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SCARBOROUGH WARNING
PRONUNCIATION: (SKAR-buh-ruh war-ning)
MEANING: noun: A very short notice or no notice.
ETYMOLOGY: After Scarborough, a town on the northeast coast of the UK. It’s unclear how Scarborough became associated with this idea though one conjecture is about robbers being given summary punishment. Earliest documented use: 1546.
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SCARBOROUGH EARNING - the profits from selling parsley, sage and rosemary
What's that you say? What about... I'm sorry, but it's late, and we've run out of...
SEAR BOROUGH WARNING - Don't play with those matches, kids, you'll burn down half the city!
SCARBOROUGH WARMING - As I was saying...
SCARBO ROUGE WARNING - Watch out for old Scarbo, with the red beard; he's.a mean one
Peter, Paul, and Mary really put the place on the map, didn't they! :-)
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LILLIPUT
PRONUNCIATION: (LI-li-puht/poot)
MEANING: adjective: Tiny.
noun: Someone or something very small.
ETYMOLOGY: After Lilliput, an island nation in Jonathan Swift’s satirical novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726). Earliest documented use: 1867.
NOTES: In his travels, Gulliver lands in Lilliput where people are only six inches tall. He may appear to be a giant to them, but it’s all relative. Soon he’d visit a land where he himself appears as a lilliput to them. The word is also used in the form: lilliputian.
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LILLIPUP - a young Lillus; extremely cute, and they make great pets
MILLIPUT - a bad golf stroke on the green; it sends the ball only 1/1000th of the way to the cup
LILLIPOT - what you cook your Liliaceae in
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LAPUTAN
PRONUNCIATION: (luh-PYOOT-n)
MEANING: adjective: Absurdly fanciful or impractical.
ETYMOLOGY: After Laputa, a floating island in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726). Earliest documented use: 1866.
NOTES: In the book, a resident of the floating island is called a Laputian; however, in the English language we use the word Laputan. Laputians/Laputans are described as people who are scientists and philosophers, lost in the arts of music, mathematics, technology, and astronomy. Practical matters do not concern them much. “Their houses are very ill built, the walls bevil [sloping], without one right angle in any apartment.”
That said, in that work of fiction, Laputans/Laputians discover two moons of the planet Mars, more than 150 years before the actual discovery by the real-life astronomer Asaph Hall. In Swift’s honor, Mars’s moon Deimos has a crater named Swift and the moon Phobos has geographical features named after places in Gulliver’s Travels: Laputa Regio and Lagado Planitia.
Here’s to Laputans and their “impractical” pursuits!
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LA PUTIN - First Lady of Russia
LARUTAN - runner-up in the Name-That-Patent-Medicine contest. "Provides peristaltic stimulation," said the promoters, naturally.
LAPUTA - (Don't ask me. This is a family website.)
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STRULDBRUG
PRONUNCIATION: (STRUHLD-bruhg)
MEANING: noun: Someone very old and decrepit.
ETYMOLOGY: After struldbrugs, the name for people in Gulliver’s Travels who grow old and decrepit, but never die. Earliest documented use: 1773.
NOTES: In Gulliver’s Travels, struldbrugs is the name given to a small group of immortal people who live in the kingdom of Luggnagg. They continue to grow old and at the age of eighty they are regarded as legally dead, though they continue living on a small pension from the state.
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STRULD BUG - all the VW Beetles of that model were made in the factory in Struld
STRUL - DO RUG! - instructions to Strul, my housekeeping robot
STAR ULDBRUG - the most gifted and popular Uldbrug
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YAHOO
PRONUNCIATION:
(noun: YAH-hoo, interjection: ya-HOO)
MEANING:
noun: A person who is boorish, loud, disruptive, etc.
interjection: Expressing excitement, delight, or triumph.
ETYMOLOGY:
For noun: After Yahoos, a race of brutish creatures in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Earliest documented use: 1751.
For interjection: Apparently of echoic origin. Earliest documented use: 1976.
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YUHOO - a call to attract someone's attention
YAPOO - French baby-talk meaning "No More!" (short for il n'y a plus)
YAHOOK - what ya throw at yahoop when yalayup isn't working
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BROBDINGNAG
PRONUNCIATION: (BROB-ding-nag)
MEANING: noun: Something very large.
adjective: Huge.
ETYMOLOGY: After Brobdingnag, a region where everything is enormous, in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Earliest documented use: 1731.
NOTES: For scale, people in Brobdingnag are about 60 feet tall. In the English language the form Brobdingnagian is also used. According to Gulliver, the place should have been spelled as Brobdingrag. Also, as per the map included in the book, Brobdingnag/Brobdingrag is located off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. Not sure why large mythical creatures are placed in this part of the world. Also see, Bigfoot.
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BROODING NAG - not only moody but also a persistent pest
BROBDING "NAY" - a resounding negative from the village of Brobd
BOBDING NAG - At the Camptown Races, I'll bet my money on her; somebody bet on the bay
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AUTOKINESY
PRONUNCIATION: (au-toh-KIN-uh-see)
MEANING: noun: Self-propelled or self-directed motion or energy.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek auto- (self) + kinein (to move). Earliest documented use: 1678.
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AUTO KINE-STY - mobile pig housing
AUTOKINESS - be considerate of your vehicle
Au TO KLINE, SY - give the first-place medal to Patsy, Seymour
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HYPOGEUSIA
PRONUNCIATION: (hy-puh-GOO/GYOO-zee/zhee-uh, -zhuh)
MEANING: noun: A diminished sense of taste.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek hypo- (under) + -geusia (taste). Earliest documented use: 1888.
NOTES: A complete lack of taste is ageusia (feel free to use the word metaphorically). And an extremely keen sense of taste is oxygeusia, from Greek oxy- (keen or sharp). How does the word oxygen fit in here? In 1778, Lavoisier named a newly discovered gas oxygen (literally, sharp giving) because he mistakenly believed that it was part of all acids. He was guillotined, not for the misnaming, but for the charge of adulterating France’s tobacco with water. He was exonerated posthumously
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HYPOGNUSIA - nothing ("There's nothing, son, under the gnu...")
HYPO G.E. USA - an injection needle made by the General Electric Company in the United States
HYPNOGEUSIA - You say your tastebuds fell asleep, eh? Could be a symptom of COVID-19 infection!
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SANGUINOLENCY
PRONUNCIATION: (sang-GWIN-uh-len-see)
MEANING: noun: Addiction to bloodshed.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin sanguis (blood). Earliest documented use: 1664.
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PANGUINOLENCY - addiction to flightless birds
SANGRINOLENCY - addiction to vocalizing musically, with happiness on your face
SAN QUINOLENCY - patron saint of poufy underthings that fluff up skirts
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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HYPOCRISY
Meaning: A pretence of virtue.
HYPOCRACY - weak government
HYPOCHRISTY - let's not talk so much about Jesus
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