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UPDATE: Contest Winner Selected!
After nearly a hundred entries, we’ve randomly selected a winner: commenter Meg Stivison. Meg posted: “My new favorite word is sub-Turing, used specifically for those who wouldn’t pass a Turing intelligence test.” We’ll email Meg shortly with instructions on how to claim her free Anathem shirt! Thanks to all for entering, and for sharing your favorite words!
I saw Neal Stephenson, author of the newly released Anathem, speak in Portland on Tuesday night. He read a bit from the book, which revealed two inescapable facts about Anathem:
1. It’s full of newly coined words. Similar to Dune in its free use of fictional vocabulary, Anathem introduces us to words like avout, the term for secular monks living living in a walled city; concent, an avout monastery; and Extramuros, the term for life outside the concent.
2. It’s funny as hell. Proof comes from the term bulshytt, which appears early on and seems to have a clear predecessor in our own language. But don’t let this seeming coincidence fool you: bulshytt is a very specific term with its own etymology — although its usage does seem to match a well-known English term. Bulshytt appears in both Fluccish and Orth (two languages in the world of Anathem); a partial definition (from the book’s glossary) is as follows:
Bulshytt: (1) In Fluccish of the late Praxic Age and early Reconstitution, a derogatory term for false speech in general, esp. knowing and deliberate falsehood or obfuscation. (2) In Orth, a more technical and clinical term denoting speech (typically but not necessarily commercial or political) that employs euphemism, convenient vagueness, numbing repetition, and other such rhetorical subterfuges to create the impression that something has been said. (3) According to the Knights of Saunt Halikaarn, a radical order of the 2nd Millennium A.R., all speech and writings of the ancient Sphenics; the Mystagogues of the Old Mathic Age; Praxic Age commercial and political institutions; and, since the Reconstitution, anyone they deemed to have been infected by Procian thinking. …
Anathem’s marketing is remarkable. The book itself has a trailer (yes, like a movie trailer), a soundtrack (actually a really good one), and a variety of online videos featuring author interviews and readings. It’s a little funny to see Stephenson himself reading in these videos, as he’s such an unlikely figure to appear in a promotional setting: he comes off as a quiet, retiring author who’s genuinely interested in the world of ideas, and not so much into self-promotion.
As shown in his recent Wired profile, Stephenson seems perfectly comfortable to immerse himself in complexity, and his readers have come to expect that…though many found his previous work (The Baroque Cycle) to be a little long, weighing in at roughly three thousand pages across three volumes. In my humble opinion, Baroque contained a lot of great stuff: there’s an epic scale to the story that can only be told over a lot of pages — though that might just be my incipient fanboyism. (Anathem is 960 pages — the hardcover is hefty!) At the Portland reading, an audience member asked about book length. Stephenson’s answer was (and I’m heavily paraphrasing here), “Some books are long because there’s a lot of junk in them that could be cut out. Some books are long because there’s lots of good stuff in them. I think I’m writing the latter.”
Some of the Anathem promo videos have been packaged up into an online widget. Have a look at the videos below — I’d recommend the two videos in the middle (click the teeny icons at the bottom) as good starting points.
Can’t get enough Neal Stephenson videos? There are a few more on his official book site. If you can’t catch Stephenson on his speaking tour, check out his talk at the Long Now Foundation from last week — it’s a reading plus Q&A.
Win an Anathem Tee-Shirt (UPDATE: CONTEST NOW CLOSED)
So what’s this about a tee-shirt contest? We have a limited edition “Bulshytt” tee-shirt to give away: it features the dictionary definition of the term in white on a black American Apparel tee. How to enter: leave a comment on this blog entry telling us your favorite word (fictional or not). We’ll randomly select a winner on Friday evening, and we’ll email you to work out your size and shipping information.
