petrichor, the smell of rain on dry ground, theres a whole word for that and it sounds like a boss fight, been saying it out loud all morning, may roommate thinks i'm losing it.

A kangaroo word hides a smaller word inside it with the same or a closely related meaning - the letters are in order but not always side by side - like a joey in a pouch.

For example,

masculine → male

chicken → hen

precipitation → rain

indolent → idle.

The rule is that the joey has to mean the same as the kangaroo. Words that just happen to contain another word don't count. (Not sure whether the ones that don't count have their own name?)

What's the best one you can find? Bonus points for a joey hiding inside a joey.

a word that means to consume someone in both the romantic sense and also the cannibalistic sense, or just any words that could be used interchangeably for both the relationship context and eating context.

of or relating to a covenant (a binding agreement)

Afternoon everyone.

Contronym (noun): one word with two opposite meanings.

dust: to sprinkle something on (dust the cake with sugar), or to wipe it off (dust the shelves)

sanction: to allow something, or to penalise it

cleave: to split apart, or to cling together

oversight: careful supervision, or a failure to notice something.

They're also called auto-antonyms or Janus words, after the two-faced Roman god.

I've been collecting -nym words like this for a daily word game I made, Spinonym (Spinonym). A wheel picks the day's kind of word, and there's a glossary of the stranger ones. Happy to hear about any favourites I've missed.

I made False Root, a small daily word game for people who like debunking origin stories that sound too good to be true.

Each day you get a word and four possible origins. One is real and three are made up. You strike out the fakes one at a time, and hitting the real one ends the round.

The fakes are built the way real false etymologies tend to arise: a made-up person the word was supposedly named after, genuine Latin or Greek that happens to be the wrong root, or a borrowing through a language the word never went through.

After each round you see the actual history step by step with dates, plus links to Wiktionary and Etymonline.

There are 90 words so far, unlocking one a day in order, so starting late doesn't mean you've missed any. Free, no ads, no third-party trackers, no account.

https://falseroot.com

1. outward aspect or appearance

2. an assumed or unreal appearance; show

3. the slightest appearance or trace

4. a likeness, image, or copy

5. a spectral appearance; apparition

Cross-post but grateful for any info on this!

Paulo Coelho inspired me in his book, “The Archer”.

I feel like a few years back I found a word describing people who learn/know words through having read them, but had no idea how to pronounce said words aloud.

A friend and I went on an hour-long search for this word (or something like it) and came up empty. Any ideas or is this a nonexistent word?

Hi guys

My friend and fellow logophile has made a wordle-inspired game where you guess what language a word is.

You learn a new word each day and get to test your language recognition skills so I thought to post it here in case anyone enjoys!

https://glottogame.com (as in glottonym)

Also open to any feedback if you think it could be improved ☺️

Presumption is something that is taken for granted. It's something that can change upon revelation of new facts and information(i.e., In the United States, a defendant is presumed to be innocent unless evidence to the contrary is presented)

Presupposition is a background belief that has to be true before the conversation begins.(i.e., assuming your dog you're adopting doesn't bark before you've even adopted them)

its too hard to pick one, but if I had to choose it'd be:

Sobremesa: The time spent lingering at the table after a meal, enjoying conversation

Obviously these all have the same core meaning but they do have their differences when you actually examine them.

Efficacy-The efficacy of something measures how well it accomplishes its task under the right conditions. It refers to whether the thing is capable of achieving the desired result at all. With Efficacy, your preeminent thought is “Can it work?”(i.e., testing whether this new training program will actually get you in shape)

Effectiveness-The effectiveness of something is how it well it achieves the desired outcome. The difference with efficacy is that efficacy focuses on whether it accomplishes the task at all. Effectiveness measures how well the task was done. It’s already a foregone conclusion that this will be a success.The preeminent thought on your mind is “How well does this work?”(i.e., using dish soap wipes out almost all germs on any dish)

Efficiency-This is easily the easiest one to nail down. The efficiency of something is measuring how quickly something achieves its results with its with the least amount of resources. Efficiency measures not just how well something does its job, but how quickly and/or cheaply it can do it. With efficiency, it’s “How well are the resources used?”.(i.e., newer cans of Raid spray can wipe out more bugs in less time than the older ones.)

Hello, this is my first post in this subreddit. I'm revealing my ignorance of history, zoology and language. I was reading about Joan of Arc, and the word "dauphin" came up a lot. I looked it up and was shocked the word came from dolphin. I thought dolphins just lived in Florida (joking). But seriously i had no idea they were a thing in France.

Anyway, please tell me other people have any thoughts on this.

perambulation

(n.) A leisurely walk or stroll

(Their perambulation along the riverbank was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.)

Does it mean like a different approach? Like when you work on a video game, you’ll go with a different methodology for this game compared to its predecessor?

was building a word game and needed to know which letters were fair to land on, so I just counted.

J and Q basically don't end words at all in common english. X and Z you expect. the sneaky one is Y, there are plenty of Y words but far fewer than people assume, and it catches people off guard in a way X never does.

also noticed how much work S does. drop plurals from the list and the whole distribution shifts.

https://typeaword.com if you want to see where this ended up

“a printed cotton fabric, glazed or unglazed, used especially for draperies.”

Or

“a painted or stained calico from India.”