# I pit a lowly, yet exceedingly annoying, word **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 30, 2007, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094 "2007-01-30T08:42:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/41 "2007-01-30T18:28:33Z")
Personally, I’ve always felt that “portmanteau” should be a type of hat. Like [this one.](http://costumesbypartyprops.com/catalog/velvet_tri-corner_hat_by_elope ___used_for_pirates__ rarenaissance__or_coloinal_co_4441217.htm) That’s a portmanteau hat, if I ever saw one. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/42 "2007-01-30T18:53:32Z")
Will Ferrell says “that’s ginormous” in Elf. It always snaps me out of the movie. It doesn’t seem like a word he’d use. If he couldn’t even come up with _hulf_ as a hybrid word for “human and elf”, what’s he doing saying “ginormous”? ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/43 "2007-01-30T19:11:05Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] I know a couple of people who use ‘fuck off’ as a general intensifier, for example: “I turned the corner and there was this fuck off huge road tanker tearing down the hill towards me” “It’s the second left after that fuck off tall radio mast - you can’t miss it” [/QUOTE] Strangely I hear (and use) a similar form, but it would never be ‘a fuck off huge tractor’ just ‘a fuck off tractor’ where the intensifier indicates that the tractor is both large and impressive. It comes from the calling Doc Martins ‘Fuck off boots’. Anything is ‘fuck off’ if it is or can be likened to agressive. So a studded lether biker jacket would be a fuck off jacket, a Harley would be a fuck off bike, etc. But something being ‘fuck off tall’ is as strange to me as saying something is ‘large tall’. ---
**Author:** ![aclubs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@aclubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aclubs)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/44 "2007-01-30T19:21:43Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > I figure that Gyromouse is either a cartoon superhero, or an extremely light aircraft… A “gyromouse” is a small rodent stowaway on a spaceship that coincidentally helps determine the ship’s position in space. How? Lots of spinning. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/45 "2007-01-30T19:39:42Z")
I wish I had more opportunities to use the adjective [“gynandrous”](http://www.buenavistatownship.org/Photos/Dragons%20mouth%20orchid.jpg) (caution - sexually explicit photo). ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/46 "2007-01-30T19:44:27Z")
[QUOTE=aclubs] A “gyromouse” is a small rodent stowaway on a spaceship that coincidentally helps determine the ship’s position in space. How? Lots of spinning. [/QUOTE] Why _is_ a mouse when it spins? ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/47 "2007-01-30T19:44:29Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] I wish I had more opportunities to use the adjective [“gynandrous”](http://www.buenavistatownship.org/Photos/Dragons%20mouth%20orchid.jpg) (caution - sexually explicit photo). [/QUOTE] That’s a sexually ambiguous dead language portmanteau, to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![aclubs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@aclubs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aclubs)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/48 "2007-01-30T19:49:00Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > Why is a mouse when it spins? Because it’s not when it doesn’t, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/49 "2007-01-30T20:39:23Z")
I just ran across the word “celebutante”. I hereby request that this abomination be placed in a portmanteau and ignited. ---
**Author:** ![illoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a3d4f5/32.png) [@illoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/illoe)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/50 "2007-01-31T05:21:45Z")
“Bittyscule” is just adorable, **Seven**! But I’m with **aclubs** on “ginormous.” It is a hideous train wreck of a word, fit only for teenyboppers and the culturally impoverished. So Merriam Webster says it’s not contemporaneous with the “Britney” generation, eh? Bunkum! They just lost a lot of credibility in my eyes. Let me drag out the old OED and I’ll tell you what a REAL dictionary has to say on the matter… Oh. 1948. WWII military slang. Well, so much for my ear. I still hate it. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/51 "2007-01-31T20:55:38Z")
I must admit that I’m entertained by both “ridonkulous” and “catastrofuck”, but of which seem to be the same type of construction. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094/52 "2007-01-31T20:57:06Z")
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool] I must admit that I’m entertained by both “ridonkulous” and “catastrofuck”, but of which seem to be the same type of construction. [/QUOTE] I’ve got a friend who uses the term, “recockulous.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-a-lowly-yet-exceedingly-annoying-word/390094.md?page=2)