# Words you learned from rock or pop **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2014, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054 "2014-05-23T01:40:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/21 "2014-05-23T10:37:26Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > Sericulture is from the Human League’s “Being Boiled” - I’ll let the person who knows the other one have the cookie. Is it “Workshop of the Telescopes” by Blue Öyster Cult? - By Silverfish Imperatrix, whose incorrupted eye Sees through the charms of doctors and their wives By Salamander, Drake, and the power that was Undine Rise to claim Saturn, ring and sky By those who see with their eyes closed They know me by my black telescope \* ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/22 "2014-05-23T12:06:38Z")
Philippic, Desultory (after I was Robert McNamara’d into submission) ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/23 "2014-05-23T13:16:57Z")
I learned “copacetic” from the [Velocity Girl album name](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copacetic). More that spring immediately to mind: p-p-p-pneumothorax\* bergamot, vetiver (I’ve forgotten what they precisely are, but I think they’re flowers and/or herbs) poxy pinball \*I was on a road trip soon after this song/CD came out. Person A put the CD on in the car. Person B said “Ah, the \_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_” – except he changed the last word of the band’s name to reference a recent Snickers commercial. Person A replied with the catchphrase from said commercial. I assumed that what person B said was the band’s actual name. It took until getting Guitar Hero III three years later (which had one of their songs as a bonus track) and seeing the name “misspelled” to go online to see who else had noticed the error – and _then_, after everyone else was “misspelling” it, going back to my copy of that CD to see that I had been wrong all that time. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/24 "2014-05-23T13:51:06Z")
[Colitas](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1053/in-the-song-hotel-california-what-does-colitas-mean). Like Cecil, I always assumed it to be a dessert flower. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/25 "2014-05-23T13:52:18Z")
_Tessellate_ from the song of the same name by Alt-J "Scylla and Charybdis " from the Police’s _Wrapped Around Your Finger_ I wasn’t aware of the term “saloon” as a style of car until Queen sang about it in _Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy_ ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/26 "2014-05-23T14:01:28Z")
Myxomatosis from Radiohead ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/27 "2014-05-23T14:02:06Z")
Gavotte - _You’re So Vain_ ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/28 "2014-05-23T14:12:33Z")
Proselytized - BS&T “I Can’t Quit Her” ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/29 "2014-05-23T14:20:31Z")
Remembered a couple from R.E.M. From _Can’t Get There From Here_ - shirr and philomath From _Find the River_ - bergamot and vetiver ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/30 "2014-05-23T15:57:23Z")
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/31 "2014-05-23T16:01:18Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Copacetic (Local H) > Lucidity (Queensryche) Raison d’etre - Queensryche ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/32 "2014-05-23T16:04:18Z")
Helter skelter. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/33 "2014-05-23T16:19:16Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Helter skelter. This is an interesting one. I had always known the general meaning as disorganized or in disarray, but later learned that it is also a British term for a spiral-shaped playground slide. The Beatles song made much more sense after I learned that! ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/34 "2014-05-23T17:13:08Z")
Contrecoup, limerent and craniosophic. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/35 "2014-05-23T17:20:59Z")
Oooeeeoooahahtingtangwallawallabingbang ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Righteous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Dr.Righteous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Righteous)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/36 "2014-05-23T17:27:37Z")
Not precisely words, but I first heard the phrase “cross the rubicon” in Journey’s Rubicon, and the song “Moon Over Bourbon Street” made me seek out and read “Interview With a Vampire” ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/37 "2014-05-23T17:29:03Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > Brucellosis > “Play It All Night Long”-Warren Zevon Well…I didn’t think I’d be ninja’ed on that one. Side note. When the jukebox at the bar gets a little too country, I like sneaking that one in. More Zevon - Chemin de fer - Mr. Bad Example ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/38 "2014-05-23T22:24:50Z")
SNL and Woody Harrelson taught me [“callipygous.”](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/callipygous) ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2014, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/39 "2014-05-23T23:53:43Z")
Parthenogenesis, from Shriekback’s _Nemesis_. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054/40 "2014-05-24T00:58:17Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > Raison d’etre - Queensryche Love that album. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-learned-from-rock-or-pop/689054.md?page=3)