Archive for the ‘language’ Tag
The English language is brutal. I don’t envy anyone coming to this country without any English speaking skills because I’ve lived here my whole life and I still don’t have a handle on everything. Virtually everything that we talk about or speak about originally came from our distant past going back thousands of years. I thought I was up-to-speed as far as the language goes but once again I was sadly mistaken. Today’s post will introduce you to some words that you’re familiar with and others not so much. When I can I will identify the original word. As always, answers are at the end and no peeking please.
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- What is the meaning of the Greek word “kosmetikos”, from which we get the word cosmetics?
- A milligram is a thousandth of a gram. What’s a “picogram”?
- What do “noologists” study?
- What kind of voice does someone have if he or she is “oxyphonic”?
- What does the word “climax” mean in Greek?
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- How did the “duffel” bag in its name?
- What’s the difference between a nook and a cranny?
- What word originated as the nickname for a English insane asylum?
- What flowers name means nose-twitching in Latin – a name bestowed upon it because of its pungent aroma?
- A bibliophile is a collector of rare books. What is a “bibliopole”?
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- What was the original meaning of the word “clue”?
- What is the origin of the expression “on the Q. T.”?
- What is the literal translation of the pasta “vermicelli”?
- What were the very first item is referred to as gadgets?
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Answers
Skilled in decorating, 1 trillionth of a gram, The mind, Unusually shrill, “Ladder”. In Greece is spelled klimax, From the Belgian town of Duffel, A nook is a corner; a cranny is a crack, Bedlam, The nasturtium, A seller of rare books, A ball of thread or yarn – which makes the concept of unraveling a clue all the more meaningful, The word quiet – from its first and last letters, Little worms, Miniatures of the Statue of Liberty sold in Europe in 1886, A tightrope walker.
I’m quite the fan of word games, puns, and almost anything related to the written or spoken word. The English language is a real minefield for immigrants to navigate and truthfully it’s just as tough for some of us home grown types. Todays quiz will test your knowledge of our language with trivia on words and phrases and how they came to be. As always the answers will be listed below.
- What is the measurement of “one foot’ based on?
- Who invented word “carport”?
- What ails you if your suffering from a bilateral preorbital hematoma?
- What are you afraid of if you have ergophobia?
- In Japan, what automobile part is known as a bakkumira?
- What is the chief symptom of someone suffering from oniomania?
- What is the origin of the word hoax?
- What does Iwo Jima mean in Japanese?
- How did the common airgun become known as a BB gun?
- How did “bloomers”, ladies pantaloons, get their name?
Answers
One third of the length of King Henry I’s arm, Frank Lloyd Wright, A black eye, Work, A rearview mirror, Graying of the hair, Uncontrollable urge to buy things, Its a contraction from hocus pocus, Sulfur Island, From it’s Ball Bearing ammunition, From suffragette Amelia Bloomer.
I ‘ve always enjoyed writing this blog because along with the fun interaction with readers I’m forced to continue my education into the use and misuse of the English language. Needless to say, after reading many of the somewhat illiterate emails I receive it’s obvious that more English needs to be taught at all levels of our education system and those of nearby countries. I suppose it would probably help a lot if the English language was mandated as the official language of this country, but until then my advice for potential legal immigrants is to learn passable conversational English and then go through the legal processes put in place to make you a future citizen. Unfortunately, that’s a subject for another day because today’s post is about WORDS.
- Dr. Seuss is credited with the first use of the word “Nerd”.
- The word “Geek” comes from the German word “geck” which means fool.
- Another classier word for “stripper” is ecdysiast.
- The longest made-up word in the Oxford English Dictionary is “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis”
- In 1972 comedian George Carlin was arrested during a performance for publicly speaking seven unacceptable words: shit, piss, f*ck, c*nt, c**ksucker, motherf**ker, and tits. (I cleaned them up for all of you delicate types)
- Only oysters, shellfish, and clams can be “shucked”.
- There are 15 three letter words starting with the letter “Z”: zag, zap, zas, zax, zed, zee, zek, zep, zig, zin, zip, zit, zoa, zoo, and zuz. (That may help your Scrabble game)
- The toughest tongue twister in the English language is “The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep is sick.”
