Published on 12, July, 2020
Words fascinate me, I love them and I know so many and can even spell a few of them! I find different words give so much more texture and depth to what we say. I find the origins of words as interesting as the words themselves and the different uses for the same word although it can all get confusing when you have to work out which witch to use and weather/whether it will make a difference to waht you're saying.
Is English the only language to have so many similar words or words that change with context?
I also have a theory that that dialect words and accents follow the boundaries of the old Anglo-Saxon countries, if you look at a map of the original kingdoms pre Alfred the Great, then the variety of accents beccome more apparent. Of course i some areas such as the North East you have to factor in a large amount of Scandinavian words and accents too and along the borders of Wales.
Do you have favourite words and least favourite? I do't like the word "genre" mostly because it's hard to stop saying it and it ends up with a few extra "re-s" takcked on the end as you run out of breath whilst saying it.
I also gecome faascinated with "F" and "Ph", such as fantastic and phantasmagorical
Atrophy.
TheCatWoman
There are some words in Scots that come from the French language because of the close relationship the two countries had for many years. Some examples are:
Sybies/syboes (spring onion) from ciboule
Ashet (large plate or platter) from assiette
Aumry (cupboard) from armoir.
Also historically 'gardy loo!' (watch out I'm throwing the contents of the bedpan out the window onto the street) from 'gardez l'eau'.
Some of our words also have roots in old Norse, for example
Kirk (church)
Kist (chest or box)
Bairn (child)
Skelf (splinter)
Greet (cry)
Midden (dump)
Muckle (big)
Flit (to move house)
Ken (know)
Keek (peek)
Atavistic.
" Nosepick Engliss." often works if occompanied by a confused look.
Etymologists of the world unite! (From the Latin verb unire, derived from unus meaning one - but of course you already knew that.) Make sequipedilian pompoverbosity a quotidian imperative! Get out your thesauri and start the revolution.
Autistic people don't quibble ... we merely seek to clarify why we are correct.
I've always liked words and language. The only snag for me is that my brand of ASD affects my ability to spell. I can't get them to stick, no matter how many times I write them down. My writing is also slow ugly and painful.
Language is important and using the correct words means your less likely to be misunderstood.
Very long words are interesting to say, such as antidisestablishmentarianism, it looks complicated but it breaks down nicely.
Stakhanovite.There's one many will not know.
I have always been fond of the word undulating, as it sounds exactly as it means (at least it does to me).
I also like creating new words, which often happens by accident when I inadvertently attempt to use two similar meaning words simultaneously and end up combining them into a new word. Some of the results have been great new words, others have been interesting failures.
Here are two words encountered during July which caught my imagination:
Insouciance - is lack of concern shown by someone about something which they might be expected to take more seriously. [formal].
Obduracy - is the quality of refusing to change your mind, or of being difficult to deal with or change.
... looking forward to the opportunity to deploy such jewels.
That's a good one.
Fetishistic.
According to Wikipedia, this "beef labelling monitoring task transfer law (RflEtÜAÜAÜG) was part of a legislative proposal in the German federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with the full name of cattle labelling and beef labelling monitoring task transfer law (RkReÜAÜG)
No idea
I love this phenomen too.
I think the only reason why the word 'cwtch' appeals to me is because I was born in Wales, and I became accustomed to hearing people say it, despite living in an English-speaking area of Wales. If it wasn't for that, I doubt it would have quite the same appeal for me.
By the way, I like your use of the word 'buggeration' and have concluded I ought to use it more in my vocabulary.
What does it mean?
Sillage
Pronounced - "see - arj"
That's what makes it so fascinating, you can tell so much about who was where and when as well as relative social positions. Beef, Lamb and Pork are words from Norman French, whereas Cow, Pig and Sheep are Anglo-Saxon words, one set of words for the animals in the fields used by those who work the land and another word for when it's on the table. Most ordinary people couldn't afford meat and the diet was mostly vegetarian and carb heavy.
If Bede was right with his descriptions of the different peoples who came to be known as the Anglo-Saxons, presumably they all had different languages although they might of been able to understand each other, I've wondered for ages if many local dialect words and accents are ones brought here by those people. So did the Mercians sound Brummie, did the people of |Wessex sound like they came from Devon?
You missed out chutney, bungalow and many scientific words that are Arabic in origin.
I wonder how much of the Celtic language/s that were spoken here in pre-Roman times have survived? Modern Welsh, Cornish and Breton evolved down one route from pre-Roman Celtic, Scots, Irish and Manx from another often blended with Scandinavian languages. Lowland scots is a blend of Scandinavian, Celtic and Northumbian English.
Rinderkennzeichnungsfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
Longest word in German apparently. I can't say it