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Words You've Never Heard (In Songs)
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Subject: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 13 Feb 05 - 11:39 AM I've never heard a song in which the word "defenestrate" (meaning to throw something or someone through a window) has been used. Does anyone know of one? I've checked the DT. Nada. Which leads us to the question, "What other great words have the songwriters of the world totally ignored?" We're not talking about scientific esoterica like "albumen" or "homeostasis", but words that, though a bit unusual, should have been used in a song by someone. Perhaps this could evolve into a song challenge. Last night as I lay sleeping upon my pillow, feather-filled There came an awful yowling from just outside my windowsill It was my neighbors' Tomcat, and such noise did he create That a Webster's dictionary I did defenestrate It hit that Tom upside his head with such a mighty whallop That from my fence he did alight and took off at a gallop. Okay, it ain't great. Why don't you try using "defenestrate" in a song? |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Amos Date: 13 Feb 05 - 11:56 AM Deee-fenestration Is making me blue, It's making me sad Deee-fenestration Is bringing me down It's gonna be bad I see the blacktop twenty stories down below me Why do I think that it's got something bad to show me-e-e-e? Oh, Deeee-fenestration The faster I go The surer I know It's bringing me down so looooooooow! How I wish I'd never been shown Deee-fene-estration.... (Violins and harps fade out....) |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Gorgeous Gary Date: 13 Feb 05 - 12:28 PM Hmm...I'm sure one of my fellow filkers has used "defenestrate" in a song somewhere. I'll have to pose the question! 8-) I think my favorite "great word" in a song is from the Berrymans' "Family Car": "Some steam from your thermos On my cold epidermis" |
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Subject: Lyr Add: GorlestonTown From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 13 Feb 05 - 12:31 PM There's a defenestration in Gorleston Town, by the Kippers, though the word isn't actually used: There was a bloke in Gorleston Town He kept an inn called the Rose and Crown. This landlord had a daughter fair, A plump little thing, with not much hair. Now won't you come down, won't you come down, Won't you come down to Gorleston Town. Belinda was this fair maid's name, And some says she was on the game, With her high heels and painted toes, And rosy cheeks for to match her nose. Now a sailor boy come home from sea He thought he'd have a jubilee. "Would you like a nice time" Belinda said. "No, I'll make do with you instead. "Well if a night of passion is your intention There's just one thing that I should mention. I'm a very heavy sleeper, I sleep like a top, But here's how you can wake me up." "I'll tie a bit of rope around my foot And the other end out of the window I'll put. As you pass by you can pull on the rope And that should wake me up I hope." So that same night old Jack come a-creeping. He pulled on the rope but she kept on a-sleeping "I could do with a little bit of help", thinks Jack, So he went and brought his mates all back. And the very next night in Gorleston Town There were sixteen sailors at the Rose and Crown. They heaved on the rope, and poor Belinda She was pulled right out of the winder. Now as she fell down from that casement. She knocked all the sailors into the basement. And Jack he says to the old innkeeper, "She's what I call a very heavy sleeper". |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Herga Kitty Date: 13 Feb 05 - 12:40 PM From what I remember of my history lessons at school, the defenestration of Prague in 1618 triggered the 30 years' war. Which war and consequences inspired Brecht/ Weill's Mother Courage. Kitty |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: dick greenhaus Date: 13 Feb 05 - 12:53 PM Well, Flanders and Swan used "antepenultimate" |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Leadfingers Date: 13 Feb 05 - 01:04 PM I did a local club gig with Trayton and we managed to use that lovely word 'Embouchure'in two separate songs !! |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: alanabit Date: 13 Feb 05 - 01:30 PM It is an interesting idea. From my own experience of teaching my language to others and learning another language, I have become aware of the fact that there are many words which one knows, but does not use in every day conversation. We know what words like "ubiiquitous" and "cuckold" mean, but we sound distinctly odd if we try to include them in conversation. (I will admit that the latter word is archaic and I do not even know how to pronounce it). I am sure I could think of other examples though. In the sort of songs most people here like, it is rare to find words which are not, or were not used in everyday conversation. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Bill D Date: 13 Feb 05 - 02:07 PM since 'most' of the purpose of songs is to convey a feeling or image or story to others, I'm not a bit surprised that 'ungulate' or 'dyspepsia' or 'vicissitude' seldom appear in song....except in order to show off or be Flanders & Swann. just think about how famous old songs like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" appear when they are translated into geek-speak.... |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: alanabit Date: 13 Feb 05 - 02:20 PM That always happens on Mudcat. Someone else comes along and says it better in fewer words! |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: michaelr Date: 13 Feb 05 - 02:21 PM Paul Thorn has the following couplet in his "Viagra Song": Well I feel like such a failure With my broke-down genitalia Cheers, Michael |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Teresa