Ten All Time Favourite Words.

*Definitions courtesy of http://dictionary.reference.com/

1. Bombastic. Grandiloquent, pompous, high-sounding, inflated, pretentious. How good is it when the definition of a fabulous word is another fabulous word (grandiloquent). I love the sound of bombastic. Let it roll off your tongue a couple of times: it's addictive. Go forth and use it boldly. You may sound bombastic if you do though.
2. Quixotic. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality. This is an adjective I would wear with pride. Call me quixotic, go on, go on.
3. Defenestrate. To throw out of a window. It is great to have such narrow meaning words, it makes our language rich. I nearly used this in a job at work once—it's what jumped to mind. But I thought (1) not everyone may be familiar with this word, and, (2) imagine what a tosser I would seem if this ever got to the coroners court.
4. Hirsute. Hairy, shaggy. This is one of those words that sound fabulous but you don't like their meaning. Oh, for a time when hirsute would not be a guilt inducing thing that makes you feel you need to rush to Brazilian Butterfly. Someone at work booked their hubby into BB the other day because of his hirsute eyebrows—the world's gone mad!
5. Eructation. The act or an instance of belching. This sound much better than belch, doesn't it? National Geographic would have been much classier the other day if its caption for a spurting had been 'the earch eructating ...' rather than 'the earth belching ...'.
6. Harangue. A solding or a long or intence verbal attack; diatribe; any long pompous speech, esp. before an audience. Man, I love the english language. You never need explain, there is a word for everything. Can other languages claim the same? Is it true there is no German word for fluffy? Imagine having to explain something was fluffy. The German's will have to come up with a german equivalent of something like softandcloudlikewithwhispybits.
7. Hugger-mugger. Disorder or confusion; muddle; secrecy, reticence. All this time I thought our favourite pizza at Shagy's was just a whacky made up word, and then along comes Dictionary.com's word of the day and its hugger-mugger.  With choriza, chicken and prawn it is a bit of a meat-group confusion; with rocket it is secretly harbouring some goodness. Makes perfect sense now.
8. Jejune. Dull, insipid; juvenile, childish; lacking knowledge or experience, uniformed; deficient or lacking nutritional value. Again meaning is secondary to the loveliness of the word, which to me should really be about summer days and grass smells, and a kind of crunchiness underfoot and a humming of bees. Maybe that is dull for some people.
9. Bathetic. Displaying or characterized by bathos: a ludicrous descent from the exalted of lofty to the commonplace. It is un-Australian to not make bathetic wishes I think. We all do it. So-and-so wishes Kylie would trip over her train on the way down the stair. So-and-so-other is glad Tiger got caught. I just like that it is like pathetic but funnier.
10. Sesquipedalianism. Given to using long words. This is the funniest ending to a list I ever did see. How's the irony? I am a proud, loud sesquipealianist.