Words that need to make a comeback

[Lynchmeister]

I don't know if this phrase was ever around long enough to disappear and, hence, make a comeback, but I'm a big fan of the phrase "Sweet Mamma Jamma." I'm the only person I know that's ever used it, so unless someone else wants to claim the title, I will proudly proclaim that I invented Sweet Mamma Jamma.



Edit: I'll use it in a sentence. "Sweet Mamma Jamma! That is a big piece of pie."

 

[RichGem]

Isn't that the thing you wear around your waist with a tuxedo?

I thought it was a salad vegetable

Anyhow, Cory's verbiage ("toot my own horn") brings up something I've noticed... English is getting a lot less colorful / expressive with many many idioms and analogies just getting dropped. Things like "a pig in a poke", "tooting one's own horn", etc. And, "shizzles" don't make up for it. (talk about incomprehensible!)

I can see that, in the long run, it does make things more difficult for non-English or ESL speakers to grasp and they probably should not be used in a business setting. But, still, doesn't it also make things that much more blah (I mean, um, blase')?

 

[thirdeye]

I still like fugly....

 

[RichGem]

I don't know if this phrase was ever around long enough to disappear and, hence, make a comeback, but I'm a big fan of the phrase "Sweet Mamma Jamma." I'm the only person I know that's ever used it, so unless someone else wants to claim the title, I will proudly proclaim that I invented Sweet Mamma Jamma.



Edit: I'll use it in a sentence. "Sweet Mamma Jamma! That is a big piece of pie. cheddar."

fixed that for you. oh, and that just screams custom title.

 

[wchnu]

How many people know what a thingamajig is these days..( that could just be a southern thing)

 

[Lynchmeister]

I thought it was a salad vegetable

Anyhow, Cory's verbiage ("toot my own horn") brings up something I've noticed... English is getting a lot less colorful / expressive with many many idioms and analogies just getting dropped. Things like "a pig in a poke", "tooting one's own horn", etc. And, "shizzles" don't make up for it. (talk about incomprehensible!)

I can see that, in the long run, it does make things more difficult for non-English or ESL speakers to grasp and they probably should not be used in a business setting. But, still, doesn't it also make things that much more blah?

Fo shizzle. I have a very close German friend who I met when he lived with me in high school during an exchange. I remember calling him a "Pimp Daddy" and he gave me the most quizzical look you could imagine. I then started to explain what the two were and he stopped me mid sentence, "I know what they are, but...a Pimp Daddy?!?!"

 

[RichGem]

How many people know what a thingamajig is these days..( that could just be a southern thing)

I believe it's a second cousin to a watchamacallit or, as we of Italian descent call it, a "come-si-chiam".

 

[Lynchmeister]

fixed that for you. oh, and that just screams custom title.

I still like fugly....

Thanks, Rich. Can't believe I missed that!

...and I love Fugly!

 

[Shane]

Ok what does that mean.... use it in a sentance....

Gasconade: (verb) To talk or act with excessive pride; to boast.

"After I finally used a Slant with a Feather in it without cutting myself, I couldn't help but gasconade about it."

 

[wchnu]

Oh that gasconade...why didn't you just say so Shane....

 

[wchnu]

I believe it's a second cousin to a watchamacallit or, as we of Italian descent call it, a "come-si-chiam".

Also known as a dohicky

 

[Gruder]

I've had the pleasure (?) of writing diligently throughout the summer. A few seldom-used words come to mind:

harbinger
magnanimous (One of the best lines in The Shawshank Redemption)
assuage
ebullient
cromulent
onus
aegis
ruminate

(Anyone besides me find themselves very carefully editing their posts in this thread? )

 

[burnwood]

well, I made up the word awesiferate so I hope it gets out there.
It means "the belief that you are great at everything, but only in your mind and not seen by anyone else."

 

[dpm802]

I've always been fond of the words "KIOSK" and "IGLOO" ... they just seem to roll off the tongue so elegantly. Its a shame that there are so few opportunities to use them in daily conversation.

A few weeks ago at work, I described myself as a "CURMUDGEON," and got blank stares from everyone. I told them to Google it, or look it up in the dictionary, but I don't think anybody remembered to do so. I'll drop the word in again and see if anyone has educated themselves in the last few weeks.

 

[RichGem]

I've always been fond of the words "KIOSK" and "IGLOO" ... they just seem to roll off the tongue so elegantly. Its a shame that there are so few opportunities to use them in daily conversation.

A few weeks ago at work, I described myself as a "CURMUDGEON," and got blank stares from everyone. I told them to Google it, or look it up in the dictionary, but I don't think anybody remembered to do so. I'll drop the word in again and see if anyone has educated themselves in the last few weeks.

Yeah, that's another word that needs to come back, "dictionary." Off to google it now.

 

[burnwood]

fugly is still awesome.

gotta call out my Battlestar Gallactica love and put "Fracking" out there.

 

[dpm802]

Yeah, that's another word that needs to come back, "dictionary." Off to google it now.

I like the scene in M*A*S*H where a journalist is interviewing the troops and asks "What books did you bring with you to Korea?" Hawkeye replies "I brought a dictionary. I figured it has all the other books in it."

When I was in the Navy, a certain E-8 told me that he made it a point to learn a new word every day. I took him up on this trick and perused the dictionary as often as I could.

When we're sitting around talking trash, I like to remind my male friends that "Women are always impressed by a Man that has an EXTREMELY LARGE and VERY POWERFUL ( ... pause for dramatic effect ... ) Vocabulary.

 

[wchnu]

well, I made up the word awesiferate so I hope it gets out there.
It means "the belief that you are great at everything, but only in your mind and not seen by anyone else."

I thought the word for that was egotistical.

 

[goodsamaritan]

I too read voraciously as a child. I have used many of the words listed here in the past year. I freely admit to being stumped by “gasconade” and “defenstration”. Sometimes it is a pain to have to back up and define a word for someone during the course of a normal conversation. It is a bit of an ego booster to be consulted as the resident walking dictionary/encyclopedia though.

Here are my additions to the list.


lugubrious
austere
machinations
Machiavellian (as in Machiavellian machinations)
repast
repose
befuddled
coiffure



The lovely Ms G.S. Chimed in as well.
supine
quandary
discombobulated


Now, for some of my favorite colloquialisms.

Hanging in there like a hair on a biscuit.

Nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Fair to middling
(the proper response to which is)
and partly cloudy



Busier than a one legged man in a but kicking contest.

NOTE...when you use this one, make SURE the person you are speaking to has both legs... How was I to know my new neighbor had had a prosthetic limb? Sure she limped a little but I never thought it was because she only had ONE LEG! Fortunately she also had a sense of humor. My wife said she witnessed someone say this one to a coworker who was in a wheelchair. There was an awkward pause when they realized their mistake. The lady in the wheelchair grinned and replied “You don't know the HALF of it!”

 

[jimmyhugs]

A large vocabulary can embiggen even the smallest man.