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Pretentious words battle

People often comment on the fact that the english language has more unique words than any other language (once compound words are excluded). I just discovered why. The OED adds anywhere from 1000-3000 per annum BUT never removes a word.

With that in mind, in 1933 vaudeville coined the wonderful term 'siffleur' which put simply, is a professional whistler whose act in it's totality is imitating bird song.

In fact while certain siffleurs were renowned for their ability to reproduce the beautiful watery cadence of the nightingale (in which over 1000 unique syllables have been identified) or the Austalian superb lyrebird which is able to mimic environmental sounds from the shutter of a camera to a chainsaw, there was almost a trope in which various siffleurs (most famously Herr von Joel) would end there act with the peacock.

Anyone who have been close to a peacock will get the joke. Horrible nasty beasts that don't so much sing as scream. I get that a large bird with limited flight needs an 'alarm call' but those c**ts use it to threaten people into giving them (more) food.

There is no such thing as a context-free word but there we have a bit of obscure context. Follow me for daily random facts of no material value whatsoever...
 
RUC4 said:
sort of.

people who say sort of before EVERYTHING to sound smarter.
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'Shall we shoot <name of person whose demise is sought> in the head a dozen times?'

'Sort of'.

The only way to indirectly stop someone from using a turn of phrase is mirroring in the context of reductio ad absurdum.

Answering closed questions with 'sort of' can be funny as so often people aren't conscious of their verbal tics. So then they are left trying to work out a non-existent nuance.



Currently, I struggle with people who share the complusion of adding 'literally' as a qualifier.

In context, unless a verbal exchange could be understood as being symbolic, metaphorical, allagorical, hyperbolic, meionic, ironic or figurative in any way, isn't literal implicit?

THEN they proceed to provide a figurative statement!!!

No, you didn't LITERALLY stand in a queue of a million people.


Just in the last couple of months I've noted so many Youtube content ceators automatically use the phrase 'in and of itself' when they mean one or the other. It's the 21st century equivelent of 'part and parcel', 'Each and every', 'Leaps and bounds', 'Null and void' (fossilized binomials) where they add emphesis at the cost of clarity.
 
I just remembered a phrase I hate ( HATE!)
"So and so is gone missing". What the fuck is wrong with what we used to say, "So and so is missing"
And all this SCOTUS and POTUS shit. I think it got started by reporters trying to sound self-important and in the loop. It's just simply "the President" , the Supreme court,. I might accept Scrotus.
( Apologies to you non-Americans who might say President of what? But to be fair, last week I even saw the Iranians quoted trolling Trump by referring to him as POTUS)
 
4DQSAR said:
@Ki3ly - well, I'm glad t hear it. But I sense we share a sense of humour but I found I coldn't PM you a joke.

I am all too aware of how cafeful we all must be when in truth we have no idea what another preson might reallly be like. If, for your own wellbeing you have chosen provacy above all, I respect that decision. But you could sey up a secretn burner account so that at least we can submit humour.

But whatever you choose, I just enjoy the fact you are a BLer.
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It will take me three days to figure it out. Do you know ?

~~~~

This is the pretentious ' word ' thread .... 😃
 
4DQSAR said:
@Ki3ly - well, I'm glad t hear it. But I sense we share a sense of humour but I found I coldn't PM you a joke.

I am all too aware of how cafeful we all must be when in truth we have no idea what another preson might reallly be like. If, for your own wellbeing you have chosen provacy above all, I respect that decision. But you could sey up a secretn burner account so that at least we can submit humour.

But whatever you choose, I just enjoy the fact you are a BLer.
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Someone has to be here. Right. 😎

Thank you. 🙌


Humour
 
I don't know. I'm an airhead right now.

My alert said that You mentioned me in a post. At least that is working. :cool:
 
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