The Phrontistery: Obscure Words and Vocabulary Resources Another 25 Words you Don’t Know Humans Following on from our first list of words you don’t know, we present another 25. Learn one a day and impress your friends! Words 25 – 21 25. Girn – To bare your teeth in anger and sadness 24. 23. 22. 21. Words 20 – 16 20. 19. 18. 17. 16. Words 15 – 11 15. 14. 13. 12. 11. Words 10 – 6 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. Words 5 – 1 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Jamie Frater Jamie is the founder of Listverse. Why does fall/autumn have 2 names? Ambivalence over the name of the third season of the year reflects its status as a relatively new concept. As natural as it seems today, people haven't always thought of the year in terms of four seasons. Fifteen hundred years ago, the Anglo-Saxons marked the passage of time with just one season: winter, a concept considered equivalent to hardship or adversity that metaphorically represented the year in its entirety. For example, in the Old English epic poem "Beowulf," the title character rescues a kingdom that had been terrorized by a monster for "12 winters." According to "Folk Taxonomies in Early English" (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003) by Earl R. Summer is also a time-honored concept, though perhaps never quite as weighty a one as winter, and this is evidenced by greater ambivalence over its name. In the West, the transitional seasons, being more trivial, were "not fully lexicalized in the language" until much later, Anderson wrote. Related on Life's Little Mysteries:
10 Curse Words You Don't Know | Words You Dont Know That’s one version of what happened at Waterloo and it’s a load of old cambronne, but the fact is that no-one seems to know the truth. After-battle commentary included both Cambronne saying “Merde!” and Cambronne saying “La garde meurt et ne se rend pas!” (The Guard dies and does not surrender!) Cambronne, who survived but was wounded, denied saying either of these things. Nevertheless merde became known in France as le mot Cambronne and in Britain cambronne became an eponymous euphemism. 4. Norman Mailer tried to reintroduce the word in his novel The Naked and the Dead in 1948. By 1950 James Jones’ From Here to Eternity was published with the inclusion of 50 f-words. 5. Later on in life, when I saw Reservoir Dogs at the movies, I realized that Quentin Tarantino must have run into exactly the same group of guys. 6. I remember, for example, a relative of mine working on a boat engine. My mother, from whom I never heard a single swear word in my life, was inclined to simply shout “Damn!
The Awful German Language by Mark Twain A little learning makes the whole world kin. -- Proverbs xxxii, 7. I went often to look at the collection of curiosities in Heidelberg Castle, and one day I surprised the keeper of it with my German. I spoke entirely in that language. If he had known what it had cost me to acquire my art, he would also have known that it would break any collector to buy it. Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. N. There are ten parts of speech, and they are all troublesome. Yet even the German books are not entirely free from attacks of the Parenthesis distemper -- though they are usually so mild as to cover only a few lines, and therefore when you at last get down to the verb it carries some meaning to your mind because you are able to remember a good deal of what has gone before. 1. That is from The Old Mamselle's Secret, by Mrs. However, it is not well to dwell too much on the separable verbs. "Gretchen. Wilhelm.
10 Insulting Words You Should Know There is a crisis of insults on the Web. On one hand, the volume of flames is very high yet the quality is poor. Gone are the days of the razor-sharp wit of Oscar Wilde and Winston Churchill*, only to be replaced by a string of four letter words typed in ALL CAPS by n00bs (the latest of which is “FAIL”, itself a failure of coming up with a more scathing insult, if you think about it). *For example:"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go," says Oscar Wilde.George Bernard Shaw wrote to Winston Churchill, "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend....if you have one." And Churchill wrote back, "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second......if there is one" Well, it’s hard to teach wit - but all of us can learn the next best thing: the approximation of it by obfuscation, i.e. using big, difficult, and obscure words. 1. Analysis: We have the English to thank for this word. 2. Definition: To spray with poo. 3. 4. nbsp; 5.
“Daniel” In Japanese :: japanesetranslator.co.uk In Japanese, foreign names are normally written using the phonetic katakana alphabet. To see what your name looks like in Japanese, just type it in below and click the “Translate” button. If you like, you can also choose from a few different character styles. Notes This dictionary does not contain Japanese names. Using the Images The images produced by this dictionary are free for personal use. Problems? If you're seeing an error image where your name should be, then maybe your browser isn't working properly. 20 Obsolete English Words that Should Make a Comeback | Matador Network - StumbleUpon Photo: Katherine Hodgson If we all start using them, these words can be resurrected. DURING MY UNDERGRADUATE studies as a Linguistics major, one of the things that struck me most is the amazing fluidity of language. New words are created; older words go out of style. The following words have sadly disappeared from modern English, but it’s easy to see how they could be incorporated into everyday conversation. Words are from Erin McKean’s two-volume series: Weird and Wonderful Words and Totally Weird and Wonderful Words. 1. Verb trans. – “To confuse, jumble” – First of all this word is just fun to say in its various forms. 2. Verb intr. – “To take one’s pleasure, enjoy oneself, revel, luxuriate” – Often I feel the word “enjoy” just isn’t enough to describe an experience, and “revel” tends to conjure up images of people dancing and spinning around in circles – at least in my head. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. For 10 more interesting obsolete words, go to the next page.
Software Translates Your Voice into Another Language Researchers at Microsoft have made software that can learn the sound of your voice, and then use it to speak a language that you don’t. The system could be used to make language tutoring software more personal, or to make tools for travelers. In a demonstration at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, campus on Tuesday, Microsoft research scientist Frank Soong showed how his software could read out text in Spanish using the voice of his boss, Rick Rashid, who leads Microsoft’s research efforts. Hear Rick Rashid’s voice in his native language and then translated into several other languages: English: Spanish: Italian: Mandarin: In English, a synthetic version of Mundie’s voice welcomed the audience to an open day held by Microsoft Research, concluding, “With the help of this system, now I can speak Mandarin.” The new technique could also be used to help students learn a language, said Soong.
10 Insulting Words You Don’t Know | Words You Dont Know “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” That’s what we used to chant as kids when we got into name calling contests in the school yard. Of course, it’s untrue and it’s disingenuous. It implies that the name callers are pursuing a stupid strategy when, in truth, the right insult is deeply wounding. Consider, for example, Jean Harlow. Nevertheless, Jean Harlow escaped lightly when compared to Lord Castlereagh, a despised British politician, who was held responsible for the massacre at St. Posterity will ne’er survey A nobler scene than this. This four line poem distills the essence of insult. 1. As few of us spend much time in the company of horses you may no longer appreciate the distinctive nature of this insult, but if you’ve read The Tempest by Shakespeare, you’ll have no doubt of the putative unpleasantness of the odor. 2. 3. Pages: 1 2 3
Should We Care About Grammar and Spelling on Twitter? | Media on GOOD Many people assume I am a guardian of grammar. The typical plane-ride conversation goes like this: “What do you do?”” “I am an English professor” “Oh! I better watch my grammar.” Their worries are unfounded. Nothing elicits comments like a story on grammar (are you composing your response to me right now? Language is a means to communication. All grammatical rules are like the one against split infinitives: They are all manmade. What interests me about grammatical and other “mistakes” on Twitter is what they signal about our changing culture—a thread of inquiry entirely absent in the Times article. Cusack’s misspelling indicates an out-moded keyboard layout, not a reigning illiteracy. We are living in a moment of seismic linguistic change, and attention should be paid—but not to errors.
shorthand "Groote" The Dutch shorthand system "Groote" was introduced in 1899 by A.W. Groote, aide to a Dutch general. Apparently he needed a system that he could use to take down the general's words while riding a horse! None of the existing systems worked because of the use of diacritical signs like dots. Simplify characters At the age of six I learned the v like this: It is not really complicated, but whoever invented the romantic pig tail at the end, did not have writing speed in mind. The k I found particularly difficult to master, especially with pen and ink, and being lefthanded. In shorthand I could have done those excercises must faster. While the ordinary v and k are very different, in shorthand they look much more the same. Write phonetically In Groote shorthand we write words phonetically. Write in one long stroke In Groote, each word is written without taking the pen from the paper. Use abbreviations For many often used words there are abbreviations. Leave out characters Example It says k-o-r-s-r-i.