insisted, “Nein, in mein Hose ich habe ein Sicherheitsnadel!” “No, in my pants I have a safety pin!”

I couldn’t remember the name for zipper but luckily he caught the shine of the metal where a zipper should be and finally realized why this crazy American teenager was gesturing to her crotch. He scanned his machine over the offending pin which pinged and he cleared me to go.

I marched off to board the plane in a glow of pride that I had gotten to use an obscure word and the poor man got to return to his day.

[amayikes]

Why... why not use irk.

that's... not how it works. you can't guarantee that your work definitely won't squick anyone. what do you think you're saying?

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

100 Vocabulary Words for Gothic Fiction | For Writers

Hello Writers! I've put together a list of 100 words to help you expand your vocabulary for writing gothic fiction in October. I categorized the words for easy reference. I did some research using thesauruses and dictionaries to compile this list for you. I hope you find it helpful! 👻🎃

Atmospheric Words

Tenebrous - dark and gloomy

Oppressive - overwhelming and unpleasantly powerful

Ominous - suggesting evil or harm is imminent

Eerie - strange and frightening

Uncanny - mysterious and unsettling

Nefarious - wicked or criminal

Malevolent - having evil intentions

Sinister - giving the impression of evil

Melancholy - deep sadness

Lugubrious - mournful or dismal

Sombre - dark and gloomy

Dreary - dull and depressing

Desolate - empty and lonely

Bleak - cold and depressing

Dank - unpleasantly damp and cold

Character Descriptions

Pallid - abnormally pale

Gaunt - thin and bony

Haggard - looking exhausted and unwell

Cadaverous - corpse-like

Wan - pale and sickly

Spectral - ghost-like

Enigmatic - mysterious and difficult to understand

Brooding - appearing darkly thoughtful

Tortured - suffering mentally or physically

Macabre - disturbing due to focus on death or injury

Architectural Features

Gothic - relating to medieval style architecture

Dilapidated - in a state of disrepair

Decrepit - worn out or ruined due to age

Crumbling - breaking into small fragments

Decaying - rotting or decomposing

Ramshackle - in a state of severe disrepair

Crypt - underground room or vault

Turret - small tower on a building

Parapet - low protective wall along the edge of a roof

Buttress - structure built against a wall for support

Supernatural Elements

Apparition - ghost or spirit

Phantasm - figment of the imagination

Specter - ghost or phantom

Wraith - ghost or spirit

Revenant - person who returns as a spirit after death

Ethereal - extremely delicate and light

Otherworldly - belonging to an imaginary or spiritual world

Paranormal - beyond normal explanation

Preternatural - beyond what is normal in nature

Occult - supernatural or magical

Emotions and States of Mind

Dread - great fear or apprehension

Foreboding - fearful apprehension

Trepidation - fear or anxiety about something that may happen

Anguish - severe mental or physical pain

Despair - complete loss of hope

Melancholia - deep and long-lasting sadness

Hysteria - exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion

Delirium - state of confusion and hallucination

Madness - state of severe mental illness

Obsession - persistent disturbing preoccupation with an idea or feeling

Gothic Settings

Moor - area of open, uncultivated upland

Wasteland - barren or desolate area

Labyrinth - complex maze-like structure

Catacomb - underground cemetery

Dungeon - dark underground prison

Mausoleum - building housing a tomb or tombs

Sepulcher - small room or monument where a dead person is laid

Necropolis - large cemetery, especially an ancient one

Citadel - fortress that commands a city

Monastery - building occupied by a community of monks

Weather and Natural Phenomena

Tempest - violent windy storm

Miasma - unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapor

Fog - thick cloud of tiny water droplets

Mist - cloud of tiny water droplets in the air near ground level

Gloom - partial or total darkness

Twilight - soft glowing light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon

Umbra - the fully shaded inner region of a shadow

Penumbra - the partially shaded outer region of a shadow

Crepuscular - resembling twilight; dim

Tenebrous - dark, shadowy, or obscure

Literary Devices and Narrative Elements

Foreshadowing - warning or indication of a future event

Omen - event regarded as a portent of good or evil

Portent - sign or warning that a momentous or calamitous event is likely to happen

Harbinger - person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another

Presage - sign or warning that something will happen

Doppelganger - look-alike or double of a living person

Grotesque - comically or repulsively ugly or distorted

Gothic double - character representing the duality of human nature

Unreliable narrator - narrator whose credibility is compromised

Frame narrative - story within a story

Liminal Spaces and Concepts

Threshold - strip of wood or stone forming the bottom of a doorway

Liminal - occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold

Betwixt - in between

Interstitial - of, forming, or occupying interstices (small spaces between things)

Twilight zone - undefined or intermediate area between two distinct states

Purgatory - place or state of temporary suffering or expiation

Netherworld - imaginary subterranean world of the dead

Abyss - deep or seemingly bottomless chasm

Void - completely empty space

Chthonic - concerning, belonging to, or inhabiting the underworld

Miscellaneous Gothic Terms

Sublime - of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire awe

Ineffable - too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words

Eldritch - weird and sinister or ghostly

Atavistic - relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral

Numinous - having a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating the presence of a divinity

Happy writing, and Happy October! 📜🕯️- Rin T.

[prokopetz]

Honestly, my Scrabble vocabulary isn't that great. My ability to consistently play hyper-obscure words that just happen to be in the dictionary is less a matter of prior knowledge and more a matter of being able to look at a seemingly random sequence of letters, think "I have no idea if that's a word, but the English language would absolutely pull some horseshit like this", and 90% of the time I'm right.

[mosspapi]

Man I forget how many sayings I use that just... Are Not Sayings. Like my favourite description of someone is "an Oatmeal Boy", but literally no one knows what that means because it's a quote my sister used in a poem about her friend's ex-boyfriend. Half of my vocabulary is quotes from YouTube videos or old Tumblr posts that most, if not all, of the people around me have never heard of. But everyone still has their own version of "I'm cameras, bitch" and "top-of-fridge moment" and it's honestly fascinating to me. Maybe I do appreciate being human sometimes

[lawhimsy]

Word Nerd: Tohubohu

Tohubohu (pronounced to-hoo-bo-hoo) means chaos; disorder; confusion. Tohubohu derives from the Hebrew phrase tōhū wā-bhōhū (without form and void), which is from from tōhū (formlessness, confusion) and bōhū (emptiness). Tohubohu was first used around 1611 or so.  Tohubohu was first used in a  translation of the Bible, specifically in Genesis 1:2. Tohubohu refers to the emptiness and desolation…