|
I like learning new things. Do you like learning new things? If so, this thread may be for you! As a lifelong library nerd and glutton for the internet, as well as a voracious reader in general, I love learning new words. English, foreign, I don't care, just keep sticking them in that part of my brain that releases happy chemicals when I get a new word for my vocabulary. Today I learned "palimpsest". It's when you take a document and scrub some of it (quite literally in some cases) to make way for your document. I was introduced to a musician who does this in audio form; she takes a looping cassette tape and re-writes over portions of it with every performance she does. She's had this tape for the last 5 years. It is, as titled, an "Audio Palimpsest". It's a cool concept, and yay, I learned a new word today! What cool words/phrases have you learned lately? No idea if anyone else will take an interest in this thread, but if so, a few ground rules/suggestions: 1. No making fun of someone if they just learned something you're totally familiar with. I don't want people saying "I can't believe you didn't know such an ubiquitous word as 'ubiquitous'  "2. Bolding your word du jour like I did above would be nice. 3. Don't just post a word, post a definition or good use of it. Duh. 3a. Or at least post a wikipedia link to it or something so folks can just click a link instead of typing it on their phone. 3b. iI you know how to pronounce something, that'd be handy to put in posts as well. Don't want a repeat of when I learned the word "hors d'oeuvres" as a kid and pronounced it "whores devours" aloud in front of a bunch of adults who laughed.  4. Be nice, no slapfights, no threadshitting, the usual. I will not hesitate to bring the wrath of our generally benevolent PYF curators on yer rear end. PYF word you just learned! edit: ahhh crap, I forgot to pick a tag. Sorry, curators, I've posted maybe like 3 new threads in my 11 year posting career. Pastry, Bird, could one of y'all change it to something better than "shitpost"? edit 2: thanks, Pastry! JacquelineDempsey has a new favorite as of 23:27 on Feb 18, 2020 |
#
?
Feb 17, 2020 00:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 15:54 |
|
|
Over the holidays, I heard my mom say in Tagalog, "Ay, puki mong malaki!" You say this as an exclamation when you drop something something goes wrong, like saying "Goddammit!" It literally means "Your vagina is big!"
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2020 03:31
|
|
|
One of Rome's emperors had the excellent, moustache-twirling motto "let them hate, so long as they fear." The downside is, it sounds really silly to english-speakers: oderint dum metuant Sigh
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2020 04:10
|
|
|
The opposite of warmth is coolth. It seems so obvious in hindsight. I mean, just look at the two of them. And yet...
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2020 04:18
|
|
|
LITERALLY A BIRD posted:The opposite of warmth is coolth. Well, consider my mind blown. That's two new words I've learned today. Nice posts so far, guys! (Also, thanks for the sticky!  )Not a new one to me, but one of my favorite foreign words is "Aufhebung". Ah, my German ancestors, always got a handy word for something that takes 20 words or more in English. It's got a seemingly contradictory meaning, in that it can mean "to preserve" or "to abolish". Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, it boils down to "to reinforce the existence of something as it's being destroyed." The example given in a dumbed down way so even a stoned college-age me got it: A hamburger is not really fulfilling it's existence as a hamburger until someone eats it. It's a hamburger-like-thing when it's made, yeah, but it's not REALLY a hamburger until you destroy it by consuming it. Once it's just crumbs on a plate and a chewed up mass in your belly, that's when it truly exists/existed as a hamburger. (In my mind, same thing applies to those people my parents' age who have a sofa that's wrapped in plastic that no one's allowed to sit on. Ain't really a sofa unless you're willing to sit on it and wear it out, otherwise it's, I dunno, a useless object and not really furniture. Aufhebung that poo poo up, people.)
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2020 05:50
|
|
|
LITERALLY A BIRD posted:The opposite of warmth is coolth. I learned this word here a few weeks ago and at first I legit didn't believe it was real. Had to google it and also had my mind blown. How come no one ever uses it but "warmth" is super common?!
