Search found 35 matches
- Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:51 am
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: counting coups
- Replies: 9
- Views: 5918
Re: counting coups
P.S. Intonation doesn't matter.
- Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:46 am
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: counting coups
- Replies: 9
- Views: 5918
Re: counting coups
"Counting" could be either the main verb (present participle) with the direct object "coups": They were counting coups after the raid; or a gerund (present participle used as a noun): The nominee celebrated his win in the primary by counting coups from distorting his opponents' records. ("Coups" is ...
- Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:44 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: counting coups
- Replies: 9
- Views: 5918
counting coups
After a recent state primary election, one radio host appropriately commented that some candidates had focused on the negatives of opponents' records. He used the term "counting coups." I couldn't find it in Webster's 11th Collegiate, and I haven't heard it in a long time. It should have been with "...
- Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:50 am
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: New and unemployed
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2869
New and unemployed
Hence my visit here :) Never realized there were other "wordies" out there, but it seems obvious to me now. I went to wikipedia to try to get a more precise defintion of ennui, since I have it. I was amazed that I was re-directed to boredom. I can tell you it's not boredom or depression as it's bei...
- Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:01 am
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: "baby" as a word of endearment
- Replies: 16
- Views: 7388
"baby" as a word of endearment
Hate to break it to you, cookie, but there was never a time when everyone in America said baby. The vast majority of Americans have NEVER said baby. In fact, most have never even eaten one. Erik, Is this a reference to Jonathan Swift's queasy satire (the title escapes me at the moment) on suggestin...
- Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:34 am
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: Please Help With A Title
- Replies: 13
- Views: 3480
Please Help With A Title
I was once an editor for a small newspaper. When the boss/publisher invited some potential investors to tour the facilities, he decided to spruce up the newsroom with name plates on our desks. There followed some discussion on what our titles would be as many of us had more than one job. The most di...
- Tue Dec 05, 2006 6:57 pm
- Forum: Miscellaneous
- Topic: rhyme for "purple"
- Replies: 17
- Views: 14281
rhyme for "purple"
I checked a website called poemhunter.com, which was marginally helpful. It found only 1 Ogden Nash poem with the word "purple" but none with "burp'll." When I searched for that contraction by any poet, it brought up 1,000 instances of "'ll." ??? So I'm looking for a poem by someone else. I ran acro...
- Mon Dec 04, 2006 10:42 pm
- Forum: Miscellaneous
- Topic: rhyme for "purple"
- Replies: 17
- Views: 14281
rhyme for "purple"
Thanks, Erik, you beat me to a reaction to the supposed list of rhymes. If a few common, final letter sounds qualified as rhymes, I'd have earned an A instead of a D- on my first -- and only -- attempt at writing a limerick, on Cyrano De Bergerac, in high school English. Cyrano was a man of words. H...
- Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:59 am
- Forum: Miscellaneous
- Topic: rhyme for "purple"
- Replies: 17
- Views: 14281
rhyme for "purple"
Buck Owens may have recorded it, but Roger Miller made it a hit.
- Mon Dec 04, 2006 12:59 am
- Forum: Miscellaneous
- Topic: rhyme for "purple"
- Replies: 17
- Views: 14281
rhyme for "purple"
Supposedly no word rhymes with "purple." Seems to me Ogden Nash wrote a poem that ends in "a burp'll." (a burp will).
Anybody have the rest of it?
Anybody have the rest of it?
- Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:35 pm
- Forum: Usage and Writing
- Topic: inchage
- Replies: 9
- Views: 5487
inchage
English has the words "acreage," "mileage," "yardage," and "footage." I've been wondering, half seriously, if "inchage" has ever been coined to mean an aggregate or collection of or rate in inches. Does the metric system have comparable terms using specific units? "Meters per second," "grams per squ...
- Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:18 pm
- Forum: Usage and Writing
- Topic: Does English have an "accent mark" ( ¨ ) ??
- Replies: 51
- Views: 21708
Does English have an "accent mark" ( ¨ ) ??
This topic has been rolling around in my brain for some time now, and I am glad to see it has for others. Three comments: - So many words, especially past tense verbs, that end in "-ed" lose that syllable, as in "pulled" = /puld/ or "talked" = /tokt/. Yet we have "naked," "crooked," and "ragged" tha...
- Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:21 pm
- Forum: Miscellaneous
- Topic: *gry / 3 words
- Replies: 7
- Views: 5998
*gry / 3 words
A relative sent me this riddle. "This is going to make you so MAD! There are three words in the English language that end in "gry". ONE is angry and the other is hungry. EveryONE knows what the third ONE means and what it stands for. EveryONE uses them everyday, and if you listened very carefully, I...
- Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:58 pm
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: generation names
- Replies: 4
- Views: 3471
generation names
Ken, although I join you in the Silent Generation, I don't necessarily agree that "apathy" on campus is a negative. The '50s were a great time to grow up. And when many college campuses in the '60s were erupting in sitdowns and takeovers and draft card burnings (by early Boomers), my church-affiliat...
- Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:38 am
- Forum: Word Origins and Meanings
- Topic: generation names
- Replies: 4
- Views: 3471
generation names
The Baby Boomer generation began in January 1946. What is the name for the previous generation? There used to be the term "War Babies" but I don't know if that applies.