tongue-twister love

Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A sentence or verse constructed with a view to test the enunciation or dexterity of a speaker. The following is an example: Theophilus Thistle, thistle-sifter, sifted a sieveful of unsifted thistles, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A phrase that is deliberately designed to be difficult to say correctly, usually because of varying combinations of similar phonemes.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

tongue + twister

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Examples

Comments

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  • It’s said that police sergeants in Leith, Scotland, used this tongue-twister as a sobriety test:

    The Leith police dismisseth us,

    I’m thankful, sir, to say;

    The Leith police dismisseth us,

    They thought we sought to stay.

    The Leith police dismisseth us,

    We both sighed sighs apiece;

    And the sigh that we sighed as we said goodbye

    Was the size of the Leith police.

    If you can’t say it, you’re drunk.

    (via futilitycloset.com)

    January 7, 2010