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Language oddities and funnies

Started by Dave, June 12, 2017, 04:39:42 PM

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Dave

I came across the phrase, common in English, "...he was hanging on like grim death..." in a book.

Why not "...hanging on like joyful life..." ? In my endeavours to evade the Grim Reaper (due to my dicky ticker) "hanging onto life like grim death to avoid a grim death" gets to feel a bit, er silly.

Why do we say, "There, there" to calm a painful emotion but "Now, now" to calm a hot emotion and "Here, here" to celebrate? Whereas the traditional English Bobby was reputed to say, "Now then, now then". Which? Now or then, present or past?  What could "Then, then" signify I wonder?
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

hermes2015

Quote from: Gloucester on June 12, 2017, 04:39:42 PM
..."Here, here" to celebrate?..

I always thought it was "Hear, hear".

Gloucester, you are good at starting these things. What about a thread of Spoonerisms?
Until then, thank you from the heart of my bottom.
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames

Dave

Quote from: hermes2015 on June 12, 2017, 06:04:53 PM
Quote from: Gloucester on June 12, 2017, 04:39:42 PM
..."Here, here" to celebrate?..

I always thought it was "Hear, hear".

Gloucester, you are good at starting these things. What about a thread of Spoonerisms?
Until then, thank you from the heart of my bottom.

You iz right! But, why "Hear, hear" for agreement even.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Dave

Might as well add Spoonerisms etc in here.

And, for almost any play on the English language, who better to turn to than The Two Ronnies?







Just for starters.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

joeactor


Dave

#5
Quote from: joeactor on June 12, 2017, 08:28:57 PM
Funny!

How about adding Sniglets?


Like it!

Anyone want to offer neoligisms for words they find missing?

Like :
Dishtastrophe - the result of tripping whilst carrying a stack of dishes.
Disglasster - finding one's glass is empty.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

joeactor

Quote from: Gloucester on June 12, 2017, 08:53:10 PM
Quote from: joeactor on June 12, 2017, 08:28:57 PM
Funny!

How about adding Sniglets?


Like it!

Anyone want to offer neoligisms for words they find missing?

Like :
Dishtastrophe - the result of tripping whilst carrying a stack of dishes.
Disglasster - finding one's glass is empty.

How about "Cinemuck" - the gunk found on movie theater floors.

Dave

Quote from: joeactor on June 12, 2017, 09:23:48 PM
Quote from: Gloucester on June 12, 2017, 08:53:10 PM
Quote from: joeactor on June 12, 2017, 08:28:57 PM
Funny!

How about adding Sniglets?


Like it!

Anyone want to offer neoligisms for words they find missing?

Like :
Dishtastrophe - the result of tripping whilst carrying a stack of dishes.
Disglasster - finding one's glass is empty.

How about "Cinemuck" - the gunk found on movie theater floors.

Yup, used to comprise of fruit juice, ice-cream, popcorn and, in days thankfully long passed, cigarette ash! Though burger grease and bits are in some formulations.

I thought twice about "icescream - the noise made by the victim of a cube down the neck - but I think it is valid now.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

hermes2015

I love the Two Ronnies. When I get home from my trip on Friday I will see what I have.
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames

xSilverPhinx

I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Dave

Quote from: xSilverPhinx on June 15, 2017, 10:26:04 PM


I love  Lucy! Very clever woman as well as very funny.

In its original form, Angli-Saxon, "ough" would have had all the letters pronounced in every case, but old Sam Johnson regularised the A-S, say, "plough" ("plo-ugh") spelling and the Norse "plow" pronounciation. "Tho-ug-ht" mutated to something more like "thort". A-S had no pronounced dipthongs, "beans" would be pronounced "bee-ans", British "Geordies" in the North West still have a similar speech pattern in their accent, "film"  as "fi-lm" sounds more like "fillum".

I have a copy of a poem on the laptop that I will dig out that illustrates the pronounciation idiosyncracies of English quite well.

But, I am sure, other languages have things that makes no real sense if analysed, maybe because the meaning of a word is no longer current but the phrase persists in modern usage..
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

joeactor

Anyone else notice he's got the same first and last name?

Ricky is short for Ricardo, Yes?

xSilverPhinx

Quote from: joeactor on June 16, 2017, 09:55:56 PM
Anyone else notice he's got the same first and last name?

Ricky is short for Ricardo, Yes?

Is Ricky a nickname for Richard (equivalent to Ricardo)?
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


xSilverPhinx

Quote from: Gloucester on June 16, 2017, 06:57:25 AM
I have a copy of a poem on the laptop that I will dig out that illustrates the pronounciation idiosyncracies of English quite well.

There's an old one available online:

Quote
English is a Funny Language

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,

But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,

Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.


If the plural of man is always called men,

Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,

And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,

Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?


Then one may be that, and three would be those,

Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,

And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say methren.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!


Let's face it - English is a crazy language.

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;

neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,

we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,

and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.


And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,

grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and

get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?


If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English

should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.


In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.

We have noses that run and feet that smell.

We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,

while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?


You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language

in which your house can burn up as it burns down,

in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and

in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


No one

joeactor:
Anyone else notice he's got the same first and last name?

Ricky is short for Ricardo, Yes


Then Desi Arnaz was the original Richie Rich.