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2020 07:59
|
|
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:Well, consider my mind blown. That's two new words I've learned today. Mind blown. What aren't the Germans good at? That's not a joke, I'm literally asking. Anyway, it may seem mundane, but I finally figured out the meaning behind the phrase "A bird in hand is better than two in the bush." I've heard this proverb many times in my 32 years of existence, and never gave it much thought. But it's true. You have a bird. Ignore the ones you don't. Simple. Great thread, I look forward to some excellent etymology.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2020 18:01
|
|
|
The Mighty Moltres posted:
Thanks! I already knew this at some point, but one I got refreshed on today while reading something: Volvo is Latin for "I roll". Not because they make cars, but because they started out as a ball-bearing company. Then I guess they just.... rolled with it. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 00:48
|
|
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:Thanks! "Volkswagen" is German for "People's Car".
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 00:53
|
|
|
Just learned the word “hyacinthine” recently and I loving love it. It either means purple-y blue, like a hyacinth, or blond if it’s used to describe hair. In either case, it’s a pretty word. For bonus points, in the same short story I read the word “Porphyrogene”, which means “born into the purple”, or “born into the ruling class”.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 19:28
|
|
|
Totess posted:Just learned the word “hyacinthine” recently and I loving love it. It either means purple-y blue, like a hyacinth, or blond if it’s used to describe hair. Very cool, I never heard either of those! That dual meaning of hyacinthine is particular interesting, because I'm an artist, and on a color wheel, purple-y blue and yellow/blond are complete opposites. Wonder how that came about. Today I learned "cavil", which means to nit-pick or quibble. (pronounced* CAH-vil, rhymes with "cattle") So if you want to debate something here and sound extra pretentious, instead of "well, actually..." you'd post: "Well, I don't mean to cavil, but..." *Adding another suggestion in the OP that if you know how to pronounce something, that'd be handy to put in posts as well. Don't want a repeat of when I learned the word "hors d'oeuvres" as a kid and pronounced it "whores devours" aloud in front of a bunch of adults who laughed.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 23:25
|
|
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:Very cool, I never heard either of those! That dual meaning of hyacinthine is particular interesting, because I'm an artist, and on a color wheel, purple-y blue and yellow/blond are complete opposites. Wonder how that came about. Wiktionary and other dictionaries confirm the yellow/blond hair definition, but strangely the Wikipedia entry for Hyacinth says the complete opposite: quote:The term could also be descriptive of the color of the hair; either dark, black or deep violet. In Homer's Odyssey, Athena gives Odysseus hyacinthine hair to make him look more beautiful. Edgar Allan Poe, in the poem To Helen, uses the same term to beautify Helen's hair.[44][45]
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2020 05:57
|
|
|
"Shines like a diamond in a goat's rear end" Complementing someone or something when everything it's a part of is well... rear end.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2020 20:15
|
|
|
Rood A crucifix, typically the large piece displayed in a church's entrance to the chancel.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 00:03
|
|
|
Today, on reading an article about the movement to introduce hippos as a food animal in the US around turn of the 20th century (yeah, I read a lot of weird things), I learned barratry. (BEAR-uh-tree, or BAR-uh-tree, depending on which pronunciation guide I ask/your accent) In older times, it meant misconduct by sailors to get the ship owner or captain in trouble. Nowadays, it refers more to ambulance chasing lawyers or vexatious lawsuits; essentially tying up the courts with stupid lawsuits to be a money-grabbing rear end in a top hat or just to harass someone. Intoluene posted:Rood You got a twofer and win the bonus round today, because I had no idea what a rood nor a chancel was. ("the part of a church near the altar, reserved for the clergy and choir, and typically separated from the nave by steps or a screen", or so sayeth Our Lord Google) JacquelineDempsey has a new favorite as of 01:09 on Feb 21, 2020 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 00:58
|
|
|
pseudorandom posted:Wiktionary and other dictionaries confirm the yellow/blond hair definition, but strangely the Wikipedia entry for Hyacinth says the complete opposite: Hyacinthine as hair color probably refers to jacinth
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 01:01
|
|
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:You got a twofer and win the bonus round today, because I had no idea what a rood nor a chancel was. I live to serve. I actually knew Barratry in the legal sense of the word for vexatious or repeatedly frivolous lawsuits but not the sailor thing.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 02:34
|
|
|
My favorite word is nonplussed. It's not super uncommon, but being a young, voracious reader I intuited that it meant unfazed, or not bothered. My mother interpreted it as exactly the opposite--surprised, confused, thrown off. Turns out that it has two opposite definitions!
