Murky
Tentatively (adverb, I know)
Erupted
Murmured
Glance (Oh how I love glance, it has a built in turn in it as well as looking)
etc...
I'll add to my list when I think of more. But these word surface with higher than average frequency, and I get a little frisson of pleasure if I feel it is a legitimate use of the word.
So, lists please...If I see something on someone else's list I also love to use I will add it to my list.
Why do I want to know this? Not sure...
EDITED TO ADD:
Sneer...I under-use that, but will now put it on my to-do list.
[This message has been edited by skadder (edited January 28, 2008).]
Glance is good...
Slip (people are slipping out of doors, slipping into chairs, slipping a weapon into their hands...)
Search--eyes searching, fingers searching, searching for meaning, blah blah.
Seep--strength, blood, courage, what have you.
Grip
Ache
Snort
Catch--catching wind, catching on, catching someone's hand
The--man, I seem to use this word everywhere!
quote:
Why do I want to know this? Not sure...
Added:
Sneer (i've got a lot of sarcastic and mean characters, I guess)
Oh yeah, also, for a few months I was really in love with the word "occluded" and tried to slip it in everywhere. Sadly, it only survived once, and even that instance got vehemently challenged by my writing group.
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited January 28, 2008).]
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited January 28, 2008).]
More adds:
Perhaps
Surely
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited January 28, 2008).]
'plump'. I can't stand the word 'plump' and I would never use it. It's the worst word I can think of. The word 'cycle' bothers me as well.
Words that I use obsessively:
muck
thin-(i describe far too many things as 'thin')
proper
and my most over-used words 'paused for a moment'!
I think you getting the wrong end of the stick, LOL.
FAVOURITE--not most often used. Otherwise you would have a list as follows:
He
She
they
a
it
the
of
an.
I want words you LIKE. OK, you might like 'the', but it is so common I bet you don't really notice when you use it.
[This message has been edited by skadder (edited January 28, 2008).]
I could do this all day...wait, I'm trying to do this all day
Most of the words I detest are either commonly mispronounced (Wash pronounced Warsh) or intenionally misspelled (Phat).
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited January 29, 2008).]
Hammer
Thunder
Rapid
Biomechanics
Megalomaniac
Martyr
Sierra
Lunatic
Method
Medallion
Millenium/Millenia
Mantra
Code
Chant
Chagrin
Malignant
Benevolent
Fervor
Frivolous
Decadent/Decadence
Debauchery/Debauch
Shadow
Steel
Warlock
War
Gremlin
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited January 29, 2008).]
I just had to add vociferous. I can't believe I forgot it.
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited January 31, 2008).]
. I like it--reminds me of fruit. Penelope plucked the plump plums.Two words give me the willies:
moist
milk
Moist because of the "Moi" sound; milk because the swallow at the end gives you that sticky throat feeling you (I?) get when I drink milk.
[This message has been edited by annepin (edited January 28, 2008).]
Jefe: I have put many beautiful pinatas in the storeroom, each of them filled with little suprises.
El Guapo: Many pinatas?
Jefe: Oh yes, many!
El Guapo: Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?
Jefe: A what?
El Guapo: A *plethora*.
Jefe: Oh yes, you have a plethora.
El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?
Jefe: Why, El Guapo?
El Guapo: Well, you told me I have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has *no idea* what it means to have a plethora.
Jefe: Forgive me, El Guapo. I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education. But could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?
The Princess Bride:
Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Sorry, I know this thread is on words, not quotes. 
[This message has been edited by AllenMackley (edited January 28, 2008).]
Zephyr
Tasseomancer
Poetaster
Eidolon
Peculation
Lacunae
Ossuary
Ambergris
Analgesic
Somnolent
Panopticon
Bohemian
Cygnet
Seraphim
Eunuch
Feather
Physician
Polymath
Thanatology
Orpiment
Realgar
Paragnost
Zeitgeist
Darling
Metropolis
Scalpel
I can understand not liking a moist handshake. Is it just the idea of something being damp, or just wet? Slimy?
[This message has been edited by AllenMackley (edited January 29, 2008).]
quote:Sorry. It was supposed to be a joke.
THE?
Seriously, though, when I find words I particularly like, I add them to a list, and search for those words as part of my editing process. I try to eliminate as many of them as I can. (Unless, in fact, I haven't used them much--then I let them stay.) I find the words that are used about five to fifteen times in one novel are the ones I have to watch out for. The ones used more often are just more common, and can bear the repetition.
I also find that I no longer "like" many individual words (though I do have the ones I'm more inclined to include in my writing). Rather, I like the way the words are used. Without context, a single word doesn't do much for me.
Shudder! I've used that word more now that I ever have in one sitting before. Ick!
Followed by a big glass of milk....Mmmmm.
[This message has been edited by skadder (edited January 29, 2008).]
Would you? Or would the use of that adjective to that cake at that moment put you off it?
Just curious...
[This message has been edited by skadder (edited January 29, 2008).]
Hm... I feel the urge to bake coming on...
Before [person] could [verb], [event].
It's not really that often that you have a character, "about to" do something, and get interrupted. I had to go back and change/delete most of these occurences.
"Before John could stand, Fred got up, went to the fridge, got an apple, ate it, and returned to his seat" type situations lol
I'm also a fan of the word "However." But these are mostly trouble words that I keep an eye out for, not really words I LIKE to use.
How often do you use words that would be a stretch for many readers? How do you determine how much of a stetch it will be (since you know it, of course). This happens often, when I'm speaking... co-workers give me a blank look, or say "uh-huh", and I think, I did it again.
quote:
Marzo, off the top of your head?
Off the top of a head that loves a good word when it finds it (and often seeks them out in places like The Phrontistery), mind. Those are words I've memorized because I particularly like them, not ones I use very often.
quote:
How often do you use words that would be a stretch for many readers? How do you determine how much of a stetch it will be (since you know it, of course). This happens often, when I'm speaking... co-workers give me a blank look, or say "uh-huh", and I think, I did it again.
I hear you there. It's hard for me to find the line between what others see as "arrogantly obtuse vocabulary" and "good use of a word." I speak how I speak, and write how I write, and sometimes that causes problems. I think it used to more than it does now since I've become aware of it, though. I suppose that's all you can do, and trust to an editor to tell you when something reads as more pedantic or obscure than you intended. Leaving a work aside and coming back to it fresh helps me, too.
Of course, genre and character (especially in first-person POV) determine what you can and can't get away with.
The Phrontistery, for those of you as yet unacquainted: http://phrontistery.info/
I can't seem to avoid using "winced."
I saw a poster once(in an English class) that read: Never use a long word when a diminutive one will suffice. I got the point and have tried to live by it.
Words that I like:
indeed
erudition
plump
cycle
moist
EDIT[add- truthiness]
[This message has been edited by Cheyne (edited January 30, 2008).]
http://www.miketodd.net/encyc/gotten.htm
Cheers,
Pat
... i think.[This message has been edited by KStar (edited February 03, 2008).]
I also like moist, but for largely "Dead Like Me" related reasons.
Do you think it was intentionally ironic?
I'm into d's at the moment.
Carapace
but I also like befuddle and shalafi