What words seem odd or funny to you?

[Reenk Roink]

Are there some words that you just have to surpress a giggle when you hear them? Even just words that seem odd to you? Post them here...

For me, the one is "fickle." My teacher said it in class, and I simply uncontrollably laughed until everyone was looking at me.

(Note: This is the frontroom, so keep it clean, no one cares if you still laugh at well known swear words)

[John86]

Dwarfy

\Dwarf"y\, a. Much undersized. [R.] --Waterhouse.

[ajaxfetish]

'bosom'

Ajax

[Alexanderofmacedon]

superb

[Lemur]

Kumquat. Skeevy. Affenpinscer. Lascivious. Porpoise. I'll think of more ...

[Reenk Roink]

"Flatulence" is another one...and "fornication" :laugh4:...

I like "skeevy"

[Divinus Arma]

Restaurant.

Divide this up:

rest: Okay I'm resting. I might rest or relax when I eat. fine.

Au: As in like, open wide and say aaauuuuu or ahhhhhh?

rant: How I get if my service is slow.


What a stupid word. I like "Diner". Yep I am a diner eating dinner. me likey.

Or how about, "cafe": Good, I like coffee.

Or "fast food joint": This is good. Some people want their food fast after having a joint. Works for me.


But restaurant? Stupid word.

[GoreBag]

According to the Bloodhound Gang, the best five words in the English language are Cobalt, Pickle, Monkey, Spackle, and Wasps.

'Rhubarb' and 'woven' are funny words, and the expression 'dirt farmer' cracks me up everytime.

[Zalmoxis]

Guestimation. Not a word, an annoyance.

[Strike For The South]

ohio

[Dâriûsh]

Donkey.

[Samurai Waki]

route- or is it "root"

[Somebody Else]

America

[InsaneApache]

I always thought that if you repeated the word spoon outloud several times it sounds silly.

[matteus the inbred]

flange
orifice
spanner
lemon

there ought to be a word to describe that thing Tim the Enchanter does in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when he's describing the rabbit's huge sharp pointy teeth, cos that makes me cry with laughter.

[Craterus]

I always thought that if you repeated the word spoon outloud several times it sounds silly.

I think that's the same with all words.

Glue is a good one for that though.

[Reenk Roink]

Clock is an odd one...

[Tachikaze]

Any word adopted from Yiddish that begins with shl-.

[Duke Malcolm]

have seems odd
defenestration seems funny

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
stirups :charge:
.

[Quietus]

Titillate.

[Quietus]

Guestimation. Not a word, an annoyance. :laugh4:

[Voigtkampf]

Abbreviation. :inquisitive:

[The_Mark]

Plötsligt; suddenly in Swedish.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

Mastercate, apperbate, kumquat.

I mastercated the apperbatable kumquat until my jaw hurt.

I.e. I chewed the praisable fruit until my jaw hurt.

Sounds dirty but it's not.

[Reenk Roink]

Sounds dirty but it's not.

Those are the best...

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Foist.
To force something on someone else basically, I don't know if it has any other meanings though.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Splat
Crevice
Quash.

[Mikeus Caesar]

The American Way™ of pronouncing Data.

[KukriKhan]

"the".

Never been able to fully explain it to a non-english speaker.

[Mouzafphaerre]

"the".

Never been able to fully explain it to a non-english speaker.
.
It's the first ever English word that I had learned long before beginning to study it properly at middle-school. At that time it was such a trademark of the language for me! :laugh4:
.

[Reenk Roink]

Don't other languages have words for "the" :dizzy2: ? English is the only language I really know, but in my Spanish class "the" could be "el" or "la" depending on whether the word was masculine or feminine.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Niggardly

Not quite what I thought it meant. :laugh4:



Harbor, neighbor without the -u-. :no:

An history, with a -n-.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.

Don't other languages have words for "the" :dizzy2: ? English is the only language I really know, but in my Spanish class "the" could be "el" or "la" depending on whether the word was masculine or feminine.

Some do, some don't. Some only have indefinite articles (a/an stuff) while some have articles and genders etc. etc.

Turkish doesn't have any. Formal Kurdish does (indefinite) but it's been fading away in common speech. (There are masculine and feminine genders though.) Arabic has ال for definite article and the -un ending for the indefinite, yet unpronounced. (Hebrew, I assume, would be similar.) Greek has ο/η/το depending on gender like German's der/die/das. Farsi, afaik, doesn't have any.

Thus ends the list of the languages I've had familiarity in varying degrees. :charge:
.

[Reenk Roink]

What is with the Europeans and Asians who are multi-lingual, and us cornfed midwesterners can barely speak normal English with our colloquialisms and what-not?

[Brutus]

Don't other languages have words for "the" :dizzy2: ? English is the only language I really know, but in my Spanish class "the" could be "el" or "la" depending on whether the word was masculine or feminine.

Dutch "de", which actually almost sounds the same. "het" is also a possible translation of "the" although "het" might also mean "it".

In German there are "der", "die", "das", etc., depending on gender and declination of the accompanying word.

In French "le" or "la", etc., etc. It seems to me that at least most Germanic and Romance languages have equivalents of "the".

[Reenk Roink]

This is actually two words, but it seems so odd to me:

"Freedom Fries"

I mean, WTH is that???

