This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a rewind edition where we get to pick from previous TTTs. I’ve procrastinated so long over my choice that I’ve picked the one where I don’t need to run round looking for books or links. This weekly event is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

 

So this week’s top ten is for some of my favourite words…

discombobulated past participle, past tense of dis·com·bob·u·late

Verb: Disconcert or confuse (someone).
How can anyone not love this word? And how come Open Office doesn’t have it in its dictionary? You should be ashamed! I use this word more often than you think.

bof·fin/ˈbäfin/Noun

A person engaged in scientific or technical research: “a computer boffin“.
The tabloids like to say the boffins have been working hard at something and it always makes me smile.

brack·ish/ˈbrakiSH/Adjective

(of water) Slightly salty, as present in estuaries.
This one stems out of a “word of the day” at work many many years ago. We still describe soup as brackish to this day (though the soup has improved). It appears in fiction a lot.

nem·e·sis/ˈneməsis/Noun

The inescapable or implacable agent of someone’s or something’s downfall.
Usually prefixed with “arch” and in reference to developers (like evil boffins). It’s always enjoyable hearing someone trying to pluralise it too. Also a Greek goddess.

se·ri·ous·ly

in a serious manner; “talking earnestly with his son”; “she started studying snakes in earnest”; “a play dealing seriously with the question of divorce” .
OK blame Grey’s Anatomy for this one…it just slips out. Not really a favourite but used far too much in speech.

cu·ri·ous/ˈkyo͝orēəs/Adjective

  1. Eager to know or learn something.
  2. Expressing curiosity.
I realised I’m drawn to books with curious in the title. It’s a good word and a good thing to be. And a form of it is in my blog title.

blurb/blərb/

Noun: A short description of a book, movie, or other product written for promotional purposes and appearing on the cover of a book or in an advertisement. 

I like how blurb has become an official word for what’s on a book cover. I use it frequently.

mel·an·chol·y/ˈmelənˌkälē/

Adjective: Sad, gloomy, or depressed.
Noun: A deep, pensive, and long-lasting sadness.
It’s such a beautiful word for such a ugly condition.

hic·cup/ˈhikRəp/

Verb: Suffer from or make the sound of a hiccup or series of hiccups.
Noun: An involuntary spasm of the diaphragm and respiratory organs, with a sudden closure of the glottis and a sound like a cough.
I like onomatopoeia in general and the hiccup is the cream of the crop for words that spell their sound. When Flickr has technical difficulties it has hiccups and it’s a good term for any little mistakes you make.

bun·ny/ˈbənē/Noun

  1. A rabbit, esp. a young one.
  2. A person of a specified type or in a specified mood.
You can be a happy bunny, not a happy bunny, breed like bunnies, be a bunny boiler…it’s such a useful creature to describe things with. Plus it’s the second half of my online name and vaguely related to my surname.