Underused and underrated words

[sirred]

For some reason this reminds me of an old Top Ten list where Letterman listed the "least popular English words". The top two were (I forget the order) Ghandilicious and Hitleriffic.

More seriously, Dysteleology n. the view that nature is essentially purposeless.

[Salmoneus]

Sophomoric.

Wrong. That one's frequent enough; it's sophmoric that's unduly underused.

Especially in academic anthropological articles, I would like people to use more words like related to, influences, and creates, rather than monstrosities like 'hypostatize', which I don't think anyone who uses [it] really knows what it means. (It's not even recognized by my spellchecker, for God's sake!)

That's because it's hypostasize. And what if you want to talk about hypostases, rather than influences or creations?

EDIT: My word! It appears that hypostatise IS a word, even though it just means the same as hypostasise.

[Salmoneus]

Haecceity

GOD YES.

[Viktor77]

Another of my favourites, Drawing room. I hate the word Reception room. It feels like some hotel or office building to me. Drawing room has a feeling of sophistication to it, plus it's a colorful example of history when we still used the archaic sense of the verb to draw.

Also Antechamber or Anteroom. And even Vestibule for I don't hear it very often these days. Just yesterday in fact I had to correct a friend who said, I love that tiny room between the entrance and the foyer.

[linguoboy]

Bah, Latinate monstrosities like these are, if anything, highly overrated. Overmorrow is a perfect example for the kind of word I'd like to see more of; we pride ourselves on the terseness of our native vocabulary, yet here's an instance where we use the unwieldy heptasyllabic "the day after tomorrow" whereas most ever other language I know of uses something much more compact.

By the same token, I'd like to see more love for yestereven. Even the Germans say gestern Abend, so why are we saddled with yesterday evening?

Another of my favourites, Drawing room.

I could take it or leave it. Parlour is such a lovely word, it should see more use. But the word we tend to prefer is the prosaicly modest front room.

[Ossicone]

Preoccupied.

Nothing fancy, but I like it.

[Viktor77]

Another of my favourites, Drawing room.

I could take it or leave it. Parlour is such a lovely word, it should see more use. But the word we tend to prefer is the prosaicly modest front room.

Or living room, which is a word I widely detest, yet sadly use everyday. Great room is another horrible word, a result of McMansionising America. It's so indescriptive and says nothing about the use of the space. It's simply a catchall for a large room. I do, however, quite like family room. It gives us a clear definition of a casual room used for the family in the rear of the house, often connected to the kitchen. My ideal house vocabulary would contrast parlor and family room as the former being a room reserved for entertaining near the front of the house and the latter being for the family near the back. A more formal house may have a drawing room for welcoming guests and a parlor for entertaining them. Plus, we can't loose parlor! I would lament the day we stopped having parlor games!

Also sunroom should see more use. It's such a lovely alternative to enclosed porch which is so utilitarian sounding. And breakfast room/nook is a splendid word, much preferable to attached dining [room].

[Drydic]

Another of my favourites, Drawing room.

I could take it or leave it. Parlour is such a lovely word, it should see more use. But the word we tend to prefer is the prosaicly modest front room.

Or living room, which is a word I widely detest, yet sadly use everyday. Great room is another horrible word, a result of McMansionising America. It's so indescriptive and says nothing about the use of the space. It's simply a catchall for a large room. I do, however, quite like family room. It gives us a clear definition of a casual room used for the family in the rear of the house, often connected to the kitchen. My ideal house vocabulary would contrast parlor and family room as the former being a room reserved for entertaining near the front of the house and the latter being for the family near the back. A more formal house may have a drawing room for welcoming guests and a parlor for entertaining them. Plus, we can't loose parlor! I would lament the day we stopped having parlor games!

So, you have a house with three rooms (obviously there are more but the others are easily defined, bedrooms, dining room, bathrooms, etc). One has a television, 3 recliners and a (heating) stove, but has no walls and is immediately adjactent to the kitchen; it counts as a separate room due to it being carpeted while the kitchen has wood floors. The second (sort of) has a wall, a couch, two chairs, a nice china hutch, a low table and no tv. The third is in the basement, is very large room, has two chairs, a couch, a tv, a piano, a fireplace, and a foozball table. What do you call these three rooms?

