Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 185 Location: New Orleans Louisiana
Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:13 am Post subject:
Well I certainly like incorrigible..It is another one of those words that commonly exist in the negative only, (see previous post) but in this case it makes no difference whatsoever as I cannot think of a single instance of when I was ever "Corrigable"
Words are so much fun!!!! a couple of my favorites
defenestration (being thrown out of a window)
and the great-grand-daddy of all "quirky" words (it is certainly the one I cut my teeth on...ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM which unlitke SUPERCALLA...whatever, was an actual term refering to that school of thought which was opposed to the "disestablishment" of the Church Of England. _________________ I would like a gin martini, straight up, olives on the side, as dry as my wit, as clean as my conscience.
and... as cold as my heart!!!!
Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 6 Location: Emu Plains (Jacarandas at the foot of the Blue Mountains) New South Wales, Australia
Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 2:38 am Post subject:
Griffin ..... apparently I'm the only one in the ENTIRE world who was BORN incorrigible ... according to my Latin teacher.
But if you do manage to start showing incorrigibilistic traits I will sic said teacher onto you ....... that should change your mind. although it didn't apparently fix me .... "cause I was born that way
Sarape ..... have heard "Loggerheads" all my life almost weekly ......... it is friendly conflict for some _________________ Friends are the flowers in life's garden
loggerheads - Well there actually is a place in England called Loggerheads... tho' I was never at it!
balderdash - this is what the Norse god Balder used to do when they set the dog on him!
nugatory - Tories in Britain are Conservatives, I would never 'ug a Tory.
quisling - a little quiz?
sedulous - a report. What the winner said... u lous!
pugnacious - a voracious pug?
Pesto Man,
I dont' think I've ever been corrigible either. Tho' I once felt a lot like a dirigible, but that was after a particularly big meal! I know about defenestration.
The first museum I worked at, Bruce Castle Museum in Tottenham, London had a collection of paintings by a woman called Beatrice Offor (1864-1920) who, under mighty stress, threw herself out of a window and died of her injuries. It was spooky because the Museum itself had been owned by Henry Hare, Lord Coleraine. He took agin his first wife, Lady Constantia Lucy of Broxbourne and locked her in the clocktower - actually in the room below the clock mechanism. She went, understandably, mad and threw herself and her baby through the window and died. That was in the 18th century. Henry Hare was having an affair with the Duchess of Somerset, the cad!
Pamela T,
Clearly you and I are like Jessica Rabbit - we aren't bad, we were just drawn that way! I will apply my gladius to the teachers gluteus maximus if he/she threatens me... either that or I'll run and hide!!
Georgia,
The first time I ever heard gobsmacked was by Terry Wogan the BBC Radio 2 broadcaster. I wasn't sure he'd made it up or as he's Irish, if it was an Irish word. Either way, it's so expressive. _________________ Confusion comes fitted as standard.
Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 1654 Location: Penrith (where jacarandas remind me of change), New South Wales, Australia
Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:35 pm Post subject:
oh Griffin..Terry Wogan! Our family knows him via The Eurovision Song Contest ~ the funniest stuff. That contest seems to have a strange life of its own.
Am thinking of the wonder that words are being created now..this minute...amazing! _________________ "I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson
I've heard of Oppenheimer, he was one of the architects of the atom bomb who quoted Krishna in the Mahabharata having seen the explosion of the bomb. I am become the destroyer of worlds... etc.
I shall track that biog down and read it!
Madame,
I am looking forward to late November... even if I will be a year older, sigh! I will of course be telling everyone that I am only 28... ahem. Unless my occasional grey hairs betray me... in which case I will say I am actually 25! _________________ Confusion comes fitted as standard.
Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 1654 Location: Penrith (where jacarandas remind me of change), New South Wales, Australia
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:04 pm Post subject:
am wondering what word covers "to worry about one's age"
Griffin...London indeed...before then, The Babes (as I've decided to name both Sieg 'n I ~ he, because he's (along with me!) going to the area in Germany where he was born 1949, and me?..ah well, why not! )..have much discovering and "oh my goshing!" to do
Surtsey and why named so..a bit of googling tells me Surtur was the fire giant in Norse mythology..
