Comments by sarra

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  • file under: German words that crop up when I try to speak another language. is a wonderful all-purpose word, although the French donc may have taken its place recently.

    June 14, 2009

  • file under: German words that crop up when I try to speak another language. Means "hours".

    June 14, 2009

  • file under: German words that crop up when I try to speak another language. Means "one and a half".

    June 14, 2009

  • Must be said with the correct inflection: 'Fuck me!' meaning 'Gosh, what a surprise!'.

    June 10, 2009

  • German equivalent of the Czech 'to je pro mne španělská vesnice', or 'I'm sorry, I haven't a clue'. Lit. 'they're Bohemian villages to me'.

    June 10, 2009

  • 'I'm sorry, I haven't a clue' in Czech. Lit. 'it's just a Spanish village to me'.

    June 10, 2009

  • 'Thanks be to God!'

    Response to a sneeze in Arabic.

    June 8, 2009

  • The response to a sneeze in Madagascar. Means 'alive!'.

    June 8, 2009

  • Chicken-yawn comes before cock-crow. It's that early, you see.

    June 5, 2009

  • discussion sur 'rebelot(t)e'

    May 31, 2009

  • God yes. Hurrah for you!

    May 25, 2009

  • un nom tel superb!

    May 23, 2009

  • Spoke too soon… four against five is tricky.

    May 23, 2009

  • I think I have. And no, I'm not. I can only do in kit terms, but I'm proud of learning two-against-three, three-against-four and four-against-five polyrhythms.

    May 23, 2009

  • also related to isorhythms

    May 22, 2009

  • 'fixed' words, innit? ;)

    May 4, 2009

  • I like the word, and I do use it. Hallo too, rolig!

    May 4, 2009

  • Hallo! More specific, indeed. Some homonyms like bank have distinct meanings in the English we speak, but in the Oxford English Dictionary there's a long long note on the origins of bank-the-place-where-we-keep-money, which ends 'The word is thus ultimately identical with BENCH and BANK2, and cognate with BANK1.'

    May 3, 2009

  • whimsical measure of speed

    April 18, 2009

  • (Fr.) to read something at one's leisure, lit. with rested head

    April 18, 2009

  • mundi tuesdi wensdi thursdi freyedi satdi sundi. But I was actually thinking of 'wed'nsday', whether -day or -di.

    April 16, 2009

  • note to self

    April 14, 2009

  • Love your 'also on'. Gave me a smiling pleased giggle.

    April 11, 2009

  • Thank you! I noticed when I was on 1,999 and thought "ooh" but didn't pay any attention to my 2,000th - so I'm not sure which it was. I added a couple of thousand-related words as my 1,000th and 1,001st.

    Ah, hold on, I can work it out… justiciable! The thousandth was millenary. (Followed by mother of thousands)

    April 11, 2009

  • ow ow my brain ow.

    April 10, 2009

  • I'm no Christian, but why/what/how on God's green earth…? is too good a phrase to miss out on.

    April 5, 2009

  • OED: 'obs. derivative form of EARWIG; cf. OE. eárwicasga and mod. Suffolk dial. arrawiggle, and see WIGGLE v.'

    Just brilliant.

    March 27, 2009

  • Not sure how accurate this is, but a preliminary reference: http://www.organicearrings.com/Materials_Info___Sources.html

    March 17, 2009

  • Not sure how accurate this is, but a preliminary reference: http://www.organicearrings.com/Materials_Info___Sources.html

    March 17, 2009

  • er stRategy?

    March 12, 2009

  • "rubbish"

    March 4, 2009

  • "to buff is to remove graffiti"

    March 4, 2009

  • When we were at 6th form we used to refer to our boyfriends as our birds. (from a talkboard — surprised and pleased me)

    March 3, 2009

  • I've not seen it used in this way before, but it's just perfect:

    I want a Netbook and having been looking at different ones for a few days, but am now snow-blind from all the reviews.

    (also snowblind)

    February 27, 2009

  • See stimulus package. Yes.

    February 27, 2009

  • “What do you think of the stimulus package that President Obama is ramming through Congress at the moment?” — somewhere on the BBC World Service the other week

    February 27, 2009

  • A lot of the Wordie links on the RSS feed seem to be to lists which don't exist? e.g.:

    beavers build dams -> http://wordie.org/lists/198837

    where do you go to my lovely -> http://wordie.org/lists/129220

    unbirdly -> http://wordie.org/lists/198568

    etc.

    February 19, 2009

  • Clearing through my father's papers after he died, I found his photo folder. A real one, made of battered shagreen. In it was a picture of his long-dead brother; one of his father as a young man; one of his wife as a 13-year-old girl with her mother and sister. Pictures of the dead. Pictures of people who could not be seen in reality, ever again, kept private in his desk drawer.

    Michael Bywater in the Independent

    February 13, 2009

  • Click the little "OE" icon above and be enlightened!

    February 4, 2009

  • Swedish, "the language of honour and of heroes". Comes from an Esaias Tegnérs poem of 1817 & is used nowadays with a smile of slight irony, I think.

    February 2, 2009

  • skip, you missed the deliberate irony in that headline!

    I am slightly miffed that no-one's reported on my bestickering, long ago, an apostropheless St Philip's Place (also Birmingham). You heard it here first. Or last.

    February 2, 2009

  • borrowed definition: "riding so hard that your pulling on the bars results in your sitting right on the tip of the saddle. Which would have a rivet on it if it were a proper leather one."

    January 27, 2009

  • o_O

    January 25, 2009

  • kiitos bilby!

    January 24, 2009

  • Take the figure in Kennedy’s "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country�? and "we must never negotiate out of fear, but we must never fear to negotiate." The classical rhetoricians called it antimetabole, though modern speechwriters prefer to refer to it as the reversible raincoat.

    Geoff Nunberg at Language Log

    January 24, 2009

  • I am becolden. *snuiven, kuchen*

    January 24, 2009

  • THE FLU

    January 24, 2009

  • i have a cold. :(

    (You can also say "minussa on nuha", lit. "in me there is a cold")

    January 24, 2009

  • January 24, 2009

  • The word as used in response to a knock on the door is actually in the imperative mood. (Ooh, Matron!)

    January 22, 2009

  • Yep.

    January 21, 2009

  • I'd love to see a widget that displayed random words from all your lists, not just the most recent ones. (Also the existing widget doesn't seem to quite work for me)

    January 21, 2009

  • I'm not sure if there's a word for this, but does anyone know why it's common practice in many TV shows and films to play something from a half-second to a second or two of dialogue before the camera switches to the speaker?

    January 18, 2009

  • Oh, and spelt! I'll be checking through these when I've time.

