What words make you wonder, "Why on earth is there a word for this?"?

I and others have used defenestration more often than you might imagine. Words exist because people felt there was a need.

I have almost never met a word I disliked.

My recent favorites; susurrus, plectrum, eponym, fey, cantilever, catenary, nictation, strabismus, and one of my favorites, philtrum

“fishify” – to change to fish.

“Defenestrate” seems to only be used because it’s so unusual and specific. Everyone was using it in middle school once people learned it.

“Santorum”- the other one, the frothy mixture one.

I love the word defenestration. I find it magnificent and hilarious that such a big word exists in order to denote someone hucking something out the window.

I can’t really think of any words that are all what the hell…but there are some word combinations that make me laugh. I always thought it was funny when someone would say something like ’‘young kitten’’. I mean kitten is a word that means a baby cat, so you don’t have to add young in front of it. That’s like saying wet water or smelly shit. XD

@DominicX: Plus it is much shorter way of saying that you are planning to throw a person or a piano out of the window.

My ninth grade Englsih teacher used to fulminate (a wonderful word) when one of her students talked about the “true facts.

I’ve actually used that word before.
It’s a fun word to have around.

Unlike gailcalled, however, I have met words that I dislike. For instance, I have a dislike for the word pulchritude because I have yet to encounter a situation where it is the best word for the job. The only purpose it serves is to show off your vocabulary. Your vocabulary should be there to be used, not shown off like some stupid trading card you’ve collected.

I doubt that you will find a better-suited word to replace defenestrate.

@Symbeline You would probably appreciate this- @Augustlan once inadvertently used the phrase “ice juice” to denote, well…water. We’ll never let her live that one down! ;)

How about “ucalegon”? It means “a neighbor whose house is burning down.” One of them, Peter Chamberlin, was burnt out; but this Ucalegon lived next door to the Castle, and suffered in consequence.

@Nimis Likewise I dislike “utilize”. Mostly because it’s what students utilize in their papers as a “smarter” alternative to “use”, when “use” would have been more appropriate.

“Defenestration” is one of my favorite words. It’s such a grandiose but succint way to describe an ordinary action. Plus, it sounds much more menacing to tell someone who’s annoying you that you’re going to defenestrate them.

I can’t think of a useless word. IMO all words are useful because they describe an object or experience. My recent favorite is “aglet”. Who knew there was a word for that little plastic bit on the end of a shoelace? And now that I know that, it’s much easier to curse them when they break!

@Fly Ice juice?? Oh man…lol. XD That’s priceless.

@gailcalled I was trying to wrack my brain and finally remembered philtrum when a nurse friend corrected me and said frenulum (which is, in fact, WAAAAAAY different). I knew what I was trying to mean!

Penultimate. Never needed it. Second to last does the job.

Word—Was it the very first word ever? If it wasn’t, what did we call all the words that came before it?

@nikipedia: How about antepenultimate?

I often wonder why there is not a specific word for certain concepts that occur to me, Of course I do have an unusual way of thinking about situations and interpersonal interactions.

^^ Sui generis?

precisely!

Sherbert

@lonelydragon Actually, I think I’d find it much more menacing if someone came right out and told me they were going to throw me out the window rather than saying they planed to defenestrate me. Back when I lived in a high rise, the reality of that would have been troubling. Now that I’m in a ground-floor condo, who cares?

None, just now.

I understand that there is some limited use of “defenestration” to refer to the process of installing Linux on a Windows machine.