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BS: $5 Word Contest...
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Don Firth Date: 02 Aug 13 - 01:09 AM "Singlestick." Well . . . maybe a $3.50 word. "Sherlock Holmes, while returning to his apartment at 221B Baker Street, was set upon by two footpads. Skilled in singlestick fencing, he deftly wielding his walking stick, smote them about the head and ears, and sent them scuttling for cover." I'm sure Rapparee knows this, but for others, singlestick is derived from fencing, and as I understand it, when gentlemen stopped wearing swords, they carried a walking stick. There was (is) a science of using such a gentleman's accessory as a weapon, wielding it much like a lightweight fencing saber. It won't cut, but it can sure leave welts and bruises. Makes a fairly effective weapon in skillful hands. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Aug 13 - 08:10 AM Why shouldn't concatenate have an adjectival form? Perhaps the online dictionary simply neglected to include it. Fie, I say! Fie! (another great $5 word, and it only has 3 letters) |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 02 Aug 13 - 10:17 AM Moulinette. Riposte. Falchion. Cuttoe. Seax. Poignard. Quillions. Buckler. Targe. Riccasso. Main gauche. Pommel. Fuller. Plastron. Is that better, Don? |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: dick greenhaus Date: 02 Aug 13 - 10:22 AM steatocephalic |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp Date: 02 Aug 13 - 10:26 AM Kreegah! Bundolo! Gom! Gumado. Histah. Sabor. Tantor. Ungawa! Ahhh-EEE-Ah-EEE-Ahhhhhhhhhh!!! - Chongo |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Pete Jennings Date: 02 Aug 13 - 11:18 AM Ook. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Ebbie Date: 02 Aug 13 - 12:02 PM (Just an aside here to Chongo: You are tiresome. Please tell your master that I prefer his words to come from his mouth. Others' mileage may vary, but that is how I feel.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Pete Jennings Date: 02 Aug 13 - 12:47 PM Uh oh... |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: sciencegeek Date: 02 Aug 13 - 01:07 PM well... I entered junior high with college level vocabulary and my college degree added more specialized jargon, not to mention the assorted areas of interest I get involved with. So all due respect to your granny, Bobert, but the words that I think most highly of and seem to be the hardest to embrace have to be: empathy, charity, compassion, respect, honesty and reasonablity. There is a time and a place for proper word usage needed to be clear and concise, which includes those $5 words... but, I've had to dig through too many piles of wordy BS in my life to be awed by a multisyllabic vocabulary. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: DMcG Date: 02 Aug 13 - 01:20 PM A google search didn't readily show it, but some well known author of the past declared that good writing is not such that those who want to understand it can, but that the reader must understand it, whether they want to or not. A good principle, I think, and I agree with sciencegeek that there are an awful lot of small ideas hiding behind impressive words in many fields. Management-speak is a prime example, but there's no shortage in other disciplines... |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: sciencegeek Date: 02 Aug 13 - 01:33 PM LOL... the hubby loves to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson regarding speeches. If you want a 2 hour speech I'll have ready immediately... if you want a 15 minute speech, that may take me days. Nobody remembers the many droning speeches made that day at Gettysburg... only that short, concise one given by Lincoln. It was over before most of the audience knew it had started. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Aug 13 - 02:25 PM MY thoughts come from my mouth, Ebbie. Chongo's thoughts come from his. We are quite different. Did you think Walt Kelly was identical to any of his comic strip characters? Not so! They each had a personality all their own, though Pogo was probably the closest to being "Everyman", but still probably quite different from Walt Kelly. Chongo serves the purpose of social satire. He holds up a mirror for people to see relfections of themselves...or what they fear in themselves...either way. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee Date: 02 Aug 13 - 02:42 PM The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. --Mark Twain, 1888 |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: bobad Date: 02 Aug 13 - 03:12 PM pusillanimous |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Georgiansilver Date: 02 Aug 13 - 04:03 PM Floccinaucinihilipilification... longest word in the English language and it means "The art of establishing something to be worthless"! |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Ebbie Date: 02 Aug 13 - 04:19 PM "He holds up a mirror for people to see relfections of themselves...or what they fear in themselves...either way." Ah, Little Hawk, if Chongo, et al, is your way of dealing with your fears then it is OK with me. Carry on. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Aug 13 - 04:29 PM Ebbie - LOL!!! ;-D No, I have quite different ways of dealing with my fears...I hide under the bed. Or in the broom closet. Or in back of the china cabinet. Chongo, you'll note, has a completely different way of dealing with fear. He attacks whatever he is afraid of head-on and with deadly force whilst pretending to be utterly fearless. This has given Chongo a very exciting life, to be sure, but I can't see adopting his approach in my own case. That's why I enjoy Chongo so much. He does all kinds of things I would never do, and he gets to go out with sharp-looking dames too, while I sit peacefully at home reading good books about people like Joan of Arc and Leonard Cohen. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: bobad Date: 02 Aug 13 - 05:23 PM mucilaginous |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Aug 13 - 05:54 PM gelatinous imperturbable perspicacious concupiscence satyriasis megalomania eldritch phenomenological incontrovertible incomprehensible inconCEIVable! (when uttering the capitalized part of "inconCEIVable!", one's eyes should bug out dramatically, and it helps if this is accompanied by a deep flush to the facial tissues) |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Aug 13 - 06:02 PM soporific necrophilia mephistophelian outre' parsimonious pecuniary apothecary rhinoplasty |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 02 Aug 13 - 06:22 PM I'll see your Floccinaucinihilipilification...Mike and raise you a pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis Also spelled pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis The longest word in the O.E.D. and undoubtedly accepted as English. Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Aug 13 - 06:26 PM brevity succinctness rue awe |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 02 Aug 13 - 06:30 PM ""The socially ambitious wunderkind is oftentimes an egregious ignoramous, 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."" BUGGER! All that flawlessly constructed sesquipedalian, but perfectly cogent text, and it's destroyed by one of the $2.50 words. Igno-bloody-ramus! I do think 50 points off is a bit harsh though. After all, LH only got that much for invention. I feel that I must appeal to the third umpire! Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Rapparee 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. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 02 Aug 13 - 07:41 PM Terribly sorry Rap! I didn't know you had copyrighted them, though I would claim to have made better use of them. Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: kendall Date: 02 Aug 13 - 08:24 PM Becca! that's one of my problems; now I can't use it. However I shall toss out this gem, Savagrus. A very common word back where I came from. It means difficult, such as working with a dull tool, shoveling snow in minus zero weather. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Bill D Date: 02 Aug 13 - 08:41 PM philtrum frenulum metrolabial sulcus tragus bromidrosis scapula clavicle |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Keef Date: 02 Aug 13 - 08:49 PM BOLLOCKS! WhatEVER! That's all you really need! |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Aug 13 - 10:09 PM Keep your sodding opinion to yourself, Keef! ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Ebbie Date: 02 Aug 13 - 10:44 PM A great many of these words I have no idea of. I must say though, that most of them look more like 15 dollar ones. |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Pete Jennings Date: 03 Aug 13 - 06:28 AM Ker-ching! |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Mrrzy Date: 03 Aug 13 - 03:38 PM sphagnum ubiquitous irk |
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Subject: RE: BS: $5 Word Contest... From: Little Hawk Date: 04 Aug 13 - 08:42 AM skulk verge meander ilk wrestlemania |
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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 |
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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: 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 - 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Rapparee Date: 05 Aug 13 - 09:34 PM Hinny. |
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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: 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: 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: 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.) |
