I Never Knew There Was a Word for It - Adam Jacot De Boinod [106]
court holy water (1519) to say fair words without sincere intention; to flatter
deipnosophist (1656) a skilful dinner conversationalist
PETER PIPER: TONGUE TWISTERS
There are tongue twisters in every language. These phrases are designed to be difficult to say and to get harder and harder as you say them faster. They’re not just for fun. Therapists and elocution teachers use them to tame speech impediments and iron out strong accents.
Repeat after me (being particularly careful with the last one) …
Sister Sue sells sea shells. She sells sea shells on shore. The shells she sells. Are sea shells she sees. Sure she sees shells she sells
You’ve known me to light a night light on a light night like tonight. There’s no need to light a night light on a light night like tonight, for a night light’s a slight light on tonight’s light night
I’m not the pheasant plucker. I’m the pheasant plucker’s son. I’m only plucking pheasants till the pheasant plucker comes
Some short words or phrases ‘become’ tongue-twisters when repeated, a number of times fast:
Thin Thing
French Friend
Red Leather, Yellow Leather
Unique New York
Sometimes Sunshine
Irish Wristwatch
Big Whip
CLEVER CLOGS
But let’s not go too far. Nothing, surely is worse than those people who put on airs and graces …
nosism (1829) the use of the royal ‘we’ in speaking of oneself
peel eggs (c.1860) to stand on ceremony
gedge (Scotland 1733) to talk idly with stupid gravity
godwottery (1939) the affected use of archaic language
… or claim to know more than they do:
ultracrepidarian (1819) one who makes pronouncements on topics beyond his knowledge
raw-gabbit (Scotland 1911) speaking confidently on a subject of which one is ignorant
to talk like the back of a cigarette card (UK slang 1930s) to pretend to greater knowledge than one has (the cards carried a picture on the front and a description or potted biography on the back)
MANNER OF SPEAKING
All’s fair in love and war, but a good classical education provides a conversational armoury that is hard to match:
diasyrm (1678) a rhetorical device of damning with faint praise
sermocination (1753) a speaker who quickly answers his own question
paraleipsis (Ancient Greek 1586) mentioning something by saying you won’t mention it
eutrapely (1596) pleasantness in conversation (one of the seven virtues enumerated by Aristotle)
IRONY IN THE SOUL
Other tricks can leave the Average Joe standing …
charientism (1589) an insult so gracefully veiled as to seem unintended
asteism (1589) polite and ingenuous mockery
to talk packthread (b.1811) to use indecent language well hidden, as a tinker carefully folds and tucks thread back away into his pack of goods
vilipend (1529) verbally to belittle someone
… and make the rest of us look like idiots:
onomatomania (1895) vexation in having difficulty in finding the right word
palilalia (1908) a speech disorder characterized by the repetition of words, phrases or sentences
verbigeration (1886) the repetition of the same word or phrase in a meaningless fashion (as a symptom of mental disease)
WORD JOURNEYS
Originally these common words and phrases meant something very different:
constipate (16C from Latin) to crowd together into a narrow room
anthology (17C from Ancient Greek) a collection of flowers
round robin (17C) a petition of protest whose signatures were originally arranged in a circle so that no name headed the list and no one person seemed to be the author (the robin does not refer to the bird but to the French rond for round and ruban for ribbon)
costume (18C) manners and customs belonging to a particular time and place
STICKYBEAK
Character
Let him that would be happy for a day,
go to the barber; for a week, marry a wife;
for a month, buy him a new horse; for a
year, build him a new house; for all his
life time, be an honest man
(1662)
According to legal statute an idiot is an individual with an IQ of less than 20, an imbecile between 21 and 49 and a moron between 50 and 70. As you cast around for insults