c4countdown

Anybody got an obscure favourite word ?

Mine's 'aasvogel' - a south african vulture

I love melifluous - (although it is not obscure.)
Eoin - there is a welcome thread at the top of the "Countdown General" thread.
Why don't you say hello in there, so that people can welcome you (or at least know you are here.)
Welcome Eoin. I hope you enjoy it.

Ralph wrote:I love melifluous

...although not enough to spell it correctly.

Well spotted Phil.
That's speed typing for you!
One can't get away with mistakes on this forum.
I will leave my original post unedited so that it makes some sense to anyone who may read the thread.

Eoin.V.Monaghan wrote:Anybody got an obscure favourite word ?

Only about 500. Here's three to start:

• wayzgoose - a recreational outing for printers. I've always been fond of this word and have often thought it would make a great 9 on Countdown, so I was shocked a while ago when Susie included it in a list of words with unusually specific meanings and mentioned that it was no longer in the dictionary. Boo.
• sesquipedalian - (of an orator) given to using long words; (of a word) possessing many syllables. I love the fact that the word sesquipedalian is itself sesquipedalian.
• pyriform - pear-shaped. When I worked in the software industry, a couple of colleagues and I used to daydream about starting our own software company and calling it Pyriform Systems, which would be a little in-joke given that so many of the projects we'd worked on had themselves gone completely pear-shaped.

I have a couple that came up recently during Collins dictionary-based apterous play- KAIKAWAKA is a wonderfully obscure word the bloody thing threw me as a goatconundrum (dropping one of the Ks), and SEMPERVIVUM is a word I'm dying to play in scrabble, preferably around PERV.

Acatalectic.

Spanghew is a good one even though it's not ODE worthy. The definition is ace - to cause (esp. a toad or frog) to fly into the air off the end of a stick.

Callipygian - the quality of having a perfectly formed arse. I dream of one day using this sincerely.
Pansexual - apparently someone capable of feeling sexual attraction for men, women, and "those outside the traditional gender binary". Personally I'd find a broader definition including animals, inanimate objects and David O'Donnell far more entertaining.
Fagmaster - The person you fag for in public schools.

All my favourite words are really mature. Here's a couple of adult ones:

Hydropot - some who drinks only water
Nekton - all the sea creatures in a large body of water capable of moving independently of the current.
Idioticon - a dictionary of words from an obscure dialect.

Got another two, both played by my mate Martin (not Gardner) at Scrabble and both ODE-friendly this time- SLUGABED, literally pronounced slug-a-bed, meaning a lazy git, and the triply darrenic TAIKONAUT, the Chinese equivalent of a western astronaut or a Russian cosmonaut.

People have different views on what is obscure, but to me, my favourite words (off the top of my head) would include:

ESOTERICA - Esoteric matters or items.
FEIJOADA - A Brazilian dish consisting of an assortment of sliced meats, such as tongue and sausage, and side dishes, including rice, beans, collard greens, oranges, and hot pepper sauce.
EXORDIAL - A beginning or introductory part, especially of a speech or treatise.
WAQF - an inalienable religious endowment in Islam, typically denoting a building or plot of land for Muslim religious or charitable purposes.

CAPSTAN

Because it sounds cool.

And

FLABERGAST

Ben Hunter wrote:CAPSTAN

Because it sounds cool.

And

FLABERGAST

That's FLABBERGAST, with 2 Bs. I wouldn't have said either of those was particularly obscure.

MUZJIKS is an obscure word and a good play in Scrabble

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words.

I also have a soft spot for TAIKONAUT, which is why I included it in the list of Apterous conundrums even though I'm sure it'll generate some complaints if it ever comes up in a Duel.

Other favourites include PANOPTICON, QIPAO (not Countdown-friendly), OSSIFY, IRENICON, PONTIFEX, XIPHOID and lately ADHOCRACY (as well as several others from here). Also hundreds of words with a K, but KAOLINITE, KUMITE and SNAKEPIT sprung first to mind.

Oh and ISOGAMETE <3

Good old KUMITE. Will be engaging in some later on

My favourite word is FISTING

I may also engage in some later on

Dinos Sfyris wrote:My favourite word is FISTING

I may also engage in some later on

Brings a whole new meaning to "engagement ring".

And now I just said "a whole". Oh dear.

One from the wonderful world of statistics - HETEROSKEDASTICITY.

Michael Wallace wrote:One from the wonderful world of statistics - HETEROSKEDASTICITY.

Oh yes. Continuity both statistical and K-based themes, KURTOSIS is another favourite of mine.

Kai Laddiman wrote:Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words.

Is that a real word ? If so it certainly is obsure!

Eoin.V.Monaghan wrote:

Kai Laddiman wrote:Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words.

Is that a real word ? If so it certainly is obsure!

51800 Google results, so it's certainly in use, although almost all the results appear to be questions similar to yours so I think the real usage statistics would be much lower.

AHOLEHOLE - some sort of fish - has been my favourite ever since I found it in the Official Countdown Words book in 2002 or whenever it was. It's a great word because it's not only a weird vowel-consonant construction, it also sounds as though it could be a euphemism for some incredibly lewd act.

Oh, and FARTLEK, for similar reasons.

