#2525 - 05/18/00 06:05 AM
Memory of words
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/22/00
Posts: 1981
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It’s funny how easy it is to remember some things from school and not others. We used to have a test on a Friday of general knowledge. I was an expert at capital cities (although I couldn’t place some of the countries on a map). Anyway, it certainly increased my chances of winning (but not making) my first £1,000,000.
Here’s some of the proper terms (collective nouns) that were regulars in the test.
a shrewdness of apes
a destruction of wild cats
a skulk of foxes
an exaltation of larks
a paddling of ducks (on water)
a team of ducks (in flight)
I’ve just looked them up and realised that they didn’t teach us:
a superfluity of nuns
- I wonder why?
Which words stick in your mind from long ago and why?
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#2527 - 05/18/00 02:13 PM
Re: Memory of words
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member
Registered: 05/09/00
Posts: 112
Loc: Auckland, New Zealand
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I remember mispronounciations, which usually caused some embarrassment: "civil" was "kivil", and try saying "unfed" with the stress on "un".
"Dad, what does 'unfed' (as above) mean?"
"YCLIU" pre-empting tswum
That's how I got started with dictionary and Thesaurus.
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#2528 - 05/18/00 02:22 PM
Re: Memory of words
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 04/03/00
Posts: 10464
Loc: this too shall pass
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yes! mispronunciations... epitome I read as EP i tome paradigm was PAR a DIG em another word I remember is career, used as a verb, as in to career down a mountain road -- I used this on an English paper and got marked down for making up a word! http://members.aol.com/tsuwm
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#2529 - 05/18/00 02:39 PM
Re: Memory of words
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/22/00
Posts: 1981
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> got marked down for making up a word!
Same problem. I used "oderous" (in the sense of smell) for "odious" (unpleasant) in the same way that Shakespeare had in the play we'd been studying the week before (poss the Scottish play) and got marked down for an incorrect word - I was cross - if it was OK for Shakespeare then...
It hastened my enthusiasm for giving up English at the earliest opportunity.
(It took me ages to work out epi-tome too).
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#2530 - 05/18/00 02:47 PM
Re: Memory of words
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member
Registered: 05/09/00
Posts: 112
Loc: Auckland, New Zealand
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"Persephone" was some sort of communication instrument at first glance! Never could quite master Greek mythology...
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#2532 - 05/18/00 03:02 PM
Re: Memory of words
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 04/03/00
Posts: 10464
Loc: this too shall pass
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Jo, VERGES Yes, I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an old man and no honester than I. DOGBERRY Comparisons are odorous... Much Ado About Nothing, Act III, Scene v 8-D http://members.aol.com/tsuwm
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#2534 - 05/18/00 08:13 PM
Re: Memory of words
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newbie
Registered: 05/10/00
Posts: 28
Loc: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Yes, I too was marked down for making up a word: I used fracas in an essay and was told it didn't exist. Clearly it still rankles, as this was a wee while ago!
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#2536 - 05/19/00 10:34 AM
Mispronunciation
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stranger
Registered: 04/07/00
Posts: 4
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After I presented my undergraduate honors thesis, a famous astronomer was kind enough to tell me that "ephemerides" is pronounced "eh-phem-ER-i-deez", not "eh-PHEM-er-ides." I'd used the word about a million times in my presentation, and I can still picture him wincing each time.
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#2537 - 05/22/00 05:41 PM
Re: Memory of words
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addict
Registered: 05/18/00
Posts: 679
Loc: Somewhere outside New York
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My Economics lecturer introduced us to the great philosopher Dez-cart-eez. I'll leave it to you to work it out.
In school I remember a religion class where I pronounced 'celibacy' to rhyme with Shirley Bassey. I still get a red face when I think of it!
And there was a colleague of mine whom I met for the first time over the phone. I asked him politely. 'who's calling?'. He replied - ' no memory?'. I said, 'no, I don't'. His name was Noel Memery.
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#2538 - 05/23/00 03:54 PM
Re: Whoops! Make that Macbeth
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/22/00
Posts: 1981
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Anna
Its a bit of thespian thing, never to utter the words of the Scottish play (in a theatre, anyway) otherwise calamitous things will happen. Hamlet on the other hand, no problem!
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#2539 - 05/23/00 04:01 PM
Re: Much Ado
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/22/00
Posts: 1981
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>Much Ado About Nothing, Act III, Scene v
Thank you (for your materially significant correction) and "Palabras neighbour Tsuwm".
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#2540 - 05/23/00 04:02 PM
Re: Memory of words
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/22/00
Posts: 1981
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>"Persephone" was some sort of communication instrument at first glance! Never could quite master Greek mythology ..
Didn't she marry the famous Greek God "Ansaphone"?
