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  #11  
Unread 01-16-2021, 08:19 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Hot off the press, in the bastard lexiconology that the Urban Dictionary harbors, these two words have reared their peculiar heads:


Pseudocoup. Pronounced like the word puzzle "sudoku". The coup attempt by the Trump supporters.

Nussy The act of swabbing a person's nose right up to where the brain connects, causing a person's eyes to roll back and gag.

Far from being inspiration, these two words produce a weird strain of deflation in my heart... What a world, what a world.

.
.
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  #12  
Unread 01-23-2021, 05:02 PM
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Kevin Rainbow Kevin Rainbow is offline
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woman - a "man" who is a "wife"

hellware "inhabitants of hell"
http://ebeowulf.uky.edu/cgi-bin/Bosw...sworth?seq=546

muscle - "little mouse" (Latin)

подбородок (podborodok) [literally "thing under the beard"] "chin" (Russian)

Ouagadougou - the capital Burkina Faso

Funafuti - the capital of Tuvalu
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  #13  
Unread 01-26-2021, 01:13 AM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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arachnodactyly: "spider fingers" -- a condition in which the fingers and toes are abnormally long and slender, in comparison to the palm of the hand and arch of the foot.

A.k.a. why I can't wear high-heeled shoes. They never bend in the right place for me.
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  #14  
Unread 01-28-2021, 11:21 PM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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a·le·a·to·ry
/ˈālēəˌtôrē/

depending on the throw of a dice or on chance; random.

relating to or denoting music or other forms of art involving elements of random choice (sometimes using statistical or computer techniques) during their composition, production, or performance.
"aleatory music"

from alea, Latin "dice"; aleator, Latin "dice player"
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  #15  
Unread 01-29-2021, 08:13 AM
Joe Crocker Joe Crocker is offline
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Aleatory was a word I used in another life as a risk analyst. When we consider uncertainty, the part of uncertainty that is inherent and random is aleatory. The part that is due to our ignorance, our lack of information is epistemic.

A word I like from the world of statistics is

ogive

/ˈəʊdʒʌɪv,əʊˈdʒʌɪv/

In statistics it is an empirical cumulative distribution function.

In architecture it is the curve of a gothic arch.
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  #16  
Unread 01-29-2021, 09:47 AM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Rainbow View Post
woman - a "man" who is a "wife"
Yes, but it's important to recall that "man" in Old English meant "human being," regardless of gender. Males were called "werman" and females were called "wifman." Over time, the "wer" was dropped for males and the "wif" turned into "wo" for females.
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  #17  
Unread 01-29-2021, 10:00 AM
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Allen Tice Allen Tice is offline
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Syzygy. Perfect for visitors at Yuletide. Polydactyly. Often found in cats.
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  #18  
Unread 01-29-2021, 11:55 AM
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Kevin Rainbow Kevin Rainbow is offline
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Woman - a traditional marriage (man and wife as one)

Quote:
Males were called "werman".
Not sure where you came up with "werman". No such word existed in Old English.
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  #19  
Unread 01-29-2021, 12:16 PM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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I cannot confirm that the word existed, but the point remains the same. The word "man" did not refer to the male gender, but to human beings of either gender. The word for a man was "wer", not "man," and the "man" suffix in "woman" simply referred to being human. So "woman" isn't a lesser term, or a definition of a gender based on its opposition to another gender, but simply a compound word that combines "wife" with "human." You may be right that the word "werman" didn't exist, as I see with further research that some have claimed it to be a myth. I stand corrected if that's the case. (I did spend a few months studying Old English in college, but that was long ago).
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  #20  
Unread 01-29-2021, 12:40 PM
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Kevin Rainbow Kevin Rainbow is offline
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No one was saying the meanings of the component words were the same as they are now. "A man who is a wife" is accurate (in terms of the original meanings) and amusing (in terms of their current meanings)
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