Charlie Stross#ScribesAndMakers 12/4—Create a poll with three words that appear in your WIP and one that doesn't. Ask people to guess the one that doesn't.
(This is for Space Princess Star):
pulchritudinous
Defalcation
Idiolatry
Cenobite
Poll ended at .
#ScribesAndMakers 12/4—The first 22,000 words of this novel-in-progress already include "pulchritudinous", "defalcation", and "cenobite". "Idiolatry" is still missing but as I've over 100,000 words to go I'm certain I can shoe-horn it in! (I mean, it also includes "instar", "barratry", and "walrus". How hard could it be?)
MidgePhoto@cstross
Walrus. Hmm.
Walrus. Hmm.
Jaime Herazo@cstross
Cenobite you say?
Cenobite you say?
Gracious 
AnthraciteIf you have a moment where you reel off the list of crimes one of these two scoundrels has gotten away with in the past then you should be able to drop it right in.
If you don’t have a moment like that then what are you even doing writing comic sf about space criminals?!? :)
Rob Landley@cstross From now on I'm referring to american health insurance as the medical defalcation industry.
Angus McIntyre@cstross I’m partial to a nice spot of barratry, myself.
My former barrister brother-in-law said that barristers on opposing sides of a case (who were often friends outside the courtroom) would sometimes challenge each other to include specific obscure words in their speeches. After having successfully introduced, say, "walrus” into a speech, the barrister would then, with great solemnity, cause a note to be passed to opposing counsel that just said "Neener neener neener”.
Andy Gates
J.S. "Sage" Hawthorne@cstross One of my proudest moments as a lawyer was receiving an unsolicited call from another lawyer and going off on them for barratry.
Sandra Bond@cstross “instar, spaceship melt”
Jaime Robertson@cstross I did pick cenobite, but after seeing a proper definition realized I was wrong.
Andrew Eisenberg 🍁🍁@cstross idolatry is the only word I actually know. So, I’m guessing that’s the word that doesn’t appear.
@aeisenberg it's not idolatry, it's idio-latry. You may need a bigger dictionary! (It's in Webster's 1911 ...)
@cstross 😅 😅
I think I just need better glasses.
@aeisenberg see also USA, contemporary.
Walter Thinman@cstross @aeisenberg if I had read more carefully, I might have chosen differently. Ah, well. So it goes.
DaveIdiolatry sounds like Trump-worshipping
warning low flying owls@cstross I'm not a native english speaker, and I did love it when I learned that "pulchritudinous" has nothing to do with mummified skeletons in sacophaguses.
woe2you@Pyrogenesis @cstross That'd be sepulchritudinous.
PhosphenesSo which was the right answer?
stf@stf @Phosphenes @Pyrogenesis Alas, the book isn't finished yet and is vanishingly unlikely to be published before 2028.
Floaty Birb@cstross oh wait i impulsively picked "pulchritudinous" because of the webcomic Problem Sleuth, but that might actually be the most likely to appear, darn
Snail@floatybirb @cstross I find it suspicious that's the only word in the poll not capitalised.
@snail @floatybirb The lack of capitalization is a typo. (AIUI if you edit a poll it junks all the previous answers. So I can't fix it.)
CrazyDogLadySezPEACE@cstross Pulchritudinous is just a gross word, so I’m hoping that’s the odd word out. (It’s like “moist”. The thing it means is fine, but saying/hearing/reading the word is vaguely icky.)
Randy_underscore_S@Heartofcoyote @cstross Hard agree, it does not sound like what it means at all; to me it feels like something you'd hear in valley-speak. I remember finding that word around the same time as "Wegovy" and now the two are forever linked in my mind as how California surfers in the 80's might have greeted each other.
Agnieszka R. Turczyńska@cstross I'm not playing this game. Knowing some of your former work it could be anything 😅
John Maxwell@cstross I rolled a d4.
Marcus M. 滅拉 マルクス🐧@cstross Cenobite may cause IP problems so I chose that.
@mocm "Cenobites" are a perfectly respectable name for a type of religious hermit. No IP infringement required.
@cstross I was just kidding, you never know what kind of ideas IP lawyers get. I also didn't know what it was and since it was capitalized the Clive Barker reference was the first thing I found.
Schroedingers_Cat@cstross I could see you using any of them. Idiolatry seems less gross, so I chose that one.
Calum Andrew Morrell@cstross if it's not Cenobite I will expect you to forthwith rewrite your WIP to ensure that I will not be incorrect. Incorrectness within me is unacceptable. History is only as correct as I deem it suitable to my needs. The party loves you. Do not question the party.
Dervish
GLCI went with "pulchritudinous" as it seemed relatively mundane, and even if it did show up would not necessarily be remarked. (Maybe in the vicinity of a doge meme for example.)
The others all have some real punch to them and ought to have a place in your oeuvre, though not simultaneously in every single work Still, I can't see you eschewing those three on a permanent basis.
@cstross Are we going to get an answer?