Comments (99)
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My favorite word is defenestration,
It’s a fun word and actually getting to use it in a sentence always gives me a moment of happiness.
posted by Eli on 9-18-2008 at 1:12 pm
I’m a big fan of loquacious, and seeing that I’m a fan of Stephenson, it’s pretty appropriate as well.
posted by Eric Y. on 9-18-2008 at 1:16 pm
I’m a big fan of egregious…just something about the level of wrongness that the word conveys…
posted by Lesley on 9-18-2008 at 1:20 pm
My favorite word is the Mandarin name for Spain, Xibanya （西班牙）
posted by Brian on 9-18-2008 at 1:22 pm
I’ve always been a big fan of snooze; both the word and the function.
posted by Sean on 9-18-2008 at 1:25 pm
Grok. it’s never explained outside of the books (and wont be in this comment), but everybody almost immediately somehow know what it means.
posted by Oren on 9-18-2008 at 1:28 pm
I’m gonna go with my simple, favorite word. Pornographic. It’s great to use in the technical sense, it confuses people.
posted by Sarah on 9-18-2008 at 1:29 pm
callypigian: having shapely buttocks
(found in latest MW collegiate dictionary and others).
posted by Simon on 9-18-2008 at 1:31 pm
My favorite word: people. It’s fun to say over and over and over again. I don’t like the actual thing all that much, however.
posted by Tom on 9-18-2008 at 1:32 pm
Toss up between “troglodytic” and “temeritous.” Would like to think I’m a little more the latter than the former.
posted by Kevin H on 9-18-2008 at 1:33 pm
callipygian: having shapely buttocks.
In the latest MW collegiate dictionary and others
posted by Simon on 9-18-2008 at 1:33 pm
I really love the words “hoist” and “foist.” Which is really odd, considering that “moist” is my most-hated word ever. I actually can’t believe I just typed it.
posted by cdub on 9-18-2008 at 1:34 pm
Although boring when compared to the rest my favorite word is OUTSTANDING. It can be used positively or negatively just based on the tone of how it’s said and in what context.
posted by Bill on 9-18-2008 at 1:35 pm
I have always been a big fan of the word “ballistic”. It’s just fun to say!
posted by Brian on 9-18-2008 at 1:37 pm
Spatula. Don’t know why, but I’ve always liked that one.
posted by Turi on 9-18-2008 at 1:40 pm
Facetious. Or eccentric. “I wonder, can I be both?” she asked facetiously.
posted by Carol on 9-18-2008 at 1:42 pm
My favorite word is mesmerize
posted by Mike on 9-18-2008 at 1:59 pm
My favorite words are extrapolate and interpolate. They are fantastic bulshytt words to use that can impress some of the people around work into thinking you actually know what you are talking about. They’re bombastic words for making a guess.
Extrapolation is basically making a projection (guess) by observing known trends or data. Interpolation is making guesses withing the trend or data set.
Try it sometime whenever you’re on the spot and see if anyone second-guesses you…
Recaptcha = surplus product
posted by Jason! on 9-18-2008 at 2:01 pm
supercallifragilisticexpialidocious…. (had to be said…)
posted by Vickey on 9-18-2008 at 2:01 pm
spork.
posted by Amber on 9-18-2008 at 2:02 pm
My favorite word: “impecunious”
In a constant state of having no money!
posted by Hypatia on 9-18-2008 at 2:10 pm
I’ll go with Muggle, it’s a word that almost instantly conveyed both a level of disdain for the subject and offensiveness.
The odd thing is I’ve seen in used in a number of places where “stealth” is seen as key, and it’s generally accepted as a synonym for “outsider” in most places. Pretty cool.
posted by Kinglink on 9-18-2008 at 2:11 pm
quadraped
posted by tsc on 9-18-2008 at 2:13 pm
My favorite word is actually a verb ending in Korean. It’s pronounced ‘ultwelgohshita’ and it translates (roughly) as ‘to be on the side of being.’
posted by Tim on 9-18-2008 at 2:14 pm
douchenozzle – an all-purpose insult
posted by Brian Mars on 9-18-2008 at 2:15 pm
Ain’t
Despite the worst smear campaign a word has ever suffered, ain’t has been around for hundreds of years and is still going strong.
posted by Marcus Gealy on 9-18-2008 at 2:20 pm
My favorite word is ’spathic’. It’s an adjective sometimes used by geologists.
It is defined as ‘having good cleavage’.
My second favorite word is ‘withitness’. I actually got a grade during my graduate school days in ‘withitness’. It is defined as the knowlege of what is going on around you at all times, or what has commonly been referred to as ‘having eyes in the back of your head’.
(My withitness grade was B+)
posted by Mary Sue on 9-18-2008 at 2:21 pm
phantasmagoria…because you can’t say it without sounding like vincent price in your head :)
posted by Darcy on 9-18-2008 at 2:24 pm
I’ve always been a fan of the words “defenestrate” and “exsanguinate.” They are both interesting, even beautiful, sounding words for unpleasant things.
