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03 Oct 23 - 11:00 AM (#4190639) Subject: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Dave the Gnome While looking into a song (that I have refreshed above the line) I came across the word 'hapless' and wondered how it was different to feckless or gormless. Google had the answer of course and I came across this interesting snippet :-) Following a discussion on FaceAche I was also pointed in the direction of this Guardian article which I find great :-) How about we make sure that we are full of gorm and feck and wiching everyone good hap :-D |
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03 Oct 23 - 01:19 PM (#4190652) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Steve Shaw Mrs Steve and I always refer to those young blokes with baggy arse jeans on who ride skateboards as arseless. |
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03 Oct 23 - 02:40 PM (#4190631) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Mrrzy What is the opposite of peeve? |
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06 Oct 23 - 12:51 AM (#4190636) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: JennieG A fun page on The Booke of Fayces is 'Grandiloquent Word of the Day'. Every now and then a word appears that I actually know, and use! The daily word a few weeks ago was 'linguaphile' - one who loves words. Sums many of up to a T. This morning's word is 'Athanasia', a quality or state of deathlessness, or immortality. At the last school where I worked before retirement one of the students, a girl from a Greek background, was called 'Athanasia'. Those of an unkind bent called her 'Euthanasia'...... |
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06 Oct 23 - 03:47 AM (#4190655) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: G-Force The top post reminds me of a rhyme I first heard in my schooldays: I once knew a man both ept and ert. Neither intro nor extro, he was just a vert. There's more, but that's all I remember. |
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06 Oct 23 - 12:25 PM (#4190632) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Mrrzy Be alert. The world needs more lerts. |
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06 Oct 23 - 02:22 PM (#4190640) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Dave the Gnome We have enough lerts at the moment. Could do with more loofs though. I just remembered that my grandad, Lancashire born and bred, used a instead of be on at least 2 words - because became acoz and before became afore. There were probably more but I can't recall. I think it was quite common in Swinton. |
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07 Oct 23 - 08:45 AM (#4190633) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Mrrzy I heard a Clancy brother refer to the town where he was bred and buttered... |
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10 Oct 23 - 05:58 PM (#4190642) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: robomatic I believe in more use of "antimacassar". Because. |
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10 Oct 23 - 08:56 PM (#4190637) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: JennieG I heartily concur, Rob. Just because. |
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11 Oct 23 - 10:19 AM (#4190650) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Paul Burke . Well up above the tropostrata There is a region stark and stellar Where, on a streak of anti-matter Lived Dr. Edward Anti-Teller. Remote from Fusion's origin, He lived unguessed and unawares With antikith and antikin, And kept macassars on his chairs. One morning, idling by the sea, He spied a tin of monstrous girth That bore three letters: A. E. C.* Out stepped a visitor from Earth. Then, shouting gladly o'er the sands, Met two who in their alien ways Were like as lentils. Their right hands Clasped, and the rest was gamma rays. *US Atomic Energy Commission- Teller's job |
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11 Oct 23 - 11:52 AM (#4190643) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Stilly River Sage robo - I have a few of those in a trunk along with antique table runners, napkins, etc. If you can make antimacassars more popular then maybe I can unload some of these. I use a tool when sewing that I've always loved the name: bodkin. It is a long narrow clip for attaching to threads or cords or elastic to then work through a hem or a channel of fabric. You pinch the cord with the tweaser end, push the metal loop down to hold it in place, then thread it. Bodkin |
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11 Oct 23 - 12:01 PM (#4190630) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: gillymor Odds Bodkins! Aside from a vise a bodkin is probably the most useful tool a fly tyer can own. Of course ours is basically just a straight, heavy-gauged pointed needle with a hexagonal brass handle and goes about 6" long. |
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11 Oct 23 - 12:23 PM (#4190653) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Steve Shaw Vasculum. As a botanist I've possessed one for over fifty years. It's a rounded painted tin container, like a rectangular box, with a hinged opening down the whole of one side. Mine has a nice leather strap for carrying on the shoulder or round the neck. It for putting your collected botanical specimens in to keep them from getting squashed and drying out before you get home to study them. These days I can manage with just photographs now that I don't have to wait for days to get my film developed. I have an excellent hand lens that comes on excursions. My vasculum is somewhere in the house but it's so long since I've seen it that I've forgotten what colour it is. |
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11 Oct 23 - 08:08 PM (#4190634) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Mrrzy Nobody is promacassar, are they... |
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11 Oct 23 - 09:36 PM (#4190647) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Rapparee Bodkin. Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1. A bodkin was, long before it was a needle, a long thing dagger. Also a particular arrow point. Here's a fairly recent bodkin. |