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#2541 - 05/23/00 05:52 PM
Re: Memory of words
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addict
Registered: 05/18/00
Posts: 679
Loc: Somewhere outside New York
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Ho, ho, ho jmh. I'm sure we can drag that old chestnut on for a while.
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#2542 - 05/24/00 05:05 AM
Re: Memory of words
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member
Registered: 05/09/00
Posts: 112
Loc: Auckland, New Zealand
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>>Didn't she marry the famous Greek God "Ansaphone"?<<
Can't remember, Jo, but it does, like Quasimodo, ring a bell...
:o)
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#2544 - 05/25/00 08:39 AM
Re: Memory of words
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addict
Registered: 05/18/00
Posts: 679
Loc: Somewhere outside New York
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> I thought his name was Telaphone. Yes, his family was from Alabama. Surely you've heard of the famous Mobile phones? 
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#2545 - 05/25/00 09:55 AM
Re: Memory of words
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 03/15/00
Posts: 11580
Loc: Louisville, Kentucky
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>Yes, his family was from Alabama. Surely you've heard of the famous Mobile phones?< Ohmigawd, Rubrick! You deserve at least the Alexander Graham Bell Award for that one! Oh, my laughter is ringing! 
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#2546 - 05/25/00 02:43 PM
Re: Memory of words
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member
Registered: 05/09/00
Posts: 112
Loc: Auckland, New Zealand
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'Brick - There's a graoner, if ever was! Does the wordsmith permit such agonising puns?  Hey! I can speak markup!
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#2547 - 06/09/00 12:34 AM
Re: Memory of words
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 04/09/00
Posts: 3065
Loc: Jakarta
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I always had problems with any word with both m's and n's. For years I went around referring to crinimals and I still have nightmares about those things with fronds that live on rocks on the bottom of the sea, and about wind-speed measuring devices.
Bingley
_________________________
Bingley
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#2548 - 06/09/00 04:40 AM
Re: Memory of words
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/22/00
Posts: 1981
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I too had a problem with the things at the bottom of the sea. It took me a long time to realised that anenomes did not rhyme with garden gnomes.
I still cannot pronounce colliery - I always want to say collierely.
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#2549 - 06/09/00 05:04 AM
Re: Memory of words
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 04/09/00
Posts: 3065
Loc: Jakarta
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How do you find corollary?
My heart always went out to the Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood I think her name is, who confessed in an interview that as a girl she'd always thought molesters were the people one called to exterminate subterranean mammals.
Bingley
_________________________
Bingley
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#2550 - 06/09/00 05:21 AM
Re: Memory of words
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/22/00
Posts: 1981
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>How do you find corollary?
Not good! I just hope I never have a coronary!
In my maths class at university it was used a lot as you may expect. We had one lecturer with a very strong Glasgow accent and it took one of my friends until the end of the third term to discover that he had been saying "lemma" in his algebra lectures - she had been writing "lemon"!
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#2552 - 06/12/00 03:48 AM
Re: Memory of words
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addict
Registered: 05/18/00
Posts: 679
Loc: Somewhere outside New York
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> I was nearly grown before I realized that, in the hymn, Jesus did not climb the hill of cavalry. On that same note - the Scottish comedian, Billy Connolly, once asked a friend of childhood experiences of misinterpreting or mishearing words. She told him that she had always thought there was a teddy-bear called Gladly who lived in Heaven. Gladly had something wrong with his eyes, she knew, because every Sunday her parents would sing 'Gladly the cross I'd bear'.
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#2554 - 06/12/00 02:42 PM
Re: Memory of words
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 03/22/00
Posts: 1981
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Surely you mean Bily Conoly
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#2555 - 06/13/00 10:18 PM
Re: Memory of words
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newbie
Registered: 05/10/00
Posts: 28
Loc: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Speaking of classes at university - in my first year European history class we had a lecturer with a HEAVY middle European accent. She was lecturing us about various medieval papal bulls and at the same time was emphasising the uncertainty and lack of order characteristic of the period. To my shame, I wrote in my notes at one stage a totally incoherent sentence about the 'cows' and the 'bulls' - the 'bulls' bit I'd got right. The 'cows' bit OUGHT to had read 'chaos'! Feeble defence, I know, but she really did have a very thick accent.
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#2556 - 06/27/00 05:39 AM
Re: m and n
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addict
Registered: 06/27/00
Posts: 444
Loc: Sydney Australia
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You are not alone!! How often do I still hear people say renumeration when they mean remuneration?
I know which I'd rather have...
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#2557 - 09/08/00 03:14 PM
Re: Memory of words
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stranger
Registered: 09/06/00
Posts: 6
Loc: Memphis (Shelby Co) Tenn
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I remember a mnemonic for two words:
We should not consider the sins of venal individuals as venial.
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