Word of the Day - let's add 100 words to our vocabulary

[MariaWaria]

This thread follows on from my recent thread on AIBU saying that I wanted to add 100 words to my vocabulary. The response was incredible; so much encouragement given, and ideas shared.
And AdaColeman suggested I start a Word of the Day thread, so here we are.

The way this will work is that I will post the Word of the Day (each day ) and state its meaning as I understand it which will no doubt have been gleaned from Google, books, wherever.

The aim is not to teach or preach or offer words that ordinary folk, like me, are not likely to use in general conversation. They will be words that we may already have heard of but have not felt assured enough to use in conversation.

Perhaps we can aim to use the Word of the Day three times in our conversation in the next 24 hours and report on how that went.

Let’s see how this thread develops. My aim is to continue for 100 days by which time I (and hopefully you too) will have an extra 100 words in your vocabulary.

The first Word of the Day is INIMITABLE meaning incapable of being copied, in a class of its own.

Pugnacious reminded me of pugilist and pugilism (a boxer, boxing). I looked it up, they come from the same Latin root: www.etymonline.com/word/pugnacious.

I like "episcopal". I never use it (except in a very rude verse which I once quoted on MN and you can find it in advanced search if you want) but it has a pleasing ring of Anthony Trollope to it.

What a great idea OP!

I like the Oxford Dictionaries online site. They have a little speaker thing to explain pronounciation and also give example sentences

en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/inimitable

They also have a Word Of The Day and lots of other interesting stuff

en.oxforddictionaries.com

Off now to see just how pugnacious AIBU is today

To quote Louis Theroux, "I'm not pugnacious or argumentative." So I'm keeping away from AIBU at the moment!

Iris the pug picture provided me with a mental picture of how to pronounce our Word of the Day.

Word of the Day No. 3 is PETULANT - irritable and impatient; childishly sulky; often used to describe adults who are behaving childishly eg "Why won't you come out tonight? ". "Because I won't".

Thanks to Bore for directing me to the Oxford Dictionaries site.

en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/petulant

Click on the speaker thingy to hear the pronunciation.

I'm feeling petulant this morning because it's too early to get up and "I don't want to go back to school!!"

Conorbatiomn

I think of myself as quite good with words, but till just now I thought pugnacious meant strong and tenacious

My mother could be award-winningly petulant at times....

Adult DS arrived home from a party this morning in petulant mood.

Maria: "How was the party?"

DS: "It was a party".

Hope school wasn't too awful MsAwesome and your petulant mood passed.

Word of the Day No. 4 is PUNCTILIOUS - showing great attention to detail or correct behaviour.

en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/punctilious

eg "He is punctilious about having his shirts lined up according to colour".

"Sally's tendency to be punctilious makes her a great accountant".

I believe punctilious gets a mention in Little Women.

I got ribbed at work (gently) for using the word 'truncated' when talking about shortening something for our display. I've not been allowed to live it down.

I also like the word paraphernalia.

My friend's children have been raised to be punctilious in writing thank you letters for Christmas/birthday presents.

I've been know to be petulant if my guests are less than punctilious in their table manners.

School was fine today because there were no children there. I may be petulant tomorrow if the children are less than punctilious about their uniform.

Word of the Day No. 5 is SKULDUGGERY - underhand, unscrupulous or dishonest behaviour or activities.

en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/skulduggery

"What sort of skulduggery is he getting up to this time?"

Skulduggery, it throws up a picture of Fagin sending out the street urchins.

When my children realised that I had caught them out in their skulduggery they were both petulant and pugnacious in turn. I was punctilious in punishing them in my inimitable way.

(I had a lot of catching up to do )

I fear this thread could take a most scullduggerous turn and start inserting fake words into people's vocabularies.

Hi Maria, love the thread. I use your Words of the Day regularly in my every day conversation and my Dgc are always accusing me of making the words up.

Verily Wow! That was impressive.

ItsNY My adult DS makes up words which he suggests I post, so Mrs P might be on to something.

Hi all

Word of the day No. 6 is MYRIAD - lots and lots of.

en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/myriad

"A myriad of mince pies forced their way into my mouth over the Christmas period."

A myriad of punctilious mince pies from Mr Kipling forced their way into my mouth over the Christmas period after our petulant and pugnacious cook in his inimitable style attempted skullduggery by running off with the mincemeat.