@frogapplause, belatedly - yes, I hate that too, but since "Pacific" is technically a real word (albeit misused in your example), I shan't include it on this list. This list is for words/expressions that just don't exist. (Well, "kerfluffle" is arguable, but I don't like it, I think it should be "kerfuffle".)
My own father refuses to admit that "heighth" is incorrect!! He says because it's "width" and "breadth" that height has to follow suit. And he has a degree from Wharton!
This list is awesome!! I love extra lemurs - like there is some magic number of lemurs it is acceptable to have, but if there's one more, chuck it. (Picturing the cow being hurled on the catapult in The Holy Grail.)
PPS strike tag does not appear to be supported in list names on Zeitgeist - see my list, which reads fine on the actual list page, but on the home page the word "Strike" shows up.
Well I'm one of the few who would notice - I was the one who begged you to add it, because it cracked me up so much. Maybe it's just me who automatically wants to end any sentence beginning "take this x and.." with "shove it" - it's no reflection of my feelings towards x itself. Totally silly, of course you want to put real functional items in the drop-down. Maybe we could link "shove it" to a page saying "Why would you want to shove this word? Don't you like it? Be nicer to words! Unless it's irregardless. You are allowed to shove that evil non-word."
I found a bug! My newly added "word", What's That Blue Thing Doing There?, comments link yields a "Disallowed key characters in global data" message. But only on the direct link - if you go to the regular word page and then click "Comments" it removes the question mark and works fine.
You got rid of the "and shove it" option in the "take this word and..." drop-down! What happened, too many people report the fact that it did nothing as a bug?
People at the park near Orlando had noticed ducks and geese disappearing, and had suspected an alligator. The 12-foot snake was taken to a serpentarium. - LA Times
I don't think so. It should be cuntfa but that really is sort of still breaking the rules of the game. The point is it's almost innocent-sounding without the last two letters, and cuntfa, while weird, is not exactly innocent-sounding.
Oh - it was because I looked at the examples and they looked quite spammy. Perhaps I do not understand how the examples are obtained? Are we just Googling with case sensitivity on?
Of course, the time(s) I try to experiment with strikethru code and not only doesn't it work, but neither does editing, so I'm caught with my pants down. So to speak.
Popular Photography derided the images in The Americans as "meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons and general sloppiness." - Wikipedia page on Robert Frank
Over on comments john already said the function of "Add to list" will be provided again. I'm assuming it will be in the "Take this word and.." drop-down.
Plus I cannot access any comment links to new words (I get the Wordnik equivalent of a 404 error). Is that by design?
ETA: Good news is, my profile comments are un-borked and editing comments on words is back! Huzzah! I do not seem to be able to edit comments on lists though.
I agree with marky. I think that keeping the distinction between Turkey and turkey is much less critical than the risk of being flooded with unwanted dupes and illiterate-looking entries. Misspellings are one thing, but caps? What' the approximate percentage of words are spelled the same but change their meaning from capitalization?
Sorry, not trying to be negative. Change is good! Many improvements are materializing. I just need to remember to click a different link for the real Wordie-style "home".
Sorry, I forgot the brackets rule! Undo it, undo it! (I will wait until editing capability becomes available but I can never hide my shame of accidentally created incorrect words.)
Popular Photography, derided (Robert Frank's) images in The Americans as "meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons and general sloppiness." - wikipedia re: RF
Sorry, I didn't see the welcome/disclaimer on the Zeitgeist page, I wouldn't have come in so guns a-blazin' had I done so. The font was unexpectedly normal and tiny instead of gimongous, I think that threw me off.
Where can we access our preferences or site settings? (Not editing profile, but controlling things like the order in which comments are displayed.) And is there any way we can turn off the Flickr or Twitter feed display on a user level?
1) My profile is a hot mess - tons of unrecognized characters. I know I like annoying HTML so I'm sure some of my comments would be hard to render no matter what, but I doubt bilby went back in time and left me a cryptic chinese message reading "�?走常规路，独特视角。" Unless perhaps he is sekritly Hiro from Heroes? (bilby, if it's true, don't deny it.)
2) Also my "you are a" looking for etc is all blank, I know some of them are the same from Wordie but the order is different and I suspect it has boggled the gui;
3) In addition all my counts are 0 except it's randomly counting one list. I know I've been away some time so if it got purged that's cool;
4) I tweeted an obscure word and then tried to look it up in the usual places, no one had it so I went to Wordie. (blissfully ignorant of the changeover.) Is the "On Twitter" function independently scanning the public feed or is it stalking me? I was not logged in to Wordie WordNik at the time I looked up the word and it had my tweet; and last but far from least,
5) I really want a dummy menu item for "shove it" under the Take this word and... menu.
Oh and yes, I know the rhyme's not exact. I don't pronounce it PEE-tard.
PS skipvia I don't get it, what's The Enterprise ref. I'm thinking of the latest and most horrible Star Trek series - and to me that totally makes sense because I hate Scott Bakula and find him retarded.
I associate this word with two things: 1) retard, simply due to the rhyme, and 2) wedgies - I always thought a petard was like a Renaissance garment, and hoisting by one's petard meant being hung up by one's underwear. I know this makes no sense in the actual sense of the phrase (which is analogous to cutting off your nose to spite someone else's face) but I secretly like my definition better.
Yes. It's one of my Dad's favorites, used to infuriate me as a child. But now I think, at least there's some hope in it - it could be worse. Could be "for you NOT to find out". But it doesn't specifically preclude you from finding out, it just says, "I'm not going to tell you, just for fun".
I called my BF a crumb bum and he was genuinely insulted. That was hilarious - I can't imagine anyone taking this word seriously enough to be insulted by it. It's just so ridiculous. And then there's the excellent crummy.
Dude, if they instituted a swear jar at my company, I'd be broke within a month. But several others would go down too, including the President, so thankfully it's never been brought up.
