You keep using that word.

[prog]

I note that "bemused" and "nonplussed" are similar not just in their synonymosity, but in their each self-containedly suggesting that they should mean other things. (I often see them misused to mean "amused" and "unimpressed", respectively, and take note of this probably because I used to think that's what they meant, and still feel foolish about it for some reason.)

One word-loving friend once told me of his fondness for "sessile", which he thinks is the highest English can offer in the class of words that feel like their own antonyms.

Comments

[cramerica.livejournal.com]

restive is another good one... also endemic