Date: 13 Feb 05 - 02:47 PM spatula Ok, I'm out of here :) |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Strollin' Johnny Date: 13 Feb 05 - 02:51 PM 'Acrimony' - not in itself an unusual word, but certainly unusual in songs:- "There's acrimony down in the card-room" A great line by Stan Rogers - almost as good as "She wears bougainvillea blossoms, you pluck 'em from her hair and toss them in the tide". Siii-i-i-i-i-ghhh! S:0) |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Teresa Date: 13 Feb 05 - 03:01 PM Ok, I'm not outa here. :) "Lockkeeper" is one of my all-time favorite songs. The lyrics, the music, all of it. I think I might have heard "antediluvian" in a song, but not "antidisestablishmentarianism". Not even convinced the latter is a word. :) Teresa |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 13 Feb 05 - 05:29 PM Cholesterol Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 13 Feb 05 - 05:50 PM Les Barker used the full expanded words for BSE in a parody, I believe. I'll look it up sometime. I've never come across a miners song which mentions ultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis either. Now that's a rhymer's challenge. And how about Flocinocinihilipilification, a word that uses up a typewriter's lifetime quota of i's. Don T. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Peace Date: 13 Feb 05 - 05:54 PM There are two spellings for the word: FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION FLOCCINOCCINIHILIPILIFICATION Don't mean to be pedantic. I give it as a bonus point on spelling quizzes. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 13 Feb 05 - 06:09 PM "Floccinoccinihilipilification" - the act of estimating something as worthless. There's rather a lot of it about isn't there? Floccinoccinihilipilification That's a curse that dragging down this poor dejected nation, Everywhere I look I see dejected desperation Is there anything can free us from this collective constipation, This floccinoccinihilipilification. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 13 Feb 05 - 06:11 PM just think about how famous old songs like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" appear when they are translated into geek-speak.... Scintillate, scintillate, apparently Lilliputian orb! Interrogatively, I question your constituent elements. In your prodigious altitude above the terrestrial sphere, Similar to a carbonaceous, isometric, octahedral specimen In the celestial firmament! (I exist to serve.) Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Murray MacLeod Date: 13 Feb 05 - 06:21 PM The number of mondegreens in the "Cholesterol" lyrics as harvested on the DT (M of H's link above) would be enough to give Adam McNaughtan a heart attack all on their own ... |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Bill D Date: 13 Feb 05 - 06:27 PM glorioski, Uncle Dave...that's just about the fanciest, most erudite and obfuscated hypersesquipedalian version of TTLS I ever DID see! Makes my point purty good, too... |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 13 Feb 05 - 07:31 PM Supercalifragalisticexp... what? |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 13 Feb 05 - 07:42 PM Thanks Brucie, I couldn't be arsed to pick up a dictionary, but I was sure someone would tell me the correct spelling (grin). McGrath, I surrender. Do you have a few thousand of these stored on the off chance, or do you really compose at warp factor nine? My hat's off to you either way. BTW McGrath, did you ever know a very nice guitar wizard by the name of David Reay? When I mentioned your handle he thought he might have known you in the past. Don T. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: JennyO Date: 13 Feb 05 - 09:00 PM There's this version of Twinkle Twinkle: Scintillate scintillate globule sporific, How I conjecture your nature specific, Loftily poised in ether capacious, Strongly resembling a gem carbonaceous. One of our Oz songwriters, Bruce Watson, who writes and performs a lot of very funny stuff, has songs called "Procrastination" and "Pretentious Song". One of his CD's is called "Out my Window" - it's a wonder he didn't call it "Defenestration" :-) |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Little Hawk Date: 13 Feb 05 - 09:24 PM smegma halitosis solipsism Schenectady mellifluous tangential tendentious concupiscence somatosensory tautology |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Bill D Date: 13 Feb 05 - 11:13 PM vacillation indolent cloaca mellifluous bellicose ............ let's go back to Google whacking |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Padre Date: 13 Feb 05 - 11:42 PM George M. Cohan used Schenectady in his song, 'So Long Mary' from the play "45 Minutes from Broadway" in 1906. Padre |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: DonMeixner Date: 14 Feb 05 - 12:03 AM Listen to Don McLean sing "On The Amazon" |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: DonMeixner Date: 14 Feb 05 - 12:07 AM On The Amazon. Sung but not written by Don McLean There's a danger zone, not a stranger zone Than the little plot I walk on that I call my home Full of eerie sights, weird and skeery sights Ev'ry vicious animal that creeps and crawls and bites!! On the Amazon, the prophylactics prowl On the Amazon, the hypodermics howl On the Amazon, you'll hear a scarab scowl and sting zodiacs on the wing All the stalactites and vicious vertebrae Hunt the stalagmites while laryngitis slay All that parasites that come from Paraguay in the spring Hmm, hmm hmmm Snarling equinox among the rocks will seize you And the fahrenheit comes out at night to freeze you Wild duodenum are lurking in the trees And the jungle swarms with green apostrophes Oh, the Amazon is calling me On the Amazon, the pax vobiscum bite On the Amazon, the epiglottis fight On the Amazon, the hemispheres at night all slink where the