I don't know... I just thought it might sound really pretty, or "deep" in some way. I've been compiling a list of beautiful and rare words and I'm pretty sure I am addicted to words so I thought "why not?". I would appreciate an answer, and thank you in advance!
124158
I want to be able to describe the love for, or obsession with, words. It may also be a condition from other's perspective. It maybe because he is a lunatic who wants to aggrandize his vocabulary, a crazy person who can't forget the words he hears wafting around, or someone who wants to set a world record or something. Try fitting it in these:  He is a _______ who can blurt a thousand synonyms for good. He is so ______ that he can be called a dictionary with a heartbeat. He is showing what a _____ he is. If thesaurus was a ghost, he would be dwelling in that _____'s body.  Any word or phrase would do.
40926
I've watched two interviews. One with Grace Park, one with Eliza Dushku.  What one can't miss is that Eliza uses an awful lot of garbage words (or what these are called)&nbsp;— um, so, like, you know, actually, I guess, I mean, kind of...&nbsp;— whereas Grace doesn't use them much.  YouTube links:       My questions are:   What is more common to hear in US "on the street" (not on TV)? Does it affect the way the speaker is being considered by audience? (Like, speaking fluently without garbage words → smarter?) Does this differ geographically? What are these words called?
76039
I have always heard the term used in referring to a single word. When browsing questions on this site, I've seen it used applied to entire phrases, and have suppressed the compulsion to edit them and replace the term with origin.
39942
Why is “cannot” spelled as one word whereas other similar constructions such as “do not,” “will not,” “shall not,” “may not” and “must not” are spelled as two words (unless they are contracted as “don’t” and so on)?  (I know that languages are not always logical, so I would not be too surprised if there is no known reason for this.  But I am asking this in the hope that there is some explanation.)
87589
I've seen a contraction of two words.  I can't see why it wouldn't've been possible to have been contracted twice.  Is it possible and how should it be punctuated?  Update:  Ok, to sum up the answers so far   This appears in spoken British and American English It is from one of the lower  Even if spoken this way sometimes, it isn't really written as a double contraction, except as written speech in fiction. And from my own googling in , it appears most written forms are old British words, often nautical like fo'c'sle.
19676
I often catch myself trying to write ?explaination, phonetically spelling the word in my head. To my chagrin I get part way through and have to stop myself.  So I’m wondering why is the i dropped? I can’t think of other words ending ‑ain that take the ‑ation suffix for comparison.
9344
While idly chatting over at  (boring room name, I know. Anyone have any better ideas?), we noticed that  articles (like ) don't onebox. There , while . After some more , it looks like the system only takes two-letter language codes. This should be expanded to accept any language or flavor of Wikipedia.
110798
Joel Spolsky asked what rhymes with orange. The official answer is, "Nothing," although a creative poet can get close by using half words, just the -nge part or resorting to place names and foreign words.  Does orange somehow violate the basic phonotactics of English? (And hence we wouldn't expect other English words to rhyme with it?)
39992
I've always been fascinated by these two words, as they seem to have the exact opposite meaning as expected. Is it because of the etymology? Or perhaps the meanings were switched at some point in time?
31059
I want to get across the point that I was no longer enthusiastic about something:     When I walked in the room I was disenthused by what I saw.   , disenthused isn't a word.    Edit:  was right about my question being more vague than I intended.  Lots of great answers which can only be discriminated by criteria I failed to include in the original post.  I will not repeat the mistake for future postings.  Thank you all for the help.  I've marked the answer that best fits my situation as "accepted", but future Googlers should scroll through the list of answers for their needs.
90118
I posted a question today about ""and I used the verb "find" in the progressive.:  I'm finding more and more that "having to" is also used instead of "have to".  Someone comments it's a "recency illusion" or a stereotypical characteristic of Indian English. I'm not a native speaker of English, and I never have been in touch with Indian a bit. I've been reading about stative verbs in the progressiveand I've seen and heard them not a few times in movies, dramas, novels, games, grammars, most of which are put out in the U.S.A. or the U.K., so I thought it would be OK to use the special progressive use in proper contexts, but now I think I'm missing something important, and I'm confused a lot. If you know what it is, please tell me about it with good explanations and examples. Now I'm going to show you some of the examples of the progressive with stative verbs that I've been collecting on my own for two years or so, (quite a few of them from grammars, some from dramas, novels and stuff...) and I want to know you native speakers' opinions on that. If your views on the usage diverge a lot, I'm going to have to think about which side I'm on,and one of the two is preferred over the other, then I'll follow it.        It’s mattering more and more which university you get your degree at.   She is not finding London totally easy.   I’m finding (=discovering, realizing) that his problem is more complicated than I had expected.   No, I’m sort of thinking that I’d like to try a bit higher level heel, anyway.   I’m thinking that we should pay a short visit to Clara.   One night in the middle of the night, I'm hearing dripping.   How are you liking your new job?   I was quite liking the performance until the first interval.   Tim, are you wanting any fruit?   It sounds that you're wanting to take care of yourself physically as well.   The only thing I'm lacking is a wardrobe.   He’s forgetting his French faster and faster.    I'm already forgetting what I was taught this morning.   You're forgetting that our resources are not unlimited.   I’m forgetting that I promised to visit Smith this evening.   The river is smelling particularly bad today.   My scarf is no longer smelling of lavender.   She’s looking much stronger this week.   You’re looking more like a sleep dog than most sleep dogs.   He’s looking worse and worse by the minute.   Your soup is tasting better every day.   That example is sounding less and less acceptable with each repetition.       ※. What I'm asking you is as follows:  1. the validity of the expression "I'm finding more and more that..." in the context of the original post 2. whether or not stative verbs in the progressive is widely acceptable &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and questions about your opinions on that &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; (As I already said, if most of you reject the usage like the examples, then I should avoid it. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;If most of you welcome it, I'll keep on with it.)
