From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   Dorothy J Heydt wrote:   
   > In article ,   
   > William Vetter   wrote:   
   >> aileuromorphic   
   >>   
   >> vibrissae   
   >>   
   >> metapodia   
   >>   
   >> calcaneus   
   >   
   > Yes, if they were the right words for the occasion.   
   >   
   > I recently commented elsethead on David Brin's using words like   
   > bromopnean and atrichic, for which he probably could have used   
   > "stinky-breathed" and "hairless," at the cost of making the   
   > prose a little less distinctive.   
   >   
   Yeah, I saw that.  That's why I posted this.  Also, no activity here.   
      
   When I was in my mid-twenties, I had a book with at least two words on   
   every page that sent me to the research library to go through volumes   
   of OED for words.  It was a sort of romance novel/space opera hybrid   
   where all of the male characters had hair and muscles like Fabio, and   
   the writing was flowery.  None of the words were ever there.  I think   
   she invented them freely from roots.  At page 50, I asked myself, "Why   
   am I doing this?"  So when I try this with my own drafts, or at least   
   with something that's available that resembles the thickest dictionary   
   possible, and the word isn't there, I ask whether I am punishing my   
   younger self.   
      
   > Is someone writing about the vibrissae of an aileuromorph?   
   > Please send a link, if so.   
      
   I have the word "aileuromorphic" once in a draft ms.  I don't think I'm   
   going to use the word vibrissae anywhere.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)