But I think my current favorite word is “sesquipedalian.” I refuse to shoehorn it, but I can’t wait to nonchalantly drop it into a conversation.
posted by 8rustystaples on 9-18-2008 at 2:33 pm
Masticate
1 : to grind or crush (food) with or as if with the teeth : chew
2 : to soften or reduce to pulp by crushing or kneading
Get your minds out of the gutter!
posted by Will on 9-18-2008 at 2:36 pm
My new favorite word is sub-Turing, used specifically for those who wouldn’t pass a Turing intelligence test.
posted by Meg Stivison on 9-18-2008 at 2:36 pm
Cromulent, it’s a perfectly cromulent word, after all!
posted by Kyle Hall on 9-18-2008 at 2:50 pm
Extramuros isn’t a coined word. It’s from Spanish, meaning outside the walls (cf. Intramuros). I know this thanks to Neal Stephenson, who writes about Manila’s intramuros and extramuros neighborhoods near the beginning of Cryptonomicon.
posted by Brad on 9-18-2008 at 2:51 pm
My favorite right now is MAMIHLAPINATAPAIS: a look shared by two people each wishing that the other will initiate something that both of them desire but that neither will start. It’s from the Yagan language, which is currently only spoken by one person in the world: Cristina Calderón.
So I want to make it a word in English: MAMISLAP. Example usage:
In a choice between a ten-second mamislap with Charlize Theron or a night with Britney Spears? There’s no contest. Mamislap with Charlize, hands down.
posted by Aak on 9-18-2008 at 3:11 pm
My favorite word, of late, is Sisyphian. As in, “I hate performing these Sisyphian tasks all day!”
Even though it’s a bit obscure, I get to use it more often than one might think… I work in an accounting firm. :-)
posted by Kristen on 9-18-2008 at 3:15 pm
“D’oh.”
posted by Arlen on 9-18-2008 at 3:20 pm
fart
posted by greg on 9-18-2008 at 3:23 pm
In a battle star galactica ref
Frak .
posted by kilgore on 9-18-2008 at 3:27 pm
woolover
it just has a certain ring to it
:)
posted by Clotho on 9-18-2008 at 3:32 pm
erinaceous – of or pertaining to hedgehogs.
Or:
fuiba – the white gunk on your armpits from your deodorant
posted by Dave on 9-18-2008 at 3:35 pm
Plethora – I love this word because it just sounds so much better than saying “a lot” – and it has a nice ring to it.
*Unrelated to plethora, but still funny: a group of us were playing Balderdash once, and we came across the word whisterpoop – which supposedly means “a swift smack to the side of the head”*
posted by Sarah on 9-18-2008 at 3:38 pm
Facetious- such a good sound coming off the tongue. I love to say it.
posted by Tricia on 9-18-2008 at 3:42 pm
Accordination… the ability to unfold and refold a map while driving.
posted by Jud on 9-18-2008 at 3:44 pm
I’m a big fan of Richard Adam’s tendancy to come up with his own language in his books, especially Maia. I think my three faves from that particular book are zard, tairth, and baste. I won’t get into definitions since this is a “family” website (right?) but suffice it to say, most basting involves a zard and a tairth. Or any basting that I’ve been involved in.
posted by Kim on 9-18-2008 at 3:55 pm
Delicious. My favorite adjective of all time.
posted by Lauren on 9-18-2008 at 3:55 pm
Tendency! Sorry.
posted by Kim on 9-18-2008 at 3:56 pm
Judicial- Dana Carvey got it right when he said that you cannot avoid sounding drunk when you say it.
posted by Shel on 9-18-2008 at 4:35 pm
Disquietude – Worried unease. Gives away my state of mind lately.
posted by Todd S. on 9-18-2008 at 4:38 pm
Hey Mary Sue! I actually use spathic at work… albeit as a rock descriptor.
However, my favorite geological term is vuggy, which is when a rock has voids or cavities. An individual cavity is called a vug.
So if someone is annoying you and you wish they would just disappear leaving a void where they once were… you can tell them to vug off.
posted by Jason! on 9-18-2008 at 5:06 pm
my favorite word is parallelogram. its just fun to say.
posted by michele on 9-18-2008 at 5:23 pm
uncanny.
it can describe so many things.
posted by paige on 9-18-2008 at 5:28 pm
Embiggens, as in “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man,” as true today as it ever was
posted by Brian Durbin on 9-18-2008 at 5:34 pm
asterisk – *it’s just fun to say!
