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Helen...that was...incredible. Thank you. Tears.
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addict
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addict
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wickedly funny.
To me the phrase means funny with a wicked sense of humour, that is slightly cruel. It predates the modern sense of wicked, I think.
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On the theme of words used to convey the opposite meaning, I was made aware of another meaning of Garble recently. Up until then, I had known the word Garble to mean distort or mix-up, as in "the loudspeaker garbled the message so much, it was hard to make out the meaning". However (and both offline dictionaries I have consulted gave it as the first but obsolete meaning), it also means to sift or to sort the good from the bad, particularly with spices. So to extract the meaning from a garbled message, one garbles it!
Does any one on the board still use this older meaning and if so, in what context? And any other examples?
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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with garble, as a verb, you can easily see the (enantiodromic) change taking place in its senses, to wit:
†1. trans. To remove the garble or refuse from (spice, etc.); to sift, cleanse (const. of); also, to sift out. Obs.
2. To select or sort out the best in (any thing or set of things); to take the pick of. Now rare exc. in to garble the coinage. Also with out.
†b. esp. To ‘sift’ or ‘weed’ (an army, corporation, etc.) so as to exclude unfit or uncompliant members. Also to garble out: to remove (objectionable persons) after selection. Obs.
3. To make selections from with a (usually unfair or mischievous) purpose; to mutilate (a statement, writing, etc.) with a view to misrepresentation.
¶4. Confused with garbage v. = garbage v. 1.
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Carpal Tunnel
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tsuwm tsays the high priestess intones Awful from awe
she sits upon "the awless throne". -WSOuch. I'll bet that smarts! Or did you mean "the owless throne"? 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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The use of "inapposite adverbs" as my English teacher - an English Literature PhD from Oxford and terribly erudite - used to call them was originally used to add the ultimate emphasis to the adjective with which they are associated. "Awfully good" beats out "the goodest", I guess! Okay, now shred my idol, prove he had feet of clay. See if I care! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Oct 2001
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stranger
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stranger
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I'm sure the list of these types of words can get to be pretty ugly.
Yes, us yanks do it too...
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Welcome aBoard, Giznawz. Er--you certainly have an interesting name! If you'd care to explain its origin, I'm all ears--but 'tisn't necessary. My first (and only) guess was that it was representing some British accent for "give us news", but then I realized you apparently are a "yank".
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Joined: Jul 2001
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newbie
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newbie
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I always thought it was strange that people say "Way to go" when congratulating others.
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us yanks do it too
And some of USns are awfully good at it. Others are awfully sorry that they do it but I say they're just victims of prescriptivist propaganda.
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