Which reminds me of the classic short story/Twilight Zone ep, "To Serve Man" - in case you don't know it, the entire premise of the episode is based on a pun on the title.
According to the pompous Kenneth G. Wilson (The Columbia Guide to Standard American English), buttle (v.) "is a back-formation from butler (past tense and past participle are buttled) describing what this functionary does: at best it is Conversational and Informal; at worst it is slang."
I beg to differ, sir - it is hilarious and adorable.
Ok it seems I always misuse backformation - is there no equivalent for this (awful, awful) trend of changing verbs into adjectives?? (*sucks at grammar, not entirely sure that's what she means to say*)
This word is so f-in' cute that I think I would be in big trouble if I lived in England. "Help! I'm being burgled!" I couldn't say it with a straight face. See also the wonderful buttle.
I've been seeing this particular abomination a lot lately on real estate listings. Similar to the pathetic ignorance and backformation that brought us ice coffee and ice tea. It's regular glass that has been STAINED, realtors! How does that not compute?!?! It's not some wacky new thing, it's been around for f-in' centuries!
A maneuver performed by pets whereby they hoover large quantities of food and then immediately regurgitate it, preferably somewhere that will cause their owners the most distress.
I suppose you could also say some humans (those suffering from bulimia) also display this behavior.
I (and vets I have known) draw a distinction between immediate regurgitation of undigested food and vomiting of partially digested food.. the latter is usually due to hairballs, while the former can be due to eating too fast or as my vet said, if the cat is nervous because another cat is trying to steal his or her food, that can result in a snarf-n-barf.
"as balls" is a general qualifier, not really necessarily indicating the qualified item has any characteristics in common with actual testicles. Other favorites are hot as balls, cold as balls. See also: "like ass".
Is it just me, or is Wordie slow as balls today? I'm trying to take my mind off work, damn it! Plus, the server delay is making double posts. (OK, that could just be me clicking the button more than once because it looks like nothing's happening.)
I have no problem contributing genetic material, I just don't want anything to do with the resulting spawn. My friends in college used to call me the Replicator because all I want to do is replicate my DNA.
C_b, too bad we're both female and thus can only combine efforts via the help of Frankensteinian Science!
All cats are more or less hork-prone, trivet. My personal theory on this is because their digestive systems haven't evolved past being pure carnivores and thus all this grain-based manufactured food does not agree with them. My cat sadly has an eating disorder - when he wants attention he does a "Snarf and Barf" maneuver where he hoovers a large quantity of food and then immediately regurgitates it, preferably somewhere that will cause me the most possible distress, such as the couch. He has learned that if nothing else works, I will certainly stop whatever I'm doing to deal with the puke.
Thanks skipvia for the gherkin info! (Side note #1: doesn't gherkin almost sound like it could be used as a substitute curse word? Kind of less lame than using sugar for shit) (Side note #2: Weird words that rhyme with "gherkin" - firkin, merkin - I feel a limerick coming on!)
Everyone is so welcome for the Steve Don't Eat It, I'm proud to have found a community that can appreciate his truly sick & twisted humor!
Has anyone seen Mike Judge's Idiocracy? Not a great movie overall, but the first 3 minutes are priceless - demonstrating just how the idiots are outbreeding the intelligent. Ah, here it is on YouTube.
PS because I cannot bear to edit a 10th time - this word is earworming me with "Every Time You Go Away" (You Take a Piece of Me With You). Needs a parody but what the hell rhymes with asparagus? Bus? Pus? Prolagus?
1) All asparagus is disgusting, canned or no *horks*
2) So is okra
3) Someone please tell me how gherkins are not a kind of pickle! ETA WordNet says "any of various small cucumbers pickled whole" - aka pickle
4) I love the word gherkin. Imagine if we never said boring old pickle again and instead referred to everything as gherkined okra or whatever. The world would be an awesomer place.
5) Now the word pickle looks weird to me.
6) Best blog about eating the most disgusting things known to man? Steve, Don't Eat It! I have spent hours laughing until I cried reading his descriptions of the unbelievably foul foods he's eaten. Language warning, he is quite crude. One of the reasons I love it.
Ha ha ha dontcry I too tea-totally agree - I used to think the same thing, and wonder what on earth not-drinking had to do with golfing. Seemed like the people my parents hung out with liked to do a lot of genteelly drunken golfing.
Mon Dieu! According to this site it is a particularly long & thin type of baguette. I've often enjoyed a nice "heat at home" ficelle with brie cheese from Trader Joe's.
Ok, not to tootle my own horn or anything, but I think I spy with my little eye a bug - I happened to be hanging at palooka's profile and I noticed s/he has my default list (arby's words) favorited. In the list of hir favorites, it says "18" after the list name, but in reality my list has 245 words!
What I want to know is, who is the mysterious someone (or some thing - dun dun DUN!!) who conveyed to the alien-carwoman that s/h/it wanted this number (of the beast??) added to Wordie?? And how was this message delivered, via Morse Code?
"Used to refer to something unbearably stupid or ludicrous, usually in the form of "object of scorn iz pastede on yey!" (The deliberate misspellings are half the point of the joke.)"
Ultimately this derives from the JournalFen-based FandomWank community, which exists to mock the stupid in various fandoms. The original story involves Lord Of The Rings fangirl Crystal Gamgee, who perpetuated her false reputation for knowing the actors well enough to make sketches of them - sketches which were forgeries using borrowed photos and obvious Photoshop filters. In the course of her self-defense, she displayed an obvious photomanip of LOTR actor Dominic Monaghan supposedly lying on her bed. Thus, the original reference ("My hed iz pastede on yay!") indicated general lack of A) credibility and B) skillz. "Yay" in the original has mutated into "yey" in later fannish use.
Tell me about it. I see them every day while I'm waiting for the bus on Bedford Ave - hotbed of hipsters. Possibly even worse than the hair atrocities they commit are the sartorial abominations - grown women wearing orange rainboots and overalls as a fashion statement, and carrying ironic lunchboxes.