    NB. 'triplet' is used to describe a treble doublet, but I understand your meaning, of course.

    January 18, 2009

  • important

    January 14, 2009

  • You're welcome. I think.

    January 14, 2009

  • Oink oink!

    January 9, 2009

  • Awwww!

    January 7, 2009

  • Aye, pollarding in particular weirds me out.

    January 7, 2009

  • Tis pyrite indeed. No pirate joke intended.

    January 7, 2009

  • This is a mile from my house!

    January 7, 2009

  • Carpa diei? (possible nominative of carpa, which is given in OED as "late Latin" for carp; genitive of dies)

    January 7, 2009

  • Didn't know the narrative poem meaning, but lay lie is distinct from lay non-clerical, so that's something I'd genuinely so far missed for this list.

    Can't see why I rejected lie. Must've been sleepy.

    January 5, 2009

  • haha!

    January 5, 2009

  • 'cleave' is already in, rolig :) Yes to host, and of course junk.

    January 5, 2009

  • Milkman in England. Don't know if the connotations carry too…

    January 5, 2009

  • !

    Mine goes in the compost bucket.

    January 5, 2009

  • ! A username I use sometimes. Hello, hedgerows!

    January 5, 2009

  • I can't work out how one would do this, though.

    January 5, 2009

  • 4,000 words! Happy thousand!

    January 3, 2009

  • Auuuugh. It makes vastly more sense to assume that WordNet has made a typo. Don't fret, telofy!

    January 3, 2009

  • You beat me, I just found it!

    January 3, 2009

  • Where are you getting these (I'm thinking of the non-English ones) from?

    January 3, 2009

  • rolig, I think that's how most, if not all autoantonyms work; that's why I'm not a fan of them and don't find them particularly fascinating. Each to their own, though.

    January 3, 2009

  • Mould, yes! I didn't even know about the second meaning you give; I had thought leaf-mould was mouldered leaves, a perfect example of how we often make imperfect sense of our language. I haven't looked into how cognate that sense may be with the "fungus" one, but it certainly seems distinct from a mould for moulding.

    January 3, 2009

  • Hallo rolig — I'm not looking for homographs, as many of those differ in pronunciation (like slough and row). Shed might fit though: I'll check!

    edit: I think row goes in. I'd forgotten about oars. Shed too!

    Dear was an early addition; it does indeed seem to be cognate. I must've been lax in my research back then. Note that there are many other holes and shoddy bits, I'm sure, as I've only looked at the background when I've added/rejected words. There will, eventually, be a proofing process.

    January 3, 2009

  • BH seems to be the Danish word for bra, though I can't see why. Certainly doesn't stand for boulder holder

    Ah! Brystholder!

    January 3, 2009

  • I just within the last 15 minutes read that! On the BBC, though.

    January 3, 2009

  • …wondering if kewpid meant it quite like that.

    January 2, 2009

  • *sticks tongue out at c_b*

    Marylebone, and…

    A dashing young fellow named Cockburn

    Was attempting to travel to Holborn.

    He asked with a cough

    If he please could get ough

    When he found himself en route to Oban

    January 2, 2009

  • Leominster, Cirencester (not any longer, I don't think)

    Also the more mundane Bicester and Alcester.

    January 2, 2009

  • But why would you? ;)

    Oh, by the way, I've just remembered Brewood. Rhymes with what beer has had done to it. Or what's hatched from a mother hen's eggs.

    January 2, 2009

  • Psst, you've missed a closing italic tag!

    Thanks for that, though, it shows I was barking up the wrong tree :) I seem to be reading masses about cognitive grammar at the moment.

    I'm after a word for these (don't look too closely, it needs me to give it a proofread…)

    January 2, 2009

  • Yes!

    Kit & the Widow also do the "two men and a piano" act, but I do like them, so I'm inclined to think that perhaps they're a step up on mere Swannabeism.

    January 2, 2009

  • Don't be fooled by even the phonetic spelling given, either. Worcester(shire) pronounced on Forvo

    January 2, 2009

  • Or indeed maudlin :)

    January 2, 2009

  • Heh, I can do all of these limericks. And "Meppum" is even completely first-principles logical to me. This one though:

    An old lady living in Worcester

    Had a gift of a handsome young rorcester;

    Are they your invention? This one doesn't work in the slightest — doesn't, hasn't ever, and never will, to my knowledge! Shall I find/upload a pronunciation of Worcester for you?

    January 2, 2009

  • Whence this? I'm wondering if I might need it.

    January 2, 2009

  • It's a fun challenge to think of others, now, rolig. I don't think wicked counts ;)

    Just found a curious article on the OED blog!

    January 1, 2009

  • Sorry to be all Web 2.0, but I'm annoyed I can't create garde.ning.com!

    January 1, 2009

  • I don't believe in this one!

    January 1, 2009

  • Heh. By "new acquisitions" I don't mean I've woken up with this power.

    Or do I…?

    distant rumble

    January 1, 2009

  • SKDGHSKH.

    January 1, 2009

  • YES!

    January 1, 2009

  • frindley! I didn't want to give you the actual words, so here's a clue (I'm assuming easy - I did consider making it harder by using tonic sol-fa but that could have been cruel and inscrutable!) as to which part of the lyric first stood out to my ear. Link so as not to spoil if you'd rather not know.

    A friend's mother identified 20 as cocopele but it doesn't seem quite right, so I think I get to do some extra research.

    December 30, 2008

  • I meant is it that particular misuse, or a different one!

    December 29, 2008

  • You could go a slightly different route and use FlashMute, as I do.

    December 29, 2008

  • heh! Wonderful.

    December 29, 2008

  • see athole brose for a bit of discussion

    December 29, 2008

  • The etymology of brose is lovely and arcane, and ambrosia has nothing to do with it, which I find actually quite pleasing. :)

    December 29, 2008

  • Ooooh, I have genuinely never heard this word confused with co-op; is that the misuse which vexes you so, or something else?

    December 29, 2008

  • Heh. For me it's The Sheik of Araby. I do love the word though; Said has it spot on.

    December 28, 2008

  • I'm somewhere in the middle of Philosophy… but I do prefer linguistics to philosophy, so my preference there is motivated :) I have found the introduction to the building of mathematics quite fascinating, though, so I may move on to that one next. I'm engluttoning myself with Lakoff!

    December 28, 2008

  • Read this book - loved it (actually, that's not strictly true; I did much prefer Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things for its scope and liveliness). All my notes are on paper though - I must transcribe them.

    December 28, 2008

  • Augh! rolig, I got questions 37 and 38 mixed up. The answer to 37 is Rilke. The piece is Dirait-on by Morten Lauridsen, from Les Chansons des Roses.