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 17:44
|
|
|
I thought the same thing for a long time. It happens a lot for words that are sufficiently uncommon but have some feature that seems intuitive. Here, the non- prefix makes the word seem like it should mean a lack of bother/emotion. Same thing when people use the fancy sounding Greek hoi polloi to speak of the upper crust of society, when in reality it means the masses/common people. e: oh there's a name for it too: Auto-antonym or perhaps Skunked term (in Denmark, we call them pendulum-words because their meaning often goes back and forth in phases). Carthag Tuek has a new favorite as of 19:24 on Feb 21, 2020 |
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 19:18
|
|
|
Krankenstyle posted:I thought the same thing for a long time. It happens a lot for words that are sufficiently uncommon but have some feature that seems intuitive. Here, the non- prefix makes the word seem like it should mean a lack of bother/emotion. That auto-antonym article was enlightening, even if only because I used to work with a German woman who spoke English quite well except for "lend" and "borrow. " Eg., "JD, can you borrow me that thing when you're done using it?" Turns out German has one word for the concept! 
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 20:37
|
|
|
Same in Danish  Speaking of pendulum-words, the canonical example here is bjørnetjeneste ("Bear's favor", cf. German Bärendienst), which refers to the fable of the Bear and the Gardener. In it, a bear wants to help a sleeping gardener by keeping flies away from his head, but ends up crushing him with a large stone. So, the word means something that was done with good intentions but which had catastrophic consequences. However, younger Danes unfamiliar with the fable will often interpret the word to mean a great favor — quite the opposite.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 21:47
|
|
|
Krankenstyle posted:Same in Danish quote:Several lines occurring in the poem are taken as its morals. Midway there is the statement 'In my opinion it's a golden rule/Better be lonely than be with a fool', which the rest of the story bears out.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2020 22:00
|
|
|
Yoshi Jjang posted:Over the holidays, I heard my mom say in Tagalog, "Ay, puki mong malaki!" Completely irrelevant to the thread, but your av syncs up to "Show me a woman" by Joe Diffie creepily well.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2020 09:05
|
|
|
My favourite unword, deceptively. Officially it means both "seemingly x but actually not x" and "seemingly not x but actually x" and that tension is why guides basically say not to ever use it
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2020 10:12
|
|
|
Well Firefox's goofy spell-check just taught me a new word. I was writing a post in the Goon Music thread and misspelled "listening". It gets the squiggly red underline, so I right-click to fix it real quick, and for some bizarre reason, it offered only "epistemic" as the word I was trying to type. I mean, it wasn't even close to that, I just typo'ed an extra "e" in there.  Spellcheck/auto-correct, sometimes you baffle me.Anyways: epistemic means "of or relating to knowledge or knowing" according to Merriam-Webster. So now I know the word about knowing.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2020 12:26
|
|
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:Today, on reading an article about the movement to introduce hippos as a food animal in the US around turn of the 20th century (yeah, I read a lot of weird things), I learned barratry. (BEAR-uh-tree, or BAR-uh-tree, depending on which pronunciation guide I ask/your accent) The word “barratry” in English has a very strange history. It was also for a period until sometime in the sixteenth century also synonymous with the word “bribe,” as in a bribe paid to a judge, which reflected the meaning of the word “barataria” in late medieval and early modern Italian and Spanish legal scholarship.
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2020 22:44
|
|
|
Hemodynamics: the study of blood flow
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2020 10:38
|
|
|
Jestery posted:Hemodynamics: the study of blood flow Thanks, didn't know that one! I was just watching a John Oliver segment about Mount Everest, wherein he mentions the difference between Sherpas (the ethnic group) and sherpas (folks who may or may not be of that group, but act as mountain guides/pack mules for rich people). He mentions that that's called a capitonym, a word that has different meanings based on if it you capitalize the first letter or not. Eg., Jupiter has 69 moons (nice), Earth has one Moon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitonym
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2020 22:46
|
|
|
Also Polish.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 02:30
|
|
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:Thanks, didn't know that one! Brb, forcing a play in a Scrabble game.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 04:06
|
|
|
Heard the phrase try to catch the knife recently, in reference to people thinking about trying to buy stonks as they (hope) they are bottoming out. The idea, of course, is that you might catch it by the handle, but you might catch it by the blade!