agnostics drink All the hippodromes that lie concealed in mud Hunt the metronomes that live in swamp and flood Then the kodachromes run out and drink their blood, poor ginks While velocipedes among the weeds will scare you And the menopause with hungry jaws ensnares you Frenzied adenoids infest the hills and slopes Everyone avoids the deadly stethoscopes Oh, the Amazon is calling Yes, the Amazon is calling Oh, the Amazon is calling me-ee!! |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Teresa Date: 14 Feb 05 - 12:12 AM That is one wild song. I love it. :) teresa |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Nick Date: 14 Feb 05 - 05:38 AM "I happen to be gay But my hearing is great My friend on the other hand He's defenestrate" Trad |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 14 Feb 05 - 02:02 PM Well spotted Bill D. From "I'M A GNU", the line is:- "Call me Bison, or Okapi, and I'll sue". Don T. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 14 Feb 05 - 02:24 PM The real trick would be relatively common or garden words, the kind you might actually use, which just don't tend to make it into songs. In fact I can't think of any - every time I thought I had one, I checked, and found a song. Socks, compost, broccoli, carbuncle... But there must be some. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Bert Date: 14 Feb 05 - 02:54 PM Corbel |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 14 Feb 05 - 03:51 PM dehumidifier? Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 14 Feb 05 - 05:16 PM Programme (or program)? |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Judy Cook Date: 14 Feb 05 - 05:30 PM I know I enjoy the three songs with "Perdition" in them...It's just fun to *say*. When I was very little we used to sing a song about defenestration: We'd take the lyrics of any nursery rhyme up to the last phrase; then break into "Threw it out the window, the window, the second story window..." For example: "Jack & Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and threw it out the window, the window, the second story window. Jack fell down and broke his crown, and threw it out the window." A few hours of this on a long car trip is guaranteed to have a definite effect on the driver. Judy Cook |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: sixtieschick Date: 14 Feb 05 - 05:32 PM Oxymoron. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: RangerSteve Date: 14 Feb 05 - 05:54 PM Sanskrit Bessarabia Ptolemy Coelacanth Paleoscincus Necromancy (I don't see why not, it rhymes with Nancy, fancy and if you're Ogden Nash, pansy) Morbidity Schwa Flux Phlox Kohlrabi |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: GUEST Date: 14 Feb 05 - 07:44 PM Rectangular is the wooden box Where lies my love 'neath the golden phlox They say he died of the chicken pox In part I must agree One chick too many had he. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Genie Date: 15 Feb 05 - 03:31 AM discombobulate plethora rectification narthex vestibule mulch phlegm preposition rutabaga minestrone earwig tapir tuber tungsten |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Kaleea Date: 15 Feb 05 - 04:20 AM Odoriferous! I've never heard odoriferous in a song. I have, however, known an odoriferous Musician or two. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 15 Feb 05 - 01:43 PM Enema? DT |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Cool Beans Date: 15 Feb 05 - 01:59 PM "Rutabaga" shows up in my addition to "The Vegetable Song" aka "The Barnyard Dance, to wit: Three rutabagas Flew in from Vegas Down at the barnyard dance. Others have added it to their renditions. But howt about ameliorate? And, no, it's not the answer to, What did Amelia do at the restaurant? |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:09 PM "Earwig"? But that features in one of the most popular folksongs in the oral tradition: "Earwig O, Earwig O, Earwig O, Earwig O, Earwig O Earwigo-O-O..." As celebrateed by the incomparable Lesd Barker. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Charley Noble Date: 15 Feb 05 - 04:51 PM What a rich and wonderful thread. Now I've never heard a song using the word "sesquipedalian" in it but why not start now: My old man's a sesquipedalian, What do you think about that? He wears a sesquipedalian raincoat And a sesquipedalian hat; He wears sesquipedalian underwear, And sesquipedalian shoes, And every night when he gets home He reads the Sesquipedalian News. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Cool Beans Date: 15 Feb 05 - 07:30 PM Actually, Tom Chapin used "Sesquipedalian," and several other biggies, in his kids' song "Great Big Words." "They look at me like I'm an alien When I say words like sesquipedalian. But what me worry, can't go wrong With a word that's a foot-and-one-half long. Great big words, I like big words. No extra charge if it's very large, Great big words." |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 15 Feb 05 - 07:39 PM Now "Eclectic" is one word I can't recall meeting in a song; but I've come across it often enough ub wruting or indeed in speech. "Sibling" is another. Long words nobody uses are fun - but the ones we use, but don't put in songs are in some ways more interesting. It's not that hard to put one of those overlong words in a song, because they work as a joke. But a short dullish-sounding words don't have that entréé. |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: GUEST,Melani Date: 15 Feb 05 - 07:43 PM Speaking of Stan Rogers, he also used "superannuation." |
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Subject: RE: Words You've Never Heard (In Songs) From: Judy Cook Date: 15 Feb 05 - 08:44 PM In der vintertime in der valley green Wen der vind blows on der vinderpane And der vimminvolk in der vaudeville Ride velocopedes in der vestibule. |
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