Word of the day / Unusual words

[Gramaisc]

Anyway, wasn't it spelt 'naph' in Palare?

It certainly is in my copy of the Bona Book of Julian & Sandy.

 

[United57]

Debt who put the b in it. Silent letters !!!!!

 

[Gramaisc]

Debt who put the b in it. Silent letters !!!!!

Rumour has it that it might have been Samuel Johnson.

 

[Trumpet]

ETYMOLOGY:
Origin unknown, perhaps from Polari slang.


In Chambers (1998) it says the origin is "disputed; suggested derivations are: naf, back-slang for fan(ny) the female genitalia; ... the phrase not available for f***ing or fornication"

Etymologist : someone who knows the difference between an etymologist and an entomolgist.

 

[Gramaisc]

Etymologist : someone who knows the difference between an etymologist and an entomolgist.

..writes an enologist.

 

[db]

Debt who put the b in it. Silent letters !!!!!

funnily enough, i read an article on this very subject in one of the sunday papers the other week.. apparently the caxton press is to blame (or, more specifically, its operators) - in order to make text line up and look nice (what we would call "justified" in today's word processors), they would drop extra letters in just to make up space.. since these printings were invariably then distributed amongst the masses on a large scale, these "new" spellings became de facto - hence why we now have a lot of words which have redundant letters in which don't affect the pronunciation.. for example:

scone[sup]*[/sup]
gone
debt
doubt
etc.


[sup]* don't try and tell me it rhymes with "own" - you're wrong[/sup]

 

[Andreas Rex]

scone[sup]*[/sup]
[sup]* don't try and tell me it rhymes with "own" - you're wrong[/sup]

Correct...otherwise the crap joke "What's the fastest cake in the world?"..."Scone!" wouldn't work!

I had a nice big scone from Jasper's in Penko for breakfast this morning, and very nice it was too.

 

[Gramaisc]

Or is there a letter removed from 'debit?

 

[db]

Or is there a letter removed from 'debit?

not according to the article i was reading - i remember it specifically citing "debt" as one of the example words.. i dare say the word "debt" pre-dates "debit" by a fair margin anyway, although i haven't JFGI, which i'm sure would give one the definitive answer..

 

[Gramaisc]

not according to the article i was reading - i remember it specifically citing "debt" as one of the example words.. i dare say the word "debt" pre-dates "debit" by a fair margin anyway, although i haven't JFGI, which i'm sure would give one the definitive answer..

Does it all derive from 'debitum'? One of the many things the Romans gave us..

 

[db]

 

[Trumpet]

..writes an enologist.

And beers.

 

[Gramaisc]

And beers.

I had no intention of limiting your sphere of activity..

 

[Trumpet]

I had no intention of limiting your sphere of activity..

Phew !

 

[flossietoo]

Infanticipating: pregnant.

 

[Gramaisc]

Lethologica - there's a word worth remembering..

 

[Kingy]

Having eaten some peaches today reminded me of this.......

Callipygian.

 

[Withnail]

'Mischievous' is an interesting word.

When you think about it, it has evolved into two words, depending upon how it is stressed -

MIS - chi - vus = a bit cheeky

mis - CHEE - vus = a bit more devious

- admittedly it's not hugely interesting.

 

[John Marwood]

A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed

Ough btw he dinna really

 

[flossietoo]

I think/hope Big Sam might have used the word 'relieviate' in his interview about the woes of West Ham today.

I heard the same interview several times and was tantalisingly unable to confirm my initial suspicion.