# R4r3 W0rds



## VÃ¶lf (Mar 20, 2009)

Anybody know a site or book or something that I can find big/ unusual/ rarely used words? I need some to inject a bit of adrenaline into my stories, and for characters that talk "funny", if u know what I mean 

Just so u DO know what I mean, they kinda talk above everybody else, sort of. You ever met one of those people who talks in big words you don't hear much on a regular basis?


----------



## Yorokonde2 (Mar 20, 2009)

Any Thesaurus will do. Dictionary.com has a decent one built in.


----------



## Shouden (Mar 20, 2009)

Macs have a built in dictionary that's REALLY easy to access..but, I guess if you don't own one, it's pointless. for PCs I'd say either an actual dictionary or dictionary.com


----------



## ScottyDM (Mar 21, 2009)

I have an older copy of Microsoft Encarta (2001) on DVD. Down its left side is an alphabetical list of all the words (the list shifts up and down as you type a word into the search box in the upper left). Beside each word in the list is an expander widget (looks like a white "+" inside a black box). Click on that and you get a variety of options. Minimum is "dictionary" and "articles containing 'yourword'", but "thesaurus" is really common plus I also see options like "quotations" and "style guide" (there are probably others too), and each option has an expander widget. If you expand "thesaurus" you will often see something like "yourword (noun)" and "yourword (verb)" as well as "related synonyms" (with an expander widget), which when expanded gives you a whole list of other thesaurus listings. Thus, for some words you get a few hundred related words--like a thesaurus squared or something.

Encarta is kinda expensive, but it's waaaay more convenient than online dictionaries, especially when I'm up at the cabin and I don't have Internet access. It also comes with an atlas (pretty cool) and an encyclopedia (pretty weak) as well as this thing called "Africana" (seems to be a black encyclopedia).

I saw an older rev of electronic Webster's for sale at this site for about $15 and wondered if that would be as handy as Encarta.

Scotty


----------



## ScottyDM (Mar 21, 2009)

A better plan than using "funny" words might be to adopt some alternative grammar. For example SSE (Scots standard English) is Scots grammar applied to English, with a few obvious Scots words thrown in, and of course (if you're listening to it) that nearly incomprehensible Scots accent. And yes, Scots is a real language. So maybe Google "Scots grammar".

Another language you might borrow grammar and sentence structure from is German. Since English is basically a blend of Latinate languages mixed up with Germanic languages, you'll pick it up pretty quick.

Some scholar worked many years and created this great huge and horrendously expensive book on the dialects of various groups here in the U.S. So talkin' Southern is way more than sayin' y'all (or dropping your Gs). I've seen it, would _love_ to get a copy, but it was something like $800. There are bits and pieces of this sort of information out on the 'Net, but I've never seen a site that comprehensively covers even a single dialect.


And, Volf. Is it really necessary to use leet speak in all your titles? I'm not really pissed off by it (yet), but I can think of a few who might be.

Scotty


----------



## Xaerun (Mar 21, 2009)

Interesting.
Posting in the "Writer's Bloc", which is characterised by its talented writers, and using l337 speak in the title. That, to me, seems odd. And doesn't really encourage people to take you seriously.

Also, to address the topic, I tend to shy away from "odd words", that seems gimmicky. Aim for an odd manner of speech (only speaking in Haiku? Only using short words? Only using long words?), it will seem a lot deeper. Odd words by themselves do not achieve this. A character that throws in unusual words for the sake of it will seem like the character is trying too hard to be odd, and through extension you're trying too hard as well.


----------



## foozzzball (Mar 21, 2009)

ScottyDM said:


> And, Volf. Is it really necessary to use leet speak in all your titles? I'm not really pissed off by it (yet), but I can think of a few who might be.



I hope you mean me!


Before you set off on this incredibly inadvisable plan, type 'ten dollar words' into a search engine like this: http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p=ten+dollar+word


----------



## Yorokonde2 (Mar 21, 2009)

Xaerun said:


> Interesting.
> Posting in the "Writer's Bloc", which is characterised by its talented writers, and using l337 speak in the title. That, to me, seems odd. And doesn't really encourage people to take you seriously.
> 
> Also, to address the topic, I tend to shy away from "odd words", that seems gimmicky. Aim for an odd manner of speech (only speaking in Haiku? Only using short words? Only using long words?), it will seem a lot deeper. Odd words by themselves do not achieve this. A character that throws in unusual words for the sake of it will seem like the character is trying too hard to be odd, and through extension you're trying too hard as well.



People who criticize the title in a forum like this are the ones who seem to try too hard. He was probably trying to see odd so his thread didn't blend it. It certainly worked on me.

As for your suggestion, maybe he's going for a character that's trying too hard. One who's smart and showing off would use much odder words then normal. On the other hand, people from another universe/world might use different words as their more common ones. We might first think of the world "red" for something and they may first think of "burgundy", so it also depends on the setting.

I'm not usually this critical of other people's posts. I make no excuses though.


----------



## Xaerun (Mar 21, 2009)

Yorokonde2 said:


> As for your suggestion, maybe he's going for a character that's trying too hard. One who's smart and showing off would use much odder words then normal. On the other hand, people from another universe/world might use different words as their more common ones. We might first think of the world "red" for something and they may first think of "burgundy", so it also depends on the setting.



One who's showing off would still maintain a certain style of speech. A character trying too hard though... hmm. Once again, in my opinion, the words don't make the manner of speech, but they contribute quite a bit in that instance. A character trying too hard would occasionally choose the wrong word, maybe stutter a bit every now and then, and essentially be the foot of a fair few jokes.

People from another universe, same thing.


----------



## ScottyDM (Mar 21, 2009)

foozzzball said:


> I hope you mean me!


Dood! I LOLed! Srsly!

S-


----------



## M. LeRenard (Mar 22, 2009)

Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary.
On Amazon right here.  I'm assuming that's exactly what you're looking for.


----------



## VÃ¶lf (Mar 23, 2009)

*Re: Rare WORDZ?!?!?!?!*



Xaerun said:


> Interesting.
> Posting in the "Writer's Bloc", which is characterised by its talented writers, and using l337 speak in the title. That, to me, seems odd. And doesn't really encourage people to take you seriously.
> 
> Also, to address the topic, I tend to shy away from "odd words", that seems gimmicky. Aim for an odd manner of speech (only speaking in Haiku? Only using short words? Only using long words?), it will seem a lot deeper. Odd words by themselves do not achieve this. A character that throws in unusual words for the sake of it will seem like the character is trying too hard to be odd, and through extension you're trying too hard as well.



All right, now that I got y'all riled up over the leet words, I'll stop <: D sheesh, didn't think it was _that_ big of a deal... my sincere apologies, honest mistake.

That and all other stupidity aside, I went looking for some old English translators over the internet, but none were Elizabethan aside from the billions of Shakespeare insult sites...(USELESS!) Yeah, I had some Old English sections too. 

I do agree with anti-gimmicks though. They don't work. It's a tedious task to make the character talk in a manner that seems natural yet "feels" mostly above everybody else, if you catch my drift.  I'll try some of this stuff, but I think having faith in my own writing talents... which I suppose don't look too good to any of you right now, but... lol. I'll see how it goes.

Dialect book would be vastly useful, but holy crap, 800 bucks? Oy vey, I don't think so D:


----------

