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David Slack
From: Devonport
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 595
Moderator
Word of the Year 2006
Stumbled across the Merriam-Webster Word of the Year site. Voting is about to close for 2006.
The site also lists the Top 10 from the past few years/
Vote for the 2006 Word of the Year.
(Moderator's Note: we liked this suggestion by Jon Knox so much, we've moved it over to the main board to make sure no-one missed it.
Whatever might qualify for word of the year here in New Zealand will only get swamped over there. Let's vote for it here.)
David Slack
From: Devonport
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 595
Moderator
Transferred post by Jeremy Andrew
suppression
injunction
exclusive
Does anyone else know people who belong to the brethren? Not the exclusive ones, just the standard, run-of-the-mill brethren? Have you noticed the poor folks have pretty much had to change the name of their sect to "The Brethren-not-the-exclusive-kind-the-other-ones-that-don't-try-to-pervert-the-course-of-democracy".
David Slack
From: Devonport
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 595
Moderator
A few thoughts:
stadium
lafo
spider
unbundling
P
andrew llewellyn
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2061
How about the obvious?
brash
key
starkish
waterfront
mallard
fiasco
Emma Hart
From: Christchurch
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2629
Moderator
Truthiness
Hamish
From: The A.K.
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 132
Amen, tomorrowpeople.
Truthiness is a good one, but NZ Specific? Some nominations:
Hollow
Cancerous
Coddingtonswallop
...and although this makes me super square, all time favourite word (at the moment):
Soniferous
Andre Alessi
From: Devonport
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 232
Cancerous?
hamishm
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 267
pwned
And no one knows how to pronounce it.
Tomorrowpeople
From: The Craps tables at the Bellagio.
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 177
Best not to hi-jack this thread with a rant about PR companies or diss the hand that feeds/gets paid to push the 'product' - LOL
{:P
er, so do the likes of 'Tomkat' etc count as words?
andrew llewellyn
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2061
Ooh... sorry, typo... I meant starfish
Michael Savidge
From: Somewhere near Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 280
Six words?
"to the best of my knowledge"
Andre Alessi
From: Devonport
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 232
pwned
And no one knows how to pronounce it.
Po-n'd. As in "My Little Pwnies" (my favourire World of Warcraft gild name.)
Or "owned", either works.
David Slack
From: Devonport
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 595
Moderator
As in "My Little Pwnies"
I've heard it used differently - to rhyme with twinned.
Andre Alessi
From: Devonport
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 232
I've heard it used differently - to rhyme with twinned.
As usual, Wikipedia has more on the topic than anyone will ever need to know.
I'm asking TotalFark too, this mystery must not go unsolved!
Jeremy Andrew
From: Hamiltron - City of the Future
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 659
Given its etymology as a typo of owned, then Andre's in the right. However, as always, popular use defines the "correct" use. And the main use of that particular word is written on the interweb, so probably whatever it sounds like in your head is the correct option - until you speak it in public and get ridiculed as a n00b.
Compie
From: Dunedin/Vancouver
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 114
bollocks
re the ARC's decision
Tomorrowpeople
From: The Craps tables at the Bellagio.
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 177
Given its etymology as a typo of owned, then Andre's in the right. However, as always, popular use defines the "correct" use. And the main use of that particular word is written on the interweb, so probably whatever it sounds like in your head is the correct option - until you speak it in public and get ridiculed as a n00b.
So, how does one pronounce 'teh'?
'the' or 'teh'?
;)
Andre Alessi
From: Devonport
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 232
So, how does one pronounce 'teh'?
'the' or 'teh'?
...did I mention I'm still having nightmares about that "Should 'anal retentive' have a hyphen?" thing? :(
I usually say "teh" because I like to inject a little Te Reo into the World Wide Web.
Another word up for consideration:
unbundling.
Lyndon Hood
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 858
"stolen"
On the pwned thing, I think it's an interesting case to illustrate that the written language isn't a mirror of the spoken one but something independent (if strongly connected).
