Word of the Day. Post it Here

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by Captain Kremmen, Aug 16, 2007.

  1. Tht1Gy! Life, The universe, and e... Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    780
    This week's theme: Words with hidden animals.

    forbearance (for-BAIR-uhns) noun

    1. Refraining from enforcing something, such as a right or a debt.

    2. Tolerance, patience, restraint, or leniency.

    [From forbear, from Old English forberan (to endure), from for- (away) +
    beran (to bear).]
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. Pandaemoni Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,634
    Restive
    adj.
    1. Uneasily impatient under restriction, opposition, criticism, or delay.
    2. Resisting control; difficult to control.
    3. Refusing to move. Used of a horse or other animal.


    Etymology
    c.1410, restyffe "not moving forward," from M.Fr. restif (fem. restive) "motionless," from rester "to remain". Sense of "unmanageable" (1687) evolved via notion of a horse refusing to go forward.

    http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=restive&searchmode=none
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    Not what I expected.

    "Brewster, what's that gigantic lump on your head?"
    "Oh, that's a wifive. I'll probably have another one tomorrow."
    "What's a wifive?"
    "Somebody told my wifive been going out with my secretary."
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    I love words that mean just the opposite of what you'd expect. "Restive" ought to mean "prone to excessive resting"!

    That's how we got the made-up word "flammable." It's really "inflammable," i.e. "capable of being inflamed." But people thought the "in-" was a negative prefix, so--and you're not gonna believe this--they figured all those tanker trucks traversing the highways painted with six-foot high letters saying INFLAMMABLE meant that a hobo could start a campfire underneath one and be in no danger.

    I actually never met anybody quite that dumb but the government figures that everybody is pretty stupid (after all, we elected them) so they made all the truckers change their signs to FLAMMABLE, even though there was no such word.
     
  8. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,738
    Mho
    A unit of electrical conductance

    Etymology
    Reverse of Ohm, the unit of electrical resistance




    and another scientific word

    Ununoctium

    The last of the Noble gases. Atomic Number 118
    Three atoms were produced in 2006 by bombarding Californium with Calcium.
    They lasted only a fraction of a second. :bawl:

    Etymology
    Latin for one one eight

    http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele118.html
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2007
  9. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    Good goddess, those scientists are sure weak on creativity! The last of its kind, and they give it an utterly stooopid name based on its atomic number??? That's like the two elements they named Yttrium and Terbium by splitting up Ytterbium, because they couldn't think of anything more clever! What happened to really cool names like Praseodymium?
     
  10. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    Syncretism

    Pronounciation

    /si[ng]-kr&-"ti-z&m, 'sin-/

    IPA

    /ˈsɪŋkrɪˌtɪzəm, ˈsɪn-/

    Definition

    –noun
    1. the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.
    2. Grammar. the merging, as by historical change in a language, of two or more categories in a specified environment into one, as, in nonstandard English, the use of was with both singular and plural subjects, while in standard English was is used with singular subjects (except for you in the second person singular) and were with plural subjects.

    Etymology

    1618, from Mod.L. syncretismus (David Pareus, 1615), from Gk. synkretismos "union of communities," from synkretizein "to combine against a common enemy," from syn- + srcond element of uncertain origin. One theory connects it with kretismos "lying," from kretizein "to lie like a Cretan;" another connects it with the stem of kerannynai "to mix, blend;" krasis "mixture."


    History

    The Greek word occurs in Plutarch's (1st century AD) essay on "Fraternal Love" in his Moralia (2.490b). He cites the example of the Cretans, who reconciled their differences and came together in alliance when faced with external dangers. "And that is their so-called Syncretism". The word forms a compound of syn "together", along with "chronos", or time; meaning, "together at the same time."

    Erasmus probably coined the modern usage of the Latin word (in his Adagia ("Adages"), published in the winter of 1517–1518) to designate the coherence of dissenters in spite of their differences in theological opinions. In a letter to Melanchthon of April 22, 1519, Erasmus specifically adduced the Cretans of Plutarch as an example of his adage "Concord is a mighty rampart".
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2007
  11. Pandaemoni Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,634
    A non-scientific word, the pronunciation of which you wouldn't guess to look at it:

    Blackguard
    (Pronounced BLAG-urd or BLAG-ärd
    BLAG like the word "bag",
    urd as in "heard" or "curd," and
    ärd as in "guard" or "lard")

    n.
    1. A thoroughly unprincipled person; a scoundrel.
    2. A foul-mouthed person.

    tr.v. black·guard·ed, black·guard·ing, black·guards
    To abuse verbally; revile.

    Etymology
    1532, of uncertain application. Perhaps once an actual military or guard unit; more likely orig. a mock-military ref. to scullions and kitchen-knaves of noble households, of black-liveried personal guards, and of shoeblacks. By 1736, sense had emerged of "one of the criminal class."

    History of the Pronunciation
    This rather old-fashioned and now chiefly literary word dates back to the 16th century when it was spelled and most likely pronounced as two distinct words and may have referred literally to a guard of soldiers or perhaps some kind of attendants. By the 18th century the two words had become a hyphenated or a solid compound with the meaning “scoundrel.” As the two parts of the compound lost their separate meanings, so they eventually lost their separate pronunciations. Blackguard is pronounced (blag´ed) in British English and (blag´urd) or (blag´ärd) in American English.
     
  12. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    33,264
    "nintendonitis "

    " A chronic painful condition that effects the muscles or joints in the hand, fingers and/or forearm after playing videogames too much.

    Dude, I played Final Fantasy for three days straight, but my Nintendonitis flared up so I couldn't play anymore"
     
  13. Killjoy Propelling The Farce!! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,289
    `
    Widdershins
    (sometimes withershins, widershins or widderschynnes)

    A word which (usually) means counterclockwise, however in certain circumstances it can be used to refer to a direction which is against the light, i.e. where you are unable to see your shadow.
    It is cognate with the German language widersinnig, i.e., "against" + "sense". The term "widdershins" was especially common in Lowland Scots, and was known in Scottish Gaelic as tuathal, which uses the same root as tuath meaning "north".
    The opposite of widdershins is deiseil or sunwise. In the southern hemisphere, the sun goes anti-clockwise, but in the northern hemisphere, it goes clockwise, which is where the term "sunwise" originates from. Because the sun played a highly important role in primitive religion, to go against it was considered very bad luck.
     
  14. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,738
    The Noble Gases mostly have very good names

    Helium from the Greek for Sun
    Neon from the Greek for New
    Argon from the Greek for Lazy
    Krypton from the Greek for Hidden
    Xenon from the Greek for Strange
    Radon. Because it is given off as a gas when Radium decays.

    If you look them up, they all tell a story about how the element was discovered.

    And finally Ununoctium.

    If you dial 118118 in the uk you get telephone directories
    They are always trying to think up ways of getting people to remember the number
    eg by having two runners in 118 numbered shirts
    I bet they havent even thought of ununuoctium.
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2007
  15. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    My point exactly! A monument to a failure of the storyteller's muse! Even Radon is lame but this Ununoctium is just stoopid. It looks like some scientist's tribute to a particularly memorable "one night" stand.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    You're already having trouble with it, you spelled it ununoctium the first time and ununuoctium the second! Ununoctium is correct.

    And I can already hear the Americans and Brits arguing over pronunciation, like a-LOO-minum versus alyoo-MIN-yum. I'm sure our scientists stumble over OO-noo-NOK-tee-um, while yours rattle off YOO-nuh-NOK-shum. They always find a way to knock syllables out of words.
    In America they changed "Information" to "Directory Assistance" about 45 years ago and changed the number from 113 and 114 in various cities to 411. It's become a part of our culture, "411" is slang for "information." Rap lyrics are full of the line, "What's the four-one-one?"
     
  16. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,738
    Let's hope they don't start making any weapons out of it.
    A president who struggles with Nuclear isn't going to fare well with Ununoctium. My guess at his attempt - "Oo-noc-tin-um"

    The 411 makes it a bit difficult to create advertising jingles
    as that would be a much higher atomic weight than anything which has yet been made.
    I suppose if they continue bombarding elements with other elements,
    they may find something stable with a high atomic weight
    but 411 would just be too good to be true.

    There's not even much with a molecular weight of 411
    D-arabinofuranosylcytosine is one candidate.
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2007
  17. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    33,264
    "Remasculate"

    "The opposite of emasculate. To grow one's balls back after they have been shrunken by an especially effeminate activity.

    God, the girlfriend dragged me to go see License to Wed... it was terrible. I had to remasculate afterwards by watching Die Hard: The Bloody Retribution."
     
  18. ntgr Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    70
    Tantalize: to provoke, tease, torture someone -by showing them something desirable that is always out of their reach.

    According to Greek mythology (most common version): Tantalus, the son of Zeus and nymph Plouto, king of Phrygia, stole nectar and ambrosia from the gods and also gave away their secrets to mortals (much like Prometheus). He also cooked his son and offered him as meal for the gods. He wanted to see if he could deceive them. To punish him-according to Homer- Zeus at first killed him with a bolt of thunder. In Hades he stood hungry under a tree full of delicious ripe fruits but whenever he tried to take one the branches would go higher, torturing him for all eternity.
     
  19. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    BTW, everybody: Feel free to post words in your own languages. It is very difficult to find etymologies in English of words in other languages!
     
  20. orcot Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,488
    supercalifragilistic
     
  21. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    You have to provide the definition and the etymology. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're asking for help with those.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    The reason that you had trouble looking it up is that the word is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The pronunciation is American, with every vowel except the last I pronounced and a secondary accent on every second syllable. That second C is hard, there's no "sex" hidden in the pronunciation. It just means "wonderful, fabulous."

    It's the title of a song in the 1964 Walt Disney musical movie "Mary Poppins," starring Julie Andrews as a British nanny who can unfurl her umbrella and use it to fly, and Dick Van Dyke as the clueless single dad who unwittingly employs her to take his children on supercalifragilisticexpialidocious adventures. The movie is based on a series of children's books by English author P. L. Travers and illustrated by Mary Shepard. The first book was published in 1934, an escapist work for the Great Depression.

    The word was invented for the Disney film and was not in the original book. According to the story Mary and the kids go to a shop that sells conversations for people who run out of things to talk about. Mary and two of the children build this word out of letters they choose in the shop.

    BTW, have you ever in your life seen anyone "furl" an umbrella?
     
  22. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    33,264
    "jill off "

    " The female version of jack off: unassisted autoerotic stimulation.

    Her boyfriend was out of town, so she got in the hot tub to jill off."
     
  23. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    11,888
    Dick van Dyke was the "cockney" chimney sweep (and "Dick van Dyke" is still an expression of hilarity in the UK for his attempts at the cockney accent).
     

Share This Page