A couple of lovely Afrikaans ( a very descriptive language if a bitch to speak if your from south London) words I've picked up here and learned to love
Snotklap ( literally you hit somebody so hard that snot flies out of their nose) Koekie pelmat ( a mix of Afrikaans and English "literally her dress is so short it just about covers her Koek")
I love this thread. Thanks for starting it cafcfan.
For anyone who loves the study of words and their meanings, I can thoroughly recommend Mark Forsyth's books, The Etymologicon and the Horologicon. Below are some of my favourite words from them:
Bumfodder - toilet paper (the source of the word bumf) Drunkery - pub, bar, gin house etc. Expergefator - something that wakes you up Feaguing - the act of sticking an eel up a horses arse (apparently some snollygosters did this to make the horse more lively and so get a better price for it) Gong-hole - lavatory Grinnow - stain that won't come out in the wash Gubernatorial - things belonging, or relating to, a governor Hum Durgeon - an imaginary illness Philogrobolized - hungover Plutomania - obsessive pursuit of money Snollygoster - a shrewd unprincipled person Squitter - to void excrement with a noise Towcher - index finger (i.e. toucher) Zwodder - a drowsy stupid state of mind
Also good fun are Adams and Lloyd's The Meaning of Liff and Roger's Profanisaurus. Though their contents are entirely made up. Forsyth's words are genuine.
I love this thread. Thanks for starting it cafcfan.
For anyone who loves the study of words and their meanings, I can thoroughly recommend Mark Forsyth's books, The Etymologicon and the Horologicon. Below are some of my favourite words from them:
Bumfodder - toilet paper (the source of the word bumf) Drunkery - pub, bar, gin house etc. Expergefator - something that wakes you up Feaguing - the act of sticking an eel up a horses arse (apparently some snollygosters did this to make the horse more lively and so get a better price for it) Gong-hole - lavatory Grinnow - stain that won't come out in the wash Gubernatorial - things belonging, or relating to, a governor Hum Durgeon - an imaginary illness Philogrobolized - hungover Plutomania - obsessive pursuit of money Snollygoster - a shrewd unprincipled person Squitter - to void excrement with a noise Towcher - index finger (i.e. toucher) Zwodder - a drowsy stupid state of mind
Also good fun are Adams and Lloyd's The Meaning of Liff and Roger's Profanisaurus. Though their contents are entirely made up. Forsyth's words are genuine.
Nice list Stig. Agreed re: Meaning of Liff and Profanisaurus too.
For those who haven't read it, The Meaning of Liff is a list of genuine place names with made up meanings attached to them. Some of them were brilliant. (The 'Adams' that Stig refers to is Douglas Adams. An incredible comic talent, sadly taken far too soon.)
FWIW, my favourite words from Liff were: "Brompton" - A fart in a bath And "Skegness" - That almost solid nasal excreta that is something between snot and a bogey.
Wombat is brilliant. One of the best sentences I read in a newspaper contained the word wombat: Residents of Cheyne Walk, Chelsea were banned from keeping pets after Dante Gabriel Rossetti's wombat disgraced itself. I'd love to know what that wombat did.
After reading it, one of our cats was nicknamed wombat.
Off the top of my head, I can only remember on word from the Meaning of Liff (probably time for a re-read).
Lowestoft = Belly Button Fluff
For some reason, my car's satnav pronounces low es toft in a sort of german-sounding two syllable way as Loves Toft. It sounds kind of dirty and is the only town name I'm aware of that it gets wrong.
A blind work colleague had an Amanuensis which is another word I quite enjoy.
Comments
Machine
Caravan
Egg
Matching
Mole
Hatfield
And the North
Gilgamesh
National
Health
Gong
Nucleus
Passport
Peripheral
Bouncy
Pumpernickel, another schoolboy one this. I like that it means Devil's Fart.
Snotklap ( literally you hit somebody so hard that snot flies out of their nose)
Koekie pelmat ( a mix of Afrikaans and English "literally her dress is so short it just about covers her Koek")
For anyone who loves the study of words and their meanings, I can thoroughly recommend Mark Forsyth's books, The Etymologicon and the Horologicon. Below are some of my favourite words from them:
Bumfodder - toilet paper (the source of the word bumf)
Drunkery - pub, bar, gin house etc.
Expergefator - something that wakes you up
Feaguing - the act of sticking an eel up a horses arse (apparently some snollygosters did this to make the horse more lively and so get a better price for it)
Gong-hole - lavatory
Grinnow - stain that won't come out in the wash
Gubernatorial - things belonging, or relating to, a governor
Hum Durgeon - an imaginary illness
Philogrobolized - hungover
Plutomania - obsessive pursuit of money
Snollygoster - a shrewd unprincipled person
Squitter - to void excrement with a noise
Towcher - index finger (i.e. toucher)
Zwodder - a drowsy stupid state of mind
Also good fun are Adams and Lloyd's The Meaning of Liff and Roger's Profanisaurus. Though their contents are entirely made up. Forsyth's words are genuine.
Agreed re: Meaning of Liff and Profanisaurus too.
For those who haven't read it, The Meaning of Liff is a list of genuine place names with made up meanings attached to them. Some of them were brilliant. (The 'Adams' that Stig refers to is Douglas Adams. An incredible comic talent, sadly taken far too soon.)
FWIW, my favourite words from Liff were:
"Brompton" - A fart in a bath
And
"Skegness" - That almost solid nasal excreta that is something between snot and a bogey.
Genius.
Lowestoft = Belly Button Fluff
On
Ubiquitous
Omnipotent
Sanguine
After reading it, one of our cats was nicknamed wombat.
A blind work colleague had an Amanuensis which is another word I quite enjoy.