A follower of the linguistic school of thought that believes that language is made by the speakers and there is no "wrong" usage if it exists in the wild. Isn't Noam Chomsky a descriptivist, or am I misremembering?
A follower of the linguistic school of thought that says there is one true way to use language (usually the rules we are indoctrinated with in school) and that deviances from it in real life are wrong and should be frowned upon.
No joke, I actually have seen some BP haircuts. Along with assorted ridiculous haircuts that were lame in the 80's and have not been improved by the passage of time. I blame Urban Outfitters, among others, for bringing back things like Flock of Seagulls hairstyling.
"Even modern American marriages between progressive, trendy hipsters are, at the least, fanciful or ironic reenactments of a gruesome misogynist hegemony, and wreak some degree of megatheocorporatocratic carnage. Especially when the male hipster is a depressive artiste, and the female hipster has one of those Bettie Page haircuts." - Twisty, in this post
"These articles largely avoid the “empowerful�? trap, which is the trap so well-skewered by Twisty, wherein the relief that comes when you quit fighting for yourself and just give up is mixed in with the joy of actual victory. Pulling down a real paycheck, leaving the asshole and living by yourself, obtaining a powerful job — these are real forms of power. Stripper aerobics, where the fun mainly comes from being able to combine the pressure to exercise a lot with the pressure to practice being a sex object, is empowerful. Not real power at all, just feels like it in the hands of those who aren’t used to what real power might actually feel like." - Pandagon, from
My beloved Andy Partridge has an adorable story about how growing up he thought "disabell" was slang for breasts because his mother would say "You saw me in dishabille".
OK, so maybe you had to be there. Trust me, it was adorable.
"Most of the spice sold as cinnamon in the United States and Canada (where true cinnamon is still generally unknown) is actually cassia. In some cases, cassia is labeled "Chinese cinnamon" to distinguish it from the more expensive true cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), which is the preferred form of the spice used in Mexico and Europe. "Indonesian cinnamon" can also refer to Cinnamomum burmannii, which is also commonly sold in the United States, labeled only as cinnamon."
So, that makes cassia the Poor Man's Cinnamon. Cinnamon's Red-Headed Stepchild.
Comments by arby
arby commented on the list fingernails-on-my-chalkboard
@yarb - ha!
@frogapplause, belatedly - yes, I hate that too, but since "Pacific" is technically a real word (albeit misused in your example), I shan't include it on this list. This list is for words/expressions that just don't exist. (Well, "kerfluffle" is arguable, but I don't like it, I think it should be "kerfuffle".)
May 3, 2013
arby commented on the list fingernails-on-my-chalkboard
My own father refuses to admit that "heighth" is incorrect!! He says because it's "width" and "breadth" that height has to follow suit. And he has a degree from Wharton!
May 2, 2013
arby commented on the word typosquatters
Who, moi?
*looks innocent*
April 18, 2011
arby commented on the word charmel
Not to be confused with charnel - or the Pokemon character Charmy the Charmander.
June 23, 2010
arby commented on the list things-that-can-and-should-be-set-on-fire-and-hurled-out-of-a-trebuchet
This list is awesome!! I love extra lemurs - like there is some magic number of lemurs it is acceptable to have, but if there's one more, chuck it. (Picturing the cow being hurled on the catapult in The Holy Grail.)
April 28, 2010
arby commented on the word vegemite virgin
frogapplause - totally! Reminds me of Otter Pops, which the ex and I used to joke were made from 100% pure otters.
April 28, 2010
arby commented on the user warriormilk
Mmmmmmm, delicious spam. How do we report you again?
January 28, 2010
arby commented on the list open-list----b-madupical-pasta-varieties-b
This list is hilarious!
January 28, 2010
arby commented on the word oreocchiette
Ha!
January 28, 2010
arby commented on the user feedback
Ha-ha
*gets it*
Awww! - Nelson
January 28, 2010
arby commented on the word arby
what in the..
January 28, 2010
arby commented on the list obnoxious-html-tags-i-strike-secretly-strike-love
*smiles evilly*
January 28, 2010
arby commented on the word jean dimmock
olive peon
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the user feedback
PPS strike tag does not appear to be supported in list names on Zeitgeist - see my list, which reads fine on the actual list page, but on the home page the word "Strike" shows up.
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the word Heather Beverage
This is the name of a woman I went to college with. I asked her if I could use her name for a band and she said yes. \o/
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the word consanguinity
ha ha, random Tweet says "very confused about consanguinity"
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the list obnoxious-html-tags-i-strike-secretly-strike-love
I don't even know if there is an "ants" tag but there should be! It would render that cheesy MS word animated effect. You know, the one with the ants.
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the word What's That Blue Thing Doing There
Sorry, I thought I was so clever but I got it wrong. Nothin' to see here, people, move along.
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the user feedback
Well I'm one of the few who would notice - I was the one who begged you to add it, because it cracked me up so much. Maybe it's just me who automatically wants to end any sentence beginning "take this x and.." with "shove it" - it's no reflection of my feelings towards x itself. Totally silly, of course you want to put real functional items in the drop-down. Maybe we could link "shove it" to a page saying "Why would you want to shove this word? Don't you like it? Be nicer to words! Unless it's irregardless. You are allowed to shove that evil non-word."
ETFix grammar
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the user feedback
I found a bug! My newly added "word", What's That Blue Thing Doing There?, comments link yields a "Disallowed key characters in global data" message. But only on the direct link - if you go to the regular word page and then click "Comments" it removes the question mark and works fine.
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the list you-should-make-a-list
Removed and re-added to correct reference - bonus points to anyone who gets it!
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the word bilbykins
awww, so cute!
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the word correction
ha!
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the user feedback
ps dontcry stop kissing ass
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the user feedback
You got rid of the "and shove it" option in the "take this word and..." drop-down! What happened, too many people report the fact that it did nothing as a bug?
