as I'm feeling a bit guilty for foisting Robin v. Marian on an unsuspecting public, and as joint pooh-bah, I offer up the following lighthearted challenge: post the most ridiculous word(s) you can think of -- I'm thinking along the lines of tufthunter and snollygoster* (and pooh-bah)....
Dear Pooh-Bah the First: I see no reason for you to apologize for the Personality quiz. It was obvious everybody enjoyed it. Tufthunter is new to me. