Iatrogenic.

Connotes a doctor-caused disease or problem, such as a post-op infection or a patient bleeding from too much Coumadin; a patient suffering from "side effects" of a medical or surgical treatment.

Jackie Fergusion

Impedimenta.

Not counting all the words we steal from Yiddish because there are no good English equivalents, my favorite is impedimenta. It's an ancient Latin word that originally meant all the stuff a Roman Legionary had to lug around. From the Latin impedere, to impede.

These days it means: all the stuff you have to lug around. Three days in Florida ... four suitcases. What were you thinking?

John Fentner

This is the only word I need to keep up my end of an entire hour-long telephone conversation with my sister. With intonation indicating the raised eyebrow, a slow, sympathetic nod of the head or enthusiastic agreement, all cued from the intonation at the other end. Never has any other word served me so well.

Phil White

Indefatigable.

It denotes self-possession in the face of insuperable odds.  It conveys a never-say-die Victorian stoicism which I find irresistible, it's righteous, it says be just and fear not (the title of the autobiography of an Australian politician of the fifties called Arthur Caldwell). It makes me think of Britain and empire when the noblesse oblige imperative had serious currency.

I visualize the dreadnought battle-cruisers of the 1890s, of which the design original was named HMS Indefatigueable.

Cinematically it makes me see David Niven leading the colonialists in "55 Days at Peking" when Bei Jing was still called Peking and God was known to be an Englishman.

Ted

Indignant.

This word seems to me to be very well suited to the meaning. 'Indignant' cannot be idly pronounced, due to the effort required it seems to me that one must sound indignant when saying it. Try it!

Steve Bromley

Intrinsic.

I love the word intrinsic for its onomatopoeic quality, its depth, its fluidity, and the way it reminds me of water, the truest essence.

Lisa Beth Robinson

Describes my mother-in-law.

Dione

Irregardless.

My favorite word is irregardless, for several reasons.  I first heard it from a non-commissioned officer while I served as an instructor at the Infantry School (Ft. Benning, GA).  I tried to look it up and could not find a definition (abridged dictionary). Some years later, I did find a definition-"a humorous redundancy."  And now I find it defined as "regardless," I assume in same sense as inflammable and flammable.  So despite a comment in one dictionary that says it was coined in the early 20th century, I claim that I watched the word grow from an absurdity to a somewhat stepchild-like acceptability.

Armand G De Cesare

Issues.

My favorite word is issue or issues. In the last few years it has replaced problems, things, items, situations, matters, topics, subjects, points, concerns, factors, and many others. At the rate it is growing, it will soon be the only word needed, making English the easiest language to learn in the whole world. Count how many times you hear issues in the next two hours. Then count again in the corresponding hours next week. Next week will win.

Tony

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