[Viktor77]

So, you have a house with three rooms (obviously there are more but the others are easily defined, bedrooms, dining room, bathrooms, etc). One has a television, 3 recliners and a (heating) stove, but has no walls and is immediately adjactent to the kitchen; it counts as a separate room due to it being carpeted while the kitchen has wood floors. The second (sort of) has a wall, a couch, two chairs, a nice china hutch, a low table and no tv. The third is in the basement, is very large room, has two chairs, a couch, a tv, a piano, a fireplace, and a foozball table. What do you call these three rooms?

1 is a family room.
2 is a parlor.
3 is a rec room.

[Xephyr]

Good lord, Viktor, what the hell is wrong with "living room"?

[Viktor77]

Good lord, Viktor, what the hell is wrong with "living room"?

The fact it was created to divert attention away from the fact a parlour was used to display dead bodies. Was it really necessary to call it a "living room?" Couldn't they just say an entertainment room, a gathering room, whatever if they honestly thought parlor was passé.

[finlay]

wtf are you talking about? it's the space where you do your living, as opposed to the bedroom where in an ideal world you do your sleeping.

[linguoboy]

Investigating how and why the term "living room" caught on at the expense of earlier terms led me to discover the coinage "Tudorbethan", which surely deserves to be more used and appreciated on this side of the Atlantic.

[Xephyr]

Good lord, Viktor, what the hell is wrong with "living room"?

The fact it was created to divert attention away from the fact a parlour was used to display dead bodies. Was it really necessary to call it a "living room?" Couldn't they just say an entertainment room, a gathering room, whatever if they honestly thought parlor was passé.

Who cares what the origin of the term is, appeals to etymology are bullshit. If you insist on not calling something by the term absolutely everybody around you uses to call it, and which I'd bet is the term you grew up with, you just come across like a pretentious douchebag.

[Travis B.]

To me the word is living room, and that is it. I seriously have not heard anyone IRL who uses the term parlor except for the likes of Viktor...

(And as for entertainment room... that is just for people who like to show off their gargantuan TVs. In the case of gathering room, I have never heard that used IRL in the first place.)

[Travis B.]

wtf are you talking about? it's the space where you do your living, as opposed to the bedroom where in an ideal world you do your sleeping.

or fucking.

[Astraios]

or fucking.

Fucking in the living room is more common than one might care to think.

[Travis B.]

or fucking.

Fucking in the living room is more common than one might care to think.

My comment and finlay's comment were obviously not meant to be universalistic; I for one typically sleep in my living room, so...

[linguoboy]

or fucking.

Fucking in the living room is more common than one might care to think.

WTH people! Does no one have a properly kitted out dungeon/mancave any more?

[Astraios]

or fucking.

Fucking in the living room is more common than one might care to think.

WTH people! Does no one have a properly kitted out dungeon/mancave any more?

Of course, what do you take me for? It's just so exciting finding new places.

[Salmoneus]

I believe that's what a "parlour" is for.

[Drydic: the one with the TV attached to the kitchen is a breakfast room (if it's small and mostly for eating), a living room (if it's for living, and largely independent of the kitchen functionally), a lounge (if it's big and the kitchen is just a small annex to it) or part of the kitchen (if there's little functional or architectural distinction made). The one with chairs and a low table is probable a lounge, although the 'wall' bit confuses me - if there's only one wall, it's probably a sunlounge or a conservatory. Personally in some circumstances I might use the neologism 'coffee room'. Or it may be a breakfast room, in a more traditional sense than the first. The other room sounds like a games room. Or it could be a living room - depends whether it's the normal gathering place or somewhere to go, I suppose.

[I grew up with a kitchen, a living room, a lounge, a sunlounge, a dining room and a study]

[linguoboy]

Looks like we need a thread analogous to "Meal Ticket" but devoted to room terminology.

I grew up with a piece of furniture called a "chifferobe", which is a great word to say. As is "hutch", although that wasn't in my active vocab when I was younger.

[Drydic]

I can't believe I just spent a half-hour drawing this

http://imgur.com/lXTep

room 3 is underneath and the size of everything. Thicker black lines (and boxes) are walls.

[Viktor77]

I can't believe I just spent a half-hour drawing this

http://imgur.com/lXTep

room 3 is underneath and the size of everything. Thicker black lines (and boxes) are walls.

You live in a weird house.

[Drydic]

I can't believe I just spent a half-hour drawing this

http://imgur.com/lXTep

room 3 is underneath and the size of everything. Thicker black lines (and boxes) are walls.

You live in a weird house.

That isn't the whole house hon. I Ieft off the bedrooms upstairs and downstairs.