What nonsensical words do you like to use in your not so everyday speech?

  • Squiddles@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    It’s kinda flipped from how most people think of it. Dictionaries don’t define which words the language contains–they just write down the meaning of words that people are using. Any word that’s used commonly enough will be added to the dictionary. Webster also has “rizz”, for example. That just popped into common usage a couple years ago and definitely wasn’t coined by a dictionary.

    My favorite nonsense words lately have been from Australia. They have whipper-snippers, grow Warrigal greens, eat wombock, and chase off bin chickens. Giving language a purple-nurple is practically the national Aussie pastime.

    • idiomaddict@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      There’s a German word, schnabulieren, which, though it has a totally different meaning, occupies the same niche as “to dis’ someone.” If you had to guess when they were from, you’d think the eighties, but it was actually the 15th century. “Schnabul-” comes from “Schnabel,” meaning “beak,” though in this case it’s more like “duckbill”, and basically “izate,” as a suffix. It means to snack, but really it’s more to snarf something. It was invented as a joke, to mix Latin and Germanic roots was considered funny at the time.

      • jarfil@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Medicine still thinks mixing Greek and Latin roots is fun, for example: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

  • sorchist@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    It would be a poor dictionary that excluded such a widely used word as “discombobulated.”

    • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Which is funny as the word combobulate is a back formation from Discombobulate.

      back-formation:

      A term formed by removing an apparent or real prefix or suffix from an older term; for example, the noun pea arose because the final /z/ sound in pease sounded like a plural suffix. Similarly, the verb edit is a back-formation from the earlier noun editor.

    • apis@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      There’s an airport in a US city, which has a “RECOMBOBULATION AREA” instead of an “ARRIVALS HALL”.

      Which, given that the “welcome to…” sign that passengers first see on entering the terminal building names a totally different city in a totally different state to the one the airport is actually in, is probably very apt.

  • BugKilla@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I am quite partial to using the terms “shitacular” and “paufuckcity” when describing many, many things at work. Eg. This project will end shitacularly due to the paufuckcity of requirements.