You know what I mean? There are certain words that just have no business meaning what they actually mean. OK, let me explain.
For some reason I was musing on the word pulchritudinous. Now, whoever came up with that word clearly meant for it to be used to convey “Angry and looking for trouble” or “Spoiling for a fight”. But then something went horribly wrong at Team English Language headquarters. An intern on their first morning on the job made a disastrous clerical error, which led to it being defined as “Beautiful”. What?? Oh, come on – that should have been picked up and corrected by a line manager – but no, it wasn’t. It still means beautiful.
There are others. Palimpsest – as in the title – is the sort of rash in the moist nether regions that you absolutely wouldn’t want to get – except it isn’t. A palimpsest is
Again, it’s a word that clearly means the wrong thing. There must be many more examples out there, and I would like to be introduced to them. I need you to tell me what these words ought to mean, and what they actually mean; and if you wish, an example of how the word should be used, like:
That’s Davey over there, watch out for him - if he’s had a couple of drinks he can be a proper pulchritudinous bastard.
‘Copacetic’ - a word I first encountered right here on this board - should clearly be a technical term in psychology for some sort of personality disorder.
I see from your history that you’ve been suffering from bipolar disorder with copacetic tendencies.
The OP may be interested in Douglas Adams’s [the Hitchhiker’s Guide guy] little but well-loved book, The Meaning of Liff, which aims to pair essential concepts describing modern life with otherwise wasted place-names, just sitting around on signposts doing nothing, e.g. “SLIGO (n.) An unnamed and exotic sexual act which people like to believe that famous films stars get up to in private. ‘To commit sligo.’” or “GRIMMET (n.) A small bush from which cartoon characters dangle over the edge of a cliff.” Unputdownable.
Palimpsest is the title of an oddball L&O: Criminal Intent episode. I’ve never heard it used other than that, so that’s what it means to me. A made up word.
“Anorexia” is a simply lovely name for a young woman (complete with built-in charming nicknames Ana, Rexy, and Sia). No idea how such a delightful word got tied up with an eating disorder.
Vichyssoise-swordplay or other form of attack that is cruel and devoid of humanity. “The evil knight, not above heinous acts of vichyssoise, attacked his noble, unarmed foe when his back was turned…then stole his soup coldly.”
Props to some of “four bears”
John Lennon (A Spanner in the Works, In His Own Write)
Lewis Carroll (Jabberwocky)
And of course, Norm Crosby.
And this gem from Don McLean
All the stalactites and vicious vertebrae
Hunt the stalagmites while laryngitis slay
All that parasites that come from Paraguay in the spring
In a strange coincidence, two different science fiction authors independently used Palimpsest as the title of a work in 2009; Charles Stross, for a novella and Catherynne Valente, for a novel.
Drosophila is obviously the name of the evil sorceress who put the Prince under a terrible curse, and Melanogaster is the wise old wizard who was eventually able (with the help of brave heroes) to break the curse. No way either is a tiny speck of an insect.
Drosophila is obviously the name of the evil sorceress who put the Prince under a terrible curse, and Melanogaster is the wise old wizard who was eventually able (with the help of brave heroes) to break the curse. No way either is a tiny speck of an insect.