- The word “earthling” was first used in Science Fiction in Robert Heinlein’s 1949 novel Red Planet.
THANKS FOR THE GRAPHICS JOKO JOKES
Ask any foreigner visiting the United States as to our language with its many and varied slang words. It has to be impossible to understand for most of them because truthfully, it’s pretty hard to understand even if you were born and raised here. I’ve noticed in recent weeks while reviewing some British Tick-Tock participants who apparently are as confused about some of our language as I am. For years I’ve collected a huge list of clichés because they intrigue me. Some of them are cute but if you’re not an American you’ll have one helluva time trying to figure them out. Today I’ll share with you a few samples that you’ve heard but probably never knew where they originated. See would just think . . .
SLEEP TIGHT
This term is nothing more than a way of saying “good night and sleep well”. The phrase dates back to when beds were made of rope and straw. It is a shortened form of the expression, sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite.” Before going to sleep at night, people would have to pull the ropes tight in order to have a firm bed to sleep on as the ropes would’ve loosened during the course of the previous night’s sleep. (I’ve actually slept on a rope bed and it’s like a sort of punishment or torture.)
SNUG AS A BUG IN A RUG
This expression dates from the 18th century, although a “snug” is a 16th century word for a parlor in an inn. The phrase is credited to Benjamin Franklin, who wrote it in 1772 as an epitaph for a pet squirrel that had belonged to Georgiana Shipley, the daughter of his friend the Bishop of St. Asaph. Franklin’s wife had sent the gray squirrel as a gift from Philadelphia, and they named him Skugg, a common nickname for squirrels at that time. Tragically, he escaped from Its cage and was killed by a dog. Franklin then wrote this little ditty:
Here Skugg
Lies snug
As a bug
In a rug.
KISS OF DEATH
This phrase derives from Judas Iscariot’s kiss given to Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane before he betrayed him (Luke 23:48 and Matthew 26:49). It’s also known as a “Judas Kiss,” meaning an insincere act of courtesy or false affection. In Mafia circles, a kiss from the boss may indeed be a fatal omen. The phrase is often used today in political or business contexts, meaning that certain associations or actions may prove to be the undoing of a person or organization, or the downfall of a plan or project. (I always thought it referred to several of my former ex-girlfriends.)
CATCH FORTY WINKS
A colloquial term for a short nap or a doze. Just why shutting one’s eye 40 times has come to mean a quick snooze is unclear, but it could have something to do with the fact that the number 40 appears frequently in the Scriptures and was thought to be a holy number. Moses was on the Mount for 40 days and 40 nights; Elijah was fed by ravens for 40 days; the rain of the Flood fell for 40 days, and another 40 days passed before Noah opened the windows of the ark. Christ fasted for 40 days, and he was seen 40 days after his Resurrection. As an aside: A “40” is a bottle containing 40 fluid ounces of malt liquor beer. Street gang members will drink 40’s and will sometimes pour out a little of the beer onto the ground for their dead homies. (Not so holy anymore.)
PUT A SOCK IN IT
This is a plea to be quiet, to shut up, to make less noise. It comes from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, when the early gramophones, or phonographs, had large horns through which the sound was amplified. These mechanical contraptions had no volume controls, and so a convenient method of reducing the volume was to stuff a woolen sock inside the horn.
I LOVE WORDS!
I think today we should get a little more intellectual than the run-of-the-mill limericks and off-color jokes. After blogging for more than fifteen years I’ve become a true lover of words. Another plus about words is that they come together to form books, lots and lots of books. Every year when I make my New Year’s resolutions, I normally have one requiring that I read at least one hundred books for the year. I have never ever not accomplished that resolution. The only thing I enjoy more than writing words is reading those written by others, it’s just the coolest thing ever. So today this post will be a short trivia lesson about words, language, and books. I hope you find them interesting . . .
- One of the greatest orators of all time – Demosthenes was once a stutterer who stubbornly trained himself out of it, reportedly by putting pebbles in his mouth and practicing speaking aloud.
