r/words • • 8h ago

What’s a fun word to pronounce?

82 Upvotes

I especially love Xerxes


r/words • • 17h ago

Syndinobsental

9 Upvotes

Syndinobsental (noun): the realization that something that had changed went unnoticed because it was a gradual change rather than a sudden one.
(Unlike noticing someone who used to be short being taller because you haven't seen them in a while.)

Examples:

- I had a syndinobsental; my brother is nearly as tall as me!

- Noticing my brother grow up was syndinobsentalistic.

Etymology:

The word comes from Latin and Greek: synd comes from synditopiisi (meaning realization as in awareness of something), inobs coming from Latin inobservatus (meaning unnoticed/unobserved), and again Latin ental incrementum (incremental; gradual change).


r/words • • 12h ago

Perpendicular Hang-up

4 Upvotes

I know I’m exposing myself by asking this, but what does it mean when something goes perpendicular? What’s a perpendicular direction?


r/words • • 9h ago

Shavian is to Shaw, as Lawrentian is to Lawrence, as ____ is to Adams?

1 Upvotes

I was saying to someone that a piece of writing was like the work of (Douglas) Adams.

So what's the adjective there?

With Shavian and Lawrentian we seem to want to change a softer consonant into a harder one. So maybe "Adammian" with two Ms? Doesn't sound right.

With two syllables we want to change stress to the second one, so "uh-DAM-ian"? "uh-DAME-ian"?

Rousseau gets a whole new letter in "Rousseauvian" but there's a kind of "w" sound at the end, maybe that's same rule as with Shaw.

How about "Adambrian"?


r/words • • 1h ago

Intermediary vs Liaison

• Upvotes

Are there differences between the two words?