January 27, 2010
arby commented on the word serpentarium
Anaconda captured in Florida park
People at the park near Orlando had noticed ducks and geese disappearing, and had suspected an alligator. The 12-foot snake was taken to a serpentarium. - LA Times
January 24, 2010
arby commented on the word untface
Buntface is the name of my new band.
November 23, 2009
arby commented on the word SHH
YOU SHH!!
November 23, 2009
arby commented on the word untface
I don't think so. It should be cuntfa but that really is sort of still breaking the rules of the game. The point is it's almost innocent-sounding without the last two letters, and cuntfa, while weird, is not exactly innocent-sounding.
November 23, 2009
arby commented on the word CARED
MY OPINION -- NOT THAT YOU
November 23, 2009
arby commented on the word comments
A ha ha ha you actually added "Shove it" to the "Take this word and..." menu!!! I love it! That rhymed!!
November 23, 2009
arby commented on the word mof
Eh? Ah. Oh.
(Poppin' fresh dough!)
November 23, 2009
arby commented on the word backronym
From the examples:
"N.O.R.E. is a backronym for Niggaz On (the) Run Eatin"
Ha!
November 23, 2009
arby commented on the user yarb
Sadly, I don't care for sour plums. And so the great arby-yarb twinship project of 2009 came to a screeching halt.
November 23, 2009
arby commented on the user yarb
I too love crumb bum.
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word mofo
Slang for motherfucker.
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word shitba
cheap-as version of shitbag.
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word mof
Or, something serious like what he said.
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word nO
O vanishedone, pray tell what that means?
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word nO
yES? Or rather, wHY?
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word shibboleth
Yeah, that's the ticket! Or shtiggeth, as the case may be. Someone should invent the Lovecraft equivalent of Pig Latin.
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word mof
The more economical alternative to mofo.
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word cheap-as
That's one cheap-as mof.
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word lardon
Ew. Also reminds me of the Clapper. Is there a lardoff?
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word shibboleth
Totally agree about the Lovecraft thing! Why is it so Lovecraftian?? Is there some other 'craft coinage that is similar?
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word shibboleths
Why plural? Is there no such thing as shibboleth?
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word PHOBOS
Oh - it was because I looked at the examples and they looked quite spammy. Perhaps I do not understand how the examples are obtained? Are we just Googling with case sensitivity on?
November 22, 2009
arby commented on the word SME
More corporate-speak bullshit: acronym for "Subject Matter Expert".
November 21, 2009
arby commented on the word sme
Replacing with SME - might as well get some benefit out of this capitalization kerfuffle.
November 21, 2009
arby commented on the user arby
RBY4EVA - bilby
November 21, 2009
arby commented on the list deadbeef
I shouldn't WordNik after 3am, it's obviously deleterious to my grammar.
November 21, 2009
arby commented on the list deadbeef
Of course, the time(s) I try to experiment with strikethru code and not only doesn't it work, but neither does editing, so I'm caught with my pants down. So to speak.
November 21, 2009
arby commented on the list deadbeef
Why bilby, I'm touched.
YRB4EVA RBY4EVA
There - fixed it for you.
November 21, 2009
arby commented on the word PHOBOS
DEIMOS!
November 21, 2009
arby commented on the word The Edward Cullen Underpants Conundrum
Title of a brilliant article on Tiger Beatdown. Someone in the comments said it was a great band name. I agree. Hence my list.
November 21, 2009
arby commented on the word synecdouche
I don't know but it's brilliant. If I better understood the original perhaps I could come up with a definition. *hangs hed in shame at stupidity*
November 21, 2009
arby commented on the word dravest
It reminds me of harvest but probably would rhyme with bravest. *is too lazy to look up pronunciation*
November 19, 2009
arby commented on the word Manson lamps
Tony says this on The Sopranos to Richie Aprile: "Stop giving me those Manson lamps!" meaning crazy eyes.
November 14, 2009
arby commented on the word drunken horizons
Popular Photography derided the images in The Americans as "meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons and general sloppiness." - Wikipedia page on Robert Frank
November 14, 2009
arby commented on the word Obamania
Shouldn't it be Obamamania?
November 13, 2009
arby commented on the word comments
For example, http://www.wordnik.com/words/drunken+horizons/comments yields a cute "Unable to Complete Request" message.
November 13, 2009
arby commented on the word suggestions
Over on comments john already said the function of "Add to list" will be provided again. I'm assuming it will be in the "Take this word and.." drop-down.
November 13, 2009
arby commented on the word comments
Plus I cannot access any comment links to new words (I get the Wordnik equivalent of a 404 error). Is that by design?
ETA: Good news is, my profile comments are un-borked and editing comments on words is back! Huzzah! I do not seem to be able to edit comments on lists though.
November 13, 2009
arby commented on the word comments
Thanks tony. Can you provide any more detail on how it will be implemented?
November 12, 2009
arby commented on the word comments
(Let's pretend that last sentence was grammatically correct.)
November 12, 2009
arby commented on the word comments
I agree with marky. I think that keeping the distinction between Turkey and turkey is much less critical than the risk of being flooded with unwanted dupes and illiterate-looking entries. Misspellings are one thing, but caps? What' the approximate percentage of words are spelled the same but change their meaning from capitalization?
November 12, 2009
arby commented on the word suggestions
Sorry, not trying to be negative. Change is good! Many improvements are materializing. I just need to remember to click a different link for the real Wordie-style "home".
November 12, 2009
arby commented on the word suggestions
PS I don't like the new home page, the Zeitgeist is so much more entertaining! I guess the home page is Wordnik for Dummies, eh?
November 12, 2009
arby commented on the word suggestions
yes, this! I miss going straight to the good stuff
November 12, 2009
arby commented on the list indie-band-names
Sorry, I forgot the brackets rule! Undo it, undo it! (I will wait until editing capability becomes available but I can never hide my shame of accidentally created incorrect words.)
