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BS: $5 Word Contest...
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Pete Jennings Date: 09 Aug 13 - 07:16 AM Rap can always be trussed when he talks about gnus. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 08 Aug 13 - 11:27 PM If I speak of "minute of angle" I will do so to someone who I presume knows what I'm talking about. Likewise, "bowhead" would mean one thing if I were talking to someone about whales and something entirely different were I talking with someone about companies held by Native Americans in Alaska -- just as a chord means one thing to a musician and another to a surveyor. Ya gotta know yer audience. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 08 Aug 13 - 09:06 PM There seems to be a confusin as to whether the topic is about words are not in common use that deserve to be used, because they enable us to say things we couldn't readily say otherwise, or words that sound impressive but aren't worth using. "Farrago" and "verbosity" definitely fall into the former category. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: dick greenhaus Date: 08 Aug 13 - 08:42 PM a farrago of hemipygian verbosity. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 08 Aug 13 - 02:44 PM To prevent some misunderstandings: Not all scientists are geeks, but imitating the former successfully to a gullible audience may result in the latter image, instead of the desired prestige. Using any sort of terminology is neither a fault nor a merit by itself ("a priori"); it is the user's responsibility to assess the consequences in the given situation. Even genuine $5 usage can be perfectly justified, e.g. when clearly recognizable as irony. However, overused irony can wear off, as in "I'm afraid my financial situation is somewhat strained" (instead of "Sorry, I'm broke") - not always advisable if you hope for deferred payment. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 08 Aug 13 - 01:56 PM I shall have a sea change -- I'll begin cruising the coast of New England! Hah! Didn't see that one comin', did ya? |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 08 Aug 13 - 01:47 PM And after that geriatric sea change Rap, What will you do next week? Don T. ):-)LOL |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 08 Aug 13 - 11:45 AM Screw being a geek or a nerd (please?)! I'll continue to use words that are a precise as possible. I was brought up under the the azure skies of Illinois, in a town surrounded by fields of green and golden cord and the semi-opaque waters of the Mississippi River, to use le mot juste whenever possible. As I drift deeper into senescence I shall continue to do so until my quietus stills my voice and I drift away into honored, but dimming, memory. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 08 Aug 13 - 08:46 AM Don, no problem there, and certainly no criticism (once the spelling problem was corrected). With my comments (not censures), I want to point out that there are various classes of rare words, corresponding to various aspirations by the writer or speaker. Using "oftentimes" (OED: "(archaic, poetic)" - other dictionaries disagree) may convey the image of a snobbish conservative rather than a deep thinker. Similarly, whoever uses hard scientific terminology outside academic contexts nowadays, even if done convincingly, risks being denounced as a geek. Some decades ago, things were different. Management-speak may be about to go the same way - one positive result of economic turbulences. However, the trendy braggarts will always find new ways, this much is sure. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Pete Jennings Date: 08 Aug 13 - 07:28 AM "Twerp" is actually a good one... |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 08 Aug 13 - 05:50 AM ""Don, no doubt that "oftentimes" is a correct English word. To my feeling, it does not sound profound, but somewhat finicky, as if it were slightly archaic. As I said, I may be wrong."" Oh dear! One more try. The whole sentence was a sideswipe at the type of twerp who uses long words in a futile attempt to seem erudite. It was me taking the piss by doing exactly the same thing I was taking the piss out of. In that context, the aforementioned twerp would have no choice but to pick the only unusual word, where no $5 words presented themselves.. Hence "oftentimes"! Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 08 Aug 13 - 12:25 AM Toxicity. Lethality. Hysteresis. Spheroid. Oblate. Rubicund. Rotund. Lobotomy. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Bill D Date: 07 Aug 13 - 02:28 PM In Wash. DC 25 years ago, I saw a Volkswagon van with the license plate DIOXIN. I have no idea whether he was for it or against it... or whether it was the initials of his kid's school. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: TheSnail Date: 07 Aug 13 - 02:12 PM Yes. Yes. Yes. I know what dioxin is. I was just quibbling about the numbering of the chlorine substitution positions. Don't mind me, I'm just looking for displacement activities. Might go for wine this evening. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 07 Aug 13 - 12:53 PM Don, no doubt that "oftentimes" is a correct English word. To my feeling, it does not sound profound, but somewhat finicky, as if it were slightly archaic. As I said, I may be wrong. Neologism: a scientific term, not profound, just exact. "Newly coined word" may do, but is lengthy. (I cannot claim my posts to be always as readable as possible; please grant me pardon as a non-native-speaker. However, if you catch me dressing up shallow thoughts, do not spare me your criticism by any means!) |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Bill D Date: 07 Aug 13 - 12:36 PM study of diseases of elephant skin: Pachydermatology for my own skin: 6α,9-difluoro-11β,16α,17,21-tetrahydroxypregna-1,4-diene-3,20-dione, cyclic 16,17-acetal with acetone,21-acetate |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: dick greenhaus Date: 07 Aug 13 - 12:19 PM neologism, and its close relation, carcinomenclature |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 07 Aug 13 - 11:46 AM "oftentimes" ROGET'S THESAURUS frequently [free-kwuhnt-lee] Show IPA Part of Speech: adverb Definition: commonly, repeatedly Synonyms: again and again, as a rule, at regular intervals, at short intervals, at times, by ordinary, customarily, every now and then, generally, habitually, in many instances, in quick succession, intermittently, many a time, many times, much, not infrequently, not seldom, oft, often, oftentimes, ofttimes, ordinarily, over and over, periodically, recurrently, regularly, spasmodically, successively, thick and fast, time and again, usually, very often If it's good enough for Roget............! Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 07 Aug 13 - 10:52 AM Do stick to beer. That's the stuff in "Agent Orange" that's caused all the problems. IUPAC Name is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo[b,e][1,4]-dioxin. It's the stuff that brought about the EU's Seveso II Directive and has cost billions in US and other currencies because of the health problems it causes. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: TheSnail Date: 07 Aug 13 - 09:39 AM Is that right? Looks as if it should be 2,3,6,7-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin to me. I think I'll stick to the beer. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 06 Aug 13 - 10:11 PM How about 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin then? |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: TheSnail Date: 06 Aug 13 - 08:53 PM dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane Seems I'll have to concede that one, Rap, but it strikes me as very sloppy nomenclature. Hinny is an endearment in Newcastle-on-Tyne. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Bill D Date: 06 Aug 13 - 06:38 PM You mean my Uncle Doug was a nodule? |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 06 Aug 13 - 04:55 PM "Nodule" being a relative hard spot. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 06 Aug 13 - 02:22 PM The inherent duplicity of barratry casts a mote in the eye of justice. "You will find androgyny in both zygote and gamete," he said, chuckling in an avuncular tone. "No interstices, no ladder," as the saying goes. "Be sure to use the thumbstall!" cried the number 3 man on the gun. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Bill D Date: 06 Aug 13 - 12:51 PM It may be that the most relevant, and so far unmentioned, word for this thread is: obfuscation, which has so far not been eschewed. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 06 Aug 13 - 12:18 PM Don T., I noticed with pleasure that you switched on your spelling checker. (About a year ago, we had a thread titled something like "Are Mudcatters political ignoramouses?" - you need not read it to imagine the content. I suggested a neologism "ignora-mouse", plural "ignora-mice", for a person too shy to acquire any knowledge about controversial topics.) Your sentence contains some excellent $5ers, but some others are more in the realm of scientific terminology. Scientists are not profound, they are geeks or fachidiots - no longer cool, sorry. I think "oftentimes" sounds archaic (or am I mistaken?), which ain't cool either. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Ebbie Date: 06 Aug 13 - 11:09 AM Ah. That's the ticket, Rap. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 06 Aug 13 - 10:28 AM "You ride that hinny over there. We'll ride out to Don Springs, then over to the thicket and then back, making an isosceles triangle. Use a McClelland to saddle up." "When you get the trunnions set, load canister and push 'er up to the gabion. I'll use the linstock. We'll take that redoubt." |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 06 Aug 13 - 10:24 AM ""Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee - PM Date: 02 Aug 13 - 06:45 PM Hey, I used some of those words earlier! You should penalized! I think scaphism appropriate for this offense."" In a moment of idle curiosity, I looked back through the thread and found none of my words in posts by you except for the following 5 cent variety: "the", "is", "an", "of", "in" and "to". Can it be, Sirrah, that your post above was directed at some other member, or must I perforce direct my seconds to attend upon you to present my gauntlet of finest dove grey kid (with the lead shot filled Fingers) in a challenge to restore my honour. I shall of course allow sufficient time for the broken jaw to heal, not being one to seek unfair advantage. I await your response in due course. Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 06 Aug 13 - 10:01 AM I also have a soft spot for "Nodule." Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 06 Aug 13 - 09:58 AM ""Rather, a typical $5 word user wants to dress up shallow thoughts as deep profound. This phenomenon can be observed in all languages, even without problems of understanding."" Precisely the gist of my earlier offering, couched in words valued between $5 and $50. You don't get much more pseudo profound than the following: ""The socially ambitious wunderkind is oftentimes an egregious ignoramus, whose insubstantial powers of ratiocination precipitate an ineluctable penchant for sesquipedalian communication, in an ineffectual endeavour to accede to the eminence of the erudite pedagogues of academe. Don T."" |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Pete Jennings Date: 06 Aug 13 - 09:38 AM Polyisocyanurate. Normally abbreviated to PIR, it is produced as a solid foam for use in insluation boards for buildings. I sat a 3 hour building technlogy exam in 2007 and managed to use it (the whole word) twice! |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 06 Aug 13 - 08:56 AM Ebbie, from reading some samples I googled the other day, I conclude that "$5 word" is normally meant critically. The metaphor suggests some construct, say a patchwork blanket, in which one piece is much more expensive than necessary and fitting. Obviously, this is a property of the whole context, not only of the incongruous word itself. Although I did not plan to participate in the contest, my candidate is “profound”, since the claim it denotes is the very epitome of fivedollarism, while not being rare at all. (When I learned English in France, we used to anglicize French words at liberty. The teacher, a native speaker, insisted that those words did not exist; sometimes we could prove her wrong.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Ebbie Date: 06 Aug 13 - 03:20 AM To me, a $5 word isn't worth that much if one cannot use it in a sentence or in a conversation where practically everyone involved agrees that, under-used or not, it expresses the thought perfectly. Otherwise, pah! |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: JennieG Date: 06 Aug 13 - 01:26 AM What I would like to know is........ .......has any body won the $5 yet? and who gets to decide, anyway? |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 05 Aug 13 - 09:59 PM Floccinaucinilipilification A medical/mental condition causes one to compulsively pick at tiny (almost surely imaginary) hard-to-see bits on one's clothing. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 05 Aug 13 - 09:34 PM Hinny. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 05 Aug 13 - 10:00 AM DDT, a now-banned insecticide. IUPAC name: 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane. C14H9Cl5. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: TheSnail Date: 05 Aug 13 - 06:37 AM Rapparee dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane Speaking as an erstwhile research chemist, I'm not convinced about that one. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: GUEST,Grishka Date: 05 Aug 13 - 05:59 AM Bert, "concatenate" is of reasonably good Latin pedigree, originally meaning "join two or more existing chains to form a single one". Still, it is a $5 word (i.e. "overpaid"), if it can be replaced for example by "join". Compared to other languages such as Spanish, English is struck with a very large number of words known only to (varying) minorities. Such words are called "worthless" on a nice topical website I just stumbled over when searching for "faunch". While some $5 words may not be understood by all listeners or readers, this is not their main point. Rather, a typical $5 word user wants to dress up shallow thoughts as |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Bert Date: 04 Aug 13 - 09:01 PM Of course, sometimes these words are necessary. Somebody once wrote, 'a hirsute telescopic copulatory appendage'; but you can't write 'big hairy dick' in an entomology textbook. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Bert Date: 04 Aug 13 - 08:58 PM Metamorphosing Pollywogs, who thinks these things up? And concatenate is tortuous. Catenate means from into a chain, the con is superfluous. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 04 Aug 13 - 08:48 PM inherent duplicity barratry mote promissory androgyny zygote gamete avuncular interstices thumbstall trunnion redoubt gabion linstock |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: bobad Date: 04 Aug 13 - 07:16 PM perspicacity |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 04 Aug 13 - 07:10 PM chupacabra isosceles areal musketoon frizzen mellifluous portentous |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Ebbie Date: 04 Aug 13 - 12:40 PM The only person I have ever heard use 'faunching', Bill, was a woman who used it to mean 'idling', as in "This morning I accomplished nothing. I just faunched around.' Wonder about the derivation? |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Bill D Date: 04 Aug 13 - 11:46 AM One word I heard used over 50 years ago, by one person and never since, is 'faunching'...I took an instantly dislike to the word. It upset me even without a definition.... it seems to be an older bit of vernacular meaning approximately: "To be so angry as to make uncontrollable sounds likened to hyper-ventilating or grunting." |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Ebbie Date: 04 Aug 13 - 11:38 AM One of my favorite emotion-evoking words is a simple one: lilt. It has always made me smile. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 04 Aug 13 - 10:30 AM maniacal phosphorescence fluorocarbons trichlorethylene dioxin trinitrotoulene consubstantial transubstantiation dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (growing up we really like this one) onanism mixologist coefficient repose ringlets mitral nitrification scrofulous geode geosynchronous jollification |
