Words that don't exist in English:

[LemonMeringueThreePointOneFour]

Alot
Eachother
Ect
Inbetween
Infront
Non
Thankyou
Que
Wether

Please feel free to add your own.

And the muscle pain from exertion/exercise is 'Muskelkater' (literally 'muscle hangover', with the 'Kater' bit even more literally meaning tomcat).

Sorry for serial posts, but I love the plural 'you's that have made their way into English and deplore the snobbery against them (which largely comes, I think, from their being 'regional', as if SE England weren't a region).

Not sure if it's been mentioned already but "gawjus" instead of gorgeous really irritates me.

@SickAndTiredAgain

I used to work with someone who used big words inappropriately because he thought it would impress management.

I work with someone who uses myself and yourself instead of me and you every single time. So if she wants to say “can you do that for me” she says “can yourself do that for myself”. I think it’s because she thinks it makes her sound smarter but it is very bizarre.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. The incorrect bandying about of the reflexive pronoun gets me writing letters in other places! I can give examples from patricians and plebians.

I know someone who is irritated by 'global pandemic'. She says the pan part of pandemic says it all, that it is universal, and therefore the 'global' is just not necessary.

I read a book by Bill Bryson , which pointed out that some words used in the USA now are the old English, e.g. gotten. Someone mentioned it earlier.
I have seen 'curb' written down in a minute book of 115 years ago, in the UK, where I would write 'kerb' nowadays, but I have seen it written 'curb' in the USA this century. This looks like another example of a change by us, but the USA holding on to what we used to use.

@upinaballoon

I know someone who is irritated by 'global pandemic'. She says the pan part of pandemic says it all, that it is universal, and therefore the 'global' is just not necessary.

Pandemics needn't be global, though... they may just cover a very large area/multiple countries/a whole continent.

@MacMahon

The problem with "you" is an emerging issue.

At one point "thou" was second person singular and informal (like 'tu' in French). and "you" was second person singular and formal ('vous' in French). Thou started to drop from use as people found it safer to opt for the more respectful 'you' in all cases. Shakespeare famously reverted to 'thou' in an effort to create a more informal and intimate feel to his writing. Despite this 'you' remained the safer and more popular choice.

As I mentioned though, the overall use of 'you' is confusing and now becoming a problem again. Different solutions are arising, such as "youse" and "y'all".

I find it fascinating.

I'm not sure this is true about Shakespeare. I know use of 'thou' is one of the shibboleths for judging Shakespeare's contributions to the co-authored plays, but I don't think anyone has suggested Shakespeare was being archaic in using thou, or that he did it to make his plays feel informal or intimate.

I love the idea that 'shade' might be Jane Austen! That's brilliant.

What I would like is a word for when you know there's a word for something but you can't remember it. Does that exist?

What I would like is a word for when you know there's a word for something but you can't remember it. Does that exist?

Lethologica

What I would like is a word for when you know there's a word for something but you can't remember it. Does that exist?

apparently - lethologica

www.bbc.com/future/article/20160202-lethologica-when-a-words-on-the-tip-of-your-tongue

Like many other English terms associated with the mind, lethologica is a modern word derived from classical Greek. In this case, the Greek words are lethe (forgetfulness) and logos (word).

Ooh, thank you! I love that.

@FluffyBlueJumper

There is a word in DH's language (kabyle) to describe when you don't want to eat something that someone else has made because you are not sure about that person's hygiene standards in the kitchen.

I am sure it would be very useful on MN!

and school cake sales....

Upmost.

I know you mean people writing upmost instead of utmost, but upmost is a word.
www.google.com/amp/s/dictionary.cambridge.org/amp/english/upmost

When a man's spouse dies he is called a widower.

When a women's spouse dies, she is called a widow.

When a child's parents die, the child is called an orphan.

There isn't a word to call someone who's child/children die.

Etymologically, it means a child who's been bereaved. But I think it used to be used if one parent had died, not necessarily both - I remember reading about a child who was an orphan in some Edwardian book, and being confused as she still had a living father.

There isn't a word to call someone who's child/children die.
Possibly because, historically, almost everyone who had children had to cope with the death of at least one of their children. This continued into the very recent past (1900s). If you ever do a comprehensive family tree, you'll almost certainly come across families where, out of eight or nine infants, only four or five made it to 12 or 14.

but I don't think anyone has suggested Shakespeare was being archaic in using thou, or that he did it to make his plays feel informal or intimate.

Oh, ok.

Sorry, I realised reading back I put that really confusingly: I mean, AFAIK there isn't a current credible line of scholarship on it. I'm sure it's been suggested but I think in the last few decades there's been a lot of statistical analysis of the patterns of Shakespeare's word use, and broadly thou/you isn't as distinctive as it might be.

Tharn. From Watership Down. I think of it as a numb, frozen state where you feel completely stuck in the moment. 'Gone tharn' describes the far end of depression, for me; the bit where you stop caring.
Watership Down has loads of non-words that describe relatable feelings or experiences.

I know this isn't what you asked for, but people who use advise when they mean advice.

@EugeniaGrace not a single word but isn’t that where we’d use the phrase ‘ to be in limbo’ ?

I used to work with someone who used big words inappropriately because he thought it would impress management.

@DdraigGoch If you still worked with him you could have got him this for Secret Santa.

@SarahAndQuack

Etymologically, it means a child who's been bereaved. But I think it used to be used if one parent had died, not necessarily both - I remember reading about a child who was an orphan in some Edwardian book, and being confused as she still had a living father.

Yes, and Helen Burns tells Jane Eyre that Lowood school is an institution for 'educating orphans' and that most of the girls 'have lost one or both parents' -- Helen herself still has a living father, for instance, though when she knows she's dying, she says he's recently remarried and won't miss her.