November 12, 2009
arby commented on the list indie-band-names
Popular Photography, derided (Robert Frank's) images in The Americans as "meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons and general sloppiness." - wikipedia re: RF
November 12, 2009
arby commented on the word comments
Sorry, I didn't see the welcome/disclaimer on the Zeitgeist page, I wouldn't have come in so guns a-blazin' had I done so. The font was unexpectedly normal and tiny instead of gimongous, I think that threw me off.
Where can we access our preferences or site settings? (Not editing profile, but controlling things like the order in which comments are displayed.) And is there any way we can turn off the Flickr or Twitter feed display on a user level?
November 12, 2009
arby commented on the word comments
1) My profile is a hot mess - tons of unrecognized characters. I know I like annoying HTML so I'm sure some of my comments would be hard to render no matter what, but I doubt bilby went back in time and left me a cryptic chinese message reading "�?走常规路，独特视角。" Unless perhaps he is sekritly Hiro from Heroes? (bilby, if it's true, don't deny it.)
2) Also my "you are a" looking for etc is all blank, I know some of them are the same from Wordie but the order is different and I suspect it has boggled the gui;
3) In addition all my counts are 0 except it's randomly counting one list. I know I've been away some time so if it got purged that's cool;
4) I tweeted an obscure word and then tried to look it up in the usual places, no one had it so I went to Wordie. (blissfully ignorant of the changeover.) Is the "On Twitter" function independently scanning the public feed or is it stalking me? I was not logged in to Wordie WordNik at the time I looked up the word and it had my tweet; and last but far from least,
5) I really want a dummy menu item for "shove it" under the Take this word and... menu.
November 12, 2009
arby commented on the list of-montreal
PS what about sobriquets?
March 27, 2009
arby commented on the list of-montreal
Awesome! I love oM. Aren't you just loving Skeletal Lamping?
March 27, 2009
arby commented on the word thriftless
Nice word!
Not to be confused with shiftless.
September 6, 2008
arby commented on the word petard
Oh and yes, I know the rhyme's not exact. I don't pronounce it PEE-tard.
PS skipvia I don't get it, what's The Enterprise ref. I'm thinking of the latest and most horrible Star Trek series - and to me that totally makes sense because I hate Scott Bakula and find him retarded.
September 6, 2008
arby commented on the word desperadog
Thanks, now I have "Desperado" in my head. I hate The Eagles!!
*cue Mojo Nixon* ("Don Henley must die/Don't let him get back with Glenn Frey")
September 6, 2008
arby commented on the word petard
I associate this word with two things: 1) retard, simply due to the rhyme, and 2) wedgies - I always thought a petard was like a Renaissance garment, and hoisting by one's petard meant being hung up by one's underwear. I know this makes no sense in the actual sense of the phrase (which is analogous to cutting off your nose to spite someone else's face) but I secretly like my definition better.
September 6, 2008
arby commented on the word phallic
c_b, your comment was cut off on the home page just at the most suggestive place - "hard". Ha ha!
Yes, I have nothing substantive to add to the discussion.
July 31, 2008
arby commented on the word innamorata
Not that OED, I was referring to the Online Etymology Dictionary.
But I used to have the real OED on CD-ROM. I bet it's online subs now.
PS: Yes, have a wallaby.
July 27, 2008
arby commented on the word that's for me to know and for you to find out
Yes. It's one of my Dad's favorites, used to infuriate me as a child. But now I think, at least there's some hope in it - it could be worse. Could be "for you NOT to find out". But it doesn't specifically preclude you from finding out, it just says, "I'm not going to tell you, just for fun".
July 27, 2008
arby commented on the word innamorata
And let's go to the OED:
"female lover," 1651, from It. innamorata, fem. of innamorato, pp. of innamorare "to fall in love," from in "in" + amore "love."
ding ding ding - points to bestiary!
July 27, 2008
arby commented on the word crumb bum
I called my BF a crumb bum and he was genuinely insulted. That was hilarious - I can't imagine anyone taking this word seriously enough to be insulted by it. It's just so ridiculous. And then there's the excellent crummy.
July 27, 2008
arby commented on the word sme
More corporate-speak bullshit: acronym for "Subject Matter Expert".
July 26, 2008
arby commented on the word buttered-cat array
Also?
July 26, 2008
arby commented on the word buttered-cat array
Sionnach dear, I think you've got an unclosed italics tag in your last comment.
July 26, 2008
arby commented on the word swear jar
Dude, if they instituted a swear jar at my company, I'd be broke within a month. But several others would go down too, including the President, so thankfully it's never been brought up.
July 26, 2008
arby commented on the list evil-marketing-words-that-upon-use-should-cause-the-perpetrator-to-be-smited
Oh god, clicks-and-mortar is so bad!! Whoever came up with that should be shot. Or smited, as your list title says. (Smitten?)
July 26, 2008
arby commented on the word iterate
Since when is this a verb? It's more corporate-speak that I hate. Recent usage: "We need to iterate this problem."
July 26, 2008
arby commented on the list calgon-take-me-away
Cool - added!
July 25, 2008
arby commented on the word belepharon
Not to be confused with Bellerophon.
July 11, 2008
arby commented on the word buttle
Which reminds me of the classic short story/Twilight Zone ep, "To Serve Man" - in case you don't know it, the entire premise of the episode is based on a pun on the title.
July 9, 2008
arby commented on the list via-i-weird-and-wonderful-words-i
Excellent list, she!! *favorites*
(Is that short for "She Who Shall Not Be Named"?)
July 9, 2008
arby commented on the word every time i eat asparagus...
I thought palooka was a she?
*easily confused*
PS to frogapplause - yes, but we can stop now that you're here.
July 9, 2008
arby commented on the word bumblepuppist
Get out - that is not a real word!
July 9, 2008
arby commented on the word spumescence
Sounds quite dirty. *adds to list*
July 9, 2008
arby commented on the word mouton enragé
OMG I love it!
