BS: Another great word: pusillanimous

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 May 03 - 03:06 PM

ROTFLMAO!!! Good ol' Spiro! Never was there a more gloriously pompous and idiotic spokesman for the far right than he. I bet if you go through old speeches by Hitler you will find these same sort of devastating critiques of the weak and mealy-mouthed people who stand in the way of world-domination by "God's Chosen Few"...those who are no doubt supported by that other great mythical constituency...the Great Silent Majority.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 06 May 03 - 04:30 PM

SOMEONE has to get into "the longest" thread, so here's the longest English word I happen to know:

floccinaucinilipilification.

It's a real word, not like that stupid Disneyist invention, supercali(stupidism).

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 May 03 - 07:06 PM

Wow...

Gotta look it up.

Hmmmm. Not in this dictionary.

Are you sure?

I did find "flocculence" and "flocculation", though...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 06 May 03 - 07:53 PM

Uncle sub DaveO has a real word by the tail, first in print in 1741, in the sentence "I loved him for nothing so much as his f------ of money." OED 1971 edition.
Oh, the meaning? The action or habit of estimating as worthless. Beloved of Eton Latin students, for obvious reasons to those who have suffered through Latin.

But why this search for seldom used words? It causes me to flodder, nay, even to grutch and finally to gry.

And someone brought up that justifiably long-discarded author, PG. Any self-respecting editor would have ruddled his back-formation gruntle, a word which already had legitimate meanings.

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 06 May 03 - 08:28 PM

You know those little balls of yarn that form on your sweaters, that spoil the smoothness of the surface. They're called "pills".

Some people have a habit of picking at them--nay, a compulsion to pick at them.

And some people are so compulsive they pick at the pills on the sweater even if there aren't any.   That, friends, is floccinaucinilipilification.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Cluin
Date: 06 May 03 - 08:36 PM

"Pusillanimous" used in a song.

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 06 May 03 - 09:20 PM

Uncle Dave O's new definition for the word should be submitted to the OED as meaning 2, with the following as proof of use. If it appears in a magazine or newspaper in a sentence with his meaning, it becomes legitimate and enters lexicographical history.

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Matt_R
Date: 06 May 03 - 10:29 PM

The word "pusillanimous" can even be found in a song...The Rutles' "Another Day".

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 May 03 - 10:36 PM

Someone asked about the pronunciation. It's...

Pyoo-sil-AN-i-mus

Great word.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 May 03 - 04:00 AM

That's how I thought you said it.
It sounds disgusting.
-Joe Offer, onomatopoetically-

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 May 03 - 10:01 AM

Yes, it does. That's why it's so cool. That's also why people like Spiro Agnew delight in using it to attack their political opponents.

"Lascivious" is another word that has that sort of slimy sound, as it should, but it's not as disgusting sounding as pusillanimous.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 07 May 03 - 01:06 PM

I'm sure Dubya would love to work it into a speech about the old Europeans if he thought he could say it without fluffing his line.

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: TIA
Date: 07 May 03 - 01:17 PM

Oh, but I beg to differ...the longest word (in english) is

PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS

a disease caused by breathing small, silica particles in volcanic ash.

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 May 03 - 01:18 PM

I think he would have real trouble with the pronunciation, and that could lead to serious embarrassment.

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 May 03 - 02:38 PM

So, would the fear of compulsively picking pills off of sweaters be
"floccinaucinilipiliphobia"? I'm just wondering...Gods and Goddesses know that I certanly don't want to say it!

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 07 May 03 - 02:45 PM

Guest,Q, I didn't make up that definition for floccinaucinilipilification. I learned that from a book of weird words I had some years ago. I forget the name of the book now, but it was highly entertaining.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 May 03 - 06:19 PM

Uh-huh. And how is it pronounced?

FLOK-sin-o-SIN-i-li-PILL-i-fi-KAY-shun ??? That's my guess. No less than FOUR accented syllables. Wow.

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Raedwulf
Date: 07 May 03 - 07:05 PM

Can we get the damn word right, please?! It's:

Floccinaucinihilipilification

"-nihil-", not "-nil-"!!

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Cluin
Date: 07 May 03 - 09:48 PM

"Enough lubricities!"

(not sure where I heard of read that one, but it seems impossible...)

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 08 May 03 - 07:54 AM

Lubricity- oiliness- goes back to 1602 in print (OED). A 19th century Australian introduced us to "women's lubricious minds." Lubrify and several other lube words.

Obviously English has more words than we know what to do with.

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 08 May 03 - 08:06 AM

Yes, it's the language to use if you need a mot just!

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 08 May 03 - 03:14 PM

Raedwulf:

Mea culpa, mea culpa!!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Cluin
Date: 08 May 03 - 03:37 PM

I think I may have heard it on "Flesh Gordon"...

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 May 03 - 05:24 PM

And here I was thinking that the Ojibway word "kawagashigamog" was the most complicated word out there...

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 08 May 03 - 05:44 PM

Let's say you are a doctor with a Navajo nurse and need the obstetrical forceps- béésh 'awéé' bee haha'nílígíí

OK, I am showing off. A local bookstore closing down put a $5 tag on "The Navajo Language, A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary," latest edition, which is a very weighty tome of great price. I will take it to the Nation next time I go down.

Subject: RE: BS: Another great word: pusillanimous
From: Cluin
Date: 09 May 03 - 01:09 AM

A tongue twister in Czech:

strc prst skrz krk
(Apparently, all 'r's are 'vocalic', whatever that is...)

English translation: 'Stick [your] finger through [your] throat'.

What's worse: saying it or doing it?
Sounds like onomatopoeia to me anyway.