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12 Oct 23 - 09:36 AM (#4190628) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Bill D Not exactly rare or unusual, but I would like more people to use "aphorism" and understand its ubiquitous influence in society. (for that matter, "ubiquitous" needs to be more widely comprehended.) In social media, it has become all-too-common to substitute an aphorism for an original thought or construction. Somehow, memes are often just aphorisms with fancy lettering and a photo shopped image. Then, replies are often just one of a small group of icons. No wonder there is now a class of people who actually earn money as 'influencers" |
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12 Oct 23 - 11:34 AM (#4190644) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Stilly River Sage I've read several works by Oscar Wilde and was aware as I read that many of his sentences would work as aphorisms, and I see that Wikipedia agrees with me. To their list I would add George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) and Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens). And Audre Lorde had some pretty darned pity lines in her poetry. Florynce Kennedy (gotta have a couple of angry Black women in the list.) |
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12 Oct 23 - 06:45 PM (#4190629) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Bill D This, and a dozen more https://the-digital-reader.com/aphorisms-quotes/ and I own a book by W.H Auden & Louis Kronenberger https://www.amazon.com/Viking-Book-Aphorisms-W-Auden/dp/0140059660 |
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13 Oct 23 - 03:16 AM (#4190641) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Dave the Gnome I always thought a bodkin was just a big needle. Talking of kins, have you been in touch with your kith recently? |
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13 Oct 23 - 05:36 AM (#4190654) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Steve Shaw BobL has just used the word "regulo" for gas oven temperature settings in the "peeve" thread (it wasn't regulo that peeved him I hasten to add). I think "regulo" belongs here! Great word! |
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13 Oct 23 - 07:43 AM (#4190649) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Reinhard The Sound of the Drum: He’s changed his bodkin for a sword Long Lankin: Then with a silver bodkin stabbed the baby so deep The Weaver and the Factory Maid: When I was a tailor I carried my bodkin and shears |
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13 Oct 23 - 12:22 PM (#4190645) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Stilly River Sage For something to act as a bodkin in sewing terms it needs to be able to thread a cord through a slim space or channel, so I have in the past used a safety pin through the end of a cord or bias tape, and I suppose you could cobble together something with sewing pins inserted into the piece to be threaded. It could also be something like a slim knitting needle or crochet hook to push cord through the space, so I can see how "bodkin" might hark back or borrow a name from a slim knife. |
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13 Oct 23 - 03:55 PM (#4190635) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Mrrzy Then there are kid words, like clo, the singular of clothes. |
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13 Oct 23 - 06:11 PM (#4190638) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: JennieG When he was a little tacker my older son used "mon", as a shortened form of "money". |
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13 Oct 23 - 08:44 PM (#4190648) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Rapparee There was an old joke back in West Central Illinois that ran A student in college send a letter to his father asking for money that read, "No mon, no fun. Your son." The reply read, "Too bad, I'm sad. Your Dad." |
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17 Oct 23 - 06:25 AM (#4190651) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Paul Burke Regulo is one of those words like hoover; a former trademark that got conscripted into the language. Before the invention of the Regulo gas oven controller, the cook had to keep checking the stuff in the oven to get the heat right. As a kid, I thought a spong was a generic term for a mincer. And the Russians adopted "vokzal" as the name for railway stations, apparently because the first Russians studying railways arrived in London at Vauxhall station. |
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17 Oct 23 - 10:23 AM (#4190646) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Stilly River Sage I admit to using the word "hoover" as a verb. Despite the wide use elsewhere (such as President Hoover and Hoover Dam), people know I mean to suck up everything in the vicinity, as in "if I drop food on the kitchen floor, I just say oops! and one of the dogs rushes in to hoover up the evidence." |
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25 Oct 23 - 09:46 AM (#4192011) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: MaJoC the Filk Back to the original post: Methinks it was on ISI!AC that someone defined "feckless" as "incapable of giving a feck". .... I remember hearing someone (too) many years ago threatening to start a society for the promotion of disused positives, and giving the examples "ept", "ert" and "kempt". |
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25 Oct 23 - 09:50 AM (#4191999) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Doug Chadwick Methinks it was on ISI!AC ISI!AC ?? DC |
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25 Oct 23 - 01:56 PM (#4192001) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: leeneia We needs words for people who are 18-21 years old. They're not adolescents (much) but they're not men and women. The Milwaukee Journal used to use the word "youth" for a male this age who got in trouble. I like it. For the females I think "damsel" is the only thing near, but it's too old-fashioned. Recently I saw a video of a group this age in a boat, probably in Florida. They saw another boat with Fish & Game wardens on it, and the males decided that the thing to do was stand up and give them the finger. Lo and behold, the next thing they knew, the wardens had stopped them and were asking awkward questions about life jackets, liquor consumption, and ID's. They just couldn't figure it out. What's a good word for a person like that? |