*it even has it’s own symbol!
posted by Lissa on 9-18-2008 at 5:56 pm
Perspicacious
Defenestrate is another, but it was mentioned several times already. :-)
posted by nutmeag on 9-18-2008 at 6:16 pm
just got a new favorite word too!
pharmacovigilance: a department or so that concentrates on the adverse effects of a drug being tested. Wild!
posted by Cheri on 9-18-2008 at 6:29 pm
centrifugul bumblepuppy: a sexually suggestive children’s game played in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
posted by Drew on 9-18-2008 at 7:07 pm
Cerpusculous!
:an animal active only at dawn and dusk
posted by Dan on 9-18-2008 at 7:08 pm
My favorite word is a german one “fahrt” it means ride. So if you go to an amusement park you fahrt a fahrt.
posted by Forest Ownbey on 9-18-2008 at 7:16 pm
Ubiquity.
posted by Kimberly on 9-18-2008 at 7:46 pm
I would have to say, it’s a tossup between “vitriol” and “tintinnabulation”!
posted by Mel on 9-18-2008 at 7:47 pm
My favorite word is mentalflosssucks because it would be hilarious if I got randomly selected with this word.
posted by matt on 9-18-2008 at 7:55 pm
Portmanteau. Both the word itself and any examples thereof. Spork. Smog. Brunch. Gerrymander.
posted by Jack on 9-18-2008 at 8:25 pm
douche-cock
noun – Someone (generally male) who has achieved a new level of being an asshole beyond that of being labeled a “douche-bag”.
“God, Jeff is such a douche-cock for ball tapping Mark in front of that chick last night at the bar.”
or
“He’s fucking hot, if he weren’t such a douche-cock, I’d fuck him here and now.”
posted by Koljan on 9-18-2008 at 8:26 pm
Discombobulate… I don’t know why but it has always been my favorite.
posted by Toast on 9-18-2008 at 8:46 pm
Prestidigitation…means “sleight of hand”
posted by Anna on 9-18-2008 at 9:01 pm
truthiness
posted by Craig Feaster on 9-18-2008 at 9:24 pm
Syzygy
A dream scrabble word that would need two blanks…so maybe not great for points.
posted by Stephen on 9-18-2008 at 10:52 pm
hyperbole
posted by Jayson on 9-18-2008 at 11:04 pm
As a joke, when someone asked how I like work, I would say that I was “gruntled” reasoning that if I was unhappy and therefore “disgruntled”, it follows that if I’m content, I must be “gruntled. Turns out, it is a real word and my use is correct.
posted by Adam The IA on 9-18-2008 at 11:15 pm
Craptacular!! When simply crappy is not enough. Spectacularly crappy! CRAPTACULAR!!
posted by Adam The IA on 9-18-2008 at 11:21 pm
Hiccup…I always have them. My sister has always loved the word “Pianist”. It is good for a laugh.
posted by nicole on 9-19-2008 at 12:02 am
Jalopy! The first time I ever heard this word, I knew it would forever be my favorite.
posted by Nathan on 9-19-2008 at 12:26 am
I’m a huge fan of
scrofulous and scurf, which I found in a fairytale about a Princess who had a contest of telling whoppers.
(If you’ve got scurf, you’re scrofulous!)
recaptcha:
shortest spellacy.
Hey I like spellacy. It’s like… a fallacious way of spelling. Or a spastic fit of spelling… or maybe an orgasmic moment brought on by Scripps…
posted by Mare on 9-19-2008 at 1:06 am
BTW My friends and I play a license plate game, the rules are that you must make a word using the three letters in order. Invariably, someone will attempt to cheat, at which the other party will say:
“I call BULLSHIT!”
It’s amazing how many people don’t know what a chifforobe or a surfactant are… I was accused of cheating!
posted by Mare on 9-19-2008 at 1:10 am
Favorite word: cool!