[Mouzafphaerre]

What is with the Europeans and Asians who are multi-lingual, and us cornfed midwesterners can barely speak normal English with our colloquialisms and what-not?
.
Mid-westerners? Normal English? :inquisitive:

:laugh4:

*dodges the Smith-Wesson bullets*
.

[Duke Malcolm]

What is with the Europeans and Asians who are multi-lingual, and us cornfed midwesterners can barely speak normal English with our colloquialisms and what-not?

Only the continental Europeans...
We British folk tend to stick to our native languages of English, Welsh, Gaelic, and Scots. Foreign is not that useful when most foreign folk speak English anyway...

[TheSilverKnight]

Don't other languages have words for "the" :dizzy2: ? English is the only language I really know, but in my Spanish class "the" could be "el" or "la" depending on whether the word was masculine or feminine.

All of the Romance Languages (based from Latin) are genderised. As in, depending on who you're talking about, everything is genderised according to that person. This includes the following languages - French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Asturian, Galician, Sardenyan, Italian, Sicilian, Neapolitan, Romansch, Romanian, Moldavian, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, Afro-Portuguese, and...all the other Romance languages which I have not listed here :laugh4:

[scotchedpommes]

Foreign is not that useful when most foreign folk speak English anyway...

Knowing the language of the country you are in, and in some cases even
knowing as much as to understand the language at a relatively basic level can
make a significant difference to your experience.

[When I say basics, I mean knowing more than would have you resorting to
shouting your English louder and enunciating as best you can until you receive a
desirable response.]

[Byzantine Prince]

Niggardly

Not quite what I thought it meant. :laugh4:
I used the word niggard to describe Coffi Annan in the backroom once, and I got double warning for it. :no:

As for me:
______________________
Bone
matriculate
turkey
phenobarbital
ricrac
versicle
whilom
lorikeet
gametes

[Duke Malcolm]

When I say basics, I mean knowing more than would have you resorting to
shouting your English louder and enunciating as best you can until you receive a
desirable response.]

That's what the handy phrase handbook is for, so we don't have to go to the trouble of learning a new language.

[scotchedpommes]

That's what the handy phrase handbook is for, so we don't have to go to the trouble of learning a new language.

Heh. If you're only interested in finding out the bare essentials, then I suppose it
would do you fine. I'd tend to view learning as something more positive, in any
case.

[The Stranger]

deksel

[GoreBag]

Mastercate, apperbate, kumquat.

I mastercated the apperbatable kumquat until my jaw hurt.

I.e. I chewed the praisable fruit until my jaw hurt.

Sounds dirty but it's not.

You must mean masticate.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

You must mean masticate.
Ah, sorry. Major fricken typo on my part, yeah thats what I mean.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Barnacle

*snicker*

[Reenk Roink]

"Google"...

EDIT: And how could I forget "frugal" ~D?

[Cowhead418]

centrifugal, britches, lard

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
tidal wave :stare: How on earth am I supposed to translate this? :end: We have one and the same word for both tide and way. ~:mecry:
.

[Louis VI the Fat]

.
tidal wave :stare: How on earth am I supposed to translate this? :end: We have one and the same word for both tide and way. ~:mecry:
.Would that have anything to do with Turkish languages being confined to Central Asia and the Mediterranean? Neither experience many tidal waves. It would be a bit akin to there not being a Zulu word for 'snow blizzard'. (I assume there isn't one, admittedly)

And can't you just use the Japanese word 'tsunami'? Most languages do.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
tsunami is used as is.

As for the language, really much more of the words are imported than archaic ones. :yes: But your theory makes sense in general.
.

[Ianofsmeg16]

Pandiculate (i think thats how you spell it)

just ask someone if they pandiculate often and watch their reaction...


It means to yawn

[JimBob]

connive
squiffy
stubble
buzzard
Ecky-ecky-ecky-ecky f'tang-zoop-boing! Goodem-zoo-owli-zhiv!

[TheSilverKnight]

Perambulator...

:book: :laugh4:

[Sardo]

No niggard art thou, Eomer...

Yeah, had to look that one up the first time...

How about this one: froward.
There's a line, again in the LotR, where Gandalf says of Eomer something to the effect of "Faithful heart may have forward tongue". Then I learned that in some editions it actually said 'froward', and that this was in fact a real word and probably even the correct version, as intended by Tolkien.


fro·ward Pronunciation (frwrd, -rd)
adj.
Stubbornly contrary and disobedient; obstinate.

[Ja'chyra]

Only the continental Europeans...
We British folk tend to stick to our native languages of English, Welsh, Gaelic, and Scots. Foreign is not that useful when most foreign folk speak English anyway...

Got to agree with this, though there is a great deal of arrogance in the stance, saying that, I haven't learned any other langauges yet but in my defence I'm Glaswegian so English isn't exactly my first language :laugh4:

[matteus the inbred]

How about this one: froward.
There's a line, again in the LotR, where Gandalf says of Eomer something to the effect of "Faithful heart may have forward tongue". Then I learned that in some editions it actually said 'froward', and that this was in fact a real word and probably even the correct version, as intended by Tolkien.

pretty sure that 'froward' is the correct version! i misread it for years too. Tolkien uses some great words, like 'coomb' and 'sable'.