• aberration - a condition markedly different than the norm; a disorder in one's mental state; an optical phenomenon
• careworn - showing the wearing effects of overwork, or care, or suffering
• placid - not easily irritated; (of a body of water) free from disturbance
• effete - marked by excessive self indulgence and moral decay
• phenomenology - the study of structures of the consciousness as experienced from the first person point of view
• quale - an instance of subjective conscious experience (plural qualia)
• writ large - on large scale, magnified; readily discerned, unmistakably indicated, clear, obvious
• predilection - tendency towards; a condition of favoring or liking
• brainish - a rich multimodal inner language that evolves with time
• valance - the value which a person places on something

The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories by Asimov (1st ×3)

The Onion was the 4th, others were from an AI white paper

• couch - to formulate in a particular style or language
• irascible - easily provoked to outbursts of anger; irritable
• shirking - the evasion of work or duty
• diffident - showing modest reserve
• obsequious - attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner
• humdrum - not challenging; dull and lacking excitement

The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov

Short story: The Bicentennial Man

The following are from my own research, writing, and notes to use more often:

• pert - (of a person) attractive; (comparative perter/superlative pertest)
• pudic - easily shamed; having a strong sense of shame; modest; chaste (anagram cupid)
• pudendum - usually plural - pudenda - human external genital organs collectively especially of a female
• saucy - alt sassy - bold and spirited; somewhat sexy and provocative
• sibilate - to speak with a hissing sound
• scritch - to make a small scratching sound like a small animal boroughing
• cantankerous - given to or marked by an ill-tempered quarrelsome nature
• crotchety - cranky, disagreeable, or stubborn, especially if prone to odd whims or fancies
• temerity - reckless boldness; foolish bravery
• affront - to insult intentionally; to meet defiantly
• effrontery - an act of insolent and shameless audacity
• chutzpah - nearly arrogant courage; exaggerated self-opinion
• captious - tending to find and call attention to faults unreasonably, petty
• cavil - to criticize for petty or frivolous reasons
• pettifogger - one who quibbles over trivia and raises petty annoying objections; unethical lawyer of lesser skill
• shyster - someone disreputable especially a lawyer; to act disreputable; to exploit someone in this way

• cliquiness - the state, quality or condition of being cliquey - an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose
• intransigence - the trait of being intransigent; stubbornly refusing to compromise
• conforaneous - of the marketplace or court
• colloquy - a formal conversation
• grandiloquent - given to using language in a showy way by using an excessive number of difficult words to impress others

Not from anything in particular. I think one is from "The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories" by Isaac Asimov. Most were the rabbit hole of searching for useful words and self reflection.

• gerontocracy - a political system governed by old men
• winnowing - the act of separating the grain from the chaff; select the desirable parts of a group or list; to cull
• rueful - feeling or expressing pain or sorrow for offenses
• onerous - not easily borne; wearing (burdensome, taxing)
• copse - a dense growth of bushes
• brake - an area thickly overgrown usually with one kind of plant

various sources, Lemmy users, and curiosities

• chary - characterized by great caution and wariness
• simulacrum - (plural simulacra) an insubstantial or vague semblance; a representation of a person such as a statue
• apoplectic - of or related to a sudden loss of consciousness such as a rupture or occlusion of a blood vessel leads to oxygen lack in the brain
• susurration - the indistinct sound of people whispering

• ontology - the metaphysical study of the nature of being and existence
• metaphysics - the philosophical study of being and knowing
• epistemology - the philosophical theory of knowledge
• a priori - derived by logic without observed facts
• a posteriori - derived from observed facts
• rationalism - the philosophical doctrine that knowledge is acquired by reason without resorting to experience
• empiricism - the philosophical doctrine that knowledge derives from experience
• relativism - the philosophical doctrine that all criteria of judgement are relative to the individuals and situations involved

From Wikipedia:

Ontological perspectives

Social scientists adopt a number of approaches to ontology. Some of these are:

• Realism - the idea that facts are "out there" just waiting to be discovered;
• Empiricism - the idea that we can observe the world and evaluate those observations in relation to facts;
• Positivism - which focuses on the observations themselves, attending more to claims about facts than to facts themselves;
• Grounded theory - which seeks to derive theories from facts;
• Engaged theory - which moves across different levels of interpretation, linking different empirical questions to ontological understandings;
• Postmodernism - which regards facts as fluid and elusive, and recommends focusing only on observational claims.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology

• witticism - a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to invoke laughter
• nostrum - hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases; once sought by alchemists
• brusquely - in a blunt direct manner
• ineffable - defying expression or description
• filch - make off with the belongings of others
• spome - is any hypothetical system closed with respect to matter and open with respect to energy capable of sustaining human life indefinitely
• munificent - very generous

From: Is Anyone There by Isaac Asimov

• hagiography - a biography that idolizes or idealizes the person (especially a person called a “saint”)

Word drop by !FlyingSquid@lemmy.world

• ribald - off-color; humorously vulgar
• skein - coils of worsted yarn (tightly twisted woolen yarn from long-staple wool)
• sophistry - a deliberate invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hopes of deceiving someone
• stolid - impassive; having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; not easily aroused or excited
• frenetically - in a very agitated manner; as if possessed by a mythological evil spirit
• cloy - To cause distaste or disgust by supplying with too much of something originally pleasant, especially something rich or sweet; surfeit
• surfeit - To feed or supply to excess, satiety, or disgust; overindulge
• faculae - bright spot on a planet such as Mercury
• crèche - day nursery; a foundling (abandoned infant child 'found') hospital where infants are taken in and cared for
• nettle - any of a number of plants with stinging hairs that cause skin irritation (esp of the genus Urtica)// ie ..."On impulse, William passed him the printout and said, "That's my brother." It was like grasping the nettle."
• betoken - indicate
• mottle - colored with streaks or blotches of different shades
• involute - rolled; having margins rolled inward; especially of pedals or leaves in bud; closely coiled (shell) so the axis is obscured
• extemporaneous - ad-lib; with little or no preparation or forethought

The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov

Short story: Stranger in Paradise

• stultify - deprive of strength or efficiency; make useless or worthless
• sessile - permanently attached to a substrate; not free to move about
• insuperable - impossible to surmount; insurmountable
• quixotic - not sensible about practical matters; idealistic and unrealistic
• capricious - determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason; impulsive; whimsical
• malevolent - having or exerting a malignant influence
• antipathy - a feeling of intense dislike
• indissoluble - incapable of being dissolved (in a solution)
• inexpert - lack of professional skill or expertise

The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov

Short story: That Thou Art Mindful of Him

• bowdlerize - to remove parts of an account or text that are deemed offensive
• junketing - taking an excursion for pleasure
• voluble - marked by a ready flow of speech
• parsimonious - excessively unwilling to spend
• turgid - abnormally distended especially by fluids or gas // American Heritage (3): Distended beyond the natural state by some internal agent or expansive force; swelled; swollen; bloated; inflated; tumid; -- especially applied to an enlarged part of the body.
• pall - a sudden numbing dread
• torpid - slow and apathetic
• redound - return or recoil
• friable - easily broken into small fragments or reduced to powder
• bathyscaphe - navigable deep diving vessel for underwater exploration
• gangplank - temporary bridge for getting on and off a vessel at dockside
• sphericity - the roundness of a three dimensional object

The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov

Short story: Waterclap

• prodigal - rashly or wastefully extravagant
• ebullience - overflowing with eager enjoyment or enthusiasm
• florid - elaborately or excessively ornamented
• diminuendo - a gradual decrease in loudness
• sanguine - a blood red color
• sardonically - in a sarcastic manner

The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov

Short story: Feminine Intuition