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Dear Max: I was a bit surprised by way you used "camp". TIME magazine long ago used it to mean lowbrow style or behaviour, it appeared to me from the context So I was surprised to find this definition in my dictionary:
>6 5orig., homosexual jargon6 [Slang]
a) banality, mediocrity, artifice, ostentation, etc. so extreme as to amuse or have a perversely sophisticated appeal b) exaggerated effeminate mannerisms, usually affected for amusement >
adj.
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>The trouble with word changes is that while the speaker may know what he means, a large part of his audience does not.
so true, bill -- I know someone who claims he was decimated by his church, and no one* knows what the heck he is talking about.
*well, almost no one
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I know someone who claims he was decimated by his church, and no one* knows what the heck he is talking about.
So, I guess, in this guy's world army units that decamp in the face of the enemy are tithed, then?
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Naw, they're talibaned.dr. bill, that particular line has been so oft-used that it may have become a tali-banality. 
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Have I mentioned this before? An Australian acquaintance uses winsome to mean something like persuasive, something that will win people over. To me, winsome does mean annoyingly "twee, saccharine, or frilly."
Bingley
Bingley
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You guys want to give some explaination?
twee? is a new one to me.. I guess its something like frou-frou.. since its being paired with saccharine, or frilly.
where did it come from?
and it is used in UK or Canada? or is it a south of tropic of cancer speciality?
(and winsome to me would be coy and endearing.. a winsome gal might well be able to have her fellows wrapped around her finger and be able to persuad them to to anything.. but not persuasive.)
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twee (twç)
adj. Chiefly British.
Overly precious or nice.
[Alteration of tweet, baby-talk alteration of SWEET.]
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frou·frou also frou-frou (frū'frū) .
n.
Fussy or showy dress or ornamentation.
A rustling sound, as of silk.
[French, of imitative origin.]
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The Merkin Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Mav, where can I get a copy of that most excellent dictionary? I gather from your cite that is no longer published by Humpin Mufflin Company, as previously? 
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