I was reading an article about the Tonga volcano (on the national Geographic website) and came across: exsanguination.
“Such a terrifying outburst may represent the effective decapitation the volcano’s shallow magma reservoir and the speedy exsanguination of its molten contents”
Exsanguination means death by loss of blood.
I never saw the word before, and I doubt I’ll ever use it, but, to me, it’s a cool word.
Defenestration is another one…
I feel like I’ve heard exsanguination a lot. Maybe from law and order type shows?
Defenestration was a high school vocab word that never unstuck with me. Not many good opportunities to use it without presenting as a pretentious douche, which is regrettably my default.
JERRY: (Looks around his apartment) Look at this place. I can’t wait to get it cleaned.
GEORGE: I know someone who’ll do it. She’s good. She’s honest.
JERRY: No, Elaine got this writer friend from Finland, Rava. Her boyfriend goes to Columbia grad school, and he’s suppose to do it.
GEORGE: Students can’t clean. It’s anathema. (Jerry’s confused) …They don’t like it.
JERRY: How long have you been waiting to squeeze that into a conversation?
I use “anathema” often.
Same. Maybe not ‘often,’ but I use it.
And while I don’t use defenestration often, I use the word fenestration a fair amount.
Every time I come across a new word, I immediately hear it again in a different setting, and then I remember it for good.
scintillating is the current one
I subscribe to the dictionary.com word of the day email.
It’s always fun to see if I know the word already, or try to figure out what it means. Then see if I can guess the roots.
One I learned from there years ago that I used, to many quizzical looks, was: maffick.
‘Crepuscular’ was in a question on ‘The Chase’ last nite.
Love that word!
Crepuscular always makes me think of a dirty word. While also making me think of crepes.
Exsanguination appears in basically every vampire story.
And defenestration comes to mind during every work meeting.
I also really like the word “sanguine”, which basically means positive/hopeful, but literally means bloody, blood thirsty, blood red, and full of blood.