Me and my OED's topics - tribe.net

Figures of Speech

pulchrasunt — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 15:35:05 GMT

So I have this book by Arthur Quinn, "Figures of Speech." It's a veritable treasure-trove of rhetorical terms with examples and pithy commentary.

http://meandmyoed.tribe.net/photos/8ae4da6f-9d64-40a3-81c2-734d03251032

Here is a sample:
"On the night of June 21, 1932, Joe Jacobs, a professional prize fight manager, after hearing that his man had not been awarded the decision, achieved for himself linguistic immortality by shouting into the ring announcer's microphone, 'We was robbed!'

'We' does not ordinarily go with 'was.' And we might think that Jacobs had simply made a grammatical mistake of a rather rudimentary kind. Yet, if he had said 'were,' he likely would have been consigned to the same oblivion as was the smug winning manager. Far from being a mistake, 'was' was an inspiration. It was, to be more precise, an ENALLAGE, which is just the rhetorical name for an effective grammatical mistake."

The book goes on to discuss several dozen other rhetorical figures, all in amusing detail and with copious examples.

For example, combine ENALLAGE with another widely-used figure, METAPLASMUS, or the deliberate misspelling of words, and you have teh internets, in a notshall.

posted in Me and my OED - 1 reply

The Moderator haz split!

Jess-my-pet — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 22:33:55 GMT

Long live the Moderator!!!

posted in Me and my OED - 0 replies

Moderatorship Open

Jess-my-pet — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:08:20 GMT

Hi all, I know this place hasn't been exactly a hot-bed of activity. I don't want to delete this tribe outright, so if anyone is interested in taking over as moderator, I would be happy to pass the torch. First response WINS!!

posted in Me and my OED - 3 replies

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalianism

Peter — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 16:16:14 GMT

A self-referential version of sesquipedalian? Just another "stunt word" I suspect. To read a bit more go to:
http://blog.oup.com/2007/08/long_words/

posted in Me and my OED - 1 reply

My New OED

Hero-dotus — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 06:40:25 GMT

A couple months ago I got a new OED. I still have an older Shorter OED, two thick bound volumes. But my new OED is the whole thing. Unabridged. A serious scholarly work, with nothing left out.

But it is flat and round, with a hole in the middle.

Is it strange to actually want the twenty-something volumes in the print edition, just because you can touch the words?

posted in Me and my OED - 5 replies

Grammar nazis unite!!

Jess-my-pet — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 20:17:59 GMT

This is hilarious ---

http://newyork.craigslist.org/about/best/aus/111508160.html

posted in Me and my OED - 1 reply

does anybody know a word...

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 22:05:38 GMT

to describe the concept of gods gobbling each other up?

posted in Me and my OED - 4 replies

geek humor

Jess-my-pet — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 16:44:19 GMT

I'm involved in helping out with the 11th Annual Pac Rim Conference on Literature and Rhetoric -- http://www.pacrimalaska.org --

during one of the meetings a few weeks ago, when we were talking about planning basic logistics--who would do what, etc.--I don't recall HOW we got started, but this year's Grad-student-in-charge Chris started goin' a bit crazy with the planning of who should do what and the orchestratin' and such, and he started getting this gleam of power-lust in his eye ... so we started teasing him ... then joining in ... when someone came up with a grand idea: that we should get t-shirts to proclaim our positions of power that say on them: Hegemony Rocks

which we ALL thought was hilarious ... and we laughed and laughed and ... what? You're not laughing???

Guess you had to be there.

posted in Me and my OED - 3 replies

size words

akgeek — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 09:01:07 GMT

While perusing a dictionary at work, I discovered the word MAJUSCULE. It refers to large or capital letters. It's opposite is MINISCULE -- think MAJOR/MINOR.

posted in Me and my OED - 14 replies

Sesquipedalian word of the day

travischaney — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 11:15:39 GMT

Lying in bed at 4:50 this morning, a word popped into
my head which I haven't used for a while:

INFUNDIBULIFORM--Having the form of a funnel or cone.

Very practical word if you ask me. Plus it will fit on across
a Scrabble board. (Not likely to be played, though, since
the longest string of letters therein which forms an acceptable
play is FUNDI. Unless, of course, one is playing a variation
of Scrabble called Clabbers. Then one could extend the
anagrammatic equivalent of FURIBUND with the letters
FIILMNO.)

Alright. Back to bed now.

posted in Me and my OED - 1 reply

the word "smug"

smoorefu — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 09:12:14 GMT

Do you think it is pejorative? I think yes, a friend thinks no.

Opinions?

I know you all have one!

posted in Me and my OED - 8 replies

WORDS ! more words !

Sun, 16 Oct 2005 04:40:29 GMT

Here's the sitruation : I need words. Lots of them. All kinds, of every colour and measure. All these nebulous and fleeting ideas flotting in my head need to be pinned them. So keep those words coming !

Here's the mission : list your favourite words, those that turned the light on, those that brought on your epiphanies, those that made the darkness light, those that enlightened you and those that confused you to no end.

posted in Me and my OED - 11 replies

I'm drunk...

theunrulyj — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 09:26:49 GMT

and I thought you all should all know about it. So there....

posted in Me and my OED - 2 replies

Scrabble list #2

travischaney — Tue, 23 Nov 2004 12:17:41 GMT

Excellent work on the first list.
Here is a list from another Eureka Springs game:

BEAU
FIQUE
UNBOW
WAD
PLENARY
QUILT
OCHRE
SEAMIER
FOILED
HM
KEX
IN
ELEGIT
DO
IVY
INCISION
ADORN
GET
VAGI
AZURES
ZETA
TROOPS
JEAN
AN

(These are just the main words formed and don't include
other words formed by hooks and overlaps. )

Have fun. Entertain me.

posted in Me and my OED - 0 replies

Crayons ...

