Vocabulary

Whenever I’m bored I like to look through the Futility Closet. Today I saw an interesting post, if you’re into strange language (it’s from 1890, so we’ll excuse some of the wording).  Here’s the text:

TO BE LET,
To an Oppidan, a Ruricolist, or a Cosmopolitan, and may be entered upon immediately:

The House in STONE Row, lately possessed by CAPT. SIREE. To avoid Verbosity, the Proprietor with Compendiosity will give a Perfunctory description of the Premises, in the Compagination of which he has Sedulously studied the convenience of the Occupant. It is free from Opacity, Tenebrosity, Fumidity, and Injucundity, and no building can have greater Pellucidity or Translucency — in short, its Diaphaneity even in the Crepuscle makes it like a Pharos, and without laud, for its Agglutination and Amenity, it is a most Delectable Commorance; and whoever lives in it will find that the Neighbors have none of the Truculence, the Immanity, the Torvity, the Spinosity, the Putidness, the Pugnacity, nor the Fugacity observable in other parts of the town, but their Propinquity and Consanguinity occasion Jocundity and Pudicity — from which, and the Redolence of the place (even in the dog-days), they are remarkable for Longevity. For terms and particulars apply to JAMES HUTCHINSON, opposite the MARKET-HOUSE.
– “Dub. News.,” quoted in Charles Carroll Bombaugh, Gleanings for the Curious from the Harvest-Fields of Literature, 1890

That sort of takes your breath away, doesn’t it. It makes you wonder what you were doing during English class. Not paying attention, I guess. I don’t know that I have ever consciously used more than half of all these words (I’m not including verbs, prepositions or conjunctions).

I was going to pick out my favorite sentence and copy and paste it here, but then I realized that it’s all one sentence starting from the It’s free from part. The whole text only has 4 periods in it, for heaven’s sake. Makes every German heart beat a bit quicker.

I’ll just pick out some worthy parts: Opacity, Tenebrosity, Fumidity,  Injucundity,  Pellucidity, Translucency, Diaphaneity, Crepuscle, Agglutination, Amenity, Commorance.

I keep thinking of something contagious here and I’m afraid I’m coming down with a fever just reading it, but nevertheless, some of this vocab really could spice up your conversations. So let’s all pick 3 or 4 of these words and use them this week.
I’ll take agglutination (I can use that one a lot), commorance (’cause I just moved), tenebrocity (seems all purpose), and crepuscle (my favorite time of day).

I wonder which ones Justi and Nicole will take.

english vocabulary

I’m healing nicely. 

I can pretty much use all my fingers again. Before I got rid of the bandages, I could only sort of thump on the keyboard with my left hand and then go back and delete the extra letters with my right hand. (Note to self: don’t forget to take the fondue skewer out of the tool-box.)

So anyway, although I couldn’t really type, I certainly could surf. And so I spent my idle hours once again looking for jobs for my leisure-minded animals. I didn’t find much, but I did come across a myriad of ways to get some verbal mileage out of dogs.

Let’s face it, dogs have  it rough.
A dog is either a dog (as in woof-woof), or an ugly woman, or a contemptible man, or an unsuccessful deal or a less than satisfactory thing, and to dog (or hound) is to follow or hunt.
To go to the dogs means to degenerate
A dog’s life is an awful existence
We all know that it’s a dog eat dog world out there (we heard it first from our mothers)
You’re as sick as a dogwhen you’re vomiting your guts out (sorry)
If you do something wrong and get caught, you might end up in the doghouse
Like I always tell my son, “I work like a dogfor you, and you leave your socks on the tv…”
The underdog is the one who has no chance to win
If you lie down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas
Here are some less negative ones:
Every dog has its day (as in a good day)
You put on the dog when you get dressed elegantly
Although dogs are nice, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks 
Some things are better left alone, so just let sleeping dogs lie
A very long time is an absolute dog’s age

As you can probably guess, there are zillion more (or at least 20 to 30), but I have to stop somewhere.