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 04:13
|
|
|
CaptainPsyko posted:Heard the phrase try to catch the knife recently, in reference to people thinking about trying to buy stonks as they (hope) they are bottoming out. Oooo, that's a good one. I work in the restaurant industry so it hits home. One of the first basics in kitchen safety you learn is "Dropped/slipped with a knife? For gently caress's sake just back up, throw your hands in the air and don't try to catch it!" I was just reading probably my 763rd article about coronavirus today, and learned where the word influenza comes from. It's a 16th century Italian word (which is "funny", given Italy's situation right now) that derives from Latin influentia. Folks thought that an epidemic was caused by the position --- the influence --- of heavenly bodies. So influentia, and later influenza, was the short-hand medical term back in the day for "dang, everyone's feverish and puking because of astrology". It migrated to English medical jargon during an epidemic in the 18th century.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 07:43
|
|
|
We call paper shredders makulator in Danish, so it amused me when I got into genealogy that one of my ancestors, a paper maker, would buy sacks of makulatur from a bank to use in his own production. I interpreted it as meaning the product from a makulator, and pictured the sacks containing shredded paper. Later, I read that they found some counterfeit money in one of the sacks, and there was a police investigation. So, not shredded then? Turns out that macula is Latin for "spot". Makulatur is any kind of unusable paper, whether from misprints, being deliberately made invalid, or even used for wiping inky finkers. In fact, I've seen many old documents where single words or short phrases were deleted by maculation with dots instead of being struck through. Possibly to retain legibility of the original text for legal purposes? The macula lutea of the retina is the central (yellow) spot of high resolution vision.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 08:15
|
|
|
Huh, and now the medical term "macular degeneration" makes sense. Thanks, Kranks! (Thkranks.)
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 08:30
|
|
|
 Here are some more I just remembered. Due to a large part of my vocabulary being learned entirely through written text, there are times when I pick the wrong pronunciation. - A pinafore is an apron-like dress, as in pin-afore. I always thought it was Italian, and mentally pronounced it "peena-foreh"  - The national park Yosemite, I thought was pronounced "Yo, Semite" (correct is Yos-mite) - The personal name Pedro, I thought was "Pete-ro" (correct is pet-ro) Luckily, I mostly manage to hear the correct pronunciation before using my wrong one.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 16:42
|
|
|
The word mesmerize comes from the the german doctor Franz Mesmer. Working with kids who speak multiple languages also means that I've learned words like kutti (bitch in urdu), benchod (sisterfucker in urdu) and naas (boobs in somali).
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 17:20
|
|
|
Alhazred posted:The word mesmerize comes from the the german doctor Franz Mesmer. "Nice naas" has a good ring to it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 17:37
|
|
|
Alhazred posted:The word mesmerize comes from the the german doctor Franz Mesmer. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 18:04
|
|
|
Krankenstyle posted:
I hear you on this one. In my public school in NY, you had to start taking a language class in 7th grade , and you could pick French or Spanish. I opted for Spanish, because I knew I wanted to move to NYC one day and figured it would be much more useful. Which it has been, especially working in kitchens, where a LOT of your back-of-house staff have Spanish as a first language. However, I really want to get into fine cooking, which I've read about extensively for years. Trouble is, all your fancy culinary terms come from French, and I don't have a goddamn clue how to pronounce them! Thank heavens for the internet and Youtube, because the first cooking gig I got was as a garde manger, and I would've totally butchered that if I hadn't looked it up first. "Hi, I'm here about the 'guard manger [pronounced like the barn Jesus was born in]' position?" Alhazred posted:The word mesmerize comes from the the german doctor Franz Mesmer. Yep! Mesmer is considered the father of hypnosis in the psych fields. Once that term for "getting induced into a trance" got popular, it came to mean any instance where you check out mentally because you're fixated on something. He's also responsible for the term "animal magnetism", because he literally thought that many illnesses were caused by an imbalance between your animate body and stuff like rocks and the moon and tides. He'd treat patients by putting magnets on their bodies and staring deep into their eyes for prolonged periods of time. The magnet part is bunk, of course, but he inadvertently discovered that making people chill out and focus on something had some therapeutic value. (Sorry for derailing my own thread; I took a whole class in college on hypnosis and I don't get to trot out this useless knowledge to an audience very often.)
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 19:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 15:54 |
|
|
Krankenstyle posted:
yo-SEM-it-tee, not yos-might PAY-droh, not pet-ro Sincerely, the one who read vinegar as vine-gar. Out loud. Several times. In front of my whole family. No one ever bothered to correct any of my mispronunciations, growing up.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2020 21:32
|
|