July 9, 2008
arby commented on the word flock
See also flist.
July 9, 2008
arby commented on the word flock
Also livejournal slang for "friends-lock".
1. To lock an entry or journal to only be viewable by those on one's "friends list".
2. An adjective describing such a locked entry.
July 9, 2008
arby commented on the word flist
Now flock, on the other hand, is definitely used as both noun and verb on LJ.
ETA: I am an idiot and still don't know my grammatical terms - flock is not a noun, it's an adjective.
July 9, 2008
arby commented on the word flist
I don't think it is used as a verb - the verb is to friend.
July 9, 2008
arby commented on the word sooterkin
Cute word, kind of gross etymology.
July 9, 2008
arby commented on the word humpy
One of my favorite authors of all time, James Kirkwood, uses this to mean "cute" (sexy) in P.S., Your Cat Is Dead!.
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word burniture
Ha! I like that.
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word sinnep
I feel like this should mean something in English but backwards.. pennis - ha ha ha
*is twelve*
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word tinkling
Also a coy (usually female) euphemism for urination.
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word tinikling
This is awfully close to tinkling, which conjures up an entirely different picture in my mind.
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word buttle
I suppose it should be described as "to serve" or something horribly boring like that.
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word buttle
According to the pompous Kenneth G. Wilson (The Columbia Guide to Standard American English), buttle (v.) "is a back-formation from butler (past tense and past participle are buttled) describing what this functionary does: at best it is Conversational and Informal; at worst it is slang."
I beg to differ, sir - it is hilarious and adorable.
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word powerthirst
As Mike Doughty would say, "More bacon than the pan can handle".
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word stain glass
Ok it seems I always misuse backformation - is there no equivalent for this (awful, awful) trend of changing verbs into adjectives?? (*sucks at grammar, not entirely sure that's what she means to say*)
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word buttle
I think Wodehouse invented this - backformation from butler.
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word burgle
This word is so f-in' cute that I think I would be in big trouble if I lived in England. "Help! I'm being burgled!" I couldn't say it with a straight face. See also the wonderful buttle.
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word backformation
Is it also responsible for the adorable Britlish verb burgle?
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word stain glass
I've been seeing this particular abomination a lot lately on real estate listings. Similar to the pathetic ignorance and backformation that brought us ice coffee and ice tea. It's regular glass that has been STAINED, realtors! How does that not compute?!?! It's not some wacky new thing, it's been around for f-in' centuries!
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word ice coffee
It's iced coffee, idiots! Aka regular coffee that has been ICED. See also ice tea.
*grits teeth and backs away before becoming homicidal*
July 8, 2008
arby commented on the word horkish
Eww, my cats have never eaten their own puke. I thought only dogs did that! Mine just try to cover it with nonexistent dirt.
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word snarf-n-barf
I love the construction of this expression, though - doesn't it sound like one of those ridiculous gas station convenience marts? a la "Gas-n-Go"
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word snarf-n-barf
A maneuver performed by pets whereby they hoover large quantities of food and then immediately regurgitate it, preferably somewhere that will cause their owners the most distress.
I suppose you could also say some humans (those suffering from bulimia) also display this behavior.
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word horkish
Huh. Guess that blows my theory out of the water.
I (and vets I have known) draw a distinction between immediate regurgitation of undigested food and vomiting of partially digested food.. the latter is usually due to hairballs, while the former can be due to eating too fast or as my vet said, if the cat is nervous because another cat is trying to steal his or her food, that can result in a snarf-n-barf.
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word slow as balls
"as balls" is a general qualifier, not really necessarily indicating the qualified item has any characteristics in common with actual testicles. Other favorites are hot as balls, cold as balls. See also: "like ass".
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word allumette
Not to be confused with alouette of the children's song.
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word plum duff
Also the name of a gorgeous but sadly long-discontinued bath bomb from Lush.
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word bugs
Is it just me, or is Wordie slow as balls today? I'm trying to take my mind off work, damn it! Plus, the server delay is making double posts. (OK, that could just be me clicking the button more than once because it looks like nothing's happening.)
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word antievolution
I have no problem contributing genetic material, I just don't want anything to do with the resulting spawn. My friends in college used to call me the Replicator because all I want to do is replicate my DNA.
C_b, too bad we're both female and thus can only combine efforts via the help of Frankensteinian Science!
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word horkish
All cats are more or less hork-prone, trivet. My personal theory on this is because their digestive systems haven't evolved past being pure carnivores and thus all this grain-based manufactured food does not agree with them. My cat sadly has an eating disorder - when he wants attention he does a "Snarf and Barf" maneuver where he hoovers a large quantity of food and then immediately regurgitates it, preferably somewhere that will cause me the most possible distress, such as the couch. He has learned that if nothing else works, I will certainly stop whatever I'm doing to deal with the puke.
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word every time i eat asparagus...
Hilarious!
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word every time i eat asparagus...
Thanks skipvia for the gherkin info! (Side note #1: doesn't gherkin almost sound like it could be used as a substitute curse word? Kind of less lame than using sugar for shit) (Side note #2: Weird words that rhyme with "gherkin" - firkin, merkin - I feel a limerick coming on!)
Everyone is so welcome for the Steve Don't Eat It, I'm proud to have found a community that can appreciate his truly sick & twisted humor!
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word every time i eat asparagus...
Why double post, why?!?!?
*shakes tiny fists*
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word antievolution
WTF double post
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word antievolution
Has anyone seen Mike Judge's Idiocracy? Not a great movie overall, but the first 3 minutes are priceless - demonstrating just how the idiots are outbreeding the intelligent. Ah, here it is on YouTube.
July 4, 2008
arby commented on the word every time i eat asparagus...
And bilby gets it in one!
July 3, 2008
arby commented on the word bugs
Cripes. Duh! I feel like an idjit now.
July 3, 2008
arby commented on the word fiscelle
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm
July 3, 2008
arby commented on the word every time i eat asparagus...
