“Chyme” is cool in two directions. First is its spelling and pronunciation. “Chyme” is pronounced like “kime”. The hard “K” sound of “ch” is fucking cool. To pronounce that “ch” like “K” makes it sound serious. This is a word not to be fucked with. Same goes for “cholera” and “chable char”. The hard “ch” [...]
Words I Love
You are currently viewing the category archives of Nouns
Category Archives: Nouns
Bass (The Sound and the Fish)
By a simple shift in pronunciation, from the AH to the AY, you get a wild shift in meaning. “Bass” the sound (or the instrument) sounds like what it is; and “bass” the fish is such a simple-sounding word, how could it be anything but a fish? And because the meanings are so different, it’s [...]
Sinecure
“Sinecure” comes from the Latin phrase beneficium sine cura which is an archaic designation for a person holding a title within a church, and paid under that title, but without any actual duties. In some governments, sinecures are intentionally filled as patronage or to allow a designate to hold multiple offices while only fulfilling the [...]
Coitus
The definition of “coitus” given at answers.com goes as follows: Sexual union between a male and a female involving insertion of the penis into the vagina. No other word in English so blithely ruins the passion and intensity of sex like “coitus”. Even “copulation” has an almost playful rhythm to it, not unlike the pounding [...]
Assassination
This one is easy. I love “assassination” because it has two asses. I learned this from a kid named Amir in the sixth grade, and I cannot write this word without remembering that wonderful moment when I realized I was writing “ass” on my spelling test. An interesting fact about this word, it actually comes [...]
Tintinnabulation
Tintinnabulation is the ringing our sounding of bells. There is, of course, no reason you would ever actually say “tintinnabulation” when it takes three times as long as just saying “ringing”. Why this word is still around is a mystery, but it has a simple and direct etymology from Latin, so it may simply be [...]
Sophistry
This is a word that I love, but never get to use. There is simply never a good time for it. Random House defines it as a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning. The American Heritage Dictionary calls it Plausible but fallacious argumentation. We encounter sophistry every day — from the [...]
Pandemonium
Pandemonium is not chaos. Chaos might be understood, even accepted, but pandemonium will not let you rest, and leaves you confused and shellshocked. Pandemonium is chaos with a greater element of danger and fear. It is a total lack of order, decorum, and ethics. While chaos can describe the seemingly random actions of a set [...]
Sex
For most people, this is not a hard word to love. Everybody loves sex, except for nuns, virgins, Mormons, and guys with very very small penises and the women who pretend to love them. But I love the word itself, not just its meaning. I love it because you take this complicated act, this act [...]
Onion
This is an easy one. I love the word “onion” because the O looks like an onion. Actually, there are two onions in the word onion. Not only is this the greatest word to describe this vegetable, it’s also the best word for it in the WORLD. Spanish: cebolla German: zwiebel Swahili: kitunguu Chinese: yang [...]
