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Discussion » Questions » Language » Are there any words that you have seen regularly, or at least on several occasions, in print but have NEVER heard anyone say in real life?
Reverend Muhammadovsky

Are there any words that you have seen regularly, or at least on several occasions, in print but have NEVER heard anyone say in real life?

Posted - June 3, 2020
Tags : I can think of "Febrile" "Obfuscation" and "Pusillanimous"

Responses


  • 5808
    Yes indeed
    but can't remember them
    at all.
      June 3, 2020 5:19 PM MDT
    3

  • 44649
    I have used the word 'mayhaps' on numerous occasions here. I have never heard anyone say it though.
      June 3, 2020 5:44 PM MDT
    4

  • 4624
    I love that word! It has such a gentle sense of humour about it.
    I also love all the words with "hap" in the root.
    String them together, and suddenly hap takes on a richer resonance of meaning.
      June 3, 2020 11:54 PM MDT
    1

  • 44649
    I am happy you liked my answer.
      June 4, 2020 7:07 AM MDT
    0

  • 23641
    "Carabiner"

    Stupid word for me, ha!
    :)
    When I saw it first in print, I didn't even know what it was. 
      June 3, 2020 6:51 PM MDT
    3

  • 17614
    I've always heard that word.  I use a carabiner every day that I leave home....my keys are connected to my purse with one.  :)
      June 5, 2020 2:49 AM MDT
    1

  • 23641
    :)
    Ha! I know - I don't know why I am so out of the loop on that word! I see them everywhere and just never knew what they were called. And I've never heard anyone say the word out loud.

    And I had to look to see how it was pronounced. And it sounds to me like a pre-teen insult to another - - "You're such a carabiner."   
    :)

    ("cara beener")


    EDIT: I just searched the word -- there are several videos on how to pronounce it, ha! - and even in those, there were disagreements. Ha! :)

    (I think I need to get a better life for myself, ha!)

    :)


    This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at June 5, 2020 4:44 PM MDT
      June 5, 2020 7:44 AM MDT
    1

  • 17614
    Thermodesulfobacteriaceae.

    Not one time.
      June 3, 2020 8:00 PM MDT
    4

  • 4624
    Wow! 
    Wiki says it's a phylum of heat-loving sulphate-reducing bacteria.
    I wonder if the bacteria could be a natural means to reduce the acidity of acid-sulphate soils in agriculture.
      June 4, 2020 12:01 AM MDT
    4

  • 17614
    I'm going to wish you success in your research.  :)
      June 5, 2020 2:49 AM MDT
    2

  • 13277
    Hizzoner. The NYC tabloids, the Daily News and the Post, use it ad nauseam to identify the mayor, but I have never heard anyone say it.
      June 3, 2020 8:09 PM MDT
    5

  • 551
    And they actually spell it like that?
      June 3, 2020 11:51 PM MDT
    5

  • 53526

    Yes. 


    ~

      June 3, 2020 11:52 PM MDT
    5

  • 4624

    absquatulate 

    amanuensis

    limerence 

    bombinate

    petrichor 

    aleatory 

    gnomic 

    jejune

    precarity

    caesura

    elision

    elide

    prosody

    When I'm in doubt about pronunciation, I look up the Oxford dictionary for the phonetic symbols.

    This post was edited by inky at June 4, 2020 8:09 AM MDT
      June 3, 2020 8:55 PM MDT
    5

  • 53526

     

      I want you so badly at right this second that you would never believe it. 

     


    ~

      June 3, 2020 10:38 PM MDT
    4

  • 44649
    at?
      June 4, 2020 7:09 AM MDT
    2

  • 53526

    Yes. 

    ~

      June 4, 2020 7:44 AM MDT
    1

  • 17614
    Inky's a girl?
      June 5, 2020 2:52 AM MDT
    2

  • 53526

     

      A woman, yes. She’s formerly BookWorm, from Australia. 

    ~

      June 5, 2020 7:19 AM MDT
    1

  • 22891
    probably but i cant remember what they are
      June 22, 2020 1:50 PM MDT
    0