    December 27, 2008

  • I'd like 4 to be church or priory, though I'm sure it's neither. I should also mention that for 8 I'm stuck on wrestles from vessels or possibly embezzles from vessels ;)

    December 27, 2008

  • 38. Only beginning my investigations into this one — is it (the composer, not the answer) Lauridsen?! I adore his O Magnum Mysterium, to little pieces. That which you linked was wonderful to hear.

    edit: It is — wonderful. following confusion edited out… I got very mixed up, see above

    December 27, 2008

  • Ah, you've added more! 39 is mazurka, which was my first thought in any case, but for extra authenticity I went to have a look at the Chopin book for all of the B♭ ones. Thank goodness for contents pages with the first few bars of melody!

    December 27, 2008

  • but which is, of course, entirely collect

    Hee! Was this on purpose?

    December 27, 2008

  • Is that the Irish equivalent of the pub/football chant you're going home in a faaaa-ckin' aaaambulance then?

    December 27, 2008

  • Hehehe!

    December 27, 2008

  • Does looking up Turner's paintings count as cheating? I had to have a listen to the Carnavale too. 21 is Mendelssohn, I can say from my own general knowledge after that.

    December 26, 2008

  • Indeed.

    Incidentally, OED etymology: From Bride Well, i.e. (St.) Bride's Well, a holy well in London, near which Henry VIII had a ‘lodging’, given by Edward VI for a hospital, afterwards converted into a house of correction.

    December 26, 2008

  • 9 was my first thought, too! Thanks to that terrible "You can't say 'I is'" — "Miss, but what about 'I is the ninth letter of the alphabet'?"

    December 26, 2008

  • 16. kangaroo

    27. not 3?

    Could we see the pictures any bigger or is their size part of the challenge?

    December 26, 2008

  • Whoops, I appear to have listed both this and charlady!

    December 24, 2008

  • Indeed. And the artic chill only occurs within a refrigerated lorry…

    December 24, 2008

  • Ahhhh. I've only just got that.

    December 24, 2008

  • (Fr.) To dream.

    December 24, 2008

  • Excuse the lolcat, but this one is lovely!

    December 24, 2008

  • Nope - the contents of lists are words, and only ever words. (Until John adds a feature to let it be otherwise, if he so fancies.)

    December 24, 2008

  • Could we have a Zoological List Of The Year? Purely for the acronym. Other Z-word submissions considered.

    December 24, 2008

  • 'fraid not, unfortunately.

    December 24, 2008

  • Exactly — I'm very puzzled by Wells' use of it here. A full moon is a full moon.

    OED: "c. Astr. Said of the moon or a planet when the illuminated portion exceeds a semicircle, but is less than a circle."

    December 23, 2008

  • One of my favourite things to do with Tube stations is work out fancy dress costumes for them. High Barnet wins for feasibility. There are lots, alas, which involve accessorised nudity, and which I can't fulfil due to lack of the correct anatomical equipment.

    December 23, 2008

  • Welcome, BB. And what a welcome!

    December 23, 2008

  • a very nice concept! But could do with its missing "i"…

    December 23, 2008

  • Brazil's dende (dendê) palm is used chiefly for palm oil, but the small coconuts (along with the related piasava and pati nuts) are used to make jewellery, too.

    December 22, 2008

  • Ohh, this is describing those who hold Pippi Longstocking as an idol? Seriously.

    December 22, 2008

  • YOU'RE A CHAP. Are you a chap? I adore the tweedy wonder that is the magazine.

    December 22, 2008

  • See here!

    December 22, 2008

  • Sentences like "Nora's a norexic" are out.

    Not for me, though, as the "a"s are schwas. Quite different!

    December 22, 2008

  • Poet Laureate Andrew Motion on Something Understood, 21st December 2008. I admit I rolled my eyes a little!

    December 22, 2008

  • December 18, 2008

  • Does impervious thus mean totally innocent?

    December 17, 2008

  • Hmm, Finnish doesn't have the instrumental case, but Hungarian, another Uralic language, does. Finnish tends to prefer the adessive for the same purpose. I'm not sure why the difference between the instrumental and instructive per language family, or indeed what that specific difference might be.

    December 17, 2008

  • Come on! It's a worldly observation!

    December 16, 2008

  • Rather like buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo (I think that's the right number; I parsed it in my head as I went. I've got rather accustomed to that one), as it means something like "searching detectives find searching detectives".

    December 16, 2008

  • Now look! the plant said, and grew.

    December 16, 2008

  • When it stops raining, I will get the lacquer (or cloudberry?) from the port.

    December 16, 2008

  • I walked in the evening on the bridge.

    Made even lovelier by the Finnish lingering over double consonants.

    December 16, 2008

  • At last, I slapped myself with a birch-switch.

    vihdoin (adv) finally

    vihdoin (v) first-person singular indicative past form of vihtoa, to whip (specifically with the following)

    vihdoin (n) instructive case, i.e. "by means of", form of vihta (a kind of whisk made of birch twigs and used in the sauna to enhance the effect of heat by gently beating oneself with it)

    (acknowledgement to Wiktionary)

    I may have got the word-order wrong. No, seriously!

    December 16, 2008

  • Heh, it is when viewed large on Wordie like that! The sounds are straightforward, it seems to me, but it's getting all the syllables in the right order…

    A good few Finnish tongue-twisters seem to play on the fact that orthographically similar or identical words can have different grammatical meanings, like Latin's malo malo malo malo.

    e.g.: Vihdoin vihdoin vihdoin, Jos lakkaa satamasta, haen lakkaa satamasta, Kas vain! sanoi kasvain ja kasvoi vain, Etsivät etsivät etsivät etsivät etsivät (that one's not so surprising, like Wenn hinter Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach — and less a tongue-twister than a brain-bender)

    December 16, 2008

  • Yksikseskös itkeskelet, itsekseskös yskiskelet?

    Are you crying all alone, are you coughing by yourself?

    (Apparently this is a question to the drunk. Think tired and emotional.)

    December 16, 2008

  • Certain loanwords contain unfamiliar constructs, which are used in tongue-twisters. For example, Finnish strutsin perhe (the family of an ostrich) has the consonant cluster "str", whereas such consonant clusters do not occur in native Finnish words. Repeated, this might be pronounced as "strutsin perse" ("ostrich's arse").
    Wikipedia

    December 16, 2008

  • Donkeys don't eat nettles; nettles don't eat donkeys.

    A fair arrangement.

    December 16, 2008

  • The cat scratches the curls of the stairs.

    December 16, 2008

  • When a sperm whale pisses in a piss-pot, you get a piss-pot full of sperm whale piss.

    Practical folk, those Dutch.

