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#14802 01/07/01 05:01 AM
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> I have a friend who speaks and writes using nonce words like this; words like
'contravivulated' and 'goofaglarbian' and 'slipshodderiness'

How would he use Goofaglarbian?


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I like this word, and I cannot help myself from offering the Italian word
Scombussolato
which sounds so similar, and has also the same meaning...
Scombussolato means - for example - someone which lost ( the way shown from ) the compass, since
compass = bussola.
Incidentally, I am always wondering if it is not confusing to use the same word compass in English in 2 ways
compass (=Italian bussola) giving North
compass (=italian compasso) drawing circles.
Ciao
Emanuela


#14804 01/07/01 03:43 PM
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it's a noun, used in the sense of a solecism.

"I am perplexed by this apparent goofaglarbian."
-jmh [John, not Jo]


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if it is not confusing to use the same word compass in English in 2 ways

It sure can be, E.--For ex., the sentence, "I used a compass" requires some context in order for us to know which instrument was meant.



#14806 01/08/01 01:18 AM
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"I am perplexed by this apparent goofaglarbian."

Nice.


#14807 01/08/01 03:29 AM
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When I was a small boy, my English nanny used nonsense words which sounded German, e.g. when one was so tired as to fall asleep in the chair, one was gazor'nenpflap.





#14808 01/08/01 02:59 PM
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Gazornen something or other, what was it? Gazornenplatz seems most likely but where did I hear it and what did it mean? Well, to be orthographically correct it should be Gesornenplatz


#14809 01/08/01 05:16 PM
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Or more likely gesnorenplop???



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Isn't the hinged instrument for drawing circles a pair of compasses? Of course you could just draw round the rim of direction-finder.

Bingley


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#14811 01/09/01 04:01 PM
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Isn't the hinged instrument for drawing circles a pair of compasses?

Not here. Both I and my children were told to buy
a compass and protractor for math class.


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