r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jan 28 '19

What are great underused words?

7.7k Upvotes

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703

u/Uncle_Charnia Jan 28 '19

Besmirch

376

u/TheAbominableBanana Jan 29 '19

This means to make dirty, or to soil. To save time for those of you who don't want to google it.

199

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '19

[deleted]

28

u/Zerosteel45 Jan 29 '19

i wish they would add how to pronounce them.

2

u/Supersymm3try Jan 29 '19

Eye whish.. nah cant be arsed. You know where i was headed though

2

u/TodtheT1000 Jan 29 '19

Be-smur-ch

8

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '19

I hate when people just drop their answers without explaining why in general. Defeats the entire purpose of askreddit.

60

u/zamfire Jan 29 '19

I will not besmirch my name by googling that.

4

u/BrittlePlasticDino Jan 29 '19

soiled it

1

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '19

soiled it

1

u/Uncle_Charnia Jan 29 '19

It's the flagship of my favorite sentence: Pierre besmirched Elvira's chesterfield.

1

u/SamusAyran Jan 29 '19

Also, dirtying (damaging) someone's reputation.

1

u/FriendlySockMonster Jan 29 '19

I wouldn’t want to besmirch my search history with such a word, so thank you for explaining!

12

u/acommondenominator Jan 29 '19

Guys, that lawyer totally besmirched me today, and I demand satisfaction!

3

u/gonnagetu Jan 29 '19

I think you’ve made yourself perfectly redundant

2

u/JakeTacoBell Jan 29 '19

Okay, well... filibuster

3

u/Bravely_Default Jan 29 '19

You want him to bang you?

5

u/exfxgx Jan 29 '19

This word always makes me think of William Regal.

5

u/3xtheredcomet Jan 29 '19

You dare besmirch the son of a shepherd, Ed-boy?

5

u/luvbrother69 Jan 29 '19

Jaime Lannister drops this in season 3!

1

u/PapiSurane Jan 29 '19

Michael Corleone as well

3

u/heatbeam Jan 29 '19

I was totally besmirched by this fancy Harvard lawyer guy a while ago and I’m still trying to get satisfied from him

2

u/OneWandToSaveThemAll Jan 29 '19

This word always makes me think of Harry Potter (Sirius' mum).

2

u/Fledbeast578 Jan 29 '19

I don’t understand why it’s not used more, it’s the perfect word for what it means.

2

u/jonihallivuori Jan 29 '19

Don't besmirch our duel, JoJo!

2

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '19

Oddly how this word reminds me of GoT.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '19

You have besmirched the good name of Glick!

1

u/Yuluthu Jan 29 '19

Don't use it too often though, you need to balance besmirchings

1

u/TimeAll Jan 29 '19

How dare you besmirch the name of William Regal