More Favorite Words

Last month I talked about a few of my favorite words (Collecting Words) but that's only the beginning.  Word collecting is great, because words are not only free, they don't have to be dusted. The ones I like best are words that invoke a special meaning and also dance off the tongue. How about these?

Debacle

Not a near miss, not even a nice try, but a huge, total, spectacular failure. A fiasco. The debacle might well have been caused by someone's ...

Shenanigans

Mischief, or maybe something more nefarious. Secret, dishonest manipulations. And can't you just hear the Irish accent?

Huckleberry

Like a blueberry, but a bigger, sweeter, wilder version. In my mind, huckleberries are always connected to a special camping trip to Montana. Also slang for "the man you're looking for." The one who can get the job done. "I'm your huckleberry."

Mosquitos and No-see-ums

Be honest. Don't you feel itchy just hearing the names of the buzzing little biological instruments of torture?

Levitate

Floating in the air, but it implies that the rise was unexpected, maybe miraculous. 

Rabble-rousers

Lots of these around, always trying to stir up the crowd, to drive a wedge between groups of people. Sometimes it's for a greater good, and sometimes just to make themselves important. Rabble-rabble-rabble. 

Scuttlebutt

The lowdown, the rumor, the truth behind the official story. Did you know this derives from a nautical term for the water cask, so in effect, it has the same meaning as the water cooler does in office slang? 

Brouhaha

A big deal that really isn't. Lots of public excitement and confusion, but in the grand scheme of things, nothing all that important. A hullabaloo. 

Your turn. I know I can't be the only one who collects odd words. Share your favorites.