Wheedle

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
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Slava
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Wheedle

Postby Slava » Wed Aug 28, 2013 4:47 pm

I rather like this word. It fits in so nicely with words like smarmy. "That smarmy used-car salesman tried to wheedle me into buying an ancient Pinto."
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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call_copse
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Re: Wheedle

Postby call_copse » Thu Aug 29, 2013 7:48 am

Good suggestion, nice word.

Would you rather be schmoozed or wheedled (at?) by the hypothetical salesman? Personally I'm always up for a bit bit of schmoozing, thinking there may be a beverage or meal in it, wheedling may work but is generally annoying.
Iain

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Slava
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Re: Wheedle

Postby Slava » Thu Aug 29, 2013 8:23 am

I agree that schmoozing does come off as a nicer concept. I feel it's more used in the sense of "chat up" a superior for personal gain.

Schmooze would also be a good Good Word. We haven't done it yet. It's fairly simple in etymological terms, but it is both transitive and intransitive, and can be a noun, too. An Americanism from the last years of the 19th century, it comes from Yiddish for gossip or idle conversation.

That's chat up in the American sense, by the way. :wink:
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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