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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Merriam-Webster On Line also lists palladous, the adjectival form of palladium.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 130
member
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 130 |
Re: Assassin
Let's see if I can get this straight...
William Burroughs mentioned that the 11th (?) century Persian terrorist Hassan-i-Sabbah was at the root of both words, assassin and hashish. It seems that old Hassan drugged his neophyte Assassins and took them to a garden of earthly delights. He told them that it was Heaven, and if they bowed to his will and became good little Assassins they would return there one day. As I recall, most of the killings were done under the influence of hashish.
How's that for mind control?
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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Not to mention decapodous.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
well yeah, but *I'm not around that many people having the shape of decapod crustaceans....
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
OK, what am I doing wrong? I tried the link, and entered a handful of words from Hamlet's existential soliloquy. I tried quietus, shuffle, bourne, and bodkin, and every time, I was told "The word "X" is not in the concordance. Press the Back key on your browser to return to the form and enter a new value!" Why don't it like me? 
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Max, I put your words through the concordance, and the only one it didn't return was "bourne". Don't really know what you were doing wrong!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
I used this as the search string in OED and got *174* entries -- most of which are not archaic or obsolete... just obscure, abstruse or recondite. 
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Posts: 347
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 347 |
>the longest one syllable word in the English language is "screeched"
Hi spelchkr,
Seems I'm still catching up on threads that popped up while I was away last week.
I have seen other sources that claim the equally-long one-syllable words of "strengths", "broughams", and "craunched" (all 9), plus the longer words "scraunched"(10) and "squirrelled"(11).
Some people will no doubt take exception to the validity of some of these words and/or pronunciations. I'm not too keen on strength having a plural, "broughams" arguably has two syllables (bro'ms), "scraunched" scores minimal hits in on-line dictionaries but has the same lovely onomatopoeia as a (non-)word favourite of mine, "graunch", and "squirrelled" as one syllable? - definitely an improper pronunciation as far as I'm concerned. The claimant - Canadian I think - said he'd never heard anyone pronounce it multisyllabically.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 17
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 17 |
not to mention some colloquiallisms drawled in south texas but as im slowly discovering posts seem to be mostly attributed to the poster but credit for my first few posts cannot be claimed by me, 'twas merely passing along flotsam and jetsam as i discovered it while trashing a few forgotten and forgettable entries cluttering up my in-box. Anywhooooo thanks for the added errata for lengthy monosyllabic utterances
spelchkr sbn
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
Solamente, Doug's post describes what I had heard about the word "assassin." It would be interesting to hear an Arabic scholar's input on the issue. Anyone?
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