Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
#151676 12/08/2005 7:49 AM
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270
enthusiast
enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270
Is there a word for that? it can't be phony or phonetic, and "phonial" doesn't yield any definition.

Maybe I'm once again overlooking the obvious?

#151677 12/08/2005 7:53 AM
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
addict
addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
Telephonic?

Just like phonic, but at a distance...

#151678 12/08/2005 7:59 AM
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270
enthusiast
enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270
That makes perfect sense, since I forgot that "phone" (as a noun) is in fact slang. Overlooking the obvious it is.

Thanks.

#151679 12/08/2005 8:22 AM
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Quote:

That makes perfect sense, since I forgot that "phone" (as a noun) is in fact slang.
Thanks.




Says who?

#151680 12/08/2005 9:26 AM
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
> says?

fwiw OED2 says this:

colloq.

Also 'phone. [Abbrev. telephone: telephone v.]

a. trans. = telephone: telephone v. 1c. Also const. up and with advbs.

b. intr. = telephone: telephone v. 1a. Freq. with particle as phrasal verb or with advbs.

c. trans. Const. in. = telephone: telephone v. 1b.

The first citation is from 1889; Scott Fitzgerald uses it in The Great Gatsby in 1925 and Eugene O'Neill in act 3 of Great God Brown in 1926 - so I guess whilst it's certainly colloquial it has good grandparents by now!

#151681 12/08/2005 9:38 AM
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Isn't there a difference between slang and colloquial, but?

#151682 12/08/2005 9:48 AM
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Yes, I am basically in agreement - t'aint slang, it's a colloquialism that has quite a (heh) lineage by now.

colloquial:

1. Of or pertaining to colloquy; conversational.

2. spec. Of words, phrases, etc.: Belonging to common speech; characteristic of or proper to ordinary conversation, as distinguished from formal or elevated language. (The usual sense.)

#151683 12/08/2005 11:35 AM
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Looks like another thread where we might end up a cordless. Wire you guys doing this?


TEd
#151684 12/08/2005 12:11 PM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
Quote:

Looks like another thread where we might end up a cordless. Wire you guys doing this?




They've got hang ups.

Last edited by Homo Loquens; 12/08/2005 12:19 PM.
#151685 12/08/2005 12:14 PM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
Quote:

That makes perfect sense, since I forgot that "phone" (as a noun) is in fact slang. Overlooking the obvious it is.





If phone as a noun is slang, then surely phone as a verb is too?

Last edited by Homo Loquens; 12/08/2005 12:20 PM.
#151686 12/08/2005 1:17 PM
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
For those of you not paying attention, Logwood's native language is not English. The fact that he speaks (well, writes -- which is even more difficult) it so well is worthy of praise. "Slang" and "colloquialism" are close enough in my book for the point he was getting across. [/harrumph]

#151687 12/08/2005 1:41 PM
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270
enthusiast
enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270
(Thanks Anna)

You should all know I usually work by my Babylon dictionary (which I've been using for the past 5 years, nowadays much less frequently though), thereby "slang" is written on brackets upon the nominal definition of "phone" (and not the verbal ones). Babylon, as it seems, uses "slang" for colloquialism too. But of course the fiddling inaccuracies of dictionaries are always debatable... although just so you know, the definition I get there for slang is "n. informal words or phrases, colloquial language..." etc.

So if you wish to continue nitpicking, feel free to contact Babylon... don't kill the messenger.

Last edited by Logwood; 12/08/2005 1:46 PM.
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Take heart, Logwood. At least your dictionary is called Babylon and not Babel.

Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Asp:

Did ya notice how everyone's getting all colicky?

[/duck and run]


TEd
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Babylon is a dictionary? wow, i know it as a town on LI's south shore. (big station on LIRR, too!)

(Utopia is a street in queens.)

Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
Pooh-Bah
Offline
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Quote:

Take heart, Logwood. At least your dictionary is called Babylon and not Babel.




Doesn't 'babel' come from the Hebrew 'bavel,' which translates as 'Babylon?'

Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270
enthusiast
enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270
Babel - n. clamor, discord, confusion (like a scene from the biblical story of the Tower of Babel) -- yes, makes sense to me.

of troy-- heh, naturally I was referring to the popular software, presuming folks here are familiar with it.

