Word of the Year 2007
185 Responses
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Robyn Gallagher wrote:
Some people spell it "guttered"
Oh, don't get me started on 'guttered' and its ilk. I seem to be surrounded by people who suffer from some weird pseudo-homonym dyslexia...
"One 'foul' swoop" (or even "one 'fowl' swoop") instead of "one fell swoop"
"On 'tenderhooks'" instead of "on tenterhooks"
etc., etc.
A recent favourite is "I wouldn't 'trust' him with a ten foot barge pole". Which, actually, is kind of an improvement on the original, now that I think of it.
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Some people spell it "guttered".
I am speakerless.
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Robyn Gallagher wrote:
Some people spell it "guttered"
Oh, don't get me started on 'guttered' and its ilk. I seem to be surrounded by people who suffer from some weird pseudo-homonym dyslexia...
"One 'foul' swoop" (or even "one 'fowl' swoop") instead of "one fell swoop"
"On 'tenderhooks'" instead of "on tenterhooks"
etc., etc.
A recent favourite is "I wouldn't 'trust' him with a ten foot barge pole". Which, actually, is kind of an improvement on the original, now that I think of it.
Hear hear, David. Or as some people would put it... here here.
My own personal homophone arch-nemesis is 'without further adieu'.
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DPF has just made up a beauty in this post on the Electoral Finance Bill amendments
fillybusters
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"without further adieu" I think began as a joke on some British comedy show, where all the characters, who were French, bid each other 'adieu' and the announce came in with "without further adieu..."
Personal hate in this field though: saying someone "flaunted the law". A few years ago someone on NatRad news used to say this all the time. Unless they mean someone waved a law book around showily - which could happen - what they're trying to say is 'flout'
A personal favourite was a flatmate, many years ago, who was challenged about her indecisiveness over some matter or other and who proclaimed imperiously "its a woman's provocative to change her mind".
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I like fillybusters.
It's what happens when you flog a dead horse.
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"One 'foul' swoop" (or even "one 'fowl' swoop") instead of "one fell swoop"
Can't be bothered looking this up, but isn't "foul" the modern spelling of "fell" anyway?
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So then I looked it up
<quote>MACDUFF: [on hearing that his family and servants have all been killed]
All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?<quote>Kite = hunting bird, Fell = fierce, savage.
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Can't be bothered looking this up, but isn't "foul" the modern spelling of "fell" anyway?
Foul is a bad smell. Fell is cruel or fierce. Fell has French origins and is the same place that felon comes from. Foul apparently comes from ful, which is Old English.
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Oh, don't get me started on 'guttered' and its ilk. I seem to be surrounded by people who suffer from some weird pseudo-homonym dyslexia...
"One 'foul' swoop" (or even "one 'fowl' swoop") instead of "one fell swoop"
"On 'tenderhooks'" instead of "on tenterhooks"
Oh, you'll love this. The linguistic community has a name for these - they're called eggcorns (you know, the seeds of an oak) - and there's the Eggcorn Database, where you can revel in the linguistic craziness of others.
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I like fillybusters.
Oh yes. It's a very happy eggcorn.
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SNAP!
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SNAP!
For all intensive purposes, let's call it a drawer. ;)
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Celebutard
Their PR spinmasters have tried to foist the term Celebutante on us, but no, let's stick with Celebutard. It's a more apt term for those that both stupidly famous and famously stupid.
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and there's the Eggcorn Database, where you can revel in the linguistic craziness of others.
OMG! Ex-potential! I've been wanting a word for that. Y'know, like the way Chris Cairns had tonnes of potential and just needed to realise his potential and then he retired.
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d'oh!
It's a more apt term for those that are both stupidly famous and famously stupid.
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oooo... eggcorns.
'pacific".
ie, "he wasn't being pacific in his answers, he evaded every major point."
uniquely new zealand in my experience.
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Nothing to with homonyms or homophones:
I detest the misuse of 'literally' as a synonym to 'very' - i.e. 'I'm literally gutted.'
What, like a fish?
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the misuse of 'literally' as a synonym to 'very' - i.e. 'I'm literally gutted.'
What, like a fish?
nah, just means they haven't got the ability to digest literature.
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On reflection, the misuse of 'literally' is a homophone matter, since it seems to also be a synonym for 'totally' or 'absolutely'...
Nice one Che.
I'm literally in awe of you right now.
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"Literally buggered" was how a bloke described himself to me once.
Maybe the entire nation's suffering from old timer's disease.
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Maybe the entire nation's suffering from old timer's disease.
You mean like the prostrate problems I keep hearing about?
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You mean like the prostrate problems I keep hearing about?
Well, you can't be literally buggered if you're supine.
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But the question is, would all of these wonderfully practical uses of language get you points in a PISA test? It wouldn't surprise me. And would "the chances of winning Lotto are a million to one" be acceptable?
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Is it an urban myth, or was it true, that once upon a time comparative census statistics showed that NZ had the highest proportion of one-person religions in the world? Who cares, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. My bet (again) is that we are just really creative (i.e. bad) spellers.
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