Forgot to enter the CAPTCHA first time…
posted by Chad Cloman on 9-19-2008 at 4:16 am
It’s a three way tie between kerfuffle (I was highly amused when the Colbert Report used it a few days ago, so it must be real!), Schmegeggie, and Clusterf**k. Whenever I have a bad day, I use the last word to describe it out lout and immediately feel better lol.
posted by heather on 9-19-2008 at 4:29 am
Oh, my favourite word…I don’t know where to start! It would be easier for me to say my favourite word of the week! As it stands, my favourite last week was ‘arbitrary’ (it has a good sound), but I think my current favourite word would have to be ‘defenestration’. This incomparable word means, of course, ‘to blow something or someone away’. The mere fact that such a words exists causes me to weep for the brilliance of the English language – nay, language itself.
posted by Ally on 9-19-2008 at 4:37 am
Only one favorite word? Really?
Well then, I’m in the mood for “toper”–one who drinks, especially to excess. Very handy word, that.
posted by erm on 9-19-2008 at 7:11 am
Fnord, of course :)
posted by Frank on 9-19-2008 at 7:42 am
staycation
posted by harry on 9-19-2008 at 8:12 am
FNORD – not sure when / if these get posted
posted by FJQuinto on 9-19-2008 at 8:20 am
Horripilation. In my experience most people don’t know this one. It’s fun to say
a bristling of the hair on the skin from cold, fear, etc.; goose flesh.
posted by Steve on 9-19-2008 at 8:30 am
oh, and any reason you didn’t want to mention the name of the bookstore. Powell’s is an awesome place for a bibliophile.
posted by Steve on 9-19-2008 at 8:32 am
I love the word chiffonade (a culinary term for cutting something into tiny strips, usually herbs), and I’m also a big fan of the word intrepid.
Ha! Recaptcha: 375 words
posted by Adrienne on 9-19-2008 at 8:36 am
Eekgads
posted by Michelle on 9-19-2008 at 8:39 am
Mine would have to be “logorrhea.” And since I work in Navy Admin, I have lots of opportunities to use it.
posted by CJ Casey on 9-19-2008 at 9:48 am
Usurp! I love using it to usurp someone’s chair or candy. It just has an air of authority people don’t tend to argue with. Plus, like many on this list, it is fun to say!
posted by Lisa H on 9-19-2008 at 10:36 am
Soporific – Because it doesn’t sounds like what it is.
(Defenestrate is great, too)
posted by Bromodrosis on 9-19-2008 at 11:19 am
@Steve – oh — I didn’t realize the event was hosted by Powell’s. (It was at the Bagdad in SE.)
posted by Chris Higgins on 9-19-2008 at 11:22 am
I agree with Bromodrosis-soporific is my personal new favorite word. It just rolls off the tongue…
posted by Bailey M on 9-19-2008 at 11:39 am
“Liff” as defined by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd in their book which contains many made up words to describe things for which there are no words yet.
Liff (n.) – A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words. ‘This book will change your life’.
posted by Carly Smith on 9-19-2008 at 12:07 pm
My favorite word is…”Aarrrrrgggh!”
It is “Talk Like A Pirate Day” after all.
posted by Groovygaia on 9-19-2008 at 12:10 pm
always liked the idea of using the word “gruntled” – if disgruntled is being unhappy then “gruntled” must be a happy state!
posted by kneelm on 9-19-2008 at 12:45 pm
Margaritaceous.
So beautiful.
posted by Monika on 9-19-2008 at 2:04 pm
Well frak, some frakking poster already posted frak.
So, in the SF theme (since grok was already posted as well), I’ll pick TANSTAAFL (pronounced tan-stoffel) – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
Military slang acronyms are good too. Everyone knows SNAFU, but I also like BOHICA and DILLIGAF (I just learned the latter last week from an ex-Navy guy).
posted by Christopher Palmer on 9-19-2008 at 2:51 pm
My favorite word is epididymis, not to be pervy or anything.
I just like the way it rolls off the tongue…no seriously, say it…
posted by Orange on 9-19-2008 at 5:31 pm
My favorite word is epididymis, not to be pervy or anything.
It just rolls off the tongue…seriously…say it!
posted by Orange on 9-19-2008 at 5:51 pm
PLEASE NOTE: the contest is now closed. A winner will be announced shortly!
posted by Chris Higgins on 9-19-2008 at 10:29 pm
…And we have a winner! See the top of this post for details. Thanks to all for sharing your favorite words — feel free to keep sharing, though at this point you can no longer win a free tee-shirt. :(
posted by Chris Higgins on 9-19-2008 at 10:39 pm