Surprising words

Post by **Teremia** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:46 am

I'm swooning for everyone on this page. Lovely words, thank you!

ugsome! pantechnicon! wow!

Post by **MithLuin** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:15 am

I finally thought of a word that might sorta fit here.

Ubiquitous.

Not because it means anything weird, or because people wouldn't know it...but just because it sounds cool and looks strange

.

I think I learned it when I was learning about ubiquitin, a protein that is very prevalent in cells, but doesn't seem to do much until you get big plaques of it building up in diseases like Alzheimers.....

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 7:02 am

I always liked "ubiquitous."

Belated swoon for Brian and "incidences." Definitely a word, at least in medical literature. (I'm really liking being good at this stuff, even if it's just a matter of being able to remember that it's "Neisseria gonorrhoeae" and not "gonnorhoeae" or "gonnorhoea" or "gonorrhea" or. . . .)

Post by **baby tuckoo** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:27 am

I used to like "ubiquitous," but I hear it all the time these days.

From another thread, I do like "putative," which must somehow relate to "the idea you put forth."

As my mother used to say, "Hoe's a real gonorr." There's a treoatment theose days.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:04 am

Reaollae?

Post by **Frelga** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:51 pm

Urinant adj. (Heraldry) - having the head downwards. From Latin urinari, to drive.

Apparently, it applies to fish when presented head down and with tail "erect."

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:53 pm

I'd never heard that one, Frelga!

Stretching the topic a bit, but Merriam-Webster has just announced its "Word of the Year" for 2007:

w00t.

No, I mean the word is "w00t." Spelled like that.

Link

(Ang, how many times did you vote in that online poll, anyway?)

Post by **Teremia** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:02 pm

Well, w00t for w00t!

I rather like blamestorm, too.

"Urinant," however, brings out the seven-year-old in me.

Post by **Frelga** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:57 pm

It did in me, too, which is why I posted it.

w00t for the w00t!

''It's amusing, but it's limited to a small community and unlikely to spread and unlikely to last,'' said Metcalf, an English professor at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill.

For some reason, this brings to mind Bill Gates's comment that 64K of RAM is all anyone will ever need.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:31 pm

But Frelga, everyone knows this Internet thing is going to blow over.

(I think the 64K remark is an urban legend, but Snopes.com doesn't have a search function I could find within 45 seconds, so I gave up. Everyone knows 45 seconds is an afternoon in Internet time.)

(I shall pen them a fiercely worded missive.)

Post by **vison** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:32 pm

Usufruct.

Now, that's a word you can dig your teeth into.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:43 pm

<Homer Simpson>

Mmmm . . . usufruct . . . .

</Homer Simpson>

Well, now I'm going to have pen two more fiercely worded missives to Snopes.com, because I did find a search box on their front page that was terribly mixed in with their logo and so took 47 seconds to spot and, uh.

And after that I spent all afternoon* looking for the Bill Gates quote story, even scrolling down past the first screenful of search results, and found nothing.

If it isn't on Snopes (and it certainly shouldn't be, if they couldn't make it any easier to find than that), then it must be true.

*Internet time.

Post by **BrianIsSmilingAtYou** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:19 am

Bill Gates 640K

BrianIs

AtYou

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:56 pm

A lovely snarky article, but I did gather that he never said it.

Thanks, Brian.

Post by **Angbasdil** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 5:55 am

Primula Baggins wrote:Stretching the topic a bit, but Merriam-Webster has just announced its "Word of the Year" for 2007:

w00t.

No, I mean the word is "w00t." Spelled like that.

Link

(Ang, how many times did you vote in that online poll, anyway?)

Right word, wrong year.

"w00t" is sooo 2002.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 7:30 am

It's your own fault for being fashion forward, Ang.

Post by **Impenitent** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:50 am

erinaceous

My daughter used it at me yesterday! It means like, or characteristic of, a hedgehog...and she was on the phone at the time with a friend and asked me...something or other, I forget what, and I was a little prickly about it, and she did a little eye-roll thing and said to her friend, "mum's a little erinaceous today..."...and I looked a little blank and had to check the dictionary, upon which I snorted with laughter because what else can you do when your 14 year old skewers you so precisely?

Post by **Frelga** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:00 am

Primula Baggins wrote:A lovely snarky article, but I did gather that he never said it.

Well, to be fair, it says that he now says he never said it.

Impish, I am going to use ernaceous in my conversation. It's brilliant, and made me think of the Hedgehog Song.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:23 am

Well, I do wonder, because I seem to remember him saying it; but it was around the same time that I informed Mr. Prim that now that he'd upgraded our Mac from 128K to 512K of RAM, we ought to be fine for years. So I can entirely understand the wish to be selective in one's memories.

Post by **vison** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:50 am

Yeah, it's like when we put another row on the abacus and argued for days over what colour the beads should be.