AWADmail Issue 310
Jun 8, 2008
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Nairi Hakhverdi (nairi76 gmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--jackanapes
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/jackanapes.html
This one reminded me of a dialogue in the movie musical "Love Me Tonight"
(1932), between Count de Savignac, Viscount Gilbert, and Princess Jeanette.
It goes something like this:
Count: (to Gilbert) You imp..., imp..., oh, what's the word?
Gilbert: Impecunious?
Count: No, no, no, no!
Jeanette: Impudent?
Count: No, no!
Gilbert: Impostor!
Count: No!
Jeanette: Impertinent.
Count: Ah, yes, that's it! You impertinent jack..., erm..
Gilbert: Jackal.
Count: No, no, no.
Jeanette: Jackass!
Count: No, no.
Gilbert: (to Jeanette) I wish you'd got to bed!
Count: Jackanapes!
Gilbert: Ah!
Count: You impertinent jackanapes! Liar. Cheat.
Gilbert: You'll be insulting me in a minute.
Count: Nitwit. Numbskull. Nincompoop.
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From: Michael K Martin (mmarti5 clemson.edu)
Subject: Insult Words
My favorite insult word is the Italian maleducato (rude, ill-mannered).
I chuckle to even try to imagine a word made of the roots of "bad education"
being an insult thrown around US school yards, etc.
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From: Shannon (sohara28 gmail.com)
Subject: Gundygut vs. Greedy Gus
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/gundygut.html
I had never heard today's word (gundygut) but was struck by its similarity
to "Greedy Gus", particularly in the quotation used.
I have often heard people say "I'm not a Greedy Gus ...", usually followed
by "but". I had always assumed that simple alliteration had caused the
development of the term, but I now wonder if "Greedy Gus" was some sort of
devolution of gundygut.
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From: Shripriya Mahesh (shripriya mac.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--gundygut
Well, in Tamil (South Indian language), Gundu (Guhn-doo) means fat or fatty.
He's a guhn-doo = he's a fatty.
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From: Vivienne Bezuidenhout (vivienne advantagemagazine.co.za)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--praetorian
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/praetorian.html
I loved this explanation particularly for its irony. As the executive
capital of South Africa, Pretoria is the centre of our arguably corrupt
government. This definition might make our officials think twice about
boasting to be a Pretorian. :)
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From: Brooke SL (russia_moore yahoo.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--flibbertigibbet
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/flibbertigibbet.html
Surely I'm not the only person who, upon seeing this word, thinks of The
Sound of Music? It's used to describe the main character, Maria, by her
fellow nuns before she's sent to care for the Von Trapp family. When I was
younger I would watch the film every summer.
Last semester, when asked repeatedly why I'd taken German rather than the
locally popular (and "more practical") Spanish once I'd gone to college,
I at first said that I just had an interest in the language. I surprised
and amused myself to discover, upon reflection, that this movie was the
source of my interest! Somewhere along the lines I realized it was set in
a real time in a real place, and since then I've developed a great love
of modern history and the German Language in all its dialects.
Vielen Dank!
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From: Kimberly McDaniel (lynxlady80 comcast.net)
Subject: Flibbertijibbet!
Okay, put your habit on and all together now!
"How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!"
Thanks to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, III to introducing this
lovely word to millions!!
Kimberly
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From: Donny Prosise (donny.prosise leggett.com)
Subject: insults
Good old Mark Twain. My favorite quotation of his can be seen in my office:
"In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate
circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied often to prayer."
............................................................................
Language, n. The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's
treasure. -Ambrose Bierce, writer (1842-1914) [The Devil's Dictionary, 1906]
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