    December 16, 2008

  • The coachman cleans the stagecoach with stagecoach-cleaner!

    December 16, 2008

  • Liesje leerde Lotje lopen langs de lange Lindelaan

    Maar toen Lotje niet wou lopen toen liet Liesje Lotje staan

    Liesje taught Lotje to walk along the long Linde Lane

    But when Lotje didn't want to walk, Lisje left Lotje standing there…

    December 16, 2008

  • No, no, you sing (not singe) the toast by… well, toasting it with song. This morning's could be saluted with the Vitalite advert song, for example.

    December 16, 2008

  • Such a wonderful arrangement of letters. Like a short section of golden chain.

    December 16, 2008

  • Is it a peloton of Walloons?

    December 16, 2008

  • No! I never met one! It would certainly have helped.

    December 16, 2008

  • il n'y a pas de hors-texte ("aucun" is "any")

    December 16, 2008

  • also appears in the construction mardy-arse(d) (not to be confused with mardi gras)

    December 16, 2008

  • Go on, bil, tag the most intriguing ones with “comments please” and I'll have a look.

    December 16, 2008

  • Can I have some sung toast, please?

    December 15, 2008

  • Heh! I knew, in fact. I owned this when I was small. School book fairs were an invaluable thing.

    December 13, 2008

  • No, P is the pirate letter - it's their favourite.

    Why?

    It's like R - but it's only got one leg.

    December 13, 2008

  • Bah. I have not the slightest idea what this is intended to represent.

    December 13, 2008

  • Oh! Also the name of a red panda which was briefly famous a few years ago.

    December 13, 2008

  • In one of its derogatory senses, excessively ornate English from an Indian book-learner — or the speaker himself.

    In another, related sense, refers to those engaged in excessively self-absorbed bureaucracy — see here.

    Also has its uses as a perfectly polite term.

    बाब�? ?

    December 13, 2008

  • The Twelve Days of Christmas: four colly birds (=blackbirds), not calling birds.

    December 12, 2008

  • Hmm?

    December 6, 2008

  • Metafilter wondered too: Question on generic terminology

    Wikipedia has an article on the genericized trademark

    And the word might be antonomasia.

    December 5, 2008

  • December 5, 2008

  • Google Book Search explanation (for the intrepid)

    December 5, 2008

  • OED: The ivory-palm, Phytelephas macrocarpa, which produces the ivory-nut or corozo-nut; also in Comb., as tagua-nut, -palm, -plant.

    Produces "vegetable ivory". (I can't help but think of Andrew Marvell: My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than empires, and more slow)

    December 5, 2008

  • Ah, fine. I already did my swooning over on turquoise :)

    December 5, 2008

  • I know… I was following Ms/Mr A, though!

    December 4, 2008

  • I've just listened to the Sarstedt song for the first time. Oh, how lovely, how French. Despite not being such!

    Unfortunately, this is the one arcadia and I had in mind…

    "oa-oa-we-oh!"

    December 4, 2008

  • I am swooning that you mentioned Berlin and Kay.

    December 4, 2008

  • Hah, for shame! It was Say A Little Prayer For You!

    December 4, 2008

  • Oh crap, I need that service where you hum a song and someone wise tells you what it is, on the other end of a phone line/the internet. I read a couple of lines of this and now have quite a different song embedded into my head.

    December 4, 2008

  • Oh YES, I'd forgotten I'd read about this. On Language Log or Languagehat, one of those sorts of places. There is a point where ephemera gets too ephemeral, though; I wonder if this book is quite to my taste.

    December 4, 2008

  • Hah, my memory of it is quite the same.

    Is that the same song, though, plethora?

    December 4, 2008

  • “While at the bird sanctuary I was set upon by a creature which gave a quite unbirdly scream”, for example :)

    December 3, 2008

  • Bugger, plethora. Me neither!

    December 3, 2008

  • From the Coverdale Bible (1535); Wikipedia

    December 3, 2008

  • Exctly.

    December 3, 2008

  • €€€€€€€€€

    (altgr+4)

    December 3, 2008

  • That's the one I spotted, too… then I had to give up.

    December 3, 2008

  • Made me smile too.

    December 3, 2008

  • *has a look*

    Good grief, the OED full text results for "nonce-wd" are an utter joy. I recommend a look yourselves.

    December 3, 2008

  • "fuck" substitute in Farscape. *shrugs factually*

    December 3, 2008

  • I still bristle against this word, but I succumbed. John, something to add to the "Also on" list on profiles?

    December 3, 2008

  • !

    December 3, 2008

  • भारत गणराज�?य (Hindi), the Republic of India.

    December 2, 2008

  • Just spotted that!

    December 2, 2008

  • The Netherlands.

    December 2, 2008

  • Sweden.

    December 2, 2008

  • Austria.

    December 2, 2008

  • The UK.

    December 2, 2008

  • Finnish for the USA!

    December 2, 2008

  • Basque country.

    December 2, 2008

  • Greenland, named by its speakers (of Kalaallisut, the official language). Lit. Land of the Greenlanders (slightly recursively as notated here!)

    December 2, 2008

  • One of the best-known cases of regional and local variations is the song of the chaffinch… Southern French birds in Dapuhiné showed… a spirited version with a stressed ending of the type known as “British Museum” (since it is supposed to resemble these words).

    — E.M. Nicholson and Ludwig Koch, Songs of Wild Birds (1936)

    December 2, 2008

  • I would disagree with Österreich and Lëtzebuerg personally, though.

    Alba did throw me utterly, some months ago when I first encountered it.

    Ulster is one for me. Kernow and Eire not quite so.

    Oh! And Euskadi, I should think, just about counts. And Kalaallit Nunaat.

    I'm reading a book at the moment, bil, which reminded me that Macassar did exist (and so spelt, too, although he also says cocoanut and bees'-wax)

    December 2, 2008

  • Finnish does well: Ruotsi, Alankomaat, Itävalta, and best of all Yhdistynyt kuningaskunta and Yhdysvallat!

    December 2, 2008

  • Yes, Pro! I'll find the citation.

    December 2, 2008

  • and a brown-amber-greenish eye colour

    December 2, 2008

  • Bjahahahaha.

    December 2, 2008

  • So boisterosity? fastidiosity? gregariosity? studiosity? nervosity? obnoxiosity? piteosity? stupendosity? tenuosity? (aptly) ridiculosity?

    December 2, 2008

  • I did look through this list quickly…

    December 2, 2008

  • I noticed as soon as I listed it, but I couldn't bear to leave this listing unadopted into such a family :)

    December 2, 2008

  • cf.

    December 2, 2008

  • Goddamn!

