Merry Almost X-mas, fair reader(s):
Here's a fantastic article on the love of big words and the pros and cons of using them in quotidian parlance. It speaks to my soul.
And then, there's this new addiction of mine. Soon, you'll enjoy, as I have, hours of time wasted as you learn the difference between pelf and peripateticism.
My gifts to you!
Etymologically yours,
M
15 comments:
Freerice.com is totally fun, no? I don't really know how much actual food-food is contained in 20 grains, but it does add up...cmr
it's crack for dorky people. I heart words!
I know of a medication called Prolixin and, Ecstacy - well . . . I know words!
Whatever gets your rocks off, Jim. For me, it's vocabulary building. YOu seem to have more exotic tastes, though.
Fun game. I tend to stay around a vocab level of 40 or 41.
nuh-uh! I've gotten up to level 51 but I usually hover around 46 or 47. It's true that I have a brain for word derivations (such that it is a prized skill at my current place of employment), but you can clearly do better than 40-41. I recommend you keep playing. Obsessively. Like you've got a jones for it.
Did you know that "Bodhi tree" and the English word "forbode" have the same root? Both derive from Sanskrit-- and we have very few Sanskrit words in our language, so that one is special.
Also, did you know that the English language only has one infix? Other languages use them like we use prefixes and suffixes. Ours, however, is "fucking." As in, "absofuckinglutely" or "fanfuckingtastic." It really doesn't do much besides adding emphasis and vulgarity. Both of which I enjoy.
Anyone want some links to the etymology of the word "cunt?"
oh, i have many links for the word cunt already! and thanks for the rice site, i am now *obsessed* with it, no lie, as i also heart words! my new favorite: omphaloskepsis. dig it.
I did know that "fucking" was our only infix, and that it can be easily adapted to many parts of speech. I had a colleg girlfriend who was quite ingenius with the usage. She once filled up the whole message board on my dorm room door with that sort of thing, and the taped on a paer addendum which read, in its entirety, "fucking stuck." Charming.
Cindi, I can certainly see why you liked her! I, indeed, would have been charmed. From what I know of you, I don't THINK you were being facetious about being charmed, either!
And Jen, dear god, it IS a great word. I'll admit, I had to look it up, but now that I know it's a thing, I might have to begin my practice of it! And your links to "cunt" etymology would have been the ones I used anyway. And, btw, I'm pleased that I could, at the very least, provide an edifying obsession. This one's quasi-productive, right? PS, what're you doing tomorrow during the day? I'm coming home tonite and might have a free moment manana to grab some tea or something...?
i'm addicted!
...I hear there are freerice-anon meetings every tuesday in the basements of most local indie bookstores and computer IT service home offices-- you know, nerd hang-outs.
The infix is common in many languages. It is rare in English, but by no means limited to “fucking.” It would appear someone has reached a conclusion based on a faulty premise, at least insufficient data.
The infix iz or izn is characteristic of hip-hop, for example hizouse for house and shiznit for shit. Infixes also occur in some language games. The ma infix, whose distribution was documented by linguist Alan C. L. Yu, gives a word an ironic pseudo-sophistication, as in sophistimacated, saxomaphone, and edumacation.
Chemical nomenclature includes the infixes pe, signifying complete hydrogenation (from piperidine), and et (from ethyl), signifying the ethyl radical C2H5. Thus from the existing word picoline is derived pipecoline, and from lutidine is derived lupetidine; from phenidine and xanthoxylin are derived phenetidine and xanthoxyletin.
If I may direct your attention to Wouldn’t It Be Loverly from Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady, “Oh, how loverly sittin’ absobloomin’lutely still; I would never budge till spring crept over my window sill. This is similar to the use of “fucking” as in fanfuckingtastic. Any number of words could be used in this manner, such as anyoldhow, another common expression, albeit a bit backwoodsy. Or how about Homer Simpson’s neighbor Ned Flanders’ expression, “well-diddy-elcome.“ However, these are not true infixes inasmuch as they employ a lexical word (or nonsense syllable) rather than an actual affix. Use of a word in this manner is tmesis, sometimes considered a form of infix, but not a true infix.
xoxox
I would argue that all of those example are even less legitimized into standard English, though. Though I would never try to say that any given argot doesn't contribute to the organic quality of the language-- or that the "fucking" infix was anything other than slang-- I think I might try to argue that "fucking" has a longer tradition and that all these newer additions are just joining the party. Not that that argument has a point at all. I don't really know where I'm going with this, actually.
But this must be yet another comment designed (by Joe? probably so, judging by the x's and o's) just to rankle me. But I ain't rankled.
OK, I slept and now want to expand on my counter. I want to say that the usage of "iz' or "izn" are virtually obsolete for anyone who's not a white frat boy trying to sound "hip," but is succeeding only in sounding dated. It's certainly a little contemporaneous linguistic gem, but now, I feel pretty confident, has been relegated to the backwater of language archaism, with the likes of "thou," "forsooth" and, I dunno, "bodkin"-- but I'm not entirely convinced it's an infix to begin with. And this is mostly because more often than not, because I'm more likely to hear someone (a white frat boy) say "fer shizzle" than I am to hear him say, "let's get so-and-so drizzunk!" So, the "iz" is more likely used to transform the whole word. However, I will concede that usages such as "drizzunk" do exist-- though they are certainly, certainly absent from the diction of any conscientous speaker who understands the dangers of aping the argot of a subculture not their own-- i.e., you won't catch me dead saying anything of that nature!
I don't know how language games factor in-- as, by definition, they seem to happen around the perimeters of English and never really enter the lexicon. So, I'm not real sure where that node of argumentativeness gets either of us.
Chemical nomenclature is a virtually international subset of language all its own. It doesn't follow the normal rules of our language-- and though many of those words have wormed their way into our language, I would argue that they function more like foreign language words than anything else-- mostly because they seem to have their own idiosyncratic syntactical structure. And this is not to say that this point doesn't mean they don't make use of the infix-- but, really, that they are something of a special category-- and again, don't really factor into Marjorie's Empirical Version of English(ha!), beyond my discussion of how I don't want MSG or sucrolose in my food!
I'm going to say that using "bloomin'" as an infix is basically the same effin' thing as using "fucking." Brit-slang employs any number of verbs in such a fashion-- and all, connotatively anyway, pretty much mean "fucking." Yay for the Brits.
I've never in my life heard anyone say "anyoldhow." Perhaps I'm not "backwoodsy" enough for that to have entered MEVE, either. And, well, you don't catch me engaging in the use of Simpson-isms either. So, I have no point about those examples other than to point out that I'm too big a snob to allow them to enter into my personal lexical repertoire. So there.
I thank you for your time and your challenge, whoever you are, my kissing, hugging, anonymous friend.
whoever anonymous is--they are trying way to hard.
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