Perfectly OT: Languishing words

Tom Dowling · Post by **Tom Dowling** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 11:26 pm

I think people say gauntlet in instances when the correct word is gantlet (i.e., when describing passing between two lines of, for example, your enemies, who are free to strike you as you pass. This is called running the..........?

Anyone want to weigh in?

Tom D.

antstastegood · Post by **antstastegood** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 12:05 am

In my pedestrian conversations, I generally eschew such superlative vernacular.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 12:41 am

Tom Dowling wrote:I think people say gauntlet in instances when the correct word is gantlet (i.e., when describing passing between two lines of, for example, your enemies, who are free to strike you as you pass. This is called running the..........?

Anyone want to weigh in?

Tom D.

Game of chicken?

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 1:10 am

Lets tergiversate, like we did last summer .... By the way, is anybody still on tenter-hooks?

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 2:39 am

Tom Dowling wrote:I think people say gauntlet in instances when the correct word is gantlet (i.e., when describing passing between two lines of, for example, your enemies, who are free to strike you as you pass. This is called running the..........?

Anyone want to weigh in?

Wouldn't that punishment be the gantlet, while throwing a (the?) gauntlet is challenging someone to a duel?

Kevin L. Rietmann · Post by **Kevin L. Rietmann** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 3:19 am

There were two historical defenestrations, the one in Prague that started the Thirty Years War (which actually lasted 47 years), and an earlier one which sparked a rebellion of Hussites.
A word people use often but almost inevitably mispronounce is forte. Used in the sense of one's greatest strength or strongest point it should be pronounced "fôrt." It refered originally to the strongest part of a sword's blade, near the hilt. The weakest point is in the middle to the point - the foible. The other forte, pronounced "for-tay," is an Italian word meaning "loud." The original, full name for the piano was the pianoforte - the "softloud."
Here endeth the lesson.
Are any of you
scions of antidisestablishmentarianism?

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 4:30 am

Kevin L. Rietmann wrote:A word people use often but almost inevitably mispronounce is forte. Used in the sense of one's greatest strength or strongest point it should be pronounced "fôrt." It refered originally to the strongest part of a sword's blade, near the hilt. The weakest point is in the middle to the point - the foible.

Touché... But thank thee indeed!

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 7:50 am

Tom Dowling wrote:I think people say gauntlet in instances when the correct word is gantlet (i.e., when describing passing between two lines of, for example, your enemies, who are free to strike you as you pass. This is called running the..........?

Anyone want to weigh in?

Tom D.

Gantlet is an alternative spelling of Gauntlet, which can mean the double line of tormentors (or well-wishers, as in a wedding) in addition to its protective hand covering meaning.

Argumentative types will be subject to vapulation.

Dalberon · Post by **Dalberon** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 8:08 am

I am rather fond of the word Bugger. Anyone in Europe may think its common, but I rarely hear it and love to say. "Bugger this".

A little off this topic thats off topic I like sayings too.

"I feel like I did shrooms and got eaten by a bear"
"I feel like a bruised turd"

And my favorite Normism of all time...when asked Hows the world treating you...
"Like a baby treats a diaper."

Guess I have lots of good sayings for hangovers. *blech*

TelegramSam · Post by **TelegramSam** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 8:15 am

Dalberon wrote:I am rather fond of the word Bugger. Anyone in Europe may think its common, but I rarely hear it and love to say. "Bugger this".

You *do* realize what it actually means (or at least originally meant), right?

Dalberon · Post by **Dalberon** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 8:20 am

TelegramSam wrote:
Dalberon wrote:I am rather fond of the word Bugger. Anyone in Europe may think its common, but I rarely hear it and love to say. "Bugger this".
You *do* realize what it actually means (or at least originally meant), right?

You mean a sodomist...or is it sodomite? :roll: In british comody it is used as slang very much like american terms such as "Screw this". I also rather enjoy the british phrase "get stuffed"

fancypiper · Post by **fancypiper** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 8:58 am

I thought it was funny when I went to Scotland to go and knock up my girlfriend, but not get her pregnant.

markv · Post by **markv** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 9:21 am

How about this one.

Moot as a verb, specifically: To discuss by way of exercise; to argue for
practice; to propound and discuss in a mock court.

Bloomfield was prone to moot about various and sundry topics on the message board.

Mark V.

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 9:27 am

Kevin L. Rietmann wrote:There were two historical defenestrations, the one in Prague that started the Thirty Years War (which actually lasted 47 years), and an earlier one which sparked a rebellion of Hussites.

47 years? Now if you told me that the 100-Years War actually lasted 116 years, I'd agree. But 1618-1648 seems like thirty years all right. Maybe you are counting different events? You agree that the defenestration on May 23, 1618 is the start, so if not the Westphalian Peace of October 1648, what are you counting as the end date? (What happened in 1665?)

As a side note, some might be interested to hear that the three defenestrees (hehehe), who sailed out of Castle Hradshin (sp?) in Prague to start the Bohemian Rebellion and the Thiry-Years War, survived: they landed in a heap of refuse.

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 9:32 am

markv wrote:How about this one.

Moot as a verb, specifically: To discuss by way of exercise; to argue for
practice; to propound and discuss in a mock court.

Bloomfield was prone to moot about various and sundry topics on the message board.

Mark V.

I deprecate the tendency in (American) English to turn everything into verbs. Some of the heinous examples include "parenting", "task," as in "We have tasked Nano to provide light entertainment"... I could think of more examples but I don't want to because it makes my teeth itch.

So, please join me in regarding the verb moot as moot.