Words whose meaning you always forget

[BowermansNose]

Is there a word you always forget what it means and you need to look it up in a dictionary?

I had to look up "pusillanimous" for the umpteenth time today. Timid, lack of courage. For some reason, I equate it with being difficult or obstructive and I'm wrong.

Are there words like this you always forget what they mean?

Oh well ...

Bombastic!

I always think it should mean bouncy and over exuberant, eg ‘the child was very bombastic-always charging around the playground knocking into people’.

It actually means pompous/pretentious.

I like my version better!

Obnoxious. I rarely use it and prefer ‘unpleasant’.

Paradigm (a widely accepted example, belief or concept. e.g. evolution or "society's paradigm of the ideal woman"). I seem to come across it in articles on a regular basis along with "paradigm shift".

For some reason no matter how often I read the definition it never seems to stick in my head. The word just sounds too science-fictiony...it feels as though it belongs in a sentence like "Picard ordered full power to the helm and the Enterprise shuddered as it accelerated though the glowing paradigm shift.""

Spendthrift. ( I think the 'thrift' bit confuses me into thinking it means the opposite of what it actually means)

I confuse pusillanimous with pugilistic.
Also solipsism and solecism.
I rarely use any of them though, so never mind .

Disingenuous!

Esoteric. I’ve looked it up several times but can’t seem to retain its meaning. Doesn’t happen to me with other words!
Just looked it up again: ‘understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest’

Pathos and bathos. Can never remember what they mean.

Pathos I can usually remember when I relate it to 'pathetic', but bathos - not a hope.

Padagogy. A padagog is a teacher and the pedagogy is the teaching approach. (I think.)

padagog

Is that a real word?

Objective and subjective. You could explain what each word means until you're blue in the face and I still wouldn't remember.

Pulchritude. It should mean awful ugliness; instead it means great beauty!

I always struggle with dearth as well. A lot, or a little? Who knows!

*padagog

Is that a real word?*

Pedagogue

Blimey I don't know hardly any of these words! Ug ug ug

I tell you what else I don't know all these flamin abbreviations on mumsnet cf etc drives me mad

Flammable
Inflammable

There is a diifference between the 2. Apparently.

I was going to say spendthrift! So confusing.

Quotidian

It means "everyday, commonplace," or "recurring daily." Such an ordinary definition but every time I see the word I have to look it up.

Also: vermilion

Means red. But because it starts with "ver" I always thing it means green, because vert means green. And verdigris is green. Etc.

Schadenfraude. The number of times I've highlighted it and held for a google link to remind me. It just doesn't stick. I know there's a poster with it being part of her user name too

I never know what bigot is supposed to mean.

Minatue. Can't pronounce it or use it in a sentence!

Juxtaposed/juxtaposition.

And the term, "not mutually exclusive". I absolutely cannot comprehend what that means.

Like a pp, objective and subjective - never dare use either in case I make a tit of myself.

And I loved the word disingenuous, until I realised it didn't mean quite what I thought it did (I thought it meant superficial, but it's more than that).

I'm the other way - I always forget words that I want to remember, and find myself saying, 'what's that word that means....' - onomatopoeic, anthropomorphic and aaarrgghh.... I've forgotten the last one I wanted to say. It means when a phrase is self-contradicting - the opposite of tautological (another one).