    December 2, 2008

  • It reads as snehabhojan, but that isn't helping me at all!

    December 1, 2008

  • ! I never knew there was a British Museum underground station, let alone a closed one.

    December 1, 2008

  • Don't worry, hold on…

    December 1, 2008

  • The words; I didn't read the comments this time :)

    November 29, 2008

  • See mauve for a description of a similarly bastard colour. I cannot make this word conjure up the colour it really ought, no matter how hard I try.

    Puce is a horrible word; this is the colour it (inaccurately!) recalls to me.

    I am eagle-eyed and sharp-tongued on any other colour names, including those on the green/blue border which everyone loves to argue about. I got a perfect score on the hue test. Why these two anomalies?! I must have been misinformed by my mother at a very tender age…

    November 29, 2008

  • Mauve is a bastard word to me. Doesn't fit the colour at all. See also puce.

    Actually, it seems there's just enough variation in the colour world to satisfy me: this is mauve!

    November 29, 2008

  • Found it! Discussion of metanalysis on nibling. Note that English itself has never used “norange” (I don't think I was clear enough over there)

    November 29, 2008

  • Not orange.

    Homage (and apologies) to ampersandwich.

    November 29, 2008

  • Hahaha!

    November 29, 2008

  • This has become a fascinating story.

    November 29, 2008

  • send me an ear!

    November 29, 2008

  • Argh! Worlds collide!

    November 29, 2008

  • I've a few "words" like these; I might set them against each other in a list.

    November 29, 2008

  • Misspelling indeed; see bowdlerise/bowdlerize

    November 29, 2008

  • Interesting: http://discovering-islam.blogspot.com/2007/12/hoor.html

    November 29, 2008

  • *does it*

    November 29, 2008

  • slough?

    November 26, 2008

  • Rack bag, saddlebag, handlebar bag, backpack!

    I meant these as alternatives for the one baby, but gosh, you could be laden down with them if you take these all.

    November 26, 2008

  • I like my eggs salt and peopard.

    Can you get leper'd leopards?

    November 26, 2008

  • Oh good grief, I've just discovered I had a huge mind-blank on how to spell this. Then as soon as I worked it out and thought "oh, it's like leopard!" I promptly forgot how to spell leopard.

    November 25, 2008

  • Baby panniers! Please tell me these exist.

    November 25, 2008

  • I love that list with a good dose of fearful reverence. Not a thing to read when you're at all doubting yourself/your judgement (which I was severely when I discovered it…)

    November 25, 2008

  • Come on, bil!

    November 25, 2008

  • No reason why not. Are there any words in there for concepts other than the T-V distinction?

    I asked a Spanish colleague about yeismo and cecear, and alas, there's no such term for the varying pronunciation of v as b/f.

    November 24, 2008

  • Only if currier means more curious, too!

    November 24, 2008

  • Dead hares.

    (And nests, other harriers and guano.)

    November 23, 2008

  • That reminds me of a moment in a Rachel Stamp live album that used to really tickle me:

    <kkkhhhhhhhhhh… PTAH>

    I just gobbed on myself! How fucking punk rock is that — I just gobbed on myself!

    November 23, 2008

  • Oh damn, damn, damn, damn. I can't find a single citation, so I'm worried I'm going down the route of false etymology and other related follies.

    November 23, 2008

  • re the original post, it feels very right to me, and I'm sure I've heard it more than once before. I'll have a look round. Think about truing bicycle wheels, though, and arrows which fly straight and true.

    November 23, 2008

  • Sorry… this was part of the yes/no list which I removed as it was structurally unsound, so to speak! (It's "yes, he/she would". You can see lots of them here if you like.)

    November 23, 2008

  • 01000001 01110101 01100111 01101000 00101110 00101110 00101110

    November 15, 2008

  • Reminds me a little bit of this: xkcd – but less so once I read the rationale for it.

    November 14, 2008

  • Awwwwww. My heart is warmed, skip.

    November 14, 2008

  • I can tell you I would LOVE to be a holler-wallah.

    WHAT? I MEAN, I WOULD LOVE TO… (sorry)

    November 14, 2008

  • :D

    November 14, 2008

  • Reminds me I need to link the sound file back to the RSPB whence it was pilfered. Coff! (No-one had listed little auk…)

    November 14, 2008

  • Ah! OED says /'wɒlə/. So dollar, collar, scholar, squalor (!)

    November 14, 2008

  • I was thinking about these last night… which would rhyme: a galah-wallah or a dollar-wallah?

    November 14, 2008

  • I have a new-found love for the little auk (Alle alle). I present to you a tribute (ongoing).

    November 13, 2008

  • :-!

    :-?

    Self-explanatory.

    November 13, 2008

  • hëävÿ mëtäl ümläüt!

    synonymous concept: gratuitous umlaut metal band

    November 13, 2008

  • Gosh, it really is!

    November 13, 2008

  • Bargander; Bar-goose; Bergander; Burrow-Duck; Sheldrake; Shell-duck. Yes, in short.

    November 13, 2008

  • Is not patterned after shite

    November 13, 2008

  • Whistling flight-note of the Sheld-duck, according to R.S.R. Fitter (1952).

    November 13, 2008

  • Old Norse for the snow-bunting.

    November 13, 2008

  • Found in R.S.R. Fitter (1952); not quite sure to what it refers, except an utterance of the Bearded Tit. One that sounds like a kiss, rather than being produced while birds do kiss, presumably?

    November 13, 2008

  • Found in R.S.R. Fitter (1952).

    November 13, 2008

  • Call of the Carrion-crow, according to R.S.R. Fitter (1952).

    November 13, 2008

  • Flight-note of the Little Bustard, according to R.S.R. Fitter (1952).

    November 13, 2008

  • Song of the Green Woodpecker, according to R.S.R. Fitter (1952).

    November 13, 2008

  • Or ‘quirlp’; flight-note of the Bee-eater, according to R.S.R. Fitter (1952).

    November 13, 2008

  • Song of the Swallow, according to R.S.R. Fitter (1952).

    November 13, 2008

  • Song of the Yellowhammer as interpreted by a Scottish ear, according to R.S.R. Fitter (1952). See also a little bit of bread and no cheese.

    November 13, 2008

  • The Great Tit sings this too; “High-pitched song, often rendered ‘teacher, teacher’, has been likened to sharpening of a saw and pumping of a bicycle tyre”. (R.S.R. Fitter, 1952)

    November 13, 2008

  • Flight-note of the Serin, according to R.S.R. Fitter (1952).

    November 13, 2008

  • Call of the Red-Breasted Flycatcher, according to R.S.R. Fitter (1952).

    November 13, 2008

  • Song of the Blue Tit, according to R.S.R. Fitter (1952).

