pulchritude
dosquatch of great physical beauty. 040504
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vituperus One of those words that doesn't look like what it is. Like noisome. 040504
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minnesota_chris one of those words you would use for 'beauty', if you didn't already have the word 'beauty'. 040505
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vituperus "Beauty" is just fine, but it's nice to have options. Anyone who posts, as you do, on a site that's largely devoted to decidedly non-utilitarian, ostensibly aesthetically pleasing poetry and prose should know that.

No one who cares about language advocates paring it down so that we only have one word for beauty, brevity, etc.

Nor does someone advocate such a practice if he actually understands (as you have suggested that you do) that no two words, even when synonyms, are identical. Funny, on that other page you analogize the writing done here to painting. So this is our canvas, and we make works of art. Fine, but would you have a painter neglect the tube o' cyan cause he already has blue?
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minnesota_chris Yup. But feel free to use the teal, aquamarine, cerulean, cobalt, slate, sky-blue, faded blue-jean color.

Actually, do whatever you want, we're all just having fun here. But show-offs just bug me.
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vituperus And why is that?

First of all, why do you think that posting words is "showing off"? This is a site of words, no? Maybe I was just curious to see if someone had written anything under certain words.

I should have called myself panegyricus or encomius instead.
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minnesota_chris why is what? Why do verbose showoffs bug me? Hmm. Good question.

You blatherers are all here for my entertainment, and after reading synonym after synonym, and several "huge words which means the same as a little word but sound much more smart", I am just not amused.

Why abandon cyan? Cyan is what printers call "blue". I have no idea why they call it that, they just do. And it's fine for them to do that, I guess, but I think writing should be intentionally approachable, not intentionally obfuscated (ahh dammit you're wearing off on me!) We should write things for people to read. Not for people to say "what does that word mean? That guy is smart!"

Blather is full of show-offs, and that's a good thing. Several times I have said "wow" after reading blathes, and that's why I keep coming back.

We do need more words on Blather, that's true. But would you ever use encomia or panegyric instead of praise, to connotate something? Besides to connotate that you're a smarty pants?
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vituperus Encomium. Panegyric. Yes, I would use those words.

What a shame that Blather people should learn new words. (By the way, I'm not implying that I'm the only one who knows the words I posted--clearly this isn't the case because many words I posted already had their own pages).

So no one read what I typed and said, "wow." Okay. I wasn't trying to "wow" anyone. I'm assuming, though, that you've been here for a while, and no offense, but I bet you've never "wowed" anyone.

But maybe that's not your intention. Maybe you just like to play the Blather Curmudgeon, or the Blather Muse, or whatever.

But just understand, I don't like what you write, either.
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vituperus By the way, I didn't mention panegyric and encomium randomly (or to "show off"). I was implying that if I had chosen a name based on the form of epideictic rhetoric that relates to praise rather than blame, people might be friendlier. 040505
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vituperus And it's "connote," not "connotate." That's like when people say "conversate" when they mean "converse." 040505
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kookaburra I have discovered that the use of long and obtuse words can often be beautiful or pointless.
but, i luv to have my vocab grow...
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dosquatch I resent the implication that I am showing off. I was playing along with vituperus, in a manner not so different than when I play along with the haiku_game.

I have a wide and varied vocabulary, and it's nice to stretch its legs every so often, because you're right - pulchritude isn't something you drop into everyday conversation. But it is not the same as 'beauty'. It conveys a feeling of something much more stiff, formal, and proper.

It is the difference between a meadow in bloom and your grandmother's carefully arranged, never to be used, shrink-wrapped living room.

On the other hand, I would love to claim my vocabulary was a result of a deep love for the nuances in synonyms, but alas that is not the case. It comes instead from a penchant I had in school for abusing my english teachers with alliteration.

No pulchritude here, move along move along.
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zeke words have connotations as well as denotative content. brevity and simplicity can be both beautiful and efficient (haiku for instance). sometimes a thought requires nuance that is difficult to convey in sparse and simple terms. language is also extremely plastic, expanding and contorting to include concepts outside strict denotative or discursive definitions. i sometimes think of words as harmonic, sometimes dissonant, others consonant. aesthetic modalities differ. 040505
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smurfus rex where the hell is oldephebe when you need him??? 040505
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iNsEcUrE_GoTh_GiRl lol i was thinking that too smurfus 040506
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oldephebe seems like you guys got it all covered 040629
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tallover66 Fascinating that some see the palate of language as simple shades of black and white instead of all the vibrancy and color an artist can draw upon to color a vivid instead of drab picture. A rose, skunk, cigar, perfume all could be described with "smell" but what a loss of depth instead of the fragrant bouquet of a rose, the putrid stench of a skunk, the pungent aroma of a cigar, and the scintillation and delightful tease of a woman... So before you dismiss those with verbosity and who add color to the language because they "appear' to have a snobbish or more educated grasp of the language, consider strengthening your argument. Then you might also see the pulchritude of both the simplicity and the semantics of the blather. 040713
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minnesota_chris I write to impact. 040714
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Ptolemy DCLVIII I just tried pronouncing the word "Pulchritude" again and again, trying to find some way of inflecting it to suggest the nature of what it implies. For instance, "haze" has a vague sound which (to me) befits the gaseous meaning. This word seems very cumbersome for the meaning it is attached to. As another comparison, "voluptuous" is an evocative beauty-related word whose sound matches the nuance of its meaning. As you pronounce "voluptuous" your lips wobble about, revealing the curves and the tender angles of your kissing_apparatus to the listener beholding the word, unless they cannot see you for some reason, I admit that would make things difficult.

Pulchritude connotes the sort of beauty I would expect from teenage Orcs.
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. if some guy told me i was pulchritudinous, i'd give him a slap 061027
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