- The Polish actress Helena Modjeska was popular with audiences for her realistic and emotional style of acting. She once gave a dramatic reading in her native tongue at a dinner party of people who did know the Polish language, and her listeners were in tears when she finished. It turned out she had merely recited the Polish alphabet.
- The French philosopher Rene Descartes sarcastically speculated that monkeys and apes actually have the ability to speak but choose not to.
- The inhabitants of a slum called Trastevere, near Rome, speak a dialect all their own. They claim to have more than 2000 vulgar words to describe human genitalia.
- The phrase “What a guy!” is a cry of derision in Great Britain and a cry of adoration in the United States.
- The average daily issue of the Congressional Record carries more than 4 million words – the approximate equivalent of 20 long novels. It is printed and published overnight.
- A forty-five-letter word connoting a lung disease, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, is the longest word in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary. The longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary means the act of estimating something as worthless- floccipaucinihilipilification, which has twenty-nine letters.
- The Scottish writer Robert Bontine Conningshame Graham, who had won a seat as a Liberal member of Parliament in 1886, was suspended from the House of Commons for having the audacity to use the word “damn” in a public speech.
- The word “ozone” got its name from the Greek ozo, which means “I smell.” It was first officially used in 1840.
- All of the world’s main alphabets have developed from an alphabet invented 3600 years ago in the Middle East and known as the North Semitic Alphabet.
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAY WANTED TO KNOW
(But were afraid to ask)
Languages are interesting. Many books have been written about the use of words, but it seems they appeal to only a small portion of the population. I love learning new words and their odd uses, it’s fun! Let’s get started on some fun for you on this fine Monday morning.
- Check out these three sentences:
A mad boxer shot a quick, gloved jab to the jaw of his dizzy opponent.
Five or six big jet planes zoomed quickly by the tower.
Now is the time for all quick brown dogs to jump over the lazy lynx.
They each use every letter in the alphabet.
- The 1939 novel, Gadsby, doesn’t contain a single word with the letter “e”. That quite some accomplishment in a fifty-thousand-word book.
- The longest palindrome in the Oxford English Dictionary is “tattarrattat”. Coined by James Joyce in his book, Ulysses, as a knock at the door.
- The word “honorificabilitudinitatibus” at 27 letters is the longest word to appear in a work by Shakespeare from Love’s Labor Lost.
- The longest palindrome in any language is “saippuakivikakuppias”. It’s 19 letters long and means “soap seller” in Finnish.
- Poets love to rhyme words but in some cases it’s very difficult or just plain impossible. No words rhyme with orange., silver, elbow, galaxy, and rhythm. The words wasp, purple, and month are also very hard to rhyme.
- Here are a few more very cool palindromes:
A man, a plan, a cat, a ham, a yak, a yam, a hat, a canal. Panama
Madam, in Eden I’m Adam
Was it a bar or a bat I saw.
THERE’S YOUR ENGLISH LESSON FOR THE WEEK
I would hate to even try to come up with the number of words I’ve written in my life. Even talking about it boggles my mind. Language and words are everything. Without them both chaos would ensue. I know, I know, there’s plenty of chaos anyway but without communication chaos becomes something visceral and sometimes dangerous. Today I’ll be talking about words that I will write and you will read. Ta! Da!, communication without chaos.
- Did you know that the word stewardesses is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
- William Shakespeare invented more than 1700 words including assassination and bump.
- The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
- If you mouth the word colorful to someone, it looks like you are saying, “I love you.”
- Dreamt is the only English word that ends in the letters mt.
- The name Jeep came from the abbreviation GP, used in the U.S. Army for general-purpose vehicle.
- The word bigwig takes its name from King Louis IV of France, who used to wear really big wigs.
- No word in the English language rhymes with orange, silver or month.
- The word chunder comes from convict ships bound for Australia: when people were going to vomit, they used to shout, “watch under”.
- The expression rule of thumb derives from the old English law that said you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
IT’S MORE FUN COMMUNICATING WITHOUT CHAOS
I love the English language. There are so many strange and interesting euphemisms that I could spend the rest of my life searching through. I recently stumbled onto a list of 228 euphemisms for sexual intercourse. Of course, I won’t be listing them all but here are ten you might find interesting or humorous.