    November 13, 2008

  • Song of the Goldcrest, according to R.S.R. Fitter (1952).

    November 13, 2008

  • Thank you! Having done all those citations I'll be gentle with what I add ;)

    November 13, 2008

  • Oh, yes!

    November 13, 2008

  • Surprised to find that the turtle-dove has an etymology all of its own: it's named for the turr turrr sound it makes, and the very word turtle refers primarily to the dove, coming from the echoic Latin turtur.

    November 13, 2008

  • This is consuming my afternoon, I'll have you know. Nevertheless, I'm compelled to continue (although having got out one of my older bird books I realise I can't possibly be exhaustive, and moreover, shouldn't). R. & A. Fitter in 1981 describe:

    the Canada Goose's call as “a loud double-trumpeting ker-konk

    the Wigeon's as whee-oo, while the buzzard pee-oos

    the Garganey drake's spring call as having “been likened to a single match rattling in a match-box”

    the Quail (as below) as singing wet-mi-lips or quic-ic-ic

    the Partridge as keeving or heev-iting

    my phonemic favourite, the Golden Plover — tlui

    the Curlew singing cooorwee cooorwee and quee quee quee

    the Sandwich Tern kirricks while the Roseate Tern aach aachs

    the way to distinguish a Woodpigeon (or Ring Dove) from a Collared Dove being that one coo-coo-coo, coo-coos while the other more persistently gives a coo-cooo-cuh. The Turtle Dove gives “a soothing” turr turrr

    (another bonus: the Hedgesparrow or Dunnock is described as having “a rather flat little warble”)

    Great Tit: “Best-known call a loud teacher teacher, also one like a saw being sharpened.”

    the Marsh tit “has characteristic pitchüü and chicka bee bee bee calls”

    the Yellowhammer is “well known for its monotonous, high-pitched song, usually rendered as a little bit of bread and no cheese

    November 13, 2008

  • Birds are able to distinguish details in the utterances of their own kind better than we can. A Garden Warbler in good voice can be mistaken for a mediocre Blackcap but the birds themselves are not deceived. … However, most call-notes are distinctive to out ears and even moe so to the birds. The Chaffinch's pink, the Goldfinch's soft switt-witt-witt-witt and the Bullfinch's quiet, piping contact call reveal unmistakably the identity of the birds; so with the caw of the Rook, the snarl of the Carrion Crow, the harsh chatter of the Magpie and the Jay's raucous scream…

    The calls uttered by a number of species of small birds when a hawk or falcon flies over are so similar that they constitute a general warning — a thin, high whistle… This seeet note is difficult to locate and therefore does not betray the position of the caller…

    The Oropendola… males act as sentinels and sound a loud cack-cack-cack when a raptor appears…

    The male usually ‘makes the going’ but either sex of the Great Tit may invite copulation, giving a high-pitched zeedle-zeedle-zeedle-zee… Among Herring Gulls the female usually takes the initiative in pair-formation, walking round the male with her neck drawn in and occasionally giving a melodious kleeoo as she tosses her head… The Greater Honeyguide is exceptional. He perches on a favourite tree and reiterates his loud whit-purr and vic-tor calls every minute or so for about eight hours day after day…

    Often our first intimation that a party of Long-tailed Tits is around is hearing their conversation consisting of variouscalls — tupp tsirrup and a high-pitched zee-zee-zee

    A Blackbird gives a tchook note on discovering a predator

    In Trinidad a tyrantbird, the Kiskadee, enquired with exasperating regularity for hours on end outside my window in French: Qu'est-ce qu'il dit?’—‘What is he saying?’

    If it calls pitchew it is a Marsh tit…

    corcorovado, corcorovado … is sung by a pair of Marbled Wood Quail, one singing corcoro, the other vado

    The Heron… constantly repeats a sharp barking call, ank

    The Greenshank's song-flight involves soaring and circling while making the sky ring with piping too-hoos… The Spotted Redshank cries chup chup chup

    The Yellow Wagtail courts with a sree-sree-sree

    The Hawfinch accompanies her pre-coital wing-fluttering with a wheezing zee-zee

    Whitethroats utter tick notes… as the birds move along a hedgerow in a loose group…

    Newly fledged Blackbird emit a subdued reereeree

    …the Corncrake… reiterates its Latin name Crex crex, and the Quail… wet my lips

    — Edward A. Armstrong, Discovering Bird Song, Shire Publications Ltd. 1975.

    There's a delightful, idiosyncratic arbitrariness to all of these — except the “phrase” ones which have become culturally embedded. I love them all.

    November 12, 2008

  • teitittelytee!

    Say “Haluaisin annoksen teetä” and I might bring you one, bilby.

    This is the Finnish word for addressing someone as te, formal, rather than sinä, informal (sinuttelu). The verbs are sinutella and teititellä.

    November 12, 2008

  • The snooze on my phone is six minutes, I think.

    And you've set me off into trying to remember, as I do every now and then, what I was once told our woodpigeons say. I think it might be go home now, Betty.

    November 12, 2008

  • Possibly the hexahexaflexagon, actually. I didn't know until now that they weren't an idle invention of his.

    November 12, 2008

  • Hahaha. I learnt this from Johnny Ball!

    November 12, 2008

  • Oh! My name! I only just now transplanted it into Google. This is me too, I think: שָׂרָה

    November 11, 2008

  • Ah, that'll be fine!

    November 11, 2008

  • I checked before listing!

    November 11, 2008

  • From that link:

    Obama has three separate vowel sounds compared to McCain's one.

    Very mistaken. Fine on Obama, but McCain has one vowel in each syllable (note the much-forgotten-in-English schwa), plus the diphthong in -ai- must count for something.

    November 11, 2008

  • I find it quicker — no searching or waiting for menus to open. But you could always create a shortcut to it!

    November 10, 2008

  • the Windows Character Map (annoyingly buried three submenus down from Start)

    It is an irritation, yes. That's why I use Run > charmap!

    And to add to frindley's guide: &ndash; –; &mdash; —

    November 10, 2008

  • I like the broccoli ocarina (broccarina?) — cf. YouTube.

    I do have a completed make-it-yourself one in lovely orange cardboard. And can play jigs on it.

    November 10, 2008

  • I am so puzzled by this conversation — I feel like I'm trying to see in half-light.

    November 10, 2008

  • Oh, hyvää paivää! I am learning :)

    November 10, 2008

  • fourteen nights; that of which fortnight is a contraction

    November 10, 2008

  • ? bilby?

    November 10, 2008

  • Though I have knitted a bike-light cosy; is that urban enough…?

    November 7, 2008

  • I very much like it as it is :)

    November 7, 2008

  • Popped into my head last night, although the -at- was missing.