Jess-my-pet — Tue, 16 Nov 2004 06:16:29 GMT

Have crayon-makers gone mad?? Saw some crayons last week - all the colors were puns on computer-related lingo. They were disturbing ....

Mother-board-green
Surfing-the-net-blue
... and my personal favorite ...
Plug-n-Play Pink

talk amongst yourselves ...

posted in Me and my OED - 10 replies

Another list from last weekend's Eureka Springs, AR, tournament

travischaney — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 22:19:05 GMT

I'd like to see what sort of poem you can devise with this list
from my seventh match. (The words are listed in the order
in which they were played.)

AREOLAE
FRENZY
LOUIE
DUI
WEDELING
AM
KRAIT
FLAMIEST
COXAE
SNAP
CYGNET
BROOD
HIED
BLUISH
VIA
JO
TEPA
ORANGE
OW
SUQ
AQUATONE

posted in Me and my OED - 16 replies

Scrabble Poem

Jess-my-pet — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 05:40:55 GMT

For your edification. Or something. I call it:
Darling Nikki - see if you can guess why.

*************

Defy triage imps:
Grind every peon’s mare.

Gin diet, Ma.
Zin-bowl diet:
Straw wines.
Test fucks use
Lanai grind.

Gauge nova,
Gauge quads,
Gauge tail.
Gauge Sex …
Gauge Li, boob!

Every sex
Grinds,
Every sex
Defy grind,
Die.

posted in Me and my OED - 2 replies

THE SCORE - THE WORDS - THE HUMANITY ....

Jess-my-pet — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 20:04:49 GMT

Well bloody hell - team scrabble was a blast, but the team of Sean and Jess were severely humbled and came in DEAD LAST. Oh well. I can't remember the names of the 2-guy team that won, but they had a score of 168. Amber and Paul came in second, with 152, Erick and his partner .... Kim? ... had 125, and Sean and I slunk home w/ our tails between our legs and a low score of 122. Can you say AAEIIOU? Yes. Can you use it on a scrabble board? Unfortunately, no. That's the luck of the draw.

But here are the words - most of them - to play with, perchance to poem ....

BOOB (thanks, Amber ... it's not quite a 72-point vagina, but close enough)
BOWL
WINES
STRAW
TRIAGE
EVERY
PEONS
SEX
DIE
TUNED
DEFY
QUADS
FUCK(S)
USE
DIET
TAIL
TEST
LANAI
GAUGE (which I, in my wine-muddled-haze, kept insisting was spelled gague ... I was very insistent about it. And very wrong ... but no fisticuffs broke out, thankfully)
GRIND
MARE
ZIN
IMPS
NOVA
GIN

There might have been a few more, but I didn't remember to start writing them down til the game was almost over. Darn!!

Get to work, poets!

posted in Me and my OED - 5 replies

Scrabble...

Vron — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 06:49:21 GMT

That is the BEST time to have your OED at hand!

posted in Me and my OED - 48 replies

Yiddish?

Vron — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 03:02:07 GMT

Oy Yah... (no that is not a spelling error!).... What about Yiddish!???

http://www.vidlit.com/yidlit/yidlit.html

posted in Me and my OED - 2 replies

Grammar Nazi moments

ambero — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 20:00:10 GMT

Here is your excuse to brag about the times you've bitch-slapped those who were not only wrong, but ARGUED with you about it!

The other day my roommate, who is obviously LEAGUES behind me, claimed that "gotten" is not a word. I warned him not to get into an English debate with me, but he persisted.

I let him live.

It leaves a nice mark on someone's nose when you show them the word in your dictionary, up close, then SHUT IT.

Oh wait, was that just a fantasy?

posted in Me and my OED - 6 replies

The Alternative Dictionaries Home Page

Jess-my-pet — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 06:11:46 GMT

http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/

A home for all the homeless dictionaries - a dictionary with only 5 or 6 words might not be able to exist, but for this lovely little repository-o-words.

Where else can you learn to say: " I will fuck you in the ass and have you give me some good head." in Latin?

posted in Me and my OED - 1 reply

Hep-Cat's Dictionary ....

Jess-my-pet — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 06:01:24 GMT

For all you hep cats and canaries - a dictionary just for you .... (on-line, even, for all you on-line-dic-lovers)

http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~mtendas/Hepsters_Dictionary.html

posted in Me and my OED - 0 replies

I love my big fat dic .......

Jess-my-pet — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 06:43:02 GMT

.... tionary.

So, I'm obsessed with my "shorter" OED (i.e. 2 volumes instead of 20) - and looks like Amber has a different kind. Do people actually HAVE dictionary preferences? What do you do with your dictionary? Do you take it out and play with it often? How big is your dictionary? How do you use it? Do you have more than one dictionary? Let's all get to know each other.

*pats pillow next to self on couch*

posted in Me and my OED - 15 replies

velleity (for Unruly Julie - to interpret a Bad Pez Poem)

Jess-my-pet — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 02:52:25 GMT

vuh-LAY-it-ee /noun/

1) The least or a low degree of volition, unaccompanied by any effort or advance towards action or realization.
2) A mere wish; a slight inclination without accompanying action or effort; (also followed by 'for', 'of', 'toward', etc.)

posted in Me and my OED - 3 replies

Word of the Day

Jess-my-pet — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 19:57:20 GMT

evaginate: eeee-VA-gin-ate ... <verb trans.>

1) Unsheath
2) (medical) turn (as in a tubular organ) inside out.

eeeewwww!!

I found this word while looking for a different word. I love my OED.

posted in Me and my OED - 6 replies