PS because I cannot bear to edit a 10th time - this word is earworming me with "Every Time You Go Away" (You Take a Piece of Me With You). Needs a parody but what the hell rhymes with asparagus? Bus? Pus? Prolagus?
July 3, 2008
arby commented on the word every time i eat asparagus...
1) All asparagus is disgusting, canned or no *horks*
2) So is okra
3) Someone please tell me how gherkins are not a kind of pickle! ETA WordNet says "any of various small cucumbers pickled whole" - aka pickle
4) I love the word gherkin. Imagine if we never said boring old pickle again and instead referred to everything as gherkined okra or whatever. The world would be an awesomer place.
5) Now the word pickle looks weird to me.
6) Best blog about eating the most disgusting things known to man? Steve, Don't Eat It! I have spent hours laughing until I cried reading his descriptions of the unbelievably foul foods he's eaten. Language warning, he is quite crude. One of the reasons I love it.
July 3, 2008
arby commented on the word tarnation
Interesting, Asativum! I always thought it was a euphemism for Hell.
tmyn
July 3, 2008
arby commented on the word teetotalism
Perhaps an abstention from teats? Poor little calves, they have no choice but to become teatotallers.
July 3, 2008
arby commented on the word teetotalism
Ha ha ha dontcry I too tea-totally agree - I used to think the same thing, and wonder what on earth not-drinking had to do with golfing. Seemed like the people my parents hung out with liked to do a lot of genteelly drunken golfing.
July 3, 2008
arby commented on the list dear-abby
Sounds yummy! I have no fear of chocolate.
July 2, 2008
arby commented on the list dear-abby
Ooh, gruntles! I want one too. Send it c/o Suspicious.
Because surely you can't be referring to moi as Disgruntled Wordie, can you?
July 2, 2008
arby commented on the word nebelwerfer
This should go on the "There's a Word For That?!" list.
ETA: never mind, the nebelwerfer came first and the Screaming Meemie(s) came later - see this page.
July 2, 2008
arby commented on the word megatheocorporatocratic
Yeah, soon there'll be punny lunchboxes and then it's all over.
July 2, 2008
arby commented on the user arby
Quiet, you, or we'll give you something to dontcry about.
July 2, 2008
arby commented on the user arby
Thanks for your support.
Now I have "Let's Hear It For the Boy" in my head. Damn earworms!
July 2, 2008
arby commented on the word ficelle
Mon Dieu! According to this site it is a particularly long & thin type of baguette. I've often enjoyed a nice "heat at home" ficelle with brie cheese from Trader Joe's.
July 2, 2008
arby commented on the word fiscelle
Not to be confused with ficelle, which is apparently some kind of bread. At least, Trader Joe's appears to think so. (Too lazy to Google)
July 2, 2008
arby commented on the word crapulence
Me too, and I just about died laughing when I heard it. Prime Simpsons, that.
July 2, 2008
arby commented on the word flaberkin
I love it! This goes on my Amusing Insults list, fo' sho'.
July 2, 2008
arby commented on the list dear-abby
Dear "Abby",
What is a bilby? Is that some sort of weird Australian lingo?
Signed,
Suspicious of New Information
July 2, 2008
arby commented on the user arby
No.. why do you ask?
*is skeptical*
July 1, 2008
arby commented on the word de rigueur
That's helpful, Mercy! I could never remember 1) what it meant or 2) how to spell it.
ETA: Sorry for getting your name wrong. For some reason I keep reading it as Mary.
June 28, 2008
arby commented on the word inspissate
It sounds like it should mean "to piss off". BTW Roget (via Bartleby) says a synonym is incrassate.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word bugs
*posting as pumpkin*
PS - thanks Pro!
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word bugs
Ooh, really? *is chuffed*
I'm going to bed now, really!
*turns into pumpkin at stroke of midnight*
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word navvy
When I first saw this word I thought it was a bizarre misspelling of navy.
My favorite lyrical usage is in Towers of London by XTC:
Fog is the sweat of the never never navvies who pound
Spikes in the rails to their very own heaven
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word estivating
This is one of those words that sounds more innocent than its meaning. Sort of the opposite of my entendres r us words.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word bugs
Ok, not to tootle my own horn or anything, but I think I spy with my little eye a bug - I happened to be hanging at palooka's profile and I noticed s/he has my default list (arby's words) favorited. In the list of hir favorites, it says "18" after the list name, but in reality my list has 245 words!
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the user palooka
Hmm, how about if he expressed his weight in pit bulls?
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word made of tosh
™ bilby, here.
Tosh is apparently Britlish for rubbish, so made of tosh is something that is so nonsensical, it's composed entirely of claptrap and malarkey.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word ineffible
aka ineffable. It simply cannot be eff'ed. F'ed up, maybe, but not eff'ed.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word waambulance
Take-off of ambulance, but for whiny crybabies. Used to mock people on the internet.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word bugs
Somebody call the waambulance!
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word 7457
What I want to know is, who is the mysterious someone (or some thing - dun dun DUN!!) who conveyed to the alien-carwoman that s/h/it wanted this number (of the beast??) added to Wordie?? And how was this message delivered, via Morse Code?
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word 7457
Rhymes with wassail, of course.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word awes
Short for awesome, pron. "oss"
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word bugs
Made of tosh is so awes! My new favorite phrase.
ETA: ™ bilby
Also, are we no longer allowed to use the strike tag? Waaaaaaah!!
*cries like baby*
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the list waldo-s-list
1) Thank you Private 'Renn! Just doing my best to keep them at bay, sir.
2) Waldo, don't delete this list! It's a Conversation For the Ages (™ chained_bear).
3) mmmmm, peanut sauce.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word bugs
Tried to add made of tosh and got a 404 error. The URL was malformed:
http://wordie.orgword/?added=made%20of%20tosh
Luckily the phrase was added anyway. Just thought you'd like to know.
ETA: And I see I'm not the first to report this bug. That's what I get for not reading the recent comments!
