Sunday, February 8, 2009

Supposably there was this episode of Friends

Supposably there was this episode of Friends all about supposably vs. supposedly. Thanks to Keith Rand for reminding me about this one. This is right up there with irregardless and acrost.

What you say? Acrost? New words are here!

Supposably - "Alex, I'll take "Wurds that just r-unt" for $200". Now why take a perfectly normal word, and word that means simply presumed to be true or real without conclusive evidence, and change it from supposedly to supposably. Would you change probably to probebly or probedly? I think "prolly" not (see earlier post). Maybe you think you're "able" to do whatever you want with the English language so you can just tack "ably" on to whatever words might sound mellifluous? After a second look, it turns out that supposably actually IS a word, a real one, weird huh. It just can't be used instead of supposedly, which is precisely what most people do, so on the list it stays!

Acrost.
"uh-crah-st' - You can go "across" the street for lunch. You can "cross" the road. You can go to abc.com and watch "Lost", which will "cost" you nothing. You cannot however, go "acrost" anywhere. Why some persons have begun adding a "T" where none belongs or has ever occurred is beyond me, but there it is, right at the end of across, a "T", so sad.

Irrecyclable - A friend of mine tried to say that Jews and Gentiles were once "irreconcilable". Unbeknownst to him his brain was using 20% post consumer product and it came out irrecyclable. Like, the Jews and Gentiles can't recycle together? He stopped himself and said "that's not right" but being unable to grasp the right word, soldiered on without using irreconcilable. Oh how I would like to go back in time and cry out "Its not right! The Jews and Gentiles CAN recycle together! One bottle at a time!".

Revelations - Book 67 in the Bible, also known as Revelations. Revelation is the last book in the Bible (number 66). There is no book after this, no smaller version of Revelation. For some reason, persons not listed here, like to refer to this mystery work, often in a sentence such as "So I was reading in Revelations the other day and.....". You can have a revelation, you can even have revelations, but you have not and never will read from a book in the Bible called "Revelations".

Struck Out To Me - At what point in human society did striking out and things that stick out become struck out I'll never know. Apparently people are putting struck out and stuck out together and coming up with "struck out to me", like having an epiphany, but without say, using a correct word like epiphany to describe it. Example - "This point in the book really struck out to me." At which point I like to grab an imaginary bat and begin swinging away making swishing noises.

Buhdellium - Bdellium (dĕl'ē-əm) (Hebrew bedolach) is an aromatic gum like myrrh that is exuded from a tree. THE "B" IS SILENT PEOPLE, SILENT! There is no "buh" in Bdellium, its just dellium! See also, Salvuh (Salve with a giant "uh" at the end) in an earlier post.

Wroughted - wrought, past and past participle of work, \ˈrȯt\ - It's past tense, you can't just add "ed" willy nilly wherever you like because you don't "unnerstan" (see previous post) the tense of a word. There is no wroughted, there is no wroughted iron, you can't have wroughted some work.
1. Archaic except in some senses. a pt. and pp. of work.
–adjective
2. worked.
3. elaborated; embellished.
4. not rough or crude.
5. produced or shaped by beating with a hammer, as iron or silver articles.

Gotten - This has always seemed odd to me. I've gotten a blog vs. I've got a blog. I'll not delve into this myself as this site does a good job for me - Note "AmE" and "BrE" are short for American English and British English - http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/gotten.html

Towards - This last one is not something that is not mispronounced but bugs me anyways, call me a word snob, I can take it. The word "towards". I hear everyone pronounce this as (tôrdz, tōrdz, tə-wôrdz'). Which is correct, but it just sounds soo wrong! I mean, its really "to" plus "wards", right? So shouldn't it be "too-wards"? But its not, its just tordz, which doesn't even sound like a real word, it sounds like a mispronounced word, try it, do it, say it out loud, loudly, TORDZ. Yeah right, its a word, uh huh, sure. Now turn your back TORDZ me.

7 comments:

  1. 'Wrought' cannot be used in the present tense either. "Lord, wrought Yourself in me" is a good prayer, but the grammar is wrong.

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  2. the inchoative aspect? i think i'm in love (or going to be in love). lawler's explanation covers all standard usage of gotten other than the concessive. it's not even a tense, but an aspect. wow, who knew such a thing existed? i've just gotten better at english.

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  3. I couldn't even get past "supposably" because I was crying in delight that someone is pointing this out. HATE THAT!!

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  4. This is hilarious. I really like your blog.

    My coworker CONSTANTLY uses the word "Supposably" ... so much so that I start saying it to my girlfriend to be funny. She prob thinks it's annoying though.

    Another big'un is MASONRY. I work for a construction manufacturer, and among some of the many things we produce on site is masonry. Except, around here, it's pronounced mason-air-ee. lol

    kudos!

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  5. "Revelations" reminds me of a few other favorites my roommate and I like to use:
    (in an ironic, making fun sort of way, of course)

    "New Years" - as in "Happy New Years!"
    "Valentimes" and
    "Birfday"

    Sorry if you already covered these!

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  6. but bugs me anyways, call me a word snob

    Word snobs know that it's anyway, not anyWAYS

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  7. I have broken up with men because of repeated use of bad grammar, most notable was "acrost".

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