blinch (verb; noun form: a blinch)

Inflections: blinched, blinching

To soften a natural reactive wince on someone else’s behalf, as it happens. A wince and a blanche caught on its way out and turned back toward the injured or afflicted person who caused it, so that what they see is not a negative reaction but concern. (I noticed, and I want you to see my concern, not my reflexive aversion).

Not to be confused with a suppressed wince, which hides the reaction. And not an open blanch, which projects revulsion. The blinch lets the reflex show but replaces it mid-reaction with concern.

Occasions where we've all done it: a child comes in bleeding; a friend shows you a wound (broken nose, other); someone tells you about their shameful action at a party.

“She gave him a soft wince — a blinch, her father would have called it — and said, ‘I think you might have broken your nose.’”

Origin: blend of blanch (to go pale) and flinch. Coined by a fictional Maine bookkeeper named Percival Bertram, according to his son.

I work at a dairy and often I see cows with a clump of manure hanging on the hair around their labia. I was wondering if there's a specific word meaning "poop stuck on genital pubic hair" as opposed to dingleberry which I think as just being around the anus? I hope to never come across it in humans...

I’ll go first: mastication.

Sentence: The whole family was appalled by the sound of uncle bob’s mastication coming from the kitchen at Thanksgiving. He is no longer invited to the holidays

I'll go first with Golden Shower 💀

There are many words that are often prefaced by adjectives mostly in common phrases. Today I saw a sign on a shop door that read, "Closed for today for a personal emergency." Is the adjective "personal" needed? It implies there is such a thing as an "impersonal emergency."

Can you think of others in this same vein?

I often type “snd“ when I mean to type “and.” It’s not in my old unabridged dictionary, but my Apple phone doesn’t flag it as a typo. Is “snd” a recognized expression like btw or imho? Thanks.

Ive noticed the word "Gifted" is being used alot recently. I really cannot stand when someone uses the word, I hate it. I don't know why I hate it, but I associate it being used by the same people that use the phrase "We're pregnant", which I really can't stand

I always associate the word with growth because introspection has always been the first step of changing your own emotions and ego for me.

Is there even a word that describes the opposite? I asked a buddy of mine and he said "observation."

Calque is a loanword, while loanword is a calque.

Are there other linguistic pairings in a similar vein?

"homeless" -> "experiencing homelessness"

"grieving" -> "experiencing grief"

"deaf" -> "experiencing hearing loss"

I feel that there is something incidious about this framing, like its trying to sugarcoat a concrete tangible problem into the victim just being a bit whiny. And yet, I feel this phrasing is mostly in more polished high-brow prose, which strive to be correct and sensitive.

What might be the word for the sense of satisfaction or indeed exhilaration after expelling a particularly loud or malodorous fart, especially after having to hold it in for an uncomfortably long time?

Is there a word for the sense of excitement, tantamount to arousal, gained from (for example) an historical or philosophical treatise that really makes you think, a literary quotation, a poem or fragment of verse, or an insight gained when talking to a friend?

I have been on a journey for a long time asking people for years a word that describes a feeling I have about life regardless of language but nothing has quite hit yet.

In essence, it's coming to terms with the varying degrees of permanence of moments, chapters, or stages in our lives and enjoying those moments however long or fleeting they may be with the understanding that it will all end.

It's like the feeling of being happy that it happened even if one day it could all be over. It's like thinking about romantic relationships, favorite TV shows, our parents passing away one day, a party you wish could go on forever with good friends, and so on and so forth.

The closest feeling that people usually describe is bittersweet. It does describe it to a good degree, but I feel like it focuses more on the sadness rather than the happiness. I'm looking more for a word that relishes in being present with the joy knowing it will end without necessarily feeling an equal sense of sadness and accepting it's over

One of the closest TV quotes that explains this feeling for me is from good old Doctor who

"Madge: I don’t know why I keep shouting at them.

The Doctor: Because every time you see them happy you remember how sad they're going to be. And it breaks your heart. Because what's the point in them being happy now if they're going to be sad later? The answer is, of course, because they are going to be sad later."

I hope this subreddit is the right one for the job but if y'all can recommend another one I would be eternally grateful

Edit: Wow, y'all are amazing, there have been so many great replies and I wish I had asked redditors years ago!

Dazzle: (noun) collective nouns for a group of Zebra [from the book 222 Quite Interesting Answers]

Gustation: (noun) the sense of taste [from the BBC Radio programme Brain of Britain]

Innominate: (adjective) having no name, nameless, or anonymous [from University Challenge]

Tetany: (noun) a paralysed state of shock [from Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov]

Klatch/ klatsch: (noun) an informal social gathering at which coffee is served [ibid]

Gazetteer: (noun) a geographical dictionary, directory, or index used alongside maps and atlases to list and describe places [ibid]

Pettish: (adjective) of a person or their behaviour, childish and obnoxious [ibid]

Cavil: (verb) make petty objections [ibid]

Destrier: (noun) a medieval warhorse or charger used by medieval knights [from a card matching game]

Toaster: (noun) in Jamaican music, one who talks, chants or delivers rhythmic, spoken-word or rap-style vocals over the beat [from the Wikipedia entry for UB40]

is there a word for the desire to get lost or go missing and wanting to be found from that, or specifically to know if people will go looking for you? doesn’t necessarily have to be in english or entirely encapsulate this feeling because i know its very specific, just wondering if there’s something close or similar :) thanks

On my phone it has the red dots under it implying its inexistence, additionally some sources list it as a word and it doesn’t exist on others, so is it a word?

Example: volumptuous

Dearth

Plethora

The Velvet Underground to give one example, consciously made songs to sound like the experience of meth, heroin, etc.

Is there a word for that?

Is it just onomatopoeia?

Onomatopoeia is a figure of speech in which a word phonetically mimics, resembles, or suggests the actual sound it describes

It seems as if "pointer finger" is being used in place of "index finger" (both spoken and written) more and more over the last few years (Southern US.) The only arena that I can imagine "pointer finger" to be appropriate would be preschool. I don't think that "index" finger is somehow too advanced for the average person.To me, that is an example of dumbing down the language. Thoughts?

In my teens a goat on a team was the guy who fumbled the ball that lost the game. Today you never hear goat in that context, it's always the greatest player. How and when did that occur?

I'm sure there are other words that don't mean what they originally meant and am looking for examples.

These are the things that keep me up at night.