zompist bboard

English sure does have a lot of one-syllable words. What are some good ones, that have really uncommon meanings?

My favorite is "trach"-- to stab a hollow tube through someone's trachea thus allowing them to breathe if their upper windpipe is blocked. More or less. (Wiktionary lists it only as a noun, but Wiktionary is wrong.)

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"It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be said, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is.' Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it."
– The Gospel of Thomas

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con quesa- firm believer in the right of Spanish cheese to be female if she so chooses

"There's nothing inherently different between knowing who Venusaur is and knowing who Lady Macbeth is" -Xephyr

There is also, of course, the .

Edit: oh, and screed. But we all know what a screed is, right? right?

Doesn't quite fit the topic, but I've always found it a bit strange that "cormorant" in Japanese is u. It's just so short!

This is the only good reason to open a copy of the Daily Mail. They have (or had?) 'the world's smallest, hardest crossword', made up of words of up to four letters. It's pretty much impossible without the aid of a very extensive dictionary.

EDIT: google, for instance, gives me some clues from the crossword that people were looking for help with: 'serpent-lizard' (seps), and '12c and 13c court circuit' (eyre).

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Blog:

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!

Yes.

Wiktionary says it's also a verb meaning 'to write' but I've never seen or heard it used in that way.

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Blog:

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!

I have heard scrivener used as a translation for a legal position that seems to be particular to Japan and South Korea.

Erm, yes, ultimately. I merely suggested an intermediate step. There's no reason to bang your head on the table. As for why Scots, West Germanic doesn't lenite the b, and French, which is the primary romance contributor to English, lenites it so much that it disappears. Meanwhile, both North Germanic and Celtic languages like to have /v/ or /f/ in that position, two influences that like to be felt especially strongly in Scotland. Turns out, it's Italian, of course, but that's still not a reason to act all exasperated.

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Siöö jandeng raiglin zåbei tandiüłåd;
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.

There's 'thede' in certain circles of political theory, but since I'm entirely responsible for that I suppose it doesn't really count.

Hitting Wiktionary:
aal - Indian mulberry
aam - a historical measure of wine from certain regions of the Netherlands and Germany

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Siöö jandeng raiglin zåbei tandiüłåd;
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.

Awl - that thing that shoemakers or whoever used to punch holes in leather. (homophonous with "all" IMD)

Adze - a tool used to shape wood when carving (homophonous with "ads" and "adds" IMD)

EDIT: Fail. Most likely not one-syllable.

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(I don't mean to be Shm Jay, I just ran across spraint and then figured there must be some others like it)

Also: sine

Oh, I just remembered: vog. A terrible blend of a blend (smoke + fog = smog, then "volcanic smog" = vog)... but unfortunately the word is actually used, for example in the published papers of volcanologists.

spile n. A small wooden peg used to control the flow of air into, and carbon dioxide out of, a cask of ale.
shive n. The hole in the side of a cask of ale into which a spile is inserted.

swyve

chyme