Friday 6 November 2009

Word play on a Friday

Yay for Fridays!

I'm feeling the happiest I've been in almost two weeks, I think. I got a new commission from a magazine I occasionaly freelance to, which is good for my little business, and TSC and I got up early this morning and had a brisk walk around the neighbourhood before popping into Vida e Caffe for skinny cappuccinos, which made for a great start to the day.

It's nice to smile again. It's been a not-so-fun patch and I am not usually a miz person (well, as far as I know), so being so grumpy and unhappy for that long was just blergh. Yeah, that's a word. On this blog, at least.

Which reminds me... I know I have squillions of typos on this blog (for a journo I'm really rubbish at typing) and that I make up my own words (yay for neologisms), but I have been noticing a consistently misspelled word on other blogs that is driving me mad.

The word is "lose". As in, "If you steal my mug again you'll lose an eye."

But almost everyone spells this word "loose". As in, "When you smacked me in the head for stealing your mug again, I'm sure you knocked my brain loose."

Another example, this time using both words: "Seeing certain words spelled wrong makes me lose my temper and I have dreams of setting grammar tigers loose on all offenders."

I should have been an English teacher.

Scratch that. I wouldn't last a day!

Now that my grammar Nazi stint is over for the day (maybe), let me introduce you to some fantastic neologisms from this lovely site:

  • copyrighteous, adj.
    Relating to a feeling of moral superiority based on one's responsible copyright views and actions.
  • bad tongue day, noun
    A day in which a person frequently mispronounces words and stumbles over sentences.
  • mental hairball, noun
    A word or phrase coughed up at random.
  • slackademic, noun
    A perpetual student who prefers the safety and comfort of academic life over the trials and tribulations of the real world.
  • agressocracy, noun
    A society in which the most aggressive members rise to the top.

And some more from this cool site:

  • abstinate (ăb'stə-nāt')
    a. (v.) The act of not giving one's self to anyone, no matter how much they beg.
  • backronym (băk'rə-nĭm')
    a. (n.) An acronym that was clearly thought of first, and the (usually dull minded) phrase was secondarily crafted to fit it. Example: Determined Involved Supermodels Helping to End Suffering: DISHES!
  • camouflush (kăm'ə-flŭsh)
    a. (n.) The unnecessary flushing of a public restroom toilet to mask embarrassing bodily sounds.
  • dark matter song (därk măt'ər sŏng)
    a. (n.) A song of such awfulness that it alone outweighs the rest of an artist or band's body of work.Example: "Shiny Happy People" is REM's dark matter song and "Walk of Life" is Dire Straits'.
  • elbonics (el'bŏn'ĭks)
    a. (n.) The actions of two people maneuvering for one arm rest in a movie theater.

Have a fabulous weekend, all.

9 comments:

Glugster said...

Hahahaha.

I'll admit to doing a camouflush once, but only once. Hahahaha

You know, I find it sometimes very amusing that as an Afrikaans speaking person, I'm often able to spell better than most native english speaking inDUHviduals. You would think somebody would be able to write properly in their own language????

Bagman and Butler said...

Great blog. Journolism should never lose its looseness but celebrate words concurrently with describing life. Or is that poetry? Long live neologism. Without it we would still be speaking in "Thys" and "Thees" or maybe just grunting. Which is why I also love blogger's word verifications -- in this case, mine was flitypo.

Louisa said...

I'm glad you're feeling happy again! :-)

Hehehe @ Mental hairball - I have those every now and then.

Damaria Senne said...

glad you're feeling much better. thanks for making me laugh. I admit to camouflushing a time or two.

Anonymous said...

kwa kwa kwa TOTALLY love this post. I use the word "blergh" too. I love your words. They're fun. Typos are a natural part of nature.... honestly

po said...

I may have done a camoflush... not telling! Those words are pretty cool, they should be allowed in with all the other big shot words that make it into the dictionary. That lose loose thing is a lost cause seriously. Half of the pamphlets, posters, websites, etc in the UK spell it wrong, and if they can't get it right in the place that invented the language, then we are doomed.

Helen said...

Lose/loose drives me nuts!

The other two that kill me are your and you're
and their and they're

and there are many more.

I guess I can't really complain though as I can spell but I can't type...

Tamara said...

Glug: one would think. But I think some people are just wired to notice spelling more. My Afrikaans spelling and grammar are better than TSC's and it's his first language.

Bagman and Butler: I get such a kick out of the word verifications, I must say.
They often sound vaguely rude though.

Louisa: I get them all the time ;-)

Damaria: You are welcome! It's a clever word, that.

Paula: Maybe they're normal, but I still hate typos.

Po: In the words of Henry Higgins, "Why can't the English learn how to speak?"

Helen: You summed me up right there - "I can spell but I can't type".

Gaynor Paynter said...

So glad I'm not the only one who feels like having a bad tongue moment (and don't mean mispronouncing thims) when I see 'lose' spelt as 'loose'. Not sure if I'm just weird ... but it makes me want to 'lose' my marbles! So do 'there, they're and there' used interchangeably, as let's not even go near 'your' and 'you're'. But hey at least you get decent commenters. Another thing driving me spare lately is folks who come to my blog and say: "Nice post. Now go and look at my blog ... wharra wharra wharra". Lol.