Magnifical vs. Cool Beans

Want to express appropriate awe without resorting to "Sick!" or "Nasty" (both formerly primarily negative terms whose definitions have undergone a most peculiar process of amelioration)?

Ditch the "cool beans" and try "magnifical" on the tongue for taste!

A variation of magnific, this word is a delightfully archaic adjective best employed when one wishes to say that something is "magnificent" or "imposing." It can also be used to imply a sense of grandiose pomposity.

Try inserting magnifical into random conversations without seeming, well, a trifle magnifical!

Have you seen the new Star Wars movie?

Yeah. Magnifical, man! 

Ugh . . . maybe I should start with a more visual approach:

Flying between two cloud layers? Magnifical. 

Copacetic

                                           Figure 1: Ceramic creature, species leafkin copaceticus 

"Copacetic." I've never heard anyone but my father use this word, but I'd like to hear it spoken more often considering its fine, no, its completely satisfactory, very good, even excellent definition. 

For several years during my childhood, each week my mother would compile 25 words in the dictionary for me to look up. I had to write each word down 3 times, look up its definition, and then use it in a sentence. 

Copacetic. Copacetic. Also Copasetic. 

As in, "Life is copacetic as long as I have my pint of Death by Chocolate."

American slang for something that is "in excellent order." 

Harmonious. 

Archaic Awesomeness: Prickmedainty

“Prickmedainty,” also spelled prick-me-dainty, is a marvelous word used to describe a person obsessed with appearance. Dictionary.com defines such a  person as a "fancy and finnicky dresser, a dandy." The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the word as an "affectedly nice person," or a "fop." Both noun and adjective, this word surely deserves room in our modern vocabulary. Excuse me, time to go take another prickmedainty selfie!

Mickle Madness

Mickle is a fabulous archaic word! I find it a pity that it has fallen out of usage. As a noun, it signifies a "great amount." As an adjective it signifies "great" as in "large" or "abundant," and as an adverb it signifies "much" or "greatly." Furthermore, its Scottish twin is muckle. There's a bilabial smack of satisfaction with each syllable. Now I just need to think of excuses to randomly insert the word "mickle" into my conversation and utterly betray myself as an English major . . .

*I have a mickle mountain of books to study for the Praxis II. Mt. Everest would be jealous.
(Here's a minor foothill . . .)

"A" Worthy Word

I once had an English instructor in college tell me that if I used the following word in a paper, I would receive an automatic "A." Alas, his promise was in jest, but the word is a worthy addition to anyone's vocabulary. Meet inescapable's sinister twin:

INELUCTABLE. The word means "incapable of being evaded."

Example: My ineluctable fate is to work on reading protocols and lesson plans till the wee hours of the morning. Somehow, I think even drudgery sounds more noble when it is ineluctable!

A Tolkienesque Word

Alas, snow days and an avalanche of homework tend to fall on the same day, but I'm surrendering the scholarly quill for the moment to share my favorite word. I stumbled upon it in my textbook, A Biography of the English Language by C.M. Millward:

ælfscīene

It's means elf-bright or beautiful. I'm fairly certain this word is one of the primary reasons I am an English major!

Scintillatious! Faux Word Fun

In her poem "Part One: Life," Emily Dickinson wrote: "A WORD is dead/ When it is said,/ Some say./ I say it just/ Begins to live/ That day."

I must agree, especially when considering how many made-up or popular words are now part of the dictionary, such as "muggle" and "unfriend."

What faux word would you mint for adoption by reality? I would nominate "scintillatious: -adjective. [sin-tl-ey-shuh-s]. Excessively sparkly!"

Tintinnabulous

"Tintinnabulous."

I adore this word. It refers to the peal of ringing bells. Now if I can only find a way to interject this gem of an adjective into normal conversation. It's practically a tongue twister. Try saying it fast three times in a row!

The Sesquipedalion's best friend

Come on, confess!

I know I'm not alone in my addiction to words. So for all those epeolatrists who can't get another syllable combo fast enough, go to Dictionary.com and sign up for the emailed word of the day. It's free. How can I describe the experience? It's like the little mint chocolate left on the pillow in the hotel bedroom, only better, because I get a new treat every day! Even more fabulous, the words are archived all the way back to 1999 . . .

Wishing you all a Happy National Punctuation Day! No, really I am. September 24th is the officially-designated celebration, and we owe it all to Jeff Rubin.

Stelliferous

My first week at grad school this semester has just about squished every last creative syllable out of me. Therefore, I must resort to an emergency transfusion of adjectival brilliancy from Dictionary.com:

*Stelliferous, which means "Having or abounding in stars." Similar to sidereal, I know. Try substituting stelliferous for wicked, nasty, sweet or whatever other run-of-the-mill (or should I say "mouth"?) adjective is the norm for "cool" these days.


Stelliferous. Splendiferous. Ah, I love the fact that two of my favorite words are alliterative twins!

Work cited

"Stelliferous." Dictionary.com. Retrieved from:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/stelliferous

Sidereal

I've decided to combat the "like,um, ya know" grind with a weekly dose of splendiferous syllables. Here is my personal all-time favorite adjective (besides splendiferous, of course):

1. SIDEREAL, meaning "of or pertaining to the stars."

*Check out this article by Jess Sheidlower to get some interesting statistics on word count/origin of the English language.

http://www.slate.com/id/2139611

Please, feel free to send me your favorite words. The more, the merrier!

Work cited

Dictionary.com. Retrieved August 15, 2010 from:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sidereal