The wonder of names...of our own...why velvet became velvet and hessian became hessian (or why hessian is burlap ) _________________ "I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson
Yes, Surtur or Surtr was a fire giant and the island was the result of undersea volcanic activity. The island formed in the sea... then was drawn back under the waves... extinguished poor old Surtur!
Quote:
why velvet became velvet and hessian became hessian (or why hessian is burlap
Ooh, set me a puzzle why don't you?! Now I have GOT to find out these. Hessian I suppose came from Hesse in Germany, but I don't know why it's called burlap. I'll check out velvet. _________________ Confusion comes fitted as standard.
Joined: 07 Apr 2006 Posts: 46 Location: Vermont, USA
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:14 pm Post subject: Food-related weird word
I've just remembered a word my mother used to use when I asked her what was for dinner. To my knowledge it has never appeared in print, so I'll just have to approximate the spelling as I heard it -- all one word, said very fast:
ledlosetoketchmeddlers
She was originally from the South (USA) and told me, when I pressed for a definition, that the expanded or slow version is "laid low to catch meddlers" and refers to a snare or trap placed low, to catch folks who are meddling where they shouldn't be.
I fail to see how a child's question about dinner could be construed as meddling. Maybe her mother (very busy with 7 children) used it on her. I blush to confess that I used it on my own children when they were young. As a description of dinner, it doesn't sound very appetizing!
That is a fab word! Perhaps what she was implying was that what was in the pot was what had got curious and caught! As would the questioner if they weren't careful!!!
I like that you can hear the sound of it being spoken in the way you've written it tho'. I'm definitely going to have to use it!
Well, Hessian was short for the Hessian boot, a long boot worn by the Hessian soldiers according to the Dictionary. According to the very same Dictionary, velvet comes from the Latin villus - a tuft. _________________ Confusion comes fitted as standard.
Joined: 18 Oct 2004 Posts: 1654 Location: Within view of Elliot Bay, The Olympics and every ship in the Sound
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:24 pm Post subject:
Reading Raven's post pertaining to, ledlosetoketchmeddlers , reminded me of a word I ran across in the sixth grade while studying about my Welsh heritage. It is the name of a town in Wales that has, (or did?), the longest name in the world.
I still have no clue as to the pronunciation, though I have read that it comes out ridiculously short of the spelling. The Welsh language is a marvel. I have tried a few times to learn it, as it is a dying language but, am always defeated. _________________ "It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."
Yes, Llanfair is still there and has a train station, with possibly the longest station board!!! The name has a lovely meaning, something about the white deer by the brook or something like that. And it is always wonderful to watch journalists taking a deep breath before they try to say it... shortly before a smiling local tells them that they call it Llanfair for short!!!
Clotilde has a good one in her piece on the faisselle (possibly where our word vessel comes from), metonymy and I like to think it came in to play too! The more I read your writing Clotilde, the more I imagine the novel you'd write... Like Zucchini for Chocolate perhaps? _________________ Confusion comes fitted as standard.
Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 136 Location: France, Bordeaux
Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 11:06 am Post subject:
I do love the sound of swell, euphonious, quirky, and scrumptious ! Also some of the insults used by Captain Haddock in "Tintin" : bashibouzouk fills me with joy ! Serendipity, melliflous, and one used in the dubbed version of "Star Wars" : méphitique, a french word for a foul smell. Not commonly used.... Also Méphistophélès, Hatchepsout. I like strange names...
Joined: 29 Sep 2004 Posts: 1196 Location: buried under a pile of books somewhere in Adelaide, South Australia
Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 12:37 am Post subject:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch means "St Mary's Church in a hollow by the white hazel close to the rapid whirlpool by the red cave of St Tysilio".
Thank you Paul Theroux - The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain
Cellar door - JRR Tolkien's favourite sounding word, and perhaps also Edgar Allan Poe's, according to some sources. _________________ Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness
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