Useful, balanced-looking, and constantly under attack. First graders have better spelling skills I do, but even I know that thru isn't cute, it's murder.
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Then you'd probably hate the EZ Mealz in 'n out drive thru.
On the subject of how America is always trying to shorten words and phrases to save a few precious moments to get in more IMs, I give you my favorite word of all time: LOL.
I think this acronym should be implemented into all types of verbal communication, based on the fact that said out loud it resembles laughter (making it vaguely onomotopoeic), as well as just being an all around fun word.
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Nate - if you think Americans are bad at shortening words, go visit Australia. They shorten everything. It was quite fun to get into the lingo during my semester abroad there, even if I never learned to imitate the accent properly.
Posts: 554 | Registered: Jun 2007
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I just won a scrabble game with the word "fop." No one I was playing with had ever heard of it, and we had to resort to the dictionary to prove it was a word. So I'm fond of that one right now.
I love fire words, like smolder and ember and sizzle. I wish I knew a word to describe the icy sound the embers make sometimes. Melanie
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I like words that end in "-ough." There are so many different ways to pronounce them. You may recall a classic scene from "I Love Lucy" where Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) stumbled over that very problem.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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My kids used to be annoyed when I used any unfamiliar word in conversation with them and they didn't know what it meant. "Look it up," I would tell them. It irritated them that I wouldn't just stick to a vocabulary of simple words. Then, one day when my daughter was in high school she came home, faced me with her hands on her hips and said in a highly annoyed tone, "You know what I did today?"
I said, "No, what?"
"I used the word LUDICROUS!" she spat, then spun on her heel and stomped away.
Needless to say, I had a good chuckle over that one. It was nice to know a decent vocabulary was being absorbed by my children, regardless of desire.
Edited to add: And when she got into college, she reluctantly admitted she was glad for being exposed to a bigger vocabulary. Sweet!
[This message has been edited by Elan (edited July 11, 2009).]
quote:Although I find the three most magic words falling gradually into misuse are Please and Thank You.
This made me laugh. Our agility instructor commented on it in our last class when I thanked my dog for sitting (eventually) on the pause table when I told him to.
Having read through my first novel last week, I was struck by the fact that I appear to have a previously unrecognized fondness for the word despite.
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited July 12, 2009).]
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Do we need to stick to modern English? After taking a course on Chaucer, I'm particularly fond of "armypotent", meaning "powerful of arms", which he uses to describe Mars in the "Knight's Tale".
Posts: 37 | Registered: Jun 2008
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One of the things I liked about the series "Firefly" was the occasional new word coined. "Creepify" comes to mind.
Posts: 2026 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I just saw something about the words "flash mob" going into the next Merriam-Websters...which amuses me, 'cause I remember the term "flash crowd" bandied about in Larry Niven stories back in the 1970s for a similar concept. Wonder if they'll cite Niven's prior usage...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I have a certain horrid fascination with words I can't remember how to spell. Certain words I keep drawing a blank on, no matter how many times I've used them or looked them up or put spell check on them. Is it "aggravate" or "aggrivate"? "Recommend" or "reccommend?"
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For some reason, the phrase barking mad recently struck my fancy, so I'm on a lookout for excuses to use it.
Posts: 746 | Registered: Jun 2007
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I feel it is so usefull in so many situations! What are you reading? Stuff. What are you eating? Stuff Whats that? Stuff How are you feeling? Stuffed Are you hungry? Nah mate, I'm stuffed. Done a lot of excercise? Yer stuffed!
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