|
Milo and POTUS posted:Is there a term for misquote or is it just that? Like how people say heavy is the head instead of uneasy in shakespeare “Blood is thicker than water” drives me nuts when people use it to justify sticking by family, since the actual quote is “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”, like the opposite of how it gets used.
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2021 12:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 9, 2024 05:17 |
|
|
Ugly In The Morning posted:“Blood is thicker than water” drives me nuts when people use it to justify sticking by family, since the actual quote is “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”, like the opposite of how it gets used. Wow, that's amazing lmao. I did not know that!
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2021 12:31
|
|
|
See also: "Curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back" "Jack of all trades and master of none is better than a master of one" "Birds of a feather flock together until the cat comes" "Great minds think alike but fools seldom differ"
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2021 15:43
|
|
|
flavor.flv posted:See also: A lot of these are gonna be cases of someone coming up with a retort to the original idiom though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2021 15:56
|
|
|
Just now, I was trying to remember a word that I knew I knew, a tip-of-the-tongue thing. It means a kind of job that you're given, but you don't have to work, it's just to funnel money, and I couldn't remember it. I was googling (and duckduckgoing) all kinds of combinations: - a job with no work just for the money - word for a job with no work just for the money - word for a job title but you dont work - fake job title - putting someone on the pay-roll - mafia no-show definition - appanage <-[i hoped i could find the right word in a related result, but alas] All the results were like "how best to fire your employees"  Anyway I gave up and started writing this post to ask yall, and I had typed maybe 3-4 words & it just came to me: sinecure. So this post is about the journey instead. Also, It's a good word & I shall not forget it again. Carthag Tuek has a new favorite as of 21:07 on Dec 3, 2021 |
|
#
?
Dec 3, 2021 21:03
|
|
|
Ugly In The Morning posted:“Blood is thicker than water” drives me nuts when people use it to justify sticking by family, since the actual quote is “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”, like the opposite of how it gets used. That's a fake version from tumblr
|
|
#
?
Dec 4, 2021 02:47
|
|
|
I've been reading old Danish texts & have now come across "saaat" a coulpe times, which just looks so wrong. It's a contraction(?) of "saa at" (so that or so to), which is currently spelled "så at" (and the "at" part is often dropped).
Carthag Tuek has a new favorite as of 14:24 on Apr 29, 2022 |
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2022 14:18
|
|
|
I learned a new expression from my aunt last time I saw her. In the spirit of the thread, I'll stick to the Central Appalachian voice herequote:She was tellin Maw about some fella whose mama had gotten ate up with cancer, and they had to put her in a home. Translating to standard American English: quote:She was telling Grandma about some guy whose mom got cancer, and they put her in a nursing home (So far so good). Lick in this sense meaning "to strike at" or "to beat". The failson is too lazy to hit a snake that's in front of him You also see the noun "lick" in town names where there were salt or mineral outcrops -- the classic example of Big Bone Lick State Park, or Beaverlick, Kentucky. I've been around that part of the world my entire life, and it seems like I'm always learning new expressions and words, just because someone's from the next holler over. Here's a dictionary of sorts from Univ. of SC. http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/appalachianenglish/dictionary.html The dictionary itself is simple enough, but the real gems are the quotes and usage examples.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2022 02:27
|
|
|
Anatopistic Similar to anachronistic, but as to place rather time Like if you watch a movie set in Rome , and they are eating potatoes , it is anatopistic, since potatoes would have existed at that time but not place
|
|
#
?
Jul 18, 2022 07:32
|
|
|
Another norwegian idiom: "To have pure flour in your bag." This means you're innocent.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2022 19:20
|
|
|
Yep rent mel danish too
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2022 19:54
|
|
|
Non english speakers What do you call these 
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2022 14:27
|
|
|
I can't remember the name of a word I used to pedantly throw around. It is when you turn a noun into a verb, or a verb to a noun like how "adulting" is a word, or I think it may be how "a failure" becomes "a fail"? (it may also be used to turn a verb into an adjective or other such things as well) It was something like amarathea but that's not it. I've tried Googling (oh yeah, another example) word combinations but so far all my attempts have just been fails. \/\/\/ Thanks! I tried a similar Google search but it kept returning things like "verbing" \/\/\/ credburn has a new favorite as of 20:28 on Jul 24, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2022 19:17
|
|
|
You’re looking for Anthimeria but verbing a noun is also called denominalization. (I just googled “what is verbing a noun called”)
Stoca Zola has a new favorite as of 19:44 on Jul 24, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2022 19:42
|
|
|
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-formation
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2022 13:37
|
|
|
It seems I have been gravely misbackformed about the origins of certain words
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2022 15:52
|
|
|
I just found out that auspicious doesn't mean flashy, but lucky (and likewise inauspicious doesn't mean meek, but unlucky).
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2022 16:11
|
|
|
Carthag Tuek posted:I just found out that auspicious doesn't mean flashy, but lucky (and likewise inauspicious doesn't mean meek, but unlucky). Ostentatious means flashy, it's a pretty similar sounding word...
