One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meanings

Discussion of natural languages, or language in general.
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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by linguoboy »

Yesterday I used the word 'milt' (as in "fish ejaculate").

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Shm Jay »

How on earth did that come up in conversation?

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Qwynegold »

What about blog and vlog?
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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by clawgrip »

And let's not forget id.

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by linguoboy »

Shm Jay wrote:How on earth did that come up in conversation?
I was describing someone's activities at a bear run.

A pox on the OP, by the way; thanks to this thread, I spent the better part of my waking hours yesterday trying to recall the word "shim".

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Kereb »

Radius Solis wrote:There is also, of course, the bleb.
in the same category there is also the word "wen" for a sebaceous cyst
Radius Solis wrote:Edit: oh, and screed. But we all know what a screed is, right? right?
there's also the verb "screed" in construction, meaning "to level concrete or sand"
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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Radius Solis »

Kereb wrote:
Radius Solis wrote:There is also, of course, the bleb.
in the same category there is also the word "wen" for a sebaceous cyst
Cool. Also, "cyst" itself may be a good entry for the list, even if you couldn't call it rare.

Another in that class may be Yule.

One that crossed my mind this morning: lich. It feels like long-lost words dragged out of the grave by Dungeons and Dragons (pun intended) should somehow fail to qualify - but on the other hand it seems to have caught on, in fantasy genre jargon, for a specific type of undead creature. And I don't see how that doesn't meet the spirit of this thread (again, pun intended).

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Salmoneus »

Radius Solis wrote:
Kereb wrote:
Radius Solis wrote:There is also, of course, the bleb.
in the same category there is also the word "wen" for a sebaceous cyst
Cool. Also, "cyst" itself may be a good entry for the list, even if you couldn't call it rare.

Another in that class may be Yule.

One that crossed my mind this morning: lich. It feels like long-lost words dragged out of the grave by Dungeons and Dragons (pun intended) should somehow fail to qualify - but on the other hand it seems to have caught on, in fantasy genre jargon, for a specific type of undead creature. And I don't see how that doesn't meet the spirit of this thread (again, pun intended).
Indeed, even without D&D I'd say it was a genuine English word, albeit an archaic one that you'd only encounter in certain circumstances or from certain people. Plus, allowing it as a word decranberryises 'lichgate'.
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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by ayyub »

I nominate car, as used in Lisp. FMI, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAR_and_CDR.
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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Ambrisio »

clawgrip wrote:And let's not forget id.
That isn't a technical term.

How about "erf" (error function)?

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Radius Solis »

bough
weir
awl
whorl
brad (the type of nail)
knoll?

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by clawgrip »

Ambrisio wrote:
clawgrip wrote:And let's not forget id.
That isn't a technical term.
How is it not? It is a highly specific concept that is a core element of one person's model of the psyche. The word was borrowed into English from a simple Latin pronoun specifically and exclusively to represent this concept. I'm not sure what kind of conversations you generally have, but I can say that in-depth discussions on Freudian theory are pretty rare in my day-to-day life, and I would guess that not so many of us are well-versed enough in it to discuss it intelligently.

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by KathTheDragon »

Dwale
Mimp

I have no idea where those came from, but my friend reblogged it on Tumblr.

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Drydic »

Ambrisio wrote:
clawgrip wrote:And let's not forget id.
That isn't a technical term.

How about "erf" (error function)?
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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Xephyr »

"Irony"'s a bit too complimentary, don't you think?
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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Kereb »

karst!
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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Radius Solis »

Mmm, karst.

Also: lien.


You came up with "creche" yesterday, did you forget to post?

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Salmoneus »

mien
shank (both meanings)
scrim
quoll (sp?)
thane
laird
thrall
dirk
jute
farl
bla (ok, this one doesn't exist in dictionaries. It's a type of breadroll commonly found in Munster, which is similar to a homemade, square bap - very floury, soft, with hardly any crust. Never seen it spelled, so it's possible it should be 'blath', assuming it's borrowed from the gaelic word for a flower (cf our 'bloomer'), but it's used commonly in English, so long as you're in the context of buying bread from local bakeries in the Waterford region)
warp (in its technical meaning)
weft
harl
carl
card (again, the textile term, if that's distinct enough to be considered)
ceorl
lede (both meanings)
leal
fief
bluff (geographic sense)
brume
gill (geographic sense)
beck
thwaite
coomb
pith (in all three meanings!)
scry
skein
slag
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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Hallow XIII »

Notabene: id != ID. (Which is not one syllable in the first place.=
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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Radius Solis »

Sal, you missed "copse".

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Salmoneus »

Hallow XIII wrote:Notabene: id != ID. (Which is not one syllable in the first place.=
...wow, thank you oh non-native-speaker for educating us poor native speakers about how two different words we say in this language that we speak which nobody has ever shown any sign of confusing are in fact different words from one another. This is entirely new information to me, and extremely useful to be told. I have indeed notaed it exceptionally bene, and will endeavour not to confuse these two words myself in the future!

Are there any breathtakingly obvious statements of the uncontested you'd like me to make about your language in return? Assuming you're a German-speaker, were you aware (and if not then do take note, this is very important!) that that funny B-shape Germans write sometimes isn't actually a 'B', it actually makes more of an S-sound? Iirc in your country you write 'ss' instead, which makes more sense. Anyway, it's an important think to bear in mind! Hope I've helped!
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Salmoneus »

Radius Solis wrote:Sal, you missed "copse".
Wasn't an exhaustive list. Besides, 'copse' wouldn't occur to me as a rare word - we use it frequently round these parts (we have a lot of copses. It's very copsey).
[Nor 'creche, for that matter. That's a plain ordinary-day word]

'Scrag', on the other hand, in all its (ok, I looked this one up to make sure I wasn't inventing it) eight meanings, is not a common word round these parts. Nor is 'scrog', for that matter (which I wouldn't have known if I hadn't just looked up 'scrag'). 'Tog', 'wog', 'nog', 'pog' (ok, that's probably a name and doesn't count), 'lag' (in the insulationg sense), and 'blag'?

Ell and pell and quell,
Pall, squall, and caul.
Skulk and scull.

Etc.
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by KathTheDragon »

Salmoneus wrote:that funny B-shape Germans write sometimes isn't actually a 'B', it actually makes more of an S-sound
It's called an Ess-zett, or something to that effect. a transparent compound of the names for the letters 's' and 'z', owing to its origin.

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Salmoneus »

KathAveara wrote:
Salmoneus wrote:that funny B-shape Germans write sometimes isn't actually a 'B', it actually makes more of an S-sound
It's called an Ess-zett, or something to that effect. a transparent compound of the names for the letters 's' and 'z', owing to its origin.
...wow. This thread just gets more and more useful!

Now if only someone could tell me: is England in the NORTHERN hemisphere or the SOUTHERN? Wait, is that right at all? Are we sure the earth is really round? Has anyone done a study on that, does anyone know!? Quick, quick, without somebody to tell me things that we all already know, I'm totally lost!!!


...ok, that was harsh, I'll admit. But it was that or pull my own hair out, sorry.
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by KathTheDragon »

Salmoneus wrote:Are we sure the earth is really round?
Good question. Who is 'we'? I've certainly never seen first-hand evidence that the Earth is round.

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