    November 7, 2008

  • I have wanted to knit lamp-post cosies before. But I don't think it would be as truly excellent as that example.

    November 7, 2008

  • Ditto. Also the mention of Westward Ho!

    November 7, 2008

  • Honestly, at the moment, this word gives me a warm glow.

    November 7, 2008

  • I hate this new turn of xkcd! Gah. Bring back the clever miniatures!

    November 4, 2008

  • I grew up with your mother's version, too, rolig.

    November 4, 2008

  • big ":)"

    November 3, 2008

  • !

    Is that something of your own you've just posted? It felt unseemly to ask this on that page.

    November 3, 2008

  • *waves at reesetee*

    November 3, 2008

  • See under nice hot and would you like a.

    Also cf. builders' tea, in my case.

    November 3, 2008

  • And bread. And welcome.

    see freezing for context

    November 3, 2008

  • cup of tea (more nice hot really)

    blanket

    cat

    aga

    radiator

    embrace

    I feel better now.

    November 3, 2008

  • Bless you!

    November 3, 2008

  • yes I am

    November 3, 2008

  • Hmm, there's a cithara as well. And then of course all the way to guitar, though I'm not looking up the etymology of all of these!

    November 3, 2008

  • I love passing Bvsh Hovse in London. Compels me to enunciate it every time.

    Bonus quotation from that link: Over many years all the BBC's foreign language services gradually invaded Bush House, penetrating each wing in turn.

    !

    November 3, 2008

  • Tyah!

    November 3, 2008

  • uuuughgngnnnhhhgggghhhhh

    November 3, 2008

  • al niente, in fact. So if you wanted to denote the destination, niente would do.

    November 3, 2008

  • Ha ha. Climax is an end-point, though, while the crescendo is the process of getting there. Not really a vs.

    November 3, 2008

  • Oh, yes — I've read tours/guides of this place.

    November 3, 2008

  • *wry grin*

    November 2, 2008

  • “   ”

    November 2, 2008

  • Love it!

    November 2, 2008

  • Splendid illustrations.

    To be crude, they look a little bit like OMG vs WTF.

    November 2, 2008

  • And ton magasin est ouvert for the same, Asa, I was told years ago. I have a feeling this one mightn't be very reliable.

    November 2, 2008

  • Before anyone looking at the recent words list thinks something else has gone wrong… I'm sheepishly testing a new list, which you may be able to spot.

    November 2, 2008

  • Aye. I see this:

    etiolate (24)

    %c3%a8 (1)

    noisome (46)

    petrichor (78)

    %c3%a5 (1)

    emblemed (1)

    Though I've just realised that will look the same to you :) %​c3%​a8?

    November 2, 2008

  • Thånks ;)

    November 2, 2008

  • And look on the front page, VanishedOne - it looks awful! (I did try all the different encodings I could find. Weirdly, I think those links all led to the yen at one point, then they led nowhere. I may have been imagining it.)

    November 2, 2008

  • Oh, apologies! I can't remember my rationale, but something I found quite a while ago did suggest to me that it can be used aptly in Swedish for that wonderful, drenched-light weather condition of enough rain and sun together at once. Naturally I can't find the merest suggestion of this now.

    November 2, 2008

  • Augh! I cannot link to the lowercase version of this; å (å, å, å). The link and page title is fine, but the character is the yen sign ¥. ?!

    November 2, 2008

  • (See ø)

    November 2, 2008

  • "Island" in Dansk. No, really.

    November 2, 2008

  • Fair!

    November 2, 2008

  • Seriously? This looks like the nameplate of a retired librarian's house to me.

    November 2, 2008

  • Yes. I'm not sure what happens if there exist two lists with the same title.

    November 2, 2008

  • God, a version of this drove me batty when I found it in an old poetry book years ago. I never got through it!

    November 2, 2008

  • Wonderfully, I've just been browsing abebooks' BookSleuth forum, where this is asked after. (Already an answered query, though!)

    November 2, 2008

  • Peninsula in the Scottish highlands. Ardnamurchan Point is a landmark in the recitative of the Shipping Forecast, featuring as a boundary of an inshore coastal area. The Point is often cited as the most westerly point of the British mainland, though Corrachadh Mòr is a little more so.

    November 1, 2008

  • Dahahaha. Second to clitic, is that. As you know!

    November 1, 2008

  • It's a close call, isn't it?

    November 1, 2008

  • I submit fro, and beck.

    November 1, 2008

  • Thank you!

    November 1, 2008

  • Another term for the prolative case.

    November 1, 2008

  • Damn. Where's the list of "orphan" words only really used in fixed constructions? (to and fro; take umbrage — that one I don't quite agree with but it's a fair enough example for now)

    While I'm here, though… here's a charming 'fro.

    (by Matt, with whom I have no connection bar the serendipitous one of a Google Image search)

    November 1, 2008

  • I only found this (idiomatically) today :)

    Language Log post

    November 1, 2008

  • Brilliantly, WordNet doesn't append its definition to this one; instead, it appears in pooves (!!)

    October 26, 2008

  • LOVE. LOVE LOVE LOVE. LOOOOOOOVE.

    Makes me grin and giggle and chuckle. I love it.

    (Facetious plural of poof.)

    October 26, 2008

  • A curious linguistic term relating to words which, sharing an etymological root, have entered a language by two different routes. Some examples: fire/pyre, warden/guardian, secure/sure.

    Wikipedia link

    I've not yet run back over them, but some of the rejections from my etymological curiosities list are, I think, doublets.

    October 25, 2008

  • Oh god, literry. Someone on the radio today announced a "literry quiz".

    October 14, 2008

  • *stretches out back-to-front*

    October 11, 2008

  • Damn it, wonder if this was one of my orphans.

    October 11, 2008

  • Cash machine. Trademarked (in its restricted usage as an ATM label, one would assume) by Barclays Bank!

    October 11, 2008

  • Also hole in the wall.

    October 11, 2008

  • Look familiar, c_b…?

    October 11, 2008

  • secertary :(

    cyumoonity :( :(

    October 10, 2008

  • a.k.a. paracetamol. A surprisingly harmonious word.

    September 29, 2008

  • FINALLY, Clive Teale's suggestion that a conference of "polinymous" scientists - those with names of towns - should take place in the Lincolnshire village of Mavis Enderby (23 August) has prompted James Brown to inform us that a local wit has enlivened the signpost that says "To Mavis Enderby and Old Bolingbroke" by adding the words "the gift of a son".

    From issue 2675 of New Scientist magazine, 24 September 2008, page 76

    September 25, 2008

  • cool, Darqueau!

