# Words You've Read But Never Heard Said **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 8, 2024, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769 "2024-01-08T12:02:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/161 "2024-07-12T23:13:39Z")
Well, last Sunday while being the lector at the service I mispronounced ‘synod’. It’s Sih-nd, not Sigh Nod. Oh well. It’s been a while since I mispronounced anything in front of an audience. The last time I was really astonished at the pronunciation of a word was Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, while attending a graduate English lecture by someone famous (Donna Haraway?) that was completely over my head. I’d have been in my twenties. Nem MAH sin nay ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2024, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/162 "2024-07-12T23:21:16Z")
I was reading an article in The Economist when I came across capex. I thought I had seen it before but they provided no explanation. I turned to my business wife and she told me it was cap ex, capital expense. Business slang turned into a word. We then argued whether it was an acronym or a portmanteau. Any takers? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/163 "2024-07-13T04:19:20Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Well, last Sunday while being the lector at the service I mispronounced ‘synod’. It’s Sih-nd, not Sigh Nod. Oh well. > [@Ulfreida](#): > > The last time I was really astonished at the pronunciation of a word was Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, > [@Ulfreida](#): > > Nem MAH sin nay Mind blown x 2 ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/164 "2024-07-13T04:23:05Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > We then argued whether it was an acronym or a portmanteau. Any takers? Portmanteau. > a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others, for example motel (from ‘motor’ and ‘hotel’) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/165 "2024-07-13T05:46:15Z")
It’s also a contraction. So a contracted portmanteau - could one call it a handbag? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/166 "2024-07-13T06:38:05Z")
From Grammerly: > To form a portmanteau, usually [the first segment of one word is attached to the final segment of another word. **Some portmanteau words are blended in other ways, like combining the initial segments of both words.** (Bolding mine) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/167 "2024-07-13T06:38:45Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > So a contracted portmanteau - could one call it a handbag? Lol!! ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/168 "2024-07-13T07:24:48Z")
Going right back to the OP, the word tang is also used as a word for the part of a knife or sword that extends into the handle. Looking at some Neolithic knives in a museum on Orkney a couple of days ago, I noticed that some of the flint blades had tangs that were inserted into handles. The only person I’ve heard _say_ the word is my wife, who is deeply into archaeology. ---
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/169 "2024-07-13T07:31:38Z")
Good ones. How’s about micturate, condign, and valetudinarian and cloaca? Also, I’ve never used nor heard used a psychiatrist referred to as an alienist. ---
**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:** [July 13, 2024, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/170 "2024-07-13T07:48:47Z")
> [@john\_b\_2](#): > > How’s about micturate, condign, and valetudinarian and cloaca? I’ve heard the first and last but not the middle two. Ironically, I think I can also add “shibboleth” to the list. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/171 "2024-07-13T10:14:16Z")
I’ve certainly read of “condign punishment” in Victorian novels or some such (or maybe some stuffy judge’s sentencing remarks) ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/172 "2024-07-13T12:31:12Z")
Also Tangs are a brightly colored reef fish. I use tang as a word pretty commonly. Referring to the way something tastes. Tangs are also a part of the manufacture of rasps and other types of blades, not just swords. I also use the word in this sense. I think of it as a common word. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/173 "2024-07-13T12:36:26Z")
inchoate and incoherent mean two different things even though they look like they ought to mean the same thing. Inchoate means something not yet formed. Incoherent, in present usage, refers to garbled speech. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/174 "2024-07-13T12:59:07Z")
Incoherent also applies to light sources which are not synchronised, i.e. non-lasered or non-coherent. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/175 "2024-07-13T13:02:34Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Also Tangs are a brightly colored reef fish. And then there’s the boom tang and mast tang, sailboat hardware. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/176 "2024-07-13T15:57:37Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > Incoherent also applies to light sources which are not synchronised, i.e. non-lasered or non-coherent. that seems kind of specialized. I bet I could come up with twenty words that mean something very specialized in fields I’m familiar with. Different thread … ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/177 "2024-07-13T16:05:19Z")
I just realized there’s been no post for ‘synecdoche’. Sounds similar to a city in New York. Never would have known that just from seeing the word written. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2024, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/178 "2024-07-13T16:40:52Z")
Whenever I saw someone wearing a [CHOATE](https://www.choate.edu) tee shirt, my fingers would itch to run up to them and Sharpie **IN** in front of it. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/179 "2024-07-14T06:20:54Z")
Stump compound: FedEx, WaPo, TriBeCa, politruk, etc. ---
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2024, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/180 "2024-07-14T07:09:45Z")
Yes, condign punishment was used to display no measure of doubt or ambiguity. It’s more or less synonymous with “just”. I’m familiar with the turn of phrase regarding dangerous periods in human history referred to parlous times, as in “we live in parlous times” used in a novel, essay or letter during, for instance, the French Revolution or the American (or any other, or that matter) Civil War. However, never have I encountered the word parlous by itself in a conversation, nor have I even used in a movie or TV show; nor even, so far as I can recall, a classroom. It’s probably a word still understood by bookish and well educated people, likely over the age of fifty, though much younger than that, I doubt it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769.md?page=10)