Dictionary episode: Blackadder III
Daniel Nolan
I've tried looking up the words blackadder
goes through when he's testing Dr Johnson's
intelligence:
"...my mind is feptic, chasmotic, etc."
I checked the dictionary, and none of those
words are there. Is my spelling bad, or
was Blackadder just testing if he was
stupid enough to believe that they were
actually words?
- Daniel Nolan
Derek Janssen
"This dictionary contains every word in our beloved language, sir--"
--Check out Johnson quickly scribbling down "feptic, chasmotic", etc. to
see if there were any he missed...
Derek Janssen
djan...@ultranet.com
BARNFIELD LIBRARY
<dan...@msn.com> writes:
> I've tried looking up the words blackadder
> goes through when he's testing Dr Johnson's
> intelligence:
>
> "...my mind is feptic, chasmotic, etc."
>
> I checked the dictionary, and none of those
> words are there. Is my spelling bad, or
> was Blackadder just testing if he was
> stupid enough to believe that they were
> actually words?
>
>
> - Daniel Nolan
>
>
> Methinks he made them up, I've looked aswell! :-)
Batty Natty
new to this newsgroup.
Please be friendly!
N...@barnlib.demon.co.uk
--
Simon Axon
>
>"...my mind is feptic, chasmotic, etc."
>
Er - I think this one must have got stuck in my Outbox...
On Mon, 11 Mar 1996 15:51:58 +0000, HARVEY DANIEL TAMMAM
<hta...@coventry.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>BA: Contrafibulalities? It is a common word down our way.
>
>DJ: Damn! [He starts to write the word into his dictionary]
>
>BA: Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I am espeptic, frasmotic even compunctuous to
>have caused you such pericumbobulation.
>
>As the words don't actually exist I have made the best guess possible.
>
> Harv
Ha!
What sort of dictionary have you got there? It must be Dr J's first
edition ;-)
Dyspeptic - a. Subject to dyspepsia or the resulting depression
Compunctious - a. With a pricking of conscience, or slight regret
Pericombobulation - well - er -
Discombobulate - vt. (joc.) disturb, disconcert
"peri-" - prefix meaning around or about
...and I'm only on the 7th Oxford Concise.
Frasmotic contrafibularities? I'll let you know - if I'm sad enough
to nip to the library at lunch-time and look them up - not too likely.
On the other hand, contrafibularities could be along the lines of:
CONTRA - against
FIBULARITIES - relating to the fibula - a leg bone - perhaps like the
- humerus - or "funny bone"
so - contrafibularities - something opposite to amusement?
Okay, so it's late and I'm too tired for this...! :-P
Steve Milano
> In article: <4lfrln$4...@diablo.OntheNet.com.au> Daniel Nolan
> <dan...@msn.com> writes:
>
> > I've tried looking up the words blackadder
> > goes through when he's testing Dr Johnson's
> > intelligence:
> >
> > "...my mind is feptic, chasmotic, etc."
> >
They're not real words!
"I'm anaspeptic, phrasmodic, compunctuous even, to have caused you such
pericombobulations."
Of course Edmund would lie. He hates Dr. Johnson when he never hears
back from him regarding "Edmund: A Butler's Tale." He wants him to feel
stupid...
"...I just wanted to congratulate him on not leaving out a single word..."
...at which point Johnson realizes what Blackadder was trying to do.
Cheers,
Steve
"Certainly sir, whatever I can do to facilitate your velocitous
extramuralization...."
John B. Harris
> I've tried looking up the words blackadder
> goes through when he's testing Dr Johnson's
> intelligence:
>
> "...my mind is feptic, chasmotic, etc."
>
> words are there. Is my spelling bad, or
> was Blackadder just testing if he was
> stupid enough to believe that they were
> actually words?
They are all made up words.
Sincerely Yours,
JBH
Steve Morson
Daniel Nolan <dan...@msn.com> wrote:
>I've tried looking up the words blackadder
>goes through when he's testing Dr Johnson's
>intelligence:
>"...my mind is feptic, chasmotic, etc."
>I checked the dictionary, and none of those
>words are there. Is my spelling bad, or
>was Blackadder just testing if he was
>stupid enough to believe that they were
>actually words?
>- Daniel Nolan
The latter applies !! He also used "I shall return intrafrastically
!".
"The identity of the official whose alleged responsibility for
this hypothetical oversight has been the subject of recent discussion is
not shrouded in quite such impenetrable obscurity as certain previous disclosures
may have led you to assume, but, not to put too fine a point on it, the individual
in question is, it may surprise you to learn is one whom your present interlocutor
is in the habit of defining by means of the perpendicular pronoun !"
Sir Humphrey Appleby, "Yes, Minister" BBC TV.
BrowneAS
"This dictionary contains every word in our beloved language, sir--"
Except aardvark and sausage.
Leslie Decker
BrowneAS wrote:
>
> "This dictionary contains every word in our beloved language, sir--"
>
> Except aardvark and sausage.
That's another anachronism in BA. The word aardvark wouldn't have
been known to the English at that time. It's an Afrikaans word (the
Dutch people in South Africa). They had just settled S. Africa
recently before. I think on the BA mailing list someone looked in the
big Oxford that said aardvark was intoduced around 1823. It literally
means Earthpig.
Just a weird Germanic languages student
Leslie
Aaron Rizzio
I especially like Blackadder's butler/servant charactor in this
series. His response to Ben Johnson's pomposity with the long
recitation of nonsense words was a masterpiece of writing:
Blackadder "You mean this book contains every word in the English
language?"
Johnson "*Every* word."
Blackadder "Then you have my sincerest contra-fibulations"
--
Aaron Michael Rizzio
wken...@gmail.com
> I've tried looking up the words blackadder
> goes through when he's testing Dr Johnson's
> intelligence:
>
> "...my mind is feptic, chasmotic, etc."
>
> I checked the dictionary, and none of those
> words are there. Is my spelling bad, or
> was Blackadder just testing if he was
> stupid enough to believe that they were
> actually words?
>
>
> - Daniel Nolan
Contrafibulate - CONTRA - Against
The Fibula part is a bone in your leg, so could mean to pull your leg.
Pendergestatory, could refer to digestion.
Interludicle - A Brief break
Extra Muralisation - means on a wall or outside.
Wayne