One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meanings

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

Post by Terra »

CatDoom wrote:
Matrix wrote:In video games, usually MMORPGs, 'adds' are mobs spawned in the middle of a boss fight.
"Mob" itself may fit the topic, in the sense of (to quote Wiktionary) "A non-player character [in a video game] that exists to be fought or killed to further the progression of the story or game."
Speaking of "mob", is it a shortening/corruption of "monster"? Or maybe it's from the usual word "mob", but got corrupted to mean "a member of a mob", instead of the mob itself?

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

Post by KathTheDragon »

Terra wrote:Speaking of "mob", is it a shortening/corruption of "monster"? Or maybe it's from the usual word "mob", but got corrupted to mean "a member of a mob", instead of the mob itself?
In my understanding, it's shortened from 'mobile entity'.

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

Post by Terra »

KathAveara wrote:
Terra wrote:Speaking of "mob", is it a shortening/corruption of "monster"? Or maybe it's from the usual word "mob", but got corrupted to mean "a member of a mob", instead of the mob itself?
In my understanding, it's shortened from 'mobile entity'.
Interesting. Never heard of that theory or term.

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

Post by sirdanilot »

Squib (link); a brief satirical piece of writing or speech. I never heard of this word, but came across it while browsing for classes to follow; one of the examination requirements was to write a 'squib style article'. Never heard of the word before.

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

Post by Astraios »

Don't you mean: non-magical person born to wizarding parents.

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

Post by Terra »

'squib' reminds me of another:
dud : a bomb/shell that fails to explode;; extended to mean anything that doesn't perform the way that it should/is-expected-to

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

Post by Dewrad »

Terra wrote:
KathAveara wrote:
Terra wrote:Speaking of "mob", is it a shortening/corruption of "monster"? Or maybe it's from the usual word "mob", but got corrupted to mean "a member of a mob", instead of the mob itself?
In my understanding, it's shortened from 'mobile entity'.
Interesting. Never heard of that theory or term.
Wiktionary claims that it is an abbreviation of mobile (vulgus), meaning "fickle crowd".
Some useful Dravian links: Grammar - Lexicon - Ask a Dravian
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Re: One-syllable words with specific technical or rare meani

Post by Neon Fox »

Dewrad wrote:
Terra wrote:
KathAveara wrote:
Terra wrote:Speaking of "mob", is it a shortening/corruption of "monster"? Or maybe it's from the usual word "mob", but got corrupted to mean "a member of a mob", instead of the mob itself?
In my understanding, it's shortened from 'mobile entity'.
Interesting. Never heard of that theory or term.
Wiktionary claims that it is an abbreviation of mobile (vulgus), meaning "fickle crowd".
Wiktionary is talking about the common English term for a bunch of angry people, not the computer game term for an AI-controlled monster. It may or may not be correct about the former; KathAveara is correct about the latter.

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

Post by CatDoom »

sirdanilot wrote:Squib (link); a brief satirical piece of writing or speech. I never heard of this word, but came across it while browsing for classes to follow; one of the examination requirements was to write a 'squib style article'. Never heard of the word before.
"Squib" also refers to a small firecracker or explosive; I'm most familiar with it's use in film and theater, where the term refers to an explosive, often attached to a bag of artificial blood, which is used to simulate the impact of a bullet.

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

Post by linguoboy »

Yesterday I typed "swarf" when I meant to type "dwarf" and discovered it's an actual English word with the technical meaning "the waste chips or shavings from metalworking or a saw cutting wood" or "the grit worn away by use of a grindstone or whetstone, being particles of the material being cut and of the cutting stone itself".

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

Post by sirdanilot »

^ Cognate to dutch zwerf / zwerven ' to roam' / zwerver 'homeless person' ?

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

Post by Cedh »

sirdanilot wrote:^ Cognate to dutch zwerf / zwerven ' to roam' / zwerver 'homeless person' ?
No, those Dutch words are instead cognate to English swerve 'turn aside, deviate from a straight course'. Which is of course an interesting one-syllable word in itself...

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

Post by sirdanilot »

Cedh wrote:
sirdanilot wrote:^ Cognate to dutch zwerf / zwerven ' to roam' / zwerver 'homeless person' ?
No, those Dutch words are instead cognate to English swerve 'turn aside, deviate from a straight course'. Which is of course an interesting one-syllable word in itself...
And swarf isn't cognate to swerve at all? Seems strange to me, since they look alike a lot and have quite similar meanings (something with 'roam or stray from a certain point' ).

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

Post by Cedh »

sirdanilot wrote:
Cedh wrote:
sirdanilot wrote:^ Cognate to dutch zwerf / zwerven ' to roam' / zwerver 'homeless person' ?
No, those Dutch words are instead cognate to English swerve 'turn aside, deviate from a straight course'. Which is of course an interesting one-syllable word in itself...
And swarf isn't cognate to swerve at all? Seems strange to me, since they look alike a lot and have quite similar meanings (something with 'roam or stray from a certain point' ).
According to Etymonline they're from the same PIE root, so you're right that they're related, but the connection doesn't seem to be especially close.

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

Post by linguoboy »

Cedh wrote:
sirdanilot wrote:And swarf isn't cognate to swerve at all? Seems strange to me, since they look alike a lot and have quite similar meanings (something with 'roam or stray from a certain point' ).
According to Etymonline they're from the same PIE root, so you're right that they're related, but the connection doesn't seem to be especially close.
Really? Isn't OE geswearf just a prefixed o-grade derivation from the verbal stem? (Cf. StG sessen/Gesäß, wenden/Gewand, etc.)

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

Post by Cedh »

Yes, you're right. I seem to have overlooked the OE meaning in the article on "swerve", sorry.

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

Post by CatDoom »

On a mostly unrelated note, I think geswearf is my new favorite word (of the day, anyway). Man I love Old English.

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

Post by Thry »

Tell me about it. It has the craziest words. I like steorra.

PG is also fun: *dumbaz, *hwazuh

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

Post by CatDoom »

All those final z's do make it look kind of "X-TREME!" I'm tempted to start calling friends "my manniz." :P

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

Post by ---- »

ey manniz, hwazuuuuh?
nothingen muchiz

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

Post by Thry »

justaz he2r chillijandz!

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

Post by Nortaneous »

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

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

Post by Astraios »

Gorse and furze, really? Why not rat and vole and shrew and mouse as well.

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

Post by Thry »

cos less rare I guess

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

Post by Salmoneus »

Thry wrote:cos less rare I guess
Gorse vs vole? The former's certainly more common around here.
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