#151693 12/08/2005 3:30 PM
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
> For those of you not paying attention, Logwood's native language is not English. The fact that he speaks (well, writes -- which is even more difficult) it so well is worthy of praise. "Slang" and "colloquialism" are close enough in my book for the point he was getting across. [/harrumph]

Thanks for pointing that out, oh bibliophilous babe! It’s a tribute to Logwood’s command of the language, as well as my lack of care, that I had no idea.

jftr, when I include a quote as I did earlier, my intention is as far as imaginable from laying down the law – most times, I am simply sharing my own discoveries. And at the moment of course I’ll probably go overboard in sheer delight at having rediscovered my OEDipal chord/cored/cord

fwiw, the noun definition for your delight, Logwood:

N2
Also 'phone.
1. Colloq. abbreviation of telephone n. Also, a telephone call.
2. Colloq. abbrev. of ear-phone s.v. ear n.1 17, head-phone. Usu. pl.
3. attrib. and Comb. (in sense 1), as phone bell, call, caller, exchange [exchange n. 10c], installation, jack [jack n.1 15d], kiosk, message, operator [operator 5a], order, receiver, wire; phone-answering ppl. adj. and vbl. n.; phone bill, an account for the cost of hire of a telephone and of calls made from it; phone book, a telephone directory; phone booth, box, a box-like kiosk in which a public telephone is installed; phonecard, a pre-paid card designed for use with a cardphone; phone number, the identifying call-number assigned to a telephone, line, etc.; phone patch [patch n.1 6f], a temporary radio link made to establish communication between a radio operator and a telephone user; phone-tapping vbl. n. = telephone-tapping vbl. n.; so phone-tap n. and v. trans.; phone-tapper.



As for the difference between ‘slang’ and the accurately defined ‘informal speech’ already given for ‘colloquial’, I always think of slang as being a subset of the latter, and towards its most informal range where language turns into more specialised argot. The OED confirms the lower social standing connotations of the word, too:


[A word of cant origin, the ultimate source of which is not apparent. It is possible that some of the senses may represent independent words. In all senses except 1 only in slang or canting use.
The date and early associations of the word make it unlikely that there is any connexion with certain Norw. forms in sleng- which exhibit some approximation in sense.]
1. a. The special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low or disreputable character; language of a low and vulgar type. (Now merged in c.)
In the first quot. the reference may be to customs or habits rather than language: cf. the use of slang a. 2b.
b. The special vocabulary or phraseology of a particular calling or profession; the cant or jargon of a certain class or period.
c. Language of a highly colloquial type, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense.
d. Abuse, impertinence. (Cf. slang v. 3, 4.)

†2. Humbug, nonsense. Obs.—1

†3. A line of work; a ‘lay’. Obs.—1

4. A licence, esp. that of a hawker.

5. a. A travelling show.
b. A performance.
c. attrib., as slang cove, cull, a showman.

6. A short weight or measure. (Cf. slang a. 3.)



© Awksfahd Inglish Dikshonnree

#151694 12/08/2005 8:14 PM
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Quote:

For those of you not paying attention, Logwood's native language is not English. The fact that he speaks (well, writes -- which is even more difficult) it so well is worthy of praise. "Slang" and "colloquialism" are close enough in my book for the point he was getting across. [/harrumph]




Aksherly, I knew that when I posted, which is why I raised the point of the distinction, figgerin' it might be of interest to him. For those of you not paying attention, my initial repsonse to his post was a concise and non-critical question.

#151695 12/08/2005 11:14 PM
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Quote:

For those of you not paying attention, my initial repsonse to his post was a concise and non-critical question.




Says who?

#151696 12/08/2005 11:17 PM
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
me

#151697 12/08/2005 11:19 PM
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Quote:

Quote:

For those of you not paying attention, my initial repsonse to his post was a concise and non-critical question.




Says who?




Jintao.

#151698 12/09/2005 6:23 AM
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
enthusiast
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 203
Logwood : What's your first language? How long have you been speaking English?

#151699 12/09/2005 11:51 AM
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270
enthusiast
enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 270
My mother tongue is Hebrew, I can't answer the second question because I don't get many chances to actually speak English. Though I have been to London, and acted as translator a couple of times, and it did in fact became my thinking-language, however my environment still forces me to communincate in Hebrew (depressive!).

Though I've loved English ever since I can remember myself eating sand in the kindergarten, and always strove to understand it better... particularly through the computer and didactic books I've had, and when I finally got internet in 1995 I've gone berserk. I'll soon turn 20.

Thanks for asking.

Edit: I usually say - correct me in math and I'll never remember, correct my English and you are etched in my memory.

-Logwood

Last edited by Logwood; 12/09/2005 3:39 PM.
#151700 12/09/2005 1:25 PM
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500
addict
addict
Offline
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 500
[quoteI usually say - correct me in math and I'll never remember, correct my English and you are etched in my memory.

-Logwood




Ooooooh, says she, is that good or bad? I'm a printmaker - one etches metal with acid. Of course, as I recall some of my early English teachers, they used acid, too, to etch the rules of grammer into my memory.


Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2025 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 8.0.0