Silent Schwa » Lingo

Grausamkeitsspäße

Michael — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:27:22 +0000

Grausamkeitsspäße [ˈɡʀaʊ̯zaːmkaɪ̯tˈʃpɛːsə] - “cruel jokes”

German always has such great words for describing deriving pleasure from someone else’s pain.

(Thanks to Chuck Gordon for turning me on to this word!)

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Impecunious

Michael — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:35:02 +0000

Impecunious \im-pih-KYOO-nee-uhs\ - not having money; poor; broke

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Sesquipedalian

Michael — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:05:30 +0000

Sesquipedalian /ˌsɛskwɪpɪˈdeɪliən, -ˈdeɪlyən/ – given to or characterized by the use of long words

A big word that means “big word.” I love language.

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Doof

Michael — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:45:13 +0000

Doof – stupid; lame; dumb

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Paralepsis

Michael — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:41:07 +0000

Paralepsis /ˌpærəˈlɛpsɪs/ – the suggestion, by deliberately concise treatment of a topic, that much of significance is being omitted, as in “not to mention other faults.” From the Ancient Greek παράλειψις, meaning “omission.” Also spelled paraleipsis or paralipsis.

Here’s a real-life example of political paralepsis wherein then-candidate Barack Obama addressed Hillary Clinton’s suggestion that he (Obama) was unelectable:

“And this argument is being pushed, by the way, by a candidate who starts off with a 47% disapproval rating. You know, so, I’m not going to mention names, but I mean the notion that a viability or an electability argument is being made by somebody who starts off with almost half the country not being able to vote for (pause and laughter) them doesn’t make sense.”

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Peruse THIS

Michael — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:03:43 +0000

Cracked did a great article on words that don’t mean what most people think they mean. As usual, funny but true.

http://www.cracked.com/article_15664_9-words-that-dont-mean-what-you-think.html

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Ausgezeichnet

Michael — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:07:33 +0000

Ausgezeichnet /ˈausgətsaiçnət/ – excellent; awesome; fantastic

I love the sound of this word. Listen for it in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” (an awesome movie for language nerds).

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Pleonasm

Michael — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:35:08 +0000

pleonasm /ˈpliəˌnæzəm/ – the use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; redundancy; tautology

Examples: true fact, tuna fish, ATM machine, 2 a.m. in the morning, redundant pleonasm

(Yes, I know I said it was going to be foreign words, but it’s my website and I can do whatever I want. So there.)

pleonasm

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Склещивание

Michael — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:28:29 +0000

Склещивание (skleshchivanie) – the phenomenon wherein dogs get stuck together post-coitus

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Backpfeifengesicht

Michael — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:36:27 +0000

I’ve decided to share interesting (to me) foreign words for which there are no real concise equivalents in English. I’m doing this mostly for my own entertainment, but if you know of an interesting or amusing word in another language, and think the rest of us should know it too, please don’t hesitate to contact me. For Japanese words, please see my nihongo à gogo site.

And now, on with the show:

Backpfeifengesicht – a face that begs to be smacked

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