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Thanks for your comments. I found it telling, as far as English is concerned, and so I for one will be pleased for the changes that greet us over the next 10 years. Perhaps by then we will learn other languages quicker, not as masters but for functionality purposes. Time is moving fast, there is no time.
When's it time to get out of the head and into the heart
to allow feeling to replace thinking in meditation...
This may not have been a story but it was facinating. It shows one reason why English is becoming a true world language. Lucky us.
Dear dizzy,
Your first examples, identical words used in different
senses, are called in the classic, antanaclasis.
Such industry! You wrote this at the expense of sleep--
late night writing and early morning writing.
I loved the play.
Thank you.
HH
HA!. You give me too much credit.
It was a very nice read. Must've taken quite a lot of your time. Bravo! :)
I specially liked the paras after the 'antanaclasis'. Funny. :D
I guess I take it for granted the fact that I grew up with this language and can understand the ins and outs of it - many of my friends who grew up in the same country as I did still don't have as firm a grasp on English, and I would go so far to say there's still a lot I need to learn.
I guess it does help that my job requires me to know the ins and outs of English, but there's always something new to learn!
Thanks guys... I have added some more to titillate over.....
1. There is only ONE word in the English language with THREE CONSECUTIVE SETS OF DOUBLE LETTERS.... Bookkeeper
2. There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs five times: "indivisibility."
3. There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.
4. There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
5. There are thirteen languages spoken by more than 100 million people. They are: Mandarin Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Malay-Indonesian, French, Japanese, German, and Urdu.
6. There are only 4 words in the English language which end in "duos": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
7. There are at least two words in the English language that use all of the vowels, in the correct order, and end in the letter Y: abstemiously & facetiously.
8. There are 41,806 different spoken languages in the world today.
9. The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.
10. The word "honcho" comes from a Japanese word meaning "squad leader" and first came into usage in the English language during the American occupation of Japan following World War II.
11. A felcher is someone who cleans someone else's butt.
12. Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them would burn their houses down - hence the expression “to get fired”.
13. “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters 'mt'.
14. Galore comes from the Irish Gaelic “go leor”which is pronounced exactly the same way and means the same thing.
15. Good bye came from God bye which came from God be with you. The word 'Bye' is used in both English and Spanish meaning the same thing. So-long came from the Arabic 'salaam', the Hebrew 'shalom' and the Irish Gaelic 'Slan'. Norwegian “farvel” means “travel well (safe)”. A modern version would be “drive carefully”.
16. Karoke means 'empty orchestra' in Japanese.
17. Looking for a furniture removal truck in Britain? Better ask for a “pantechnicon”.
18. Malaria was so named because it was associated with the vapors rising from swamps (“mala” means bad and “aria” means air).
19. Papaphobia is the fear of Popes.
20. Pogonophobia: The fear of beards.
21. Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States.
22. “Speak of the Devil” is short for “Speak of the Devil and he shall come”. It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention. That's why when you're talking about someone and they show up people say “Speak of the Devil”.
23. The first words spoken by Alexander Bell over the telephone were: “Watson, please come here. I want you”.
24. The first words spoken by Thomas Edison over the phonograph were: “Mary had a little lamb”.
25. The infinity character on the keyboard is called a “lemniscate”.
26. The longest non-medical word in the English language is FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION, which means “the act of estimating as worthless”.
27. The longest word in the Old Testament is “Malhershalahashbaz”.
28. The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
29. The sentence “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter in the English language.
30. The three words in the English language with the letters “uu” are: vacuum, residuum and continuum.
31. The word “dude”, which was coined by Oscar Wilde and his friends, is a hybrid of the words “duds” (for clothes) and “attitude”. Unlike today, the word was considered derogatory until the 1960s.
32. The word “lethologica” describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.
33. The word “monosyllable” actually has five syllables in it.
34. The word “nerd” was first coined by Dr. Seuss in “If I ran the Zoo”.
35. The word “quiz” was supposedly invented in 1780 by a Dublin theatre manager who laid a wager that he would introduce a new word of no meaning into the language within 24 hours.
36. The word “trivia” comes from the Latin “trivium” which is the place where three roads meet, a public square. People would gather and talk about all sorts of matters, most of which were trivial.
37. The words “gene” and “genius” from the word “gens”, which was used by Greek philosophers such as Aristotle to describe the ingenuity of males. “Genius” and “females” were never associated with each other.
38. There are only four words in the English language which end in “-dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
39. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only one row of the keyboard.
40. Women's underwear is called “smalls” in England.
Some more if you care for:
50 Completely Useless Facts
:biggrin5:
That had to have been one of the funnest readings I've ever have had. But not have as in have currently, but have as in had, though I never had it, so I never could have it, but as in read. Because I read it so my mind had it.
Very clever Revolte. I brought this from Personal Poetry....
:biggrinjester:Quote:
Originally Posted by Il Dante
Just for some fun, I suspect not all of it is true but its uncanny nonetheless:
Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head
Now it gets really weird;
Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln
Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.
Now hang on to your seat;
Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford'.
Kennedy was shot in a car called ' Lincoln ' made by 'Ford'.
Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
And here's the kicker...
A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.
Enjoy a jolly good day http://serve.mysmiley.net/animated/anim_09.gif
Reintarnation for Ignoranuses!
Here is the Washington Post's Mensa Invitational which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
The winners are:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an *******.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.
The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
11. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
12. Karmageddon: It's when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, and then the Earth explodes, and it's a serious bummer.
13. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you
14. Glibido: All talk and no action.
15. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
16. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
17. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
18. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
...
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly 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 by discovering how much weight one has 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. absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. lymph, v. to walk with a lisp.
8. gargoyle, n. olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. flatulence, n. emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been 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. Frisbeetarianism, n. the belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. circumvent, n. an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.
http://serve.mysmiley.net/sign/sign0020.gif
Reintarnation for Ignoranuses!
Bless you, diz, these are great fun!
H
Brilliant stuff I agree -
Frisbeetarianism - reminds me of those people who come round knocking on my door trying to convert me. They're so gullible - there's one born again every minute.....
I wonder, why are there no evangelistic Satanists?