zompist bboard

Viktor77 wrote:Oh that's what you meant. I thought you were saying that my example was inferior to others in this thread not that it was bad for me to quote myself.

God preserve us from having to think that some things are better than others.

The "me three" thing has reminded me that my parents always referred to three-pronged pickle forks as "threeks" (because fo(u)rks have four prongs, so threeks have three...), and although I think it was originally a joke, they used it pretty much all the time, and it wasn't obvious to me growing up that it wasn't standard. (And it caused me to misspell "fork" a lot when I was young.)

Chuma wrote:It reminds me of a nowadays rather common construction we have in Swedish. "One each" used to be
var sin
each PRON.3PS.REFL
"each their (own)"
but was commonly misinterpreted as
vars en
(???) one
"for each, one"
which is really much more useful, because now you can also say
vars två
"for each, two"
which was previously impossible (you would have to say två var, "two each").

Might that be some southern thing? I've never encounterd it ever, and would probably be somewhat confused if someone said it.

finlay wrote:I mean, to be fair, I usually hear it as a joke on a cartoon or something, but I get the impression that some people actually think it's "Me two!"

When I first came to Germany, Helmut Kohl was still chancellor and jokes about his supposed poor command of English were commonplace. One I heard several times concerns three politicians arriving late to an international conference. The first (generally the British PM) gives an elaborate excuse, the second (usually the POTUS) says, "Me, too," and then Kohl chimes in with "Me three!" First time I heard it, I couldn't believe that was the punchline. Obviously the average German doesn't know this is something English-speakers say all the time.

Around the same time, the Chicago Bulls, a professional basketball team, were in their heyday. Twice they won the National Championships three times in a row, something that was first described (and copyrighted!) as a "three-peat" when the Lakers did it back in 1988. After the first "three-peat", Chicagoans started talking about a "four-peat". That didn't happen, and it was a couple years before they won another championship. After that, I actually heard people using the bizarre backformation "two-peat".

Kohl und der englische Premierminister treffen sich auf ein Bier. Sagt der Engländer: "To your health, Helmut!" Prostet Kohl zurück: "John, to your dunkelth!"

I some times call my kitty cats "kitties cat", as in whoppers junior.

faiuwle wrote:The "me three" thing has reminded me that my parents always referred to three-pronged pickle forks as "threeks" (because fo(u)rks have four prongs, so threeks have three...), and although I think it was originally a joke, they used it pretty much all the time, and it wasn't obvious to me growing up that it wasn't standard. (And it caused me to misspell "fork" a lot when I was young.)

Hmm… would that imply calling awls/ice-picks/etc. "wunks"?

Tropylium⁺ wrote:Hmm… would that imply calling awls/ice-picks/etc. "wunks"?

And tuning-forks would be "twoks", which would confuse the heck out of Canadian headgear.

No, no, in order to be part of the threek/fourk family, it had to be silverware. We did generalize to "salad threek" (at one particular restaurant that I remember) and a large serving utensil with three wide flat "tines" was the "serving threek". I remember thinking that maybe those two-pronged things that you use to poke meat and see if it's done would be a twok, but decided that since you couldn't scoop food with it it didn't count. Of course, by that time I knew it wasn't a real word...

I wonder if you can work out what a fivehead is, if you don't know already. Hint: it's along the same lines as fork.

Pitchfork?

finlay wrote:I wonder if you can work out what a fivehead is, if you don't know already. Hint: it's along the same lines as fork.

I get what it's supposed to be a pun on but have no idea what it's supposed to be.

Risla Amahendir wrote:

finlay wrote:I wonder if you can work out what a fivehead is, if you don't know already. Hint: it's along the same lines as fork.

I get what it's supposed to be a pun on but have no idea what it's supposed to be.

A very large forehead is a fivehead. Usually not due to a receding hairline, at least in my usage.

Is 'truthin' a regular word?

You keep lying when you oughtta be truthin

No, that's definitely not a 'regular word', but it makes sense, of course.

I'll occasionally use the phrase "at the current", as a combo between "at the moment", and "at the current moment"

My sister and I use 'future' (from 'see you in the future') as a parting phrase.

derkins wrote:

Risla Amahendir wrote:

finlay wrote:I wonder if you can work out what a fivehead is, if you don't know already. Hint: it's along the same lines as fork.

I get what it's supposed to be a pun on but have no idea what it's supposed to be.

A very large forehead is a fivehead. Usually not due to a receding hairline, at least in my usage.

this is the first example on google images.

derkins wrote:

Risla Amahendir wrote:

finlay wrote:I wonder if you can work out what a fivehead is, if you don't know already. Hint: it's along the same lines as fork.

I get what it's supposed to be a pun on but have no idea what it's supposed to be.

A very large forehead is a fivehead. Usually not due to a receding hairline, at least in my usage.

Reminiscent of Victor Borge's inflationary language also here, here, and here.

Also check out his phonetic punctuation (or look here if that doesn't work for you).

"ain't nothin' I'm gonna be doin' even have engineer in the title"

Friday at work I heard "dago t-shirt" for "wife-beater" for I think the first time. Certainly the first time at work, where ethnic slurs are more out of place than overalls. It made me wonder what I even called such things before "wife-beater" gained widespread currency. "Tank-tops"? "Sleeveless t-shirts"? I can't even remember.

linguoboy wrote:Friday at work I heard "dago t-shirt" for "wife-beater" for I think the first time. Certainly the first time at work, where ethnic slurs are more out of place than overalls. It made me wonder what I even called such things before "wife-beater" gained widespread currency. "Tank-tops"? "Sleeveless t-shirts"? I can't even remember.

I'd say tank top. Well, wifebeaters are white tank tops.

Nortaneous wrote:I'd say tank top. Well, wifebeaters are white tank tops.

I find I only use "tank top" to refer to a woman's garment, never a man's.

Risla Amahendir wrote:I forgot to mention this before, but I went through an "amn't" phase.

I say that too. It makes sense.

Aszev wrote:Might that be some southern thing? I've never encounterd it ever, and would probably be somewhat confused if someone said it.

Huh. How interesting, I thought it was common throughout the country. But yeah, I guess it is, then. Perhaps there is even a regional difference between the frequency of the original var sin vs. en var?

Chuma wrote:

Aszev wrote:Might that be some southern thing? I've never encounterd it ever, and would probably be somewhat confused if someone said it.

Huh. How interesting, I thought it was common throughout the country.

Neither have I.