Words that are innately funny
Henry McGilton
rdou...@hoasy5.isd4.tafensw.edu.au wrote:
* Any obscure technical jargon, particularly engineering terms,
* such as sparge-pipe, grommet, flange, thrust-plate, gudgeon-pin
* and sprocket.
* You can easily make up your own, such as grofflet, spriddling-comb,
* half-gimbal, groping-fork, snupp, lumbobbet, frosling-pin and so on.
* Can also be used for firms of lawyers or accountants. As in:
* "If you do not publish an immediate retraction, I will place
* this matter in the hands of my legal advisors, Grofflet,
* Lumbobbet, Froslingpin & Snupp". Basic fodder for comedy
* writers all the way back to "Beachcomber" and possibly beyond.
Right! Remember back in the days of ``Round the Horn''? Kenneth
Williams used to do this spoof on folk music with entire songs
containing phrases like ``Nurdling your cordwangler'' and other
nonsense words.
........ Henry
aka...@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu
> According to Webster's:
>
> ac.ro.nym \'ak-r*-.nim\ n [acr- + -onym (as in homonym)] : a word (as
> radar, snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of
> the successive parts or major parts of a compound term
>
> Truly Donovan wrote:
>
>> And there are some who maintain that they had to become words *before* > they could become true acronyms, that cappedness is not a necessary
>> condition of acronymity or even acronymescence, and that btu, rpm,
>> etc., are *not* acronyms.
>
> By the definition of the word ``acronym,'' they are, unless we now
> want to change this definition. Let us see:
>
> btu = British thermal unit
> ^ ^ ^
> rpm = revolutions per minute
> ^ ^ ^
>
> Looks like they conform to the definition.
>
> The capitalization results from convention and usage; it is not
> required, as you say.
>
>
> --
> +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
> | Derick R. Qua-Gonzalez | ________ |
> | Department of Physics, California State University | \ / |
> | dq...@EarthLink.Net | \ / |
> | ``It is better to be hated for what one is, | \ / |
> | than loved for what one is not.'' (A. Gide) | 32 \/ USA|
> +----------------------------------------------------------+----------+
Do you really count "btu" and "rpm" as words? The definition's
examples (radar and snafu) are pronoucable acronyms. Just a thought.
RosiMBanks
Flabbergasted.
P.S. The Bobs rule!
David Blair
>Do you really count "btu" and "rpm" as words? The definition's
>examples (radar and snafu) are pronoucable acronyms. Just a thought.
It partly depends on what we think a dictionary means by "word". Most dictionaries
are fairly vague on this point when they define "acronym", and I suspect
deliberately so.
One reasonably common interpretation is that "word" means pronouncable other than as
a string of letters; +acronym+ is then contrasted with +initialism+, and "radar"
would be an acronym while "btu" is an initialism.
dB
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
rosim...@aol.com "RosiMBanks" writes:
> Flabbergasted.
Shouldn't that be flabberghasted?
--
Brian {Hamilton Kelly} b...@dsl.co.uk
Dragonhill Systems Ltd Tel: Faringdon (01367) 242363 [Fax: 01367 242366]
Bramble Passage, 20 Coxwell Street, FARINGDON, Oxon, SN7 7HA, United Kingdom
Camille Gleaton
<b...@dsl.co.uk> wrote:
> In article <466cd0$b...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>
> rosim...@aol.com "RosiMBanks" writes:
>
> > Flabbergasted.
>
> Shouldn't that be flabberghasted?
Webster's Unabridged says "flabbergasted." Might be different in the UK,
though.
As long as we're on the subject of funny words...
Kumquat,
Fizz,
&
Spleen
--
Camille "in search of a better .sig" Gleaton
Markus Laker
> Webster's Unabridged says "flabbergasted." Might be different in the UK,
> though.
Nope. It's just the same here.
Markus.
....................................................
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Ville Sinkko
: In article <814562...@dsl.co.uk>, Brian {Hamilton Kelly} ----------
There's one!
--
65
Zn
30
Andrew G. Rollin
>>In article <46lkaq$l...@bbs.dordt.edu>, lcs...@dordt.edu (Steve Drost) wrote:
>>
>>> Nope. It's "flabbergasted," the state of being overwhelmed by a flabber.
>>
>>Another synonym for "gobsmacked."
>>
>And if you've ever had your gob smacked, you know how painful that can be.
>
Kinda like when you trade your defenes.
--
Andrew Rollin
ag...@po.cwru.edu