A few years ago I started writing down peculiar things people around me were saying. The list has grown and I've asked a few close friends and family to contribute. Unfortunately, most of the time, they say something like "I heard this great word!" and tell me about it, but it never gets written down. Hence this Blog, that will immortalize these mangled verbal creations for all time. Let us begin with words that aren't really words, and hence the title of this blog.
Reprieval [Reprieve - Pronunciation:
Simply not a word, you can get or need a reprieve from something, but not a reprieval.
Reprieve: 1 : to delay the punishment of (as a condemned prisoner) 2 : to give relief or deliverance to for a time.
Epicity [Epicenter – Pronunciation: 'e-pi-"sen-t&r Function: noun ]
Derived from epicenter, meaning the center of something, not an actual word.
Epicenter: 1 : the part of the earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake.
Irregardless [Regardless – Pronunciation:
Regardless, often confused with “irregardless”, which, “irregardless” of what people think, is not a word.
Brustleing (bus'el)--v.i. [NOT]: 1. A windy day. i.e. "It's brustleing outside."
Aka: Blustery or Blustering.--v.i. 1. To blow gustily and with violence and noise, as the wind.
Merlino Wool (mur'lin'o) (wool)--n. 1. [NOT]: Wool produced by a famous wizard. Aka: Merino Wool--n. Wool spun from the sheep from a specific region of
Tsunami
Underlining [Underline - Pronunciation: '&n-d&r-"lIn, "&n-d&r-'Function: transitive verb]
Usage: The underlining cause of the degration of words is laziness. You can line something, you can underline something, but there is no such thing as underlining. Often used with the following terms [the underlining (cause, issue, affect, effect, etc.)] Although there can be underlining, say in a book.
Overlying [Overlie - Pronunciation: -'lI Function: transitive verb]
Usage: The overlying cause of nonsensical words is a disability of vocabulary. See previous.
Overlie:
1 : to lie over or upon
2 : to cause the death of by lying upon
Obsoleted – Obsolete is both present and past tense, there is no obsoleted.
Usage: That software was completely obsoleted by the latest release. Pronunciation: "äb-s&-'lEt, 'äb-s&-"
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin obsoletus, from past participle of obsolescere to grow old, become disused, perhaps from ob- toward + solEre to be accustomed
1 a : no longer in use or no longer useful
Scopacetic – slang, scope + copacetic, indicating that the scope (of work) is copacetic (satisfactory or acceptable)
Variant(s): also co·pa·set·ic or co·pe·set·ic /"kO-p&-'se-tik/
Function: adjective
Etymology: origin unknown
: very satisfactory
Indepthly – You can talk about something in-depth, but you can’t discuss something “more indepthly”, unless perhaps, the discussion is about the English language, and you’re clearly out of your depth.
It’s a Numetter – A numetter (number + letter) is when people say something like “As you can see, Number “A” is the most important” when referring to a list. People will also say “Letter 1”. The letter “A” is not a number! And the number 1 is not a letter! Another thing I despise, which is related, is when people start off a discourse with “First of all…………” and then go to “Secondly…”. Or “Firstly……….” Then switch to “Second of all.” Dah!
Dark Matter – Instead of gray matter. Referring to one’s brain, occasionally, when one’s gray matter becomes, shall we say, more clouded by the worries of this age, one might accidentally refer to it as dark matter.
Escalade – Escalade is a car, a big ugly gas guzzling behemoth. The problem is that kids are now using this word in lieu of escalate, and don’t even know it. They might say something like “the argument escaladed until we were both yelling”. This has been documented in freshmen college writing assignments, disturbing.
Wow, honey, that's so innursting. You have a lot of time on your hands. :)
ReplyDelete