Author Topic: Learning new words (Read 7395 times)

Noemon · « **Reply #25 on:** December 16, 2004, 01:05:01 PM »

I'll bet you've misheard "contiguous" as "continuous" in that phrase, Brinestone. Either that or, if there is a particular person (such as a parent or something) who you know uses that phrase, they misheard it.

Jonathon · « **Reply #26 on:** December 16, 2004, 01:05:30 PM »

Continental? That doesn't even make sense; Alaska's on the continent, too. And I suppose that "lower" doesn't really make sense, either, since Hawaii is further south than any of the other states.

Noemon · « **Reply #27 on:** December 16, 2004, 01:29:03 PM »

Oh, did you say "Continental"? I completely misread that word in your last post Brinestone.

Jon Boy, I have heard the phrase "Continental United States" used to mean "the contiguous 48 states" fairly frequently, despite the fact that Alaska is on the same continent.

A quick survey of my officemates revealed that they found it to be a common phrase too.

Porter · « **Reply #28 on:** December 16, 2004, 01:30:36 PM »

I've never heard the word contiguous used to describe the 48 states.

Noemon · « **Reply #29 on:** December 16, 2004, 02:02:01 PM »

All of my coworkers have, and they're from all over the country, so it isn't a regional thing.

Trisha · « **Reply #30 on:** December 16, 2004, 07:41:41 PM »

I didn't know pastiche, and if I'd read abut in context I imagine I would have known it. For some reason I thought it was a noun when I read it in the list, though most of the other words are not nouns. But yes, Uchiha even uses those words in daily speech now and again.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #31 on:** December 16, 2004, 09:04:05 PM »

Contiguous is an option with the magic wand tool in Photoshop.

And just for you, JB:

(by the way, I wrote the international phonetic letter wrong. It should have been /?/ )

Articulation of /?/

1. The sound /?/ is a nasal vowel. A nasal vowel is produced by lowering the back of the velum (velic valve) so that the air stream is exhaled partly through the nasal passage and partly through the oral passage. The vowel /?/ is quite similar to the oral vowel /?/ except for its nasality: trait-train, mais-main, laid-lin, paix-pain. In order to articulate /?/, spread your lips horizontally as for /?/, but let your breath escape simultaneously through your nose and mouth: /?/------>nasalizing------>/?/. You should be able to say /?/ continuously as long as your breath lasts. Change in the nasality of the vowel indicates that the velic valve is not held in a tense and steady position.

It's really too bad I can't duplicate the illustrations here. For best effect, articulate these sounds while sitting in a laboratory classroom, wearing headphones, surrounded by 15 other students and not knowing when exactly the teacher is going to listen in on your practice and then interrupt you with "Bien. Continuez."

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #32 on:** December 16, 2004, 09:05:16 PM »

Aww. The funny letter is showing up as a question mark. Well, for the record, it looks like a backwards 3 under a tilde. And whenever it's talking about the other vowel, it means just a backwards 3.

Uchiha Itachi · « **Reply #33 on:** December 16, 2004, 11:05:13 PM »

How can you not have known what a pastiche is, Trish? You were much more oriented towards artsy kinds of things than I was.

Jonathon · « **Reply #34 on:** December 17, 2004, 08:03:48 AM »

Bien merci, Annie. In linguist-speak, that letter is called an epsilon, and it represents the first syllable in its own name. Technically, it is an unrounded lax mid front vowel, just in case you were curious.

Porter · « **Reply #35 on:** December 17, 2004, 09:18:57 AM »

People can be curious about those things?

Jonathon · « **Reply #36 on:** December 17, 2004, 09:29:04 AM »

Some people with discriminating taste can be.

Porter · « **Reply #37 on:** December 17, 2004, 09:38:57 AM »

I'm not sure I believe that.

Jonathon · « **Reply #38 on:** December 17, 2004, 09:50:24 AM »

That's only because you don't have discriminating taste.

Porter · « **Reply #39 on:** December 17, 2004, 10:09:01 AM »

Obviously.

Trisha · « **Reply #40 on:** December 17, 2004, 04:34:52 PM »

What is a pastiche? Meg doesn't know either. She says it's like maybe a literary potpourri? Why do the french have so many danged words for the same stupid thing? Melange? Collage? Pastiche? Potpourri? Montage? I guess they have a right to be proud that they don't use the English Hodgepodge. It has the intent of being satirical. She says Shrek II was a pastiche of the works of Disney and other stuff.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #41 on:** December 17, 2004, 07:26:56 PM »

A pastiche is like a mock-up. A prototype, if you will.

(I wrote this definition from my brain, before actually going to look it up. I am now going to go look it up and see if I was right.)

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #42 on:** December 17, 2004, 07:28:20 PM »

Quote

Main Entry: pas·tiche
Pronunciation: pas-'tEsh, päs-
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from Italian pasticcio
1 : a literary, artistic, musical, or architectural work that imitates the style of previous work; also : such stylistic imitation
2 a : a musical, literary, or artistic composition made up of selections from different works : POTPOURRI b : HODGEPODGE

Looks like I was totally wrong. I wonder which word I was actually thinking of.

Uchiha Itachi · « **Reply #43 on:** December 18, 2004, 06:24:54 PM »

Does it have to start with a 'p' or does it just have to mean something like "sketch"?

Trisha · « **Reply #44 on:** December 18, 2004, 07:46:05 PM »

Sketch doesn't apply. Unless by sketch you mean skit.