Rubbernecking, to look around awkwardly. Like when your in traffic cuz everyone is rubbernecking at the crash on the side of the road.
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Rubbernecking, to look around awkwardly. Like when your in traffic cuz everyone is rubbernecking at the crash on the side of the road.
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The fact that this word this word appears in Oxford and English Webster dictionaries is enough proof it is English. Although I doubt if the person or medical scientist who created this word is American or English.Originally Posted by Stomme poes
A recent favorite is "abditory", a place for hiding things. I've been using it to refer to my reading room, since it's something of a hiding place for me.
sesquipedalian
Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.
You need to tell us what it means.
Linda Jenkinson: Content Team Leader
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"Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean." ~Unknown
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it's a polite way of saying a cripple -- a person with one and a half feet
Or old people, with one and a half feet in the grave.
Seriously, though, I understand it to mean, in essence, 'polysyllabic'—leading to the sense of 'long-winded' when applied to writings that are full of long words or overly long and dense.
The more language we know, the tendancy of mixing 2 languages and form 1 word is very common at my place. For the example: not-che-able. This is actually the combination of a dialect with an English word that bring the meaning, non-negotiable.
What's the good word? A contest taken from this thread (ripped from the headlines?)
We are going to temporarily close this thread until the contest is finished. Thanks to all the contributors! Now use these good words to enter the contest!
Linda Jenkinson: Content Team Leader
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"Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean." ~Unknown
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Our contest is over and we have posted the winners! This thread now open for more good words!
Linda Jenkinson: Content Team Leader
Creative Web Content
"Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean." ~Unknown
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As a Scot, I have a great range of words, mostly colloquial, to call upon. Some of my favourites:
crabbit - meaning grumpy or disagreeable
stoor - meaning dust and dirt
dreich - pronounced dreech, with the 'ch' as in 'loch', meaning miserable, cold and wet (usually in reference to the weather)
wheesht - a plea for silence, like 'be quiet', sometimes used as part of 'haud yer wheesht' (hold your quiet, hold your tongue maybe as an equivalent).
I could go on for days...
Please do... these are wonderful!
Linda Jenkinson: Content Team Leader
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"Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean." ~Unknown
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Hey, this is an English forum.
Interesting words, though. Are they technically English, or Scots, or …?
Technically, they're Scots, or derived from Old Scots.Hey, this is an English forum.
Interesting words, though. Are they technically English, or Scots, or …?
One more:
glaikit - referring to a person, meaning not very bright, a bit dim, a bit thick.
All of the words I've given are in use every day all over Scotland. They're not just words we wheel out for the tourists. That's one of the reasons we need subtitles on some Scottish TV programmes when they're shown in England.
Ha ha. Well, the great thing about English is that if a foreign word is useful or fills a gap in the vocabulary, it is quickly incorporated.
(I wasn't trying to be crabbit in questioning the origin of your words. I'm just a bit of a glaikit. And I'm sure you've already wished for my wheesht, so I be quite now.)
You be quite what?
Linda Jenkinson: Content Team Leader
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"Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean." ~Unknown
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Quite a bad speller.You be quite what?
Love it!
Just a wee correction of your usage...
I wasn't trying to be crabbit in questioning the origin of your words. I'm just a bit glaikit. And I'm sure you've already wished for me to wheesht, so I be quite now.)
I'll make a Scotsman of you yet.
Lawlz!
If it were Dutch...
crabble... krabbel... to scratchcrabbit - meaning grumpy or disagreeable
Though English does have "crabby" which likely either comes from crabbit or influenced it.
If pronounced like "store" (as two o's would be), it means to interrupt or bug/bother. If pronounced "stoor", (would be spelled "stoer" in Dutch), it's something sturdy, reliable. Strong.stoor - meaning dust and dirt
If it were pronounced "dreig" (same "g" sound mostly, but ei would be "aye") it would mean "threaten". If it were pronounced as you say, "drieg" (ie == eee sound), it would sound like a version of bedriegen, which is to cheat.dreich - pronounced dreech, with the 'ch' as in 'loch', meaning miserable, cold and wet (usually in reference to the weather)
Since many old English words share ancestry with old Dutch words, and since English words have mixed with and borrowed from Gaelic, and since also words have come from Gaelic over France (Breton) into the Latin-derived languages, I always wonder how much connection particular words have (when/if any... I don't think any of the words above are related but still fun to see what they'd mean if spoken here).
English has this old term... "wasseling". Today you only hear it in Christmas songs. "Here we come a-wasseling..."
The word comes from the phrase spoken during the holidays, "Waes du hael" (this was English at the time). It means literally "be you hale" and "hale" itself is rarely seen except in the phrase "hale and hearty" (healthy).
wæs þu hæl but whatever...
Dutch is similar. The "waest" from waes (old English, "to be") is still present in Dutch as "wees" (be, pronounced "waays" but with a hiss "s"... or like "waste" without the t). Du, which is still present in German and carried also in Latin where the Romance languages have "tu"s in them...
"hale" ultimately derives from a root word (hāl) meaning whole (which also comes from from it), and Dutch has that too: heel (whole, complete, entire).
Wees u heel! (nobody would know what that means, it's senseless today)
Thanks for the corrections. I should have seen that glaikit was an adjective, but didn't pick up that wheesht was a verb.
Ach, laddeh, I'll starrrrt weeeerkin' on me glo-al Tees then!I'll make a Scotsman of you yet.
^Juus wotch a lohtta Craig Fergusson lad, that'll dew ye goood!
(or have fun imitating the "Vikings" in "How to tame a dragon... Viking Scots > Vikings)
Ach, we canna watch im down 'ere.
crikey!Ach, we canna watch im down 'ere.
I preferred him when he was Bing Hitler.
Off Topic:
Ah yes, Godwin's law prevails again.
EDIT: oops, we've gone way off topic. Feel free to delete these OT posts, Linda.
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