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2022 18:14
|
|
|
credburn posted:Ostentatious means flashy, it's a pretty similar sounding word... Yeah it's not unreasonable that I've mixed them up at some point. Maybe some spectacular in there too.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2022 19:03
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/qikipedia/status/1567090231655903232
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2022 17:17
|
|
|
Something I learned recently - there's a Japanese phrase 'hyōtan kara koma' which literally translates to 'a horse coming out from a gourd', but is used to mean when something unbelievable actually happens. I feel there should be an English phrase for something similar, but my brain isn't cooperating. Oh yeah - the saying that the moon is made from green cheese? The cheese in question is 'green' as in it is immature - it's a fresh (and thus very white) cheese.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2022 08:21
|
|
|
Samovar posted:Something I learned recently - there's a Japanese phrase 'hyōtan kara koma' which literally translates to 'a horse coming out from a gourd', but is used to mean when something unbelievable actually happens. I feel there should be an English phrase for something similar, but my brain isn't cooperating. Could you say "stranger things have happened" in english or "seeing is believing"
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2022 09:45
|
|
|
camel through the needle's eye?
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2022 10:02
|
|
|
Carthag Tuek posted:camel through the needle's eye? YAHTZEE
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2022 10:17
|
|
|
Samovar posted:Something I learned recently - there's a Japanese phrase 'hyōtan kara koma' which literally translates to 'a horse coming out from a gourd', but is used to mean when something unbelievable actually happens. I feel there should be an English phrase for something similar, but my brain isn't cooperating. Maybe it doesn't convey quite the same meaning (I really don't know Japanese beyond a handful of words/phrases), but it sort of reminds me of "when pigs fly"
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2022 14:09
|
|
|
Samovar posted:the saying that the moon is made from green cheese? This is one of those, I think, antiquated things that I've never actually heard anyone say, but I've heard people talk about this saying my whole life.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2022 15:52
|
|
|
Samovar posted:Something I learned recently - there's a Japanese phrase 'hyōtan kara koma' which literally translates to 'a horse coming out from a gourd', but is used to mean when something unbelievable actually happens. I feel there should be an English phrase for something similar, but my brain isn't cooperating. Closest I can think of is "lightning striking twice".
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2022 08:03
|
|
|
A black swan?
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2022 07:03
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/dtmooreeditor/status/1569366666844192769
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2022 10:17
|
|
|
I loving hate twitter threads. quote:So there's a particular quirk of English grammar that I've always found quite endearing: the exocentric verb-noun compound agent noun.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2022 12:08
|
|
|
yea they suck but im lazy
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2022 12:52
|
|
|
AFewBricksShy posted:I loving hate twitter threads. Same, and I can never seem to get more than a few tweets in before it tells me to sign up. I appreciate your service, that was a good read I would have missed! Reading a sci-fi story this week taught me sybarite, which means someone given to luxury and pleasure. A hedonist. And these very forums taught me that the shape you associate with nuclear plant cooling towers is called a hyperboloid .
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2022 19:21
|
|
|
Twitter threads go against the spirit of Twitter and shouldn't be allowed.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2022 20:41
|
|
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:Same, and I can never seem to get more than a few tweets in before it tells me to sign up. I appreciate your service, that was a good read I would have missed! Use a nitter instance. It will do all the work for you and keep you off Twitter.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2022 23:31
|
|
|
My favourite word in Icelandic is svefngalsi, pronounced svep-galsee, and it refers to the feeling of giddiness you get when you're very tired. Literally something like "sleep fun".
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2022 16:04
|
|
|
That's a great word. I can immediately see how Icelandic svefn is cognate to Danish søvn, I wonder if galsi is cognate to gal (mad, crazy). I suppose there's a sense of meaning like "wild" in both. I can't think of a word for nighttime giddiness, but we do have søvndrukken "sleepdrunk" when you're slow/incoherent from just waking up. Also "sleep crust" is just called søvn, eg. "you still have sleep in your eyes".
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2022 16:23
|
|
|
for fucks sake posted:My favourite word in Icelandic is svefngalsi, pronounced svep-galsee, and it refers to the feeling of giddiness you get when you're very tired. Literally something like "sleep fun". If we're doing Icelandic words I'd have to go with glósóli (thanks Sigur Rós) which translates into taking childish delight in sunshine.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2022 19:48
|
|
|
This is interesting. "Cutpurse" and "Sellsword" are two more. I learned those from A Song of Ice and Fire. Edit: it's possible GRRM made these up, but they still fit the pattern. deoju has a new favorite as of 02:09 on Sep 17, 2022 |
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2022 01:13
|
|
|
deoju posted:This is interesting. "Cutpurse" and "Sellsword" are two more. I learned those from A Song of Ice and Fire. He didn't but they are two additional examples!
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2022 04:14
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 9, 2024 05:17 |
|
|
I am now imagining Deadwood: Early Modern Edition, where everyone is always calling each other “suckcock”.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2022 04:28
|
|