Did you notice a pattern here? I mean in both part one and part two (of the pointless pet series).
Cats really get off better than dogs, don’t they? The English language basically treats them nicely. Dogs are scum. That doesn’t seem really fair. Think about it - dogs spend their entire existence gazing lovingly into their persons’ eyes, catering to their every wish and desire. Okay, maybe not every single wish and desire, but hey, those dogs are out there trying. They’re rooting for you. They feel involved, responsible, interested.
Can’t say that for cats, and I would go so far as to say that you can’t say that for all cats (although admittedly, some are less obvious about their dislike than others).

I’m not  quite sure where that gets me, from a moral stand point, but I think I’ve spent enough time in pet-reflection.

I’m still trying to figure out how I can make some gainful use out of all these unproductive animals I have at home. (Unfortunately, the job as Schrödinger’s Cat was already filled by the time The Cat got her CV off. Good jobs don’t grow on trees, you know, and there must have been at least 100 other cats with her qualifications.) Anyway, let’s get back to this pointless-pet problem.

Linguistically speaking, all of them have possibilities and uses. Each and every one of them has already long found his/her purpose in idiomatic English. (I can’t say the same for home.) Let’s start, for personal reasons, with cats, and look at some of the ways we can put them to use,  be it only in our language.

Where to start?
You let the cat out of the bag when you tell a secret and you weren’t supposed to.
A visibly nervous person looks like a cat on a hot tin roof (or on hot bricks). 
You look like something the cat dragged in if you look like, well, something the cat dragged in.
A room can be so small that there is no room to swing a cat.
Not only do all roads lead to Rome, but there is also more than one way to skin a cat. (Has a nice ring to it)
A rich and generally powerful person is often referred to as a fat cat.
You are said to be grinning like the Cheshire Cat when you’re grinning ear to ear.
If you are reluctant to speak, people may ask if the cat’s got your tongue.
It’s raining cats and dogs when it is really raining hard. 

And, as we all know, when the cat’s away, the mice will play.

Naturally, there are countless more, but I just can’t list them all. As we can clearly see, cats do at least contribute something to society. They are not completely useless.
Oh, and before I forget, I wanted to mention one more cat-thing. Many of you may or may not realise this, but cats have 9 (read: nine) lives in English.
Think about it.

Apropos of idioms, here is an interesting site I found. It’s called Ponderings of a Cowboy Hat English Teacher. He goes quite in depth in his treatment of idioms - I personally appreciate the cowboy slant (duh). And here is a site that lists endless idioms (quantity goes before quality).

For more of my pointless pet idioms, stay tuned.

english language cat idiom

Most people are truly interested in increasing their vocabularies, because, as we all know, a broad vocabulary lends a speaker conversational dexterity (a certain savoir faire) and creates a large comfort zone in a wide range of subjects and situations.

In other words, a strong vocabulary can, and will, change your life (for the better).

I’ve started a new category called, fittingly enough, vocabulary. I’ll use this category to introduce new and exciting words which will help you to, well, increase your vocabulary, and, in turn, make your conversational and writing experiences more enjoyable and, with luck, profitable.

Seeing as we are in the midst of Fasching here (Carnival, for you English speakers), I thought this first list was appropriate:

An unusual list of sex-related terms:

Faunoiphilia(FAW-nay-FIL-ee-uh) - An abnormal desire to watch animals copulate.

Brassirothesauriast(bruh-zeer-oh-thuh-SAW-ree-ast) - A person who collects brassieres or pictures of women wearing them.

Eunoterpsia(YOO-noh-TURP-see-uh) - The doctrine that pursuing sexual pleasure is the goal of life.

Typhlobasia(TIF-luh-BAY-zee-uh) - Kissing with the eyes closed.

Amychesis (AM-i-KEE-sis) - The involuntary act of scratching or clawing your partner in the heat of passion.

Mammaquatia(MAM-uh-KWAY-shee-uh) - The bobbing or jiggling of a woman’s breasts when she walks, dances, or exercises.

Ozoamblyrosis(OH-zoh-AM-bli-ROH-sis) - Loss of sexual appetite because your partner has wicked B.O.

Amomaxia (AM-uh-MAX-see-uh) - Love-making in a parked car.

Colpocoquette(KAHL-puh-koh-KET) - A woman who knows she has an attractive bosom, and who makes good use of its allure.

Melolagnia (MEL-uh-LAG-nee-uh) - Amorous feelings inspired by music.

By the way, I found the list here (one of the hottest blogs in town).

vocabulary building lists english strange sex terms