- Play Pickle-me, Tickle-me
- Pray With the Knees Upward
- Trade a Bit of Hard for a Bit of Soft
And last but not least, here are ten euphemisms for sexual arousal: To Be Hot in the Biscuit, To Be Dripping for It, To Be Rooty, To Be in Season, To Be Constitutionally Inclined to Gallantry, To Have Peas in the Pot, To Be Hunky, To Be Affy, To Be Mashed, and finally To Be Primed.
WELCOME TO THE SEXUAL SIDE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The title of the post tells you everything you need to know. I love wordplay, making puns, finding palindromes, and using words that are rarely heard anymore. Word play can be fun and here are a few fun facts for your files.
- Do you know how to tell the difference between morons, imbeciles, and Idiots? Morons – IQ 51 to 70, Imbeciles – IQ 26 to 50, and Idiots – IQ 0-25.
- The words tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous are the only four words in the modern English language that end in “dous”.
- There are no words that rhyme with orange.
- If “off” means to deactivate, what happens when the alarm goes off?
- Dr. Seuss is credited with the first use of the word “nerd” in print, from his 1950 book If I Ran the Zoo.
- The word “Mountweazels” concerns spurious entries or fake words used to catch copyright cheaters.
- The term “Tattarrattat” was coined by James Joyce in his novel Ulysses for a knock on the door. It also happens to be the longest palindrome in the Oxford English Dictionary.
- “The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep is sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
- These six words have no accepted singular forms. Pajamas, Shorts, Jeans, Tights, Trousers, and Glasses.
- “Floccinaucinihilipilification” is the longest real word (29 letters) in the Oxford English Dictionary.
I’ll keep searching for more of these and as I find them, I’ll post them. Language can be fun in so many ways. How cool is it to use the language properly to insult some clueless person who insists on irritating you and them not realizing what you meant.
ONE OF LIFE’S GUILTY PLEASURES
I made the assumption that most of you would know most of the acronyms used in yesterdays post. On the side chance that I’m wrong I’ve decided to list each one with their full title in the order as they appeared yesterday. I’m sure there will be a few surprises for you or at least I hope there will. Here they are.
LOL – Laugh Out Loud
OMG – Oh My God
STAT – An abbreviation of the Latin statim, "Immediately".
ASAP – As Soon As Possible
KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid
UNIVAC – UNIVersal Automatic Computer
NABISCO – NAtional BIScuit COmpany
NECCO – New England Confectionary Company
WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get
MS-DOS – MicroSoft – Disk Operating System
DEF-CON – DEFense CONdition
NORAD – NORth American Air Defense Command
ZIP – Zone Improvement Plan
OSHA – Office of Special Housing Assistance
NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization
RADAR – RAdio Detection And Ranging
SCUBA – Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
SCUD – Subsonic Cruise Unarmed Decoy
WAC – Women’s Army Corp
AWOL – Absent With Out Leave
SAC – Strategic Air Command
SEALS – SEa-Air-Land UnitS
SALT – Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
SNAFU – Situation Normal All Fucked Up
SONAR – SOund Navigation And Ranging
AWACS – Airborne Warning And Control System
TNT – TriNitroToluene
HUD – Housing and Urban Development
SSN – Social Security Number
DOB – Date Of Birth
GPA – Grade Point Average
NOW – National Organization of Women
UNESCO – United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Org.
UNICEF – UNIted Nations Children’s Emergency Fund
OVER – Over to You
OUT – End Transmission
WILCO – WIll COmply
ER – Emergency Room
ICU – Intensive Care Unit
DNA – Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid
RNA – RiboNucleic Acid
DOA – Date Of Arrival
ETA – Estimated Time of Arrival
EST – Eastern Standard Time
INTERPOL – INTERnational Criminal POLice Organization
NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard
NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
SONAR – SOund Navigation And Ranging
TASER – Tele-Active Shock Electronic Repulsion
LASER – Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
CANOLA – CANada Oil, Low Acid
TV – TeleVision
DVD – Dissociated Vertical Deviation
DOA – Dead On Arrival
OMFG – Oh My Fucking God
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