# Words You've Read But Never Heard Said

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769>\
**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:** 1\
**Showing post:** 141

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**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-youve-read-but-never-heard-said/995769/141 "2024-02-25T22:36:22Z")

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> [@Wallaby](#):
>
> with the accent on the fourth syllable (to rhyme with ‘army’)

Where you are, perhaps. Here in the States, we pronounce our Rs. For (most of) us 'Murricans, it would rhyme with “mommy.”

> [@Wallaby](#):
>
> I wonder if the song was created as a challenge, to see if they could write a song with the most difficult base rhyme.

Michael Flanders was one of the cleverest lyricists ever. All of his songs, and his introductions to them, are laden with clever wordplay. I gave just one example here:

> [@What's your favorite example of zeugma?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-example-of-zeugma/984471/1):
>
> [“Madeira, m’dear,” by Flanders and Swann](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=%23&ved=2ahUKEwim9M-OxIv_AhUnFlkFHQ5BD-4Q8TV6BAgPEAI&usg=AOvVaw0VTJzWxrN8ZFOD4xbU2nov)  
> Each of the song’s three verses contains a line that features a three- or four-way zeugma.
> 
> > And he said as he hastened to put out the cat,  
> > The wine, his cigar, and the lamps:
> 
> > She lowered her standards by raising her glass,  
> > Her courage, her eyes, and his hopes.
> 
> > When he asked, “What in heaven?” she made no reply,  
> > Up her mind and a dash for the door.

My father had the “At the Drop of a Hat” records when we were kids, and growing up with them, I took them completely for granted. It was only decades later, when I had become a writer and editor, that I became fully aware just how sophisticated Flanders and Swann’s silly little songs were.

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