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gladioli

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9 months ago reesetee said:

You...uh...scream at flowers a lot, chained_bear?

Arby, you may have been thinking of aglio e olio, which is Italian for "garlic and olive oil." Simple pasta dressing. Also, unfortunately, an EP by the Beastie Boys. But don't think about that last part.

9 months ago chained_bear said:

Well, one does expect flowers to be glad, I guess, in the sense of happy and perky and pretty and all that, but I just don't like the word glad.

You know the poster for the movie "40-Year-Old Virgin"? Now, I love that poster, and love Steve Carell, but that's the kind of goofy, fake-looking expression I think of when I hear the word "glad." So, if a flower looked like that, I'd be all like, "Shut up," and shit. I'd be in its face, you know? Like, "shut up!"

9 months ago arby said:

Aioli, yeah, that's it! Thanks, that was totally going to bug me. (And BTW, isn't that a cool word? So many vowels in a row. Those wacky French! *makes note to add to Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys list*)

That is very cool about the etymology but I completely agree, it's sort of cognitive dissonance because you don't expect flowers to be glad. But I like it much better now that I know the connection to gladiator.

9 months ago chained_bear said:

You might be thinking of aioli, a French garlic sauce.

Gladiolus comes from the Latin for "sword," because the plant's leaves are shaped like swords. Isn't that nifty? Same root as gladiator.

I could never get past the "glad" part though. It makes me think of flowers that are just way too happy.

9 months ago arby said:

Ah. I think at some point I knew that, a long time ago.

PS this one definitely does sound better. It's got that nice 'aoli' sound going on, reminds me of Italian food. (Aglio y olio? Or am I thinking of some kind of appetizer?)

9 months ago uselessness said:

Gladiola is plural for gladiolus, and this word is an alternate plural form of the same thing. I actually prefer this one.

9 months ago arby said:

Plural of gladiola?

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