Author Topic: You keep on using that word (Read 35098 times)

Brinestone · « **Reply #50 on:** April 14, 2010, 02:26:52 PM »

What about segue?

rivka · « **Reply #51 on:** April 14, 2010, 05:05:43 PM »

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Cache?

Good article, except for the glaringly bad misspelling of "cachet".

Hah! They fixed it.

Zalmoxis · « **Reply #52 on:** April 15, 2010, 01:13:40 PM »

This Slate article whining about the use of the word kabuki in American political punditry is somewhat interesting, but the comments are very interesting. The author gets schooled in usage, etymology, etc.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #53 on:** April 15, 2010, 04:29:19 PM »

I agree that kabuki just doesn't feel right in our political vocabulary, but I think the author is wrong. If kabuki, way down deep inside has a teensy weensy bit of personal interpretation, it's still by and large more about showmanship rather than variety.

pooka · « **Reply #54 on:** April 15, 2010, 10:18:00 PM »

It didn't seem like the author understood how kabuki is being used. It does not necessarily imply disingenuousness, but it does imply emotion wrought to the point of bathos. My guess is that Rush Limbaugh doesn't think the left are lying, just that tragic flaws underlie their passion. I don't know if there is any element of that in kabuki. It is key to greek tragedy, and I'm pretty sure pundits have invoked greek chorus in their criticisms before.

I guess if I were to name an artform enough to feel posessive about it's use, it would be "Star Trek episode."

"Just like a Star Trek episode, congress went through a harrowing drama that had the very foundation of the republic teetering on the edge of disaster. But at the end of the day, nothing had actually changed."

Scott R · « **Reply #55 on:** April 16, 2010, 03:31:47 AM »

My older brother and I were pretty avid readers, but we always ran into the problem of not knowing how to pronounce words that weren't in common usage.

Like cachet, which I would have pronounced cash-et.

During one memorable game of Trivial Pursuit, there was a question about some geological feature in the desert; the answer was "crested butte." In my ten-year-old innocence, I pronounced it 'crested butt.'

And got laughed at quite a bit.

BlackBlade · « **Reply #56 on:** April 16, 2010, 07:00:38 AM »

I was in 9th grade African history class, and I knew what a machete was, but I had never seen it spelled out, so when I got to the word while reading a passage for the class I pronounced it "match-ett." Everybody laughed, I was embarrassed, but that's school for you.

sweet clementine · « **Reply #57 on:** April 16, 2010, 01:13:37 PM »

uh...how DO you pronounce machete?

Jonathon · « **Reply #58 on:** April 16, 2010, 01:16:13 PM »

muh-SHEH-tee

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #59 on:** April 16, 2010, 01:31:47 PM »

I never knew that blackguard and \?bla-g?rd\ were the same word until I lived with my French roommate and we watched all the Jane Austen movies with subtitles on.

Also, solder. I thought that soldering was something completely different from \sä-d?-ri?\.

Noemon · « **Reply #60 on:** April 16, 2010, 09:48:27 PM »

A coworker of mine was talking about the "medium income" of various suburbs of Dayton. Another said that something or other "hadn't passed mustard".

The Genuine · « **Reply #61 on:** April 17, 2010, 06:51:57 AM »

How do you pronounce Featherstonehaugh?

Jonathon · « **Reply #62 on:** April 17, 2010, 10:01:47 AM »

I don't know, Jesse. It's not like you haven't posted it three or four times before.

sweet clementine · « **Reply #63 on:** April 17, 2010, 01:29:44 PM »

Quote

muh-SHEH-tee

heh. Just like Annie, I never realized those two words were the same thing

The Genuine · « **Reply #64 on:** April 18, 2010, 07:13:24 AM »

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I don't know, Jesse. It's not like you haven't posted it three or four times before.

Yeah, well, you've posted every one of those words before many more times than that.

Jonathon · « **Reply #65 on:** April 18, 2010, 09:23:29 AM »

I just don't understand why you were asking a question that you know the answer to.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #66 on:** April 18, 2010, 10:18:43 AM »

I think he meant it more like a "didja know" than an "I dunno".

The Genuine · « **Reply #67 on:** April 18, 2010, 05:37:46 PM »

Sí. There are at least a couple new posters since I last brought Fanshaw up.

:devil:

pooka · « **Reply #68 on:** April 19, 2010, 05:49:27 PM »

There's a dude in our church named Vaugh J. Featherstone. I wonder if he's any relation.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #69 on:** April 19, 2010, 10:25:30 PM »

What in the world is a "featherstone"?

The Genuine · « **Reply #70 on:** April 20, 2010, 05:42:21 AM »

According to Google, that depends on whether you have SafeSearch on or not.

Zalmoxis · « **Reply #71 on:** April 20, 2010, 10:09:45 AM »

I think I met him when I was a kid.

Noemon · « **Reply #72 on:** April 21, 2010, 06:57:53 PM »

One of my coworkers, Mike*, was several hours late to work today. Another coworker, Bob* (who isn't the brightest guy in the world) intercepted Mike as he was hurrying to his desk and said "Ho! It's ten o'clock and you're just not getting here? What are you, keeping baker's hours?"

*Not his real name.

Jonathon · « **Reply #73 on:** April 21, 2010, 07:09:37 PM »

Is Bob the same guy who said "medium income" and "hadn't passed mustard" and all the other malapropisms you've mentioned before?

Noemon · « **Reply #74 on:** April 21, 2010, 07:21:05 PM »

Nope. Three different people.

That said, virtually all of the other malapropisms I might have mentioned here over the years were said by the same guy who made the "pass mustard" comment.