Kevin's Watch

Once saw this on the bulletin board of a college classroom: what's your top 5 words? Even if you've never thought about it, there must be some set of words you find beautiful, vexing, or just plain big and discombobulating. Whatever it is, put your list down here and maybe even explain why you find these words so compelling.

1) Rain (I like its simplicity, clarity, and the range of peace and intensity I can evoke from this word)
2) Wind (a similarly powerful word that's very versatile)
3) Red (could also mean blood or just raw power)
4) Crest or cresting (very soft word I rarely use anymore; can give a sense of build-up; or a soft word to give strange peace to otherwise concrete action)
5) Breath/Breathe (another peaceful word that gives a lot of space/air to verses or prose, if used rightly)

retarded I love using this word correctly. Especially when it comes to gardening. There's often that hesitation on the face of the person I'm speaking with and then they realize I'm not calling a tomato plant stupid and everything is ok.

ruin it's just so absolute. There's no recovery from something that's ruined.

hello simple word that can be used as a greeting or a declaration or more...

blonde because i can either use an e at the end or not and I find that cool.

f#ck the versatility of this word is without end.

Ubiquitous: one of those words that means what the word itself isn't. [like the sound, too].

cleave: can mean either to split apart, or to hold together.

delicious: perfect definition match. saying it feels like it would taste if I could eat it.

sidereal:I don't know why, I just do. I think because the first time I
saw it in print my brain pronounced side real, and that seemed to
have all kinds of ill/allusionary/metaphorical implications.
Still does.

heh: signature me, my first reaction to everthing short of outright pain, passing through interesting, huh, hmm, what, cute all the way up to f**king hilarious.

I'd have included f**k if it wasn't taken already.

I've only got two that stand out for me...

fiery

and

brou-ha-ha

arsey-versey isn't quite a word yet, but as soon as it is, that'll be in my top 3!

Sesquipedalian is one of the words that should be used more often.

I wonder if it means anything that someone who speaks English as a second language knows a word that I'd bet 90% + native speakers have never heard in their lives....

this is a cool thread Foul. thanks.

two of my favorites, inexorable and obdurate

in·ex·o·ra·ble   /ɪnˈɛksərəbəl/ Show Spelled[in-ek-ser-uh-buhl] Show IPA
–adjective
1.unyielding; unalterable: inexorable truth; inexorable justice.
2.not to be persuaded, moved, or affected by prayers or entreaties: an inexorable creditor.

ob·du·rate   /ˈɒbdʊrɪt, -dyʊ-/ Show Spelled[ob-doo-rit, -dyoo-] Show IPA
–adjective
1.unmoved by persuasion, pity, or tender feelings; stubborn; unyielding.
2.stubbornly resistant to moral influence; persistently impenitent: an obdurate sinner.

i love that, persistantly impenitent. hah! there's two more words i like.

persistant, impenitent.

lucimay wrote:ob·du·rate   /ˈɒbdʊrɪt, -dyʊ-/ Show Spelled[ob-doo-rit, -dyoo-] Show IPA
–adjective
1.unmoved by persuasion, pity, or tender feelings; stubborn; unyielding.
2.stubbornly resistant to moral influence; persistently impenitent: an obdurate sinner.

Yeah. I love that word. Only ever used it once, though:

You, unborn and yet all!
Erased and yet whole!
Thy image cannot be graven;
Thy visage may not be seen
For fear of death, a mortal soul
Will wither upon thy obdurate gaze
These are the edicts set forth
By thy Godhood, O Emile.

Torn asunder. The perfect words Orson Welles would say in a Manowar song.

Cleave

Droll

Incessant

Anodyne

Dirigible