Etymology

General Chat
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I like words and what better way to start a thread on them than this belter from Susie Dent. @htm_1968 @bmtell

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Great word, and instructive of the extent to which attention spans have collapsed - from the whimsical double-barreled “frobly-mobly” to the onomatopoeic exhalation that is “meh”…

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Frobly-mobly

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On a related note, Susie Dent is famously nauseated by the word “moist”, which as well as asking more questions than it answers, means that she suffers from a mild form of “onomatophobia” or fear of specific words.

Questionable psychological phenomena that they are, phobias are a goldmine for lexicologists, formed as they usually are by tortuously convoluting assorted Greek and Latin roots into awkward chimaeras, such as “hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia” - which is alleged to represent fear of the number 666…

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My daughter is similarly repulsed by “moist”. It’s a banned word around her.

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Hmmmm, plans to slip that into a conversation at work :thinking:

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Supposedly it’s the most disliked word in the English-speaking world.

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Can I get two days off work with it?

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You probably could at my place :unamused:

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Prolly deserve a day off just for mastering its pronunciation!

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I’m lucky enough to have been raised in a community of Greek speakers. Tying together multiple syllables becomes second nature.

It’s just English I struggle with :disappointed:

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Futtock \Fu"ttock, n. [Prob. corrupted fr. foothook.] (Naut.)
One of the crooked timbers which are scarfed together to form
the lower part of the compound rib of a vessel; one of the
crooked transverse timbers passing across and over the keel.

I like this word, mainly because it rhymes with buttock.

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My Mrs hates the word “portion”. There’s always a sharp intake of breath followed by “you mean helping”

I mean really…wtf?

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Portion = large :+1:

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‘Television’ The word is half-Greek, half-Latin. No good can come of it …

Attributed to C P Scott (1846-1932)

He didn’t grumble, in public at least, about heterosexual and homosexual though.

VB

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Perhaps an illustration will help…

image
image576×960 162 KB

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Resilience- Hate it!

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I’m with Jim’s missus on this one.

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I like the origin of Nottingham.

“When it fell under the rule of a Saxon chieftain named Snot it became known as “Snotingaham”; the homestead of Snot’s people (-inga = the people of; -ham = homestead)”

Snot is funny.

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