The Science of Silly Words

[Paul Whybrow]

This article from today's Guardian made me smile.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/26/from-whong-to-quingel-what-makes-a-word-funny

I'm sure that we all have favourite silly words. Diphthong sounds a lot ruder than it is, while dongle is always good for a smirk - such as when innocently saying things such as "I recharged my dongle" or "I dropped my dongle down the back of the sofa."

Scrumping is something that I did a lot of as a child, as there was an abandoned orchard nearby, and the word is pleasingly silly and naughty, inviting emphasis when said - and I wouldn't feel a wazzock for doing so.

Do the Colonists have any favourites?

 

[Marc Joan]

I find satisfaction in certain place-names, not because they're silly, they're not, but because of their intrinsic cadence: Shenandoah, Schleswig Holstein, Vladivostok...etc...

I did a lot of childhood scrumping too, by the way, but the orchard in question was certainly not abandoned...

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I find satisfaction in certain place-names, not because they're silly, they're not, but because of their intrinsic cadence: Shenandoah, Schleswig Holstein, Vladivostok...etc...

I did a lot of childhood scrumping too, by the way, but the orchard in question was certainly not abandoned...

I grew up in the county of Hertfordshire, just to the north of London. There was a hamlet near Buntingford which used to be known as Much-Throcking-In-The-Wold, and the inhabitants referred to themselves as Throckers!

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Those places beat the heck outta Wagga Wagga, or Walla Walla

 

[Stephen Drake]

I don't know. I usually chuckle at Walla Walla, Washington. It could be that I watched too many "Looney Toons" cartoons as a kid.
I went to school in Schleswig...Iowa not the one in Germany (it was named after the one in Germany) and Holstein wasn't far from Schleswig.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Well I've been to Walla Walla, NSW, not Washington. I'll have to pop up there sometime, so I can say I've been to both! And yes I've been to Wagga Wagga too, it's kinda near Walla Walla, southern NSW actually

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Well, I grew up near Blue Ball, Pennsylvania, which we kids always tittered about. But words? I've always been fond of "discombobulate". And when I first came here I was struck with Maori words--how rude they sound in English--because the letters "wh" together make the sound "f", and many words start with "whaka-" (e.g.: whakapapa is your geneology, whakarata is to pacify; whakarara is a parallelogram...but when an English speaker hears them, they can have quite different meanings...)

 

[Alistair Roberts]

And Whanagrei (like fon'ga'ra). Gotta love the Maori language, just not how they rushed into making a Maori alphabet without an 'F' ! Still, what do you expect from a bunch of Pakehas anyway...lol

 

[Robinne Weiss]

And Whanagrei (like fon'ga'ra). Gotta love the Maori language, just not how they rushed into making a Maori alphabet without an 'F' ! Still, what do you expect from a bunch of Pakehas anyway...lol

I suspect that when Europeans first arrived here, the "wh" translation was a better fit for the sound than "f". The language was nearly wiped out, and has been highly anglicised since then.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I like the word copacetic, which I came across in James Lee Burke's novels, before living in Atlanta, Georgia for three years. I was delighted to hear people using it there. It's definitely an Americanism, and I like throwing it into conversations as most Brits wonder what the hell I'm saying!

 

[KG Christopher]

I love the adjective 'rank', its either London or Jamican slang, and implies something is not good.

"The burger was rank"
"It smells rank"

I don't know if its still in use, probably has quite old-englsih meanings

 

[Jennifer Stone]

I love the adjective 'rank', its either London or Jamican slang, and implies something is not good.

"The burger was rank"
"It smells rank"

I don't know if its still in use, probably has quite old-englsih meanings

Definitely still in use in the U.K. I say it quite often

 

[Nicole Wilson]

Diphthong sounds a lot ruder than it is,

I learned that word in eighth grade Spanish and you can imagine just how great that word is to eighth graders.....

As for me, my favorite word ever is "gubernatorial". It's a governor's election, but it has the word "goober" in it, which makes me giggle every. single. time.

 

[Jennifer Stone]

My dad used to say 'gopping', to mean something nasty. Ie. 'that's just gopping!' It must be an Essex thing!

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Here's one I found out last night. Apparently Americans haven't heard the word 'chook'?? Seriously I had to explain to my mother-in-law that it means chickens

 

[Jennifer Stone]

Here's one I found out last night. Apparently Americans haven't heard the word 'chook'?? Seriously I had to explain to my mother-in-law that it means chickens

*Gasp* Chooky eggs! As in a boiled egg, to me anyway

 

[Jennifer Stone]

Hey does anyone else call ice cream 'oakie'? Or is it just my granddad?

 

[KG Christopher]

Here's one I found out last night. Apparently Americans haven't heard the word 'chook'?? Seriously I had to explain to my mother-in-law that it means chickens

probably comes from "chook, chook, chook" as you spread seed in the back garde

 

[Robinne Weiss]

How about gockies for eggs? Is that a PA Dutch thing? That's what I grew up calling them.

And yes, Alistair, Americans don't know what a chook is. But it took me all of 10 seconds to switch from chicken to chook when we moved here--great word!

 

[Jason Byrne]

Haha. Gubernatorial.