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word made of fail
You mean welcome back, bilby? Why thank you.
*looks up tosh*
ETA: made of tosh, I like that!
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word inorite
I like it because at first I read it as a new word and it looks kinda cool.
This comment brought to you by the Sleep Deprivation Committee, trying to make me look as dumb as possible.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word dnw
Acronym for DO NOT WANT
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word pastede on yay
"Used to refer to something unbearably stupid or ludicrous, usually in the form of "object of scorn iz pastede on yey!" (The deliberate misspellings are half the point of the joke.)"
Ultimately this derives from the JournalFen-based FandomWank community, which exists to mock the stupid in various fandoms. The original story involves Lord Of The Rings fangirl Crystal Gamgee, who perpetuated her false reputation for knowing the actors well enough to make sketches of them - sketches which were forgeries using borrowed photos and obvious Photoshop filters. In the course of her self-defense, she displayed an obvious photomanip of LOTR actor Dominic Monaghan supposedly lying on her bed. Thus, the original reference ("My hed iz pastede on yay!") indicated general lack of A) credibility and B) skillz. "Yay" in the original has mutated into "yey" in later fannish use.
- Encyclopedia Dramatica
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word made of fail
I want to kiss it and hug it and love it and call it George.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the list waldo-s-list
I suggest we move the camels to a secluded location and then provide them with a diuretic - maybe some iced tea? Or perhaps No-Doz(tm) would work?
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word megatheocorporatocratic
Tell me about it. I see them every day while I'm waiting for the bus on Bedford Ave - hotbed of hipsters. Possibly even worse than the hair atrocities they commit are the sartorial abominations - grown women wearing orange rainboots and overalls as a fashion statement, and carrying ironic lunchboxes.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word descriptivist
A follower of the linguistic school of thought that believes that language is made by the speakers and there is no "wrong" usage if it exists in the wild. Isn't Noam Chomsky a descriptivist, or am I misremembering?
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word prescriptivist
Antonym - descriptivist
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word prescriptivist
A follower of the linguistic school of thought that says there is one true way to use language (usually the rules we are indoctrinated with in school) and that deviances from it in real life are wrong and should be frowned upon.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word made of fail
Pshaw, "supposed" - what are you, a prescriptivist?
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the user arby
A lady never tells...whether she has multiple personalities on teh intarwebs.
*sits back and awaits the cringing*
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word megatheocorporatocratic
No joke, I actually have seen some BP haircuts. Along with assorted ridiculous haircuts that were lame in the 80's and have not been improved by the passage of time. I blame Urban Outfitters, among others, for bringing back things like Flock of Seagulls hairstyling.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the user arby
PS - Prolagus, are you new? I don't think I know you.
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the user arby
Well, we can't have that, can we?
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word megatheocorporatocratic
Oh there are TONS of progressive, trendy hipsters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (Not my 'hood, but next to it - I'm in Greenpoint.) I hatesss them!
June 27, 2008
arby commented on the word megatheocorporatocratic
"Even modern American marriages between progressive, trendy hipsters are, at the least, fanciful or ironic reenactments of a gruesome misogynist hegemony, and wreak some degree of megatheocorporatocratic carnage. Especially when the male hipster is a depressive artiste, and the female hipster has one of those Bettie Page haircuts." - Twisty, in this post
March 12, 2008
arby commented on the word empowerful
"These articles largely avoid the “empowerful�? trap, which is the trap so well-skewered by Twisty, wherein the relief that comes when you quit fighting for yourself and just give up is mixed in with the joy of actual victory. Pulling down a real paycheck, leaving the asshole and living by yourself, obtaining a powerful job — these are real forms of power. Stripper aerobics, where the fun mainly comes from being able to combine the pressure to exercise a lot with the pressure to practice being a sex object, is empowerful. Not real power at all, just feels like it in the hands of those who aren’t used to what real power might actually feel like." - Pandagon, from
this article.
March 12, 2008
arby commented on the word nga
Acronym for "Not Getting Any".
January 2, 2008
arby commented on the word vibraslap
I found out about it in the Wikipedia article on Cake.
January 2, 2008
arby commented on the word vibraslap
This word is GREAT! Sounds like an exotic new sex toy.
December 17, 2007
arby commented on the word dishabille
My beloved Andy Partridge has an adorable story about how growing up he thought "disabell" was slang for breasts because his mother would say "You saw me in dishabille".
OK, so maybe you had to be there. Trust me, it was adorable.
December 13, 2007
arby commented on the list lists-of-the-year
Awesome, thanks sh!
December 6, 2007
arby commented on the word cassis
see blackcurrant.
December 6, 2007
arby commented on the word cassia
Not to be confused (as I just did) with cassis, which is French for blackcurrant.
December 6, 2007
arby commented on the word cassia
Wikipedia sez:
"Most of the spice sold as cinnamon in the United States and Canada (where true cinnamon is still generally unknown) is actually cassia. In some cases, cassia is labeled "Chinese cinnamon" to distinguish it from the more expensive true cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), which is the preferred form of the spice used in Mexico and Europe. "Indonesian cinnamon" can also refer to Cinnamomum burmannii, which is also commonly sold in the United States, labeled only as cinnamon."
So, that makes cassia the Poor Man's Cinnamon. Cinnamon's Red-Headed Stepchild.
*wants to taste REAL cinnamon*
December 6, 2007
arby commented on the list lists-of-the-year
If we were to have a "Most Educational" list, I'd nominate reesetee's It has a name??.
December 6, 2007
arby commented on the word yenshee
Sounds like yahtzee.
December 4, 2007
arby commented on the word jaffa
That's a given - but I wish they had a Babelfish at least. Not that far off from a symbiote, really.
December 4, 2007
arby commented on the word jaffa
Yeah, it's like how everyone pronounced Goa'uld differently, with no in-show explanation for the variance. Drives me crazy!!
December 3, 2007
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