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26 Oct 23 - 03:53 AM (#4191995) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Dave the Gnome Knobhead? |
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26 Oct 23 - 05:06 AM (#4192002) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Thompson "Youth" is used by newspapers in Ireland - and I think in the UK too - for teenagers of any age who are up to bad things. It's come to have a pejorative tone. |
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26 Oct 23 - 05:48 AM (#4192007) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Steve Shaw Wazzock, Dave (not you personally...) |
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26 Oct 23 - 05:49 AM (#4192008) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Steve Shaw You're not wrong, Thompson. That's the feeling I get too. |
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26 Oct 23 - 06:28 AM (#4191993) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: JennieG "Youth" used to be used in Oz until the age of adulthood was lowered to 18. Now we hear 18-19 year olds described as "men". Legally they may be men, but not emotionally. |
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27 Oct 23 - 03:04 AM (#4192010) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Senoufou I like the word 'discombobulated' (meaning confused or upset) but my very Norfolk neighbour can't bear it, and grumbles when I say it. Is it outdated nowadays? |
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27 Oct 23 - 03:35 AM (#4192003) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Thompson Discombobulated isn't outdated, but using it might be considered a bit of an affectation by the linguistically grey. Feck 'em, I say, discombobulation upon their parts. There was a brief fashion for describing late teenagers as "man" or "woman" here too; thankfully it seems to have passed. |
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27 Oct 23 - 05:50 AM (#4192009) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Steve Shaw Can't remember if where I heard this (could have been on Crackerjack), but one chap was moaning to the other about not feeling well and he said to his companion, "Aw, I'm all Auchtermuchty! Macgillycuddy reeks!" Been using it for decades! |
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27 Oct 23 - 01:55 PM (#4191996) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Dave the Gnome Good line from Victoria Wood on "Dinner Ladies", talking about Scotland Everywhere up there is spelt Ecclefechan and pronounced Kirkcudbright |
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27 Oct 23 - 03:04 PM (#4192006) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Backwoodsman ”There was a brief fashion for describing late teenagers as "man" or "woman" here too; thankfully it seems to have passed.” I think it would be perfectly correct to refer to them as a ‘young man’ or ‘young woman’. |
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31 Oct 23 - 12:47 PM (#4192012) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: MaJoC the Filk Apologies, Doug: ISI!AC == I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. The "!" is a logical inversion in my trade. |
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31 Oct 23 - 12:57 PM (#4192000) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Doug Chadwick Thanks. DC |
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31 Oct 23 - 01:54 PM (#4192004) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Thompson There was an extremely slender Miss Pitt, I think it was in the 18th century and in England, who was known as The Bottomless Pitt. What I'd like returned is the correct distinction between "may" and "might" - "may" is increasingly used for both senses. If you say "a car may have killed her", you're suggesting that this is a possibility, and fairly likely. But if you say "If she had been crossing the motorway at the time, a car *might* have killed her", the suggestion is that it could have happened but it's a fairly remote possibility, since she actually wasn't crossing any motorway. |
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03 Nov 23 - 05:24 AM (#4192005) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Jack Campin I have just seen a post about a Baroque flute on FB by a native Polish speaker. He said it had songliness across its entire range. We can use that word. |
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08 Nov 23 - 06:19 AM (#4191997) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Mr Red East Yorkshire they use the terms thrawl & thrawled either the derivation or a contraction of: enthralled IMHO. |
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08 Nov 23 - 06:25 AM (#4191998) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Mr Red Young Man would derive from the "age of majority" - to do with inheritance, voting, not needing consent to marry, peak physical prowess / swordsmanship etc (pick a culture / era) not forgetting to - "employ a teenager, while they still know everything" |
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08 Nov 23 - 04:11 PM (#4191994) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: JennieG Songliness is a good word. |
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12 Nov 23 - 06:44 AM (#4192013) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: MaJoC the Filk > Young Man I read recently that "childe" (as in Childe Harold) was an old term meaning (roughly) an apprentice knight. That solves *that* conundrum; but it's a shame the excess baggage gets in the way of reintroducing it with an updated meaning. |
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24 Nov 23 - 11:46 AM (#4192297) Subject: RE: BS: Words that should be reintroduced :-) From: Stilly River Sage A meme that crossed my screen today has several very good ones (it says they're some of the best ever words): Bamboozled Flabbergasted Discombobulated Shenanigans Cattywampus Lollygag Malarkey Kerfuffle Brouhaha Nincompoop Skedaddle Pumpernickel |