    September 24, 2008

  • There are two next to one of my bus routes that, I'd imagine, predate the blissfully futile THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC RIGHT OF WAY signs next to each :)

    September 21, 2008

  • A term in landscape architecture used to describe a path that isn’t designed but rather is worn casually away by people finding the shortest distance between two points.

    — Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (via uselog)

    September 21, 2008

  • BrE: fringe

    September 20, 2008

  • Another specific person!

    September 17, 2008

  • ママ�?ャリ

    September 17, 2008

  • mamachari

    September 17, 2008

  • On a bicycle, an extra chain ring — that is, next to the cranks and the pedals — with a lesser number of teeth than the others: “typically in the 24-28 tooth range”, says the very useful Sheldon Brown. Its purpose is for going up hills in granny gear (q.v.).

    August 20, 2008

  • (Fr.) Patented. See under words you find on your bicycle components next to FABRIQUE EN FRANCE

    August 20, 2008

  • Inævitable, you say? ;)

    August 19, 2008

  • Gorgeous. Looks like a candelabra. I suppose iijii would be a bit closer to that.

    August 19, 2008

  • Spooky. Didn't know you could do that.

    August 19, 2008

  • Also short for biclou.

    August 18, 2008

  • Fender in AmE; spatbord (!!) in Dutch!

    August 18, 2008

  • No suggestion of a best answer, though, is there? :)

    August 18, 2008

  • I think that given the era and nature of the technology I might habitually use artifact to refer to JPEG arti/efacting, the same way conscientious BrE speakers use programme for most cases, including TV, but program for a computer program; also disc for round, flat things (including CDs, since they fairly resemble that previously more familiar object, the vinyl record), but disk for hard disk and floppy disk, where the platters themselves are hidden.

    August 18, 2008

  • “No, it won't suit you.”

    groan

    August 18, 2008

  • Oh god, sorry. I can't help following palooka's lead. I may have to purge some…

    August 18, 2008

  • (Fr.) faire du vélo en danseuse: riding a bike standing up (lit. like a ballerina)

    August 18, 2008

  • Dutch loop-framed bicycle, often with a basket, no gears and a back-pedal brake — and dynamo lights! I thought that calling them “granny bikes” was a peculiarly and purely British habit, after similar constructions such as granny flat, granny gear, granny bag and perhaps granny square, but was delighted to find it translated directly.

    Opoe describes a particularly aged grandmother, or old woman, a little like babushka (or indeed granny); oma is more akin to “gran” or “nan”, and you can call the same bicycle an omafiets too. A fiets (pl. fietsen) is a bike.

    /'o�?pufits/ (I think!)

    August 18, 2008

  • Come on. Tfuckingmesis.

    August 17, 2008

  • The milkman in his milk float does the milk round.

    Alternatively, a term describing employers "delivering" job opportunities to university soon-to-be-graduates.

    August 11, 2008

  • Oh, and “flourescent” for me too!

    August 9, 2008

  • Ooooh. The memory-sticking ones for me are “enviroment” (age 11, but I think I'd barely used it before being told) and “oppurtunity” (somewhere in my teens, which was much more embarrassing).

    August 9, 2008

  • The words I'm including are ones which sound like they've been carefully invented in a drawing-room by someone proud of (inevitably) his classical education — with a little scope for those new fripperies which have been named more colloquially, but still with a particular Victorian fancy (e.g. dundrearies).

    How could I miss antimacassar, though! 1852.

    August 6, 2008

  • Oh gosh! I haven't heard that for ages. It does annoy me that it's written with American stress though (ADdress not adDRESS).

    socket makes me a little bit queasy. Learning about dry socket only intensified that feeling, so I'm not sure quite where it came from.

    August 6, 2008

  • Oh dear. Not a suggested addition, but a sign outside a sports centre near me advertises five'a'side!

    July 22, 2008

  • elegiac, rather

    July 19, 2008

  • I prefer weal.

    May 31, 2008

  • aaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

    May 29, 2008

  • Excuse me? I was trying to type phantasmagorically. I can understand your average T9 dictionary not containing that word, but this one is meant to be what exactly?

    May 23, 2008

  • I should also point out I'm in no way evangelizing!

    May 16, 2008

  • Some of these make me feel a bit wistful. I love the totally implausible power of sci-fi sometimes.

    May 16, 2008

  • Jesus wants you for a sunbeam!

    May 16, 2008

  • folie à deux

    May 16, 2008

  • (Fr.) So there! (childish)

    May 16, 2008

  • “phew”

    May 16, 2008

  • “anyway”! — when coming back to your point after something of a ramble, or to introduce a summary. To cut a long story short; in a nutshell; in short, in brief.

    Lit. brief.

    May 16, 2008

  • (Fr. colloq.) Great, smashing.

    May 16, 2008

  • Ah, here. This one (among many, many others):

    go off To start into sudden action; to break into a fit of laughter, extravagance of language, irrelevant or unintelligible discourse, etc. (emphasis mine)

    May 14, 2008

  • Miss Ar-Ti-Cho-Kee!

    (Or you may prefer the Ukulele Orchestra's version.)

    May 14, 2008

  • Ohhhhh. Now I'm stumped as to how to explain/justify “go off” in that sense. But I have had a wonderful time considering all possible meanings of off.

    May 14, 2008

  • Are you feeling quite alright…?

    May 14, 2008

  • “fine weather tomorrow”! To be said to someone who's sneezed three times in a row.

    May 14, 2008

  • How to sneeze in French. As for what to say afterwards, see à tes souhaits.

    May 14, 2008

  • How to sneeze in Dutch.

    hatsjoe!Gezondheid!”

    hatsjoe hatsjoe HATSJOE? See morgen mooi weer!

    May 14, 2008

  • « à vos souhaits » for someone you vouvoie (see vouvoyer). Equivalent to the English “bless you” after a sneeze. There's a sequence:

    First sneeze — à tes souhaits !   (lit.) to your wishes!

    Second sneeze — à tes amours !   to your loves! (to which the sneezer can respond que les tiennes durent toujoursles vôtres for a vous — may yours last forever!)

    Third sneeze — à tes aïeux !   to your ancestors!

    Fourth sneeze — crève !   die (choke)!

    Or:

    à tes souhaits belle plante !   bless you, beautiful woman!

    merci fleur charmante !   thank you, delightful flower!

    y'a pas de quoi vieille branche !   don't mention it, old chap!

    or

    ta gueule pot de fleur !   shut your gob, flowerpot! (?!)

    so many more! http://www.expressio.fr/expressions/a-vos-souhaits.php

    May 14, 2008

  • To address someone as tu: someone younger than you, or whom you know well.

    Compare vouvoyer.

    May 14, 2008

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