53457
I've noticed an interesting usage where "because [noun]." is used at the end of a sentence to mean "because [...everything that word implies. Nothing more needs to be said]". It often has a wry or sarcastic tone that implies the subject considers the word to be a blanket explanation for something.   An example might be "She couldn't drag herself away from the computer because internet.", the implication being that the Internet is seductive. Another example is  where "because sex" is used to imply that a group of people have a simplistic attitude to how sex affects people's lives.  The odd grammar causes a clang in my head when I read it, but of course that is the point; the author is showing how this word will stop the conversation dead in its tracks, so it is quite effective.   Is this a new or emerging usage, or have I just started noticing it?
102788
Lately I have noticed that a lot of people use "wanting" in sentences, or in books, but I don't get it because my English teachers have always said to me that with verbs like "love", "like", "want" etc. we can't write the verb ending "-ing". But how it is possible that it's in book then?   Some examples:      She reached her hand out, wanting to touch him...     Not wanting to talk about it, Clary turned...     Actually, I’ve been wanting to ask you how...     I really want to know where I can use it and where I can't. It really drives me crazy that I don't know it.
15564
Update: (Originally this was a comment, but I thought it was worth sharing here at the top.)   In the original question, I asked if there was a polite, socially-acceptable way to ask an Indian co-worker not to use the phrase "do the needful", as I didn't care for it.   In the years since I asked this question I've asked many people about the phrase. To the Indians I've asked in-person, it's not rude in any way. To Americans I've asked it varies anywhere from "I don't like it, but I don't mind it" to "It's very rude and makes me angry when I see it".   Through a long series of edits the question morphed and I wasn’t able to delete it because it had upvoted answers. The question, as it stands now, has no other answer.  I guess, though, if you're non-Indian and you find it rude, or if you're Indian and you've never realized someone might find it rude, this post may still have merit. Hopefully it does. It certainly has gotten a lot of views. Best wishes, folks.  End Update. See below for what's left of the actual question.    "Do the needful."   It's a phrase that I've only seen used in email, and I find it . . . presumptuous (maybe even rude). Regardless of prefacing with "please", one is commanding rather than asking for assistance.  I've only seen it used by those of Indian origin, so I've simply not mentioned it at all rather than worry about any cross-cultural offense that may come of bringing it up.  But still, I don't understand why it's used. Why not request rather than make two statements, one factual, one imperative?  For example, why would one use:        I'm told you have Jane's email address. Please do the needful.      instead of,        Would you send me Jane's email address?
57495
There are a few words which I blank on quite frequently. Perhaps my "advanced" age has something to do with it. I don't know. One such word for me is euphemism.    There is another word I am blanking on right now. In my answer to  I also blanked on the same word.   It is a word which describes the power of a quotation, or memorable words, or a theory to stimulate further thought and perhaps research. The word is similar in meaning to prolific, which can denote having the power to generate many further thoughts and ramifications of the original quotation, words, or theory.  If you would be so kind as to supply this word for me and perhaps give me a mnemonic device to make it accessible to me, I'd be very grateful.
103457
We were making up Haiku, and there was some disagreement about the number of syllables in "fire."  Now granted Haiku isn't technically about syllables (see ), so technically it was a meaningless discussion.    However, I still do not know how many syllables are in "fire."  I understand an  might be at play.
104401
Fuck. Shit. Bitch. Cunt. I remember reading somewhere -- a very long time ago -- that these "hard" sounds are virtually necessary in profanities. The explanation I roughly remember is that because these "hard sounds" are unmistakable, that is, because  there is no half-hearting them in , that lends to them to use in words that one wants to be unmistakable in intent, e.g, in profanities where one wants to intensify a phrase or rile someone up.   I remember these being called .    Unfortunately I'm not a linguist, not even a fair amateur one, and when I went to check Wikipedia for the definition of fricative, I really couldn't make heads or tails of the lingo.  I have no idea what those weird letters or the adjective "voiceless" mean.  Moreover, I think I'm just plain wrong about those sounds being fricatives -- the examples I found on that page don't seem correspond very well to the hard sounds I mentioned above. My memory about what I read is obviously horribly dashed. Am I in fact correct in observing that profanities tend to have "hard" sound somehow, and if so, could someone give me a name for them so I can go about content I know something really cool?