eloquent... exotic... esoteric... (please provide definitions)

[Ursa major]

If you want to know how NCOs in different NATO countries relate to each other (in terms of, say, seniority), try this:

Ranks and insignia of NATO armies enlisted - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
​

There you can find links to the naval and airforce versions.

(Note that there are lots of graphics to download; not recommended if you're still on dial-up access.)

 

[Boneman]

This thread needs a bump:

GIMME - a request or demand to hand over goods or information, usually immediately, and can often be said as a threat. Although ABBA did say: 'Gimme, gimme, gimme a man after midnight...'

LIKE - a meaningless add-on, to the end of a sentence for the terminally stupid (see any interview with Jordan) as in "I was goin' out the other night, like, and I saw me mates". Can be interchangeable with RIGHT, right?

Anyone like to try a definition of 'Innit'?

 

[Granfalloon]

Nah, but you can look it up here: Innit

I'd rather continue down this little side-street in Encino, California. (The upper middle class portion of the San Fernando Valley, tucked snugly up against the south side of the Santa Monica Mountains (they are only about 500 meters high) just on the other side of the hills from Hollywood, Beverly hills, and Brentwood. The infamous "Mullholand" drive runs along it's summit.

Tubular:
A slightly outdated term from the 80's used to describe something cool. Stems from the vaccuum tubes in electric guitar amplifiers producing a "tubular" sound rather than the bland tinny sound of the solid-state (transistor) amplifiers which came out in the 80's.

Gnarley:
Despite degradation in recent years to the alternate spelling, Narley, gnarley is akin to rad - a late-1980s - early-1990s term, meaning "exceptional", or "cool". Developed on the West Coast, and used primarily by sufers and skateboarders.
"Hey bra, d'dya scope that gnarley tide?"
"Tscha! That was a ripple, man!"

Grody:
Nasty, dirty, disgusting, foul, revolting, yucky.
It seems this may be an Americanized pronounciation of the british "grotty", which means "of poor quality".
"My mom makes me like, wash the dishes... It's like, somebody else's food! I mean grody! Grody to the max."

Totally:
Utter and complete. To claim that a conlusion has been reached of grandoise proportions through using the least grandiose language imaginable.

 

[Boneman]

ooh, I like those, Gran...

They're quite JUMENTOUS which sounds a bit like momentous, and therefore jolly good, but in actual fact means 'smelling like horse urine'. And when you consider that most HRT is made from the urine of pregnant mares, then anyone on HRT can be considered jumentous...

Back in the sixties, stuck in a repressive boarding school, someone came up with the expression 'That is really ACTUAL' and it was adopted into an expression of surprise, admiration or derision: 'You are sooo Actual' 'I was being Actual at the time' and so on. Believe it or not, it was banned by the authorities (cane-wielding, small-minded repressives who stamped on an any attempt at individualism), which made us use it even more...

ACTUAL - real, definite, the genuine article

 

[Pyan]

Obdiplostemonous - having stamens like a geranium - two rings, outer one with the stamens matching the petals, and the inner ring with them opposite the gaps.

Sphragistics - the study of signet rings.

Ichthyophagous - living on fish.

Ginglymoid - the way a hinge works.

Humdudgery - pretending to be ill.

Logolepsy - what this thread's about: an obsession with words...

 

[Granfalloon]

Back in the sixties, stuck in a repressive boarding school, someone came up with the expression 'That is really ACTUAL' and it was adopted into an expression of surprise, admiration or derision: 'You are sooo Actual' 'I was being Actual at the time' and so on. Believe it or not, it was banned by the authorities (cane-wielding, small-minded repressives who stamped on an any attempt at individualism), which made us use it even more...

Hence the Pink Floyd's "Another brick in the wall" series (on side 1)

"When we grew up and went to school there were certain teachers who would hurt the children any way they could, by pouring their derision upon anything we did - exposing every weakness, however carefully hidden by the kid. etc."

Derision -
1 a) the use of ridicule or scorn to show contempt.
b) a state of being derided.
2 : an object of ridicule or scorn

Girasole - An opal which turns red in the sunlight.

A condition which one might find oneself in after reading this thread:

Loganamnosis - An obsession with trying to remember forgotten words.

 

[Pyan]

Girasole - An opal which turns red in the sunlight.

Now that's a new one to me - I've always thought it was a sunflower...

Girasole


Weltschmerz - sadness on thinking about evil the world is.

Nepenthe - a drug or potion that takes away bad memories.

Woofits (to have the ....) - generally unwell and a bit depressed.

Vindemy - the act of harvesting honey from a beehive.

Pandiculation - the stretch that goes with a yawn.

 

[Boneman]

Can I get nepenthe without prescription????? I am becoming a bit of a mumblecrust* m'self, that I could do with it.

*A toothless old beggar, often subject to insults and a good kicking

 

[Granfalloon]

Now that's a new one to me - I've always thought it was a sunflower...

Girasole

Good catch! I'm afraid I somehow added an "E" to the end of the word by accident:

Girasol (Opal)


But to all of our good fortune, we've now learned a new word for an Italian (apparently) Sunflower, as well as a commune! . Check this out:

Girasole - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Granfalloon]

Re:

Nepenthe - a drug or potion that takes away bad memories.

Anyone see the movie "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind"?

 

[J-WO]

CHRYSELEPHANTINE- sculpture made from, or decorated with, gold and ivory.

 

[Boneman]

Anyone see the movie "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind"?

Yeah, the worst-named movie ever... And in view of

CHRYSELEPHANTINE

here's one I made earlier: Chrispenycate a moving sculpture, capable of correcting any grammar, punctuation and syntax errors. Encrusted with good will and bonhommie.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Cyclopean gigantic, vast; a primitive style of masonry formed with or containing large, undressed stones.

Metempsychosis the transmigration of the soul; reincarnation

Apotheosis the exaltation or elevation of a person to divine status; deification; the glorification of a person, act, or principle

 

[Granfalloon]

here's one I made earlier: Chrispenycate a moving sculpture, capable of correcting any grammar, punctuation and syntax errors. Encrusted with good will and bonhommie.

Good one!

Re:

Yeah, the worst-named movie ever... "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind"

I agree. Do you think they would have sold more tickets if they called it "Bizarre, twisted experiment done by amateurs to remove bad memories - gone wrong"? (hey, at least it had some famous actors in it.)


OK, here's another "C" word:

Cromnyomancy: The use of onions and onion sprouts to predict the future; generally limited to being done around Christmas time.

(perhaps it should have been spelled Crymomonancy)

 

[Boneman]

I thought the film itself wasn't that bad, actually, but I do know that loads of fans were put off by the title, thinking it was some deep philosophical offering. Of course Bruce Willis's film suffered ignomy at the Box Office because it was billed as: "Disney's The Kid", when it was actually a neat time-travel film (IMHO), But I digress:

Cromnyomancy: The use of onions and onion sprouts to predict the future; generally limited to being done around Christmas time.

Is that where the expression 'criminy!' comes from?

Fico: a gesture, thrusting a thumb between the middle and forefinger of a closed fist, that is indicative of deep contempt.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Divagation to wander, to stray, to ramble; a turning aside from a course or subject; digression

Recommencement beginning again, resumption



Debility a state of being weak or feeble; a condition of the body in which there is a weakening of the vital functions

Extirpate to remove utterly, destroy totally; exterminate; pull up by the roots

 

[J-WO]

Cyclopean gigantic, vast; a primitive style of masonry formed with or containing large, undressed stones.

A favourite of Lovecraft, as I recall. He could never say no to a bit of Cyclopeanity.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Invidious Containing or implying a slight; tending to cause animosity, resentment, or envious dislike; unfairly or offensively discriminatory invidious comparisons

Minatory menacing, threatening

Bilious resembling bile, especially in color a bilious shade of green; peevish or irritable; sickly

Indolent having a disposition to avoid exertion; lazy, slothful

Ruse a trick, strategem, or artifice

 

[Granfalloon]

Cavil - to raise irritating and trivial objections; find fault with unnecessarily.

Gleed - a glowing coal, or a bed of them.

Moraine - 1. A ridge, mound, or irregular mass of un-stratified glacial drift, chiefly boulders, gravel, sand, and clay.

2. A deposit of such material left on the ground by a glacier.

 

[Peter Graham]

Zounds ("God's wounds" - a highly blasphemous Tudor exclamation), S'blood ("God's blood" - see Zounds) and Gadzooks ("God's hooks" - you get the idea...)! Once again, we are mired (surrounded, literally as though one were in a stinking fen) in Classical compounds but bereft (empty/without) of demotic (eek - a Greek one! "of the people", specifically in the context of the spoken word) Anglo-Saxon.