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#92918 - 01/31/03 06:22 AM Re: Canadian English survey
Bean old hand Registered: 01/18/01 Posts: 1156	I consider unpleasant (or honkin' big) any seeds which are macroscopic and randomly hidden throughout the fruit. Therefore I tolerate apple seeds because I can avoid them (they're localized) but I hate watermelon, partly because of the flavour (I hate cucumber, too), and partly because of the seeds which appear just when you think you've successfully navigated (!) around them all!!!!!!
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#92919 - 01/31/03 06:23 AM Re: Canadian English survey
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 13654	Stick a watermelon seed in a banana and tell me whether it's honkin' big. And the honkin' big seeds in peaches and avocadoes ain't stopped nobody from eating *them, neither.
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#92920 - 01/31/03 08:48 AM Re: Honkin' big
AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 6511 Loc: lower upstate New York	Would this have anything to do with Canadian geese? And that's why we USns and others don't (yet) know the expression?
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#92921 - 01/31/03 09:00 AM Re: Honkin' big
Buffalo Shrdlu Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/24/02 Posts: 7184 Loc: Vermont	USns and others don't (yet) know the expression? I use this all the time. (well, not all the time...…) _________________________ formerly known as etaoin...
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#92922 - 01/31/03 09:19 AM Re: Honkin' big
AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 6511 Loc: lower upstate New York	Yeahbut® you don't count, eta. You're 'borderline.'
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#92923 - 01/31/03 09:28 AM Re: Honkin' big
Wordwind Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/30/01 Posts: 6296 Loc: Piedmont Region of Virginia, U...	Do you Canadian geese have to use honkin' + big together to indicate that something is very big or can honkin' solo by itself? Also, is honkin' used with any word other than big? I think it's a very funny word and I plan on using it today--if I can find a place--at the faculty lunch table just to see whether anybody notices. And I suppose the word developed in Canada because something that honks is loud. So, if something is big but in a big, big way, that something "honks" its bigness.
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#92924 - 01/31/03 09:58 AM Re: Honkin' big
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 13654	'borderline.' I don't really consider myself 'borderline,' but I wouldn't have even commented on the usage it seems so natural to me. I'm pretty sure I've heard it used in Arizona.
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#92925 - 01/31/03 10:28 AM Re: Honkin' big
Jackie Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 11578 Loc: Louisville, Kentucky	Oh my gosh, I have laughed out loud, all the way down this thread, you-all! Honkin' Canadian geese! (Look out--Bean and mg might get their feathers ruffled, over that!) A-and, I notice you didn't specify that etaoin is borderline what! <eg> Oh oh OH, my stomach hurts!
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#92926 - 01/31/03 11:57 AM Re: Honkin' big
Bean old hand Registered: 01/18/01 Posts: 1156	Sometimes I can't believe the nits we pick here! mg uses, in an offhand way, a little expression, two words long, and lo and behold! we find out that it's not well-understood everywhere. This is what I love about the Board - we discover that all these things we take for granted are not the same everywhere, and that's what makes life interesting. My Canadian Oxford says honking: also honkin' N. Amer. slang very large So apprently it's not strictly Canadian. HOWEVER In looking up honking I ran across hork spit, the act of spitting, according to the dictionary, with the additional qualifier added by me that it usually refers to the type of spitting preceded by the sound "hork" which is marked as Canadian slang. Well, that's another one I thought everyone knew. Live and learn. Edit: For WordWind: I was going to add that yes, things can only be honkin' big, not honkin' small or honkin' smelly or anything else...[\red]
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#92927 - 01/31/03 05:03 PM Re: Honkin' big
Capfka Pooh-Bah Registered: 06/28/02 Posts: 1624 Loc: Utter Placebo, Planet Reebok	Honkin' is surely an expression that had its origins in Detroit ... ? - Pfranz
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