Charlie Reams wrote:QIPAO (not Countdown-friendly)

I mentioned this elsewhere in the forum, but more obscure words would be the ones with a 'Q' in them but no 'U' after the 'Q', (but in some cases the 'U' is somewhere else in the word):

The following are all Countdown friendly:

BURQA, BURQAS, CINQ, CINQS, FIQH, MBAQANGA, NIQAB, NIQABS, QANAT, QANATS, QAWWAL, QAWWALI, QAWWALS, QI, QIBLA, QIGONG, QINDARKA, QINTAR, QINTARS, QWERTY, SUQ, SUQS, TALAQ, TARIQA, TARIQAS, TARIQAT, TARIQATS and WAQF.

And the following are all Scrabble friendly (I think):

BUQSHA, BUQSHAS, BURQA, BURQAS, FAQIR, FAQIRS, INQILAB, INQILABS, MBAQANGA, MBAQANGAS, NIQAB, NIQABS, QABALA, QABALAH, QABALAHS, QABALAS, QABALISM, QABALISMS, QABALIST, QABALISTIC, QABALISTS, QADI, QADIS, QAID, QAIDS, QAIMAQAM, QAIMAQAMS, QALAMDAN, QALAMDANS, QANAT, QANATS, QASIDA, QASIDAS, QAT, QATS, QAWWAL, QAWWALI, QAWWALIS, QAWWALS, QI, QIBLA, QIBLAS, QIGONG, QIGONGS, QINDAR, QINDARKA, QINDARS, QINTAR, QINTARS, QIS, QIVIUT, QIVIUTS, QOPH, QOPHS, QORMA, QORMAS, QWERTIES, QWERTY, QWERTYS, SHEQALIM, SHEQEL, SHEQELS, SUQ, SUQS, TALAQ, TALAQS, TRANQ, TRANQS, TSADDIQ, TSADDIQIM, TSADDIQS, TZADDIQ, TZADDIQIM, TZADDIQS, UMIAQ, UMIAQS, WAQF, WAQFS, YAQONA and YAQONAS.

Might as well post this again, since it's still one of my proudest achievements.

Also I'd like to add CAPOEIRA to the list. All words with strange orthography are fascinating, I think.

I've read a half-decent book on Latin recently which is really good for finding out where words come from. Tango (to carry on the strictly theme) means 'I touch', video means 'I see', agent means 'they do', ludo means 'I play' and audio means 'I hear'. On a Scrabble theme, probably my most important ever word was POLARISE (in French) against Hervé Bohbot for 140 points, a former #1 player in the world ratings. I won by 91.

SKIMMINGTON has a certain charm to it - a procession made through a village intended to bring ridicule on and make an example of a nagging wife or unfaithful husband.

Gary Male wrote:SKIMMINGTON has a certain charm to it - a procession made through a village intended to bring ridicule on and make an example of a nagging wife or unfaithful husband.

I like that - a local pub is the Skimmington Castle, and I always wondered how it got its name.

Wickiup - a North American Indian dwelling (yes I know you are not supposed to call them that any more....)

ABOLISHES, ABSOLUTES, BASELOADS, BESTOWALS, BONSELLAS, BRESAOLAS, KILOBASES, MESOBLAST, OBSTACLES, SALTBOXES and SOCIABLES

Joseph Bolas wrote:ABOLISHES, ABSOLUTES, BASELOADS, BESTOWALS, BONSELLAS, BRESAOLAS, KILOBASES, MESOBLAST, OBSTACLES, SALTBOXES and SOCIABLES

Is there a link to those words?

Eoin.V.Monaghan wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:ABOLISHES, ABSOLUTES, BASELOADS, BESTOWALS, BONSELLAS, BRESAOLAS, KILOBASES, MESOBLAST, OBSTACLES, SALTBOXES and SOCIABLES

Is there a link to those words?

Took me a while to figure it out too. It's all the 9s you can make from BOLASES.

MOONQUAKE
TURQUOISE
HOWGOZIT
CUNTIEST
SORRYKAI

Charlie Reams wrote:

Eoin.V.Monaghan wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:ABOLISHES, ABSOLUTES, BASELOADS, BESTOWALS, BONSELLAS, BRESAOLAS, KILOBASES, MESOBLAST, OBSTACLES, SALTBOXES and SOCIABLES

Is there a link to those words?

Took me a while to figure it out too. It's all the 9s you can make from BOLASES.

Well done charlie- wouldn't have got it-although i didn't really try. I knew it would have something to do with josephs name, though

Charlie Reams wrote:

Eoin.V.Monaghan wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:ABOLISHES, ABSOLUTES, BASELOADS, BESTOWALS, BONSELLAS, BRESAOLAS, KILOBASES, MESOBLAST, OBSTACLES, SALTBOXES and SOCIABLES

Is there a link to those words?

Took me a while to figure it out too. It's all the 9s you can make from BOLASES.

I know, I am sad

For 8's you could have ABSOLVES, BONSELAS and SOLEBARS too

If you're going to allow proper nouns, there's a card in my local post office with a restaurant called "Fuk Mi" on the front, the inside says "how would you answer the phone if you worked here?"

Martin Gardner wrote:If you're going to allow proper nouns, there's a card in my local post office with a restaurant called "Fuk Mi" on the front, the inside says "how would you answer the phone if you worked here?"

ill give you that exception martin!