Unusual Words Defined: A - Z (Part M)

A continuation of the series.

I know this word is not that unusual, but I have always loved it for the sound and the meaning, and that is no malarkey.

Malarkey - Nonsense; hogwash; rubbish; speech designed to mislead.
Poor Lewis! He still believes that malarkey about President Obama's having been born in Kenya.

From Word Warriors at Wayne State University

Happy Thanksgiving: A Definition

In honor of Thanksgiving, the following is from a childhood book of definitions.

And here is the cover of the wonderful book:

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday with family and friends, and don't eat too many potatoes.

Happy Thanksgiving Homonym Humor

Tom's costume was quite the hit this past Halloween.

And then he had the bright idea that it would serve him well on Thanksgiving too.

Happy Turkey Day.

Image from here.

Unusual Words Defined: A - Z (Part L)

A continuation of the series.

longicorn (LON-ji-korn) —

noun: a biological family of beetles with especially long antennae.

Spotted this word at a post titled "Lengthy Unicorns?" on back of the cereal box. The following is a directly from the post. Thanks to Drew and Erin McKean, I could not have stated it better.

I thought this one was worth noting because, as Erin McKean states in Weird and Wonderful Words, the existence of "longicorn" proves that even if a word sounds entirely made up, it can still be real and have a perfectly valid etymology. (The etymology is quite simple: the Latin longus, "long," plus the cornu, "horn.")

Image from here.

Linguistic Cartoon Favorites - Hyperbole

Wondermark - a newly discovered favorite (I am not exaggerating).

A Pseudo-Mondegreen for Linguists

Do you remember the Prince song Automatic from the album 1999?


If not, here is a video from youtube of a live version of the song -



And the chorus -

A-u-t-o-matic

Just tell me what 2 do

A-u-t-o-matic

I'm so in love with U

Well...


whenever I hear the song, I want to sing -



I-d-i-o-matic


Another favorite is Carly Simon's Anticipation, to which I sing -



Alliteration

Unusual Words Defined: A - Z (Part K)

A continuation of the series.

katz·en·jam·mer

n.
1. A loud, discordant noise.
2. A hangover.
3. A state of depression or bewilderment.

Definition from thefreedictionary.com

Plus de L’esprit de l'escalier

More on the wit of the staircase -

L'esprit de l'escalier (or l'esprit d'escalier) (staircase wit) is thinking of a clever comeback when it is too late. The phrase can be used to describe a riposte to an insult or any witty remark that comes to mind too late to be useful—after one has left the scene of the encounter. The phenomenon is usually accompanied by a feeling of regret at not having thought of it when it was most needed or suitable.
The German word Treppenwitz and the Yiddish word trepverter are used to express the same idea. One prominent example of the German term is W. Lewis Hertslet's 1882 book Treppenwitz der Weltgeschichte ("Staircase wit of world history").

From Wikipedia

Failure to Translate

Following is a list of words that do not have a direct (word for word) translation to English:

L’esprit de l'escalier: (French) The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said. Translated it means “the spirit of the staircase.”

.

Waldeinsamkeit: (German) The feeling of being alone in the woods.

Meraki: (Greek) Doing something with soul, creativity, or love.

Forelsket: (Norwegian) The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.

Gheegle: (Filipino) The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute.

Pochemuchka: (Russian) A person who asks a lot of questions.

Pena ajena: (Mexican Spanish) The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation.

Cualacino: (Italian) The mark left on a table by a cold glass.

Ilunga: (Tshiluba, Congo) A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time.

Saudade (sow-da-jee): (Portugese, Galician) the feeling one gets when realizing something one once had is lost and can never be had again

Sgriob: (Gaelic) The itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whisky.

From dminkin.tumblr

Unusual Words Defined: A - Z (Part J)

A continuation of the series.

jiggery-pokery [ˈdʒɪgərɪˈpəʊkərɪ]
n
Informal chiefly Brit dishonest or deceitful behaviour or business; trickery

[Alteration of joukery-pawkery : from Scottish dialect jouk, to dodge (probably from duck) + Scots pawk, trick.]

Definition from freedictionary.com

Linguistic Cartoon Favorites - Correction Versus Transgression

One of my new favorites Wondermark.

Translation Dead Giveaway

Having read all three of the books in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, I found it surprising that it wasn't until page 424 of the hardcover edition of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest (the third book in the trilogy) that I noticed a dead giveaway that the book was translated from a different language (Swedish in this case).

"I won't make any promises. My marriage broke up because Erika and I couldn't keep away from each other," he said, and then he added in English, "Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt."






I wonder... do other countries really associate "Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt" with Americans as much as we associate "C'est la vie" with the French and "Que sera sera" with the Spanish?


C'est la vie. =That is life.

Que sera sera. = What will be will be.

Unusual Words Defined: A - Z (Part I)

A continuation of the series.

ignotum per ignotius: Latin [ɪgˈnəʊtʊm pər ɪgˈnəʊtɪʊs]
n
(Philosophy) an explanation that is obscurer than the thing to be explained
[literally: the unknown by means of the more unknown]


If you ask some of my syntax students, they would say that this applies to quite a few of the official definitions found in syntactic theory (sister precedence, c-command, the principle of modification) and I can't say that I blame them initially.


Defintion from thefreedictionary.com