It's fun to see words starting as written without any particular reference to how or whether it might be spoken - hence the confusion.
I saw someone recently on (non-Total) Fark complaining about a kid who, on leaving a room, said "BRB" (bee arr bee) by way of indicating his intention to return immediately.
And then there's when you pronounce the word much the same but spell it funny as an in-group thing...
I'm suddenly reminded of something I read in Bill Bryson's Made in America. By the time of the pilgrim fathers (and Shakespeare), all those verbs ending in -eth would have been pronounced -s like we do it now. Bit of almost irrelevant info there, but it shows this kind of thing isn't a new problem.
Heather Gaye
From: Morningside
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 355
Have you noticed the poor folks have pretty much had to change the name of their sect to "The Brethren-not-the-exclusive-kind-the-other-ones-[...]"
FWIW, they've always referred to themselves as the Open Brethren, I assume to distinguish from the EB. I lived in a brethren-managed hostel for a year at university, perfectly normal happy clappy church group.
Personal preference: I always pronounce "pwned" as owned, and "teh" as tay.
As for word of the year, "blogger" in its new context as a political slur. I reckon it could really take off.
Mark Thomas
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 257
there's a more visual explanation of the term pwned here
all a bit computer geeky really
to divert the subject again, does anyone else find logging in to this site is a bit hit and miss with firefox?
Mark Thomas
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 257
**thoroughgoing**
as in,
so many of them are such thoroughgoing prats
great word, well used. it just rolls off the tongue!
Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 9057
Moderator
"so many of them are such thoroughgoing prats"
great word, well used. it just rolls off the tongue!
It's a beauty, ain't it?
arrant(a): without qualification; used informally as (often pejorative) intensifiers; "an arrant fool"; "a complete coward"; "a consummate fool"; "a double-dyed villain"; "gross negligence"; "a perfect idiot"; "pure folly"; "what a sodding mess"; "stark staring mad"; "a thoroughgoing villain"; "utter nonsense"; "the unadulterated truth"
Che Tibby
From: the back of an envelope
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1523
last week i was introduced to 'gam'.
it is alternately the shapeliness of a woman's leg, or, a bunch of whalers talking at sea.
i've had trouble trying to establish any connection between the two definitions.
Kyle Matthews
From: Dunedin
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4400
last week i was introduced to 'gam'.
it is alternately the shapeliness of a woman's leg, or, a bunch of whalers talking at sea.
i've had trouble trying to establish any connection between the two definitions.
When you're at sea, you really miss the shapeliness of a woman's leg?
hamishm
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 267
What I really like about pwn is that
1) The meaning is unclear
2) The pronounciation is unclear
3) It may be nothing more than a typo.
It's the word of the millenium, already. It sort of defines G W Bush, or maybe it doesn't...
Che Tibby
From: the back of an envelope
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1523
When you're at sea, you really miss the shapeliness of a woman's leg?
it just occured to me that if you're a whaler pwning a big 'un of the bow, it might look remarkably like a thigh.
andrew llewellyn
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2061
Gam - Etymologically anything to do with hams?
Gammy leg anyone?
As for "pwn"... being of a certain ethnicity I had assumed it was pronounced the same as "cwm".
Lyndon Hood
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 858
I'd only ever seen gams for legs in the plural - "nice gams". Something you might expect Jimmy Stewart or Humphrey Bogart to say at some point in the film.
Teh Internets tells me gam is/was a collective noun for whales and whalers (presumably for people too rustic to use 'pod'). I'm guessing the former was the earlier. this guy is bemused by such issues.
Out whaling, I imagine anything would look like a thigh after a while.
Strike me as an old english word or summat, with the whales. Whereas the legs might credibly be though to come (internets again) from italian 'gamba' for, well, legs.
But looking for connects is always fun, so keep it up.
andrew llewellyn
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2061
Um... well the "w" pronounced the same as in "cwm".
Jeremy Andrew
From: Hamiltron - City of the Future
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 659
When you're a whaler, after 6 months in a leaky boat, a lot of things probably start to look like a woman's thigh...
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