Nico's Journal

From hafren, one of those regional term quizzes which I can never resist because I'm so interested in other people's answers.

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
We don't do that here. Not being, you know, American. Egging and tagging are more the NZ vandal style, but that's not restricted to one day.

What is the bug that when you touch it, curls into a ball?
Slater or woodlouse

What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
Soft drink or fizzy drink

What do you call gym shoes?
They were sandshoes to my parents, but I call them running shoes or trainers. Or sneakers if they're more for casual wear. To me, Vila wears sneakers.

What do you say to address a group of people?
Guys. I think that's what this question means.

What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
Daddy-long-legs

What do you call your grandparents?
Grandma, Grandpa (my father's family was not close), maternal grandmother died when I was three, and Da. Everyone called him Da after I "named" him with a baby syllable and he thought it was my word for him. And he was a wonderful Da.

What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
A trolley.

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
A sun shower. They happen a lot here.

What is the thing you change the TV channel with?
A remote

What do you call the area between the two sides of a boulevard?
A street? Does boulevard have a different meaning in the US?
[Edit] OK, someone told me what this means. They're asking:
What do you call the central strip in a multi-lane street?
Answer: A median strip

Main seating furniture in the living room?
A couch.

Media Watch last night criticised the exaggeration of news reports about Christchurch, and particularly the misuse of the word "carnage" which I objected to; vindicated! Because there weren't any deaths, let alone slaughter, as Media Watch put it.

Petrol-head Greg thinks the misuse of "carnage" comes from Formula 1 where they call every crash carnage, and I'm wondering if the "car" part is to blame. The reporter who used it in Christchurch was standing near a flattened car, but I really don't think he was thinking about that when he said it. I'm wondering what the general perception of that word is. So, a poll.

[Poll #1615401]
[Edit] Since I can't change a poll, add "with horrible injuries" to the last option. I kept it too simple. :-P

"Meh" has been chosen for the 30th anniversary edition of Collins English Dictionary; see this Times article. I've used it in LJ posts and e-mails, but I don't think I've ever said it out loud. I remember laughing with joy at the Simpsons using it though.

I wonder if they also included "eep". Fran even said it on Black Books, to my delight.

How cool is this? Someone on linguaphiles linked to this [spoiler] in Latin! (You have to read the comments.)

toft_froggy did a very entertaining post about family words and phrases, and I decided to do one of my own. Anyone else?

( Family expressions )

For those of you who study or have studied Latin, ( some DW news, cut for spoilerness. )

A meme about terms used in my part of the world, copied from zoefruitcake days ago. As you can see, we speak a mixture of UK and US English with some weird local terms thrown in. [worries a bit about whether that piece of soft furniture on the Liberator flight deck is actually a sofa rather than a couch] I'd be interested to know what you say for some of these things, and what the insect in question 15 is.

( Local terms )

The local community centre put a pamphlet in our letterbox this week about their various classes: art, exercise (I did Tai Chi there), various beginners' classes in different languages--and this one.

Text Like a Teenager

Have you ever wanted to learn the art of texting? Do you have trouble deciphering messages on your phone, or are you just not sure how to use the text facility? Come along on Tuesday afternoons and find out how to improve your texting capabilities.
Starting Tuesday 24 July, 4.00 to 4:30pm for 6 weeks. [my bolding]

Some of you have probably seen these already, but they're so worth a post. I'd call them redefinitions rather than neologisms, but they're very clever.

ANNUAL NEOLOGISM CONTEST

The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its annual contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
   
2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
   
3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
   
4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
   
5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
   
6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
   
7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
   
8. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.
   
9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
   
10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
    
11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
    
12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
    
13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.
    
14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
    
15. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

Found on linguaphiles, a Word Lover Christmas Game. Can you guess the correct title of each song?

1. "Quadruped with a Crimson Proboscis"
   
2. "8pm to 6am Without Noise"
   
3. "Miniscule Hamlet in the Near East"
   
4. "Ancient Benevolent Despot"
   
5. "Exuberance Directed to the Planet"
   
6. "Listen, Aerial Spirits Announcing"
   
7. "Trio of Monarchs"
   
8. "Yonder in the Hayrack"
   
9. "Cherubim Audited From Aloft"
   
10. "Assemble, Everyone Who Believes"
    
11. "Hollowed Post Meridian"
    
12. "Fantasia of a Colorless December 25th"
    
13. "A Dozen 24 Hour Yule Periods"
    
14. "Befell During the Transparent Witching Hour"
    
15. "Individual of Crystallised Vapour"
    
16. "I Desire a Pair of Incisors on December 25"
    
17. "I Spied My Maternal Parent Osculating Pere Noel"
    
18. "Perambulating Through a December Solstice Fantasy"
    
19. "Adorn the Vestibule"
    
20. "Tin Tintinnabulums"

Here's some fun from the linguaphiles community.

Proverbs

Reduce these sentences to familar proverbs.

1. A period of pre-eminence is passed through by each and every canine.
   
2. It is fruitless to become lachrymose because of scattered lacteal fluid.
   
3. Articles which coruscate are not fashioned from aureate metal, at least not necessarily.
   
4. Prodigality is produced by precipitancy.
   
5. Pulchritude does not penetrate the dermal layer.
   
6. It is not proper for mendicants to be indicative of preferences.
   
7. The number of your immature gallinaceans must not be calculated prior to their being produced.
   
8. A perissodactyl ungulate mammal may be addressed toward aqueous fluid but cannot be compelled to partake thereof.
   
9. It is fondness for notes of exchange that constitutes the tuberous structure of all satanically-inspired principles.
   
10. Lithoidal fragments ought not to be hurled by tenants of vitreous abodes.
    
11. A beholden vessel never exceeds one hundred degrees Celsius.
    
12. A feathered creature clasped in the manual members is the equivalent value of a brace in the bosky growth.
    
13. A detached fragment of the terrestrial lithosphere, whether of igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic origin, and whether acquiring its approximation of sphericity through hydraulic action or other attrition, when continuously maintained in motion about its temporary axis and with its velocity accelerated by an increase in the angle of declivity, is, because of abrasive action produced by the incessant but irregular contact between its periphery and the contiguous terrain, effectively prevented from accumulating on its external surface an appreciable amount of the cryptogamous vegetation normally propagated in umbrageous situations under optimum conditions of undeviating atmospheric humidity, quiescence and comparative sequestration from corrosive-erosive agencies.

LJ has put up a resource page explaining common homonyms which are easily confused by some people. This is a very good thing; it's clear, funny, and Quizilla should use something similar (tho I suspect they're polisy is too have as many mis-takes as posible inn each quiz).

I'm puzzled though -- 'our' and 'are' are homonyms? Not where I come from.

I've long regretted the loss of the word 'adult'. What does its current use imply--that the fiction I write and prefer to read is childish because it doesn't contain explicit sex?

A Simpsons episode we saw recently had the family going to the Lackluster video rental. Bart sees Moe sneaking into an alcove marked 'Adult' and follows, only to be disappointed to find shelves labelled Truffaut, Merchant and Ivory, Bergman, Spike and Ang Lee. Nice one! At our video store those are under the 'Festival' category.

Which reminds me, the films I most want to see at this month's film festival are the three Miyazaki animes I've missed up till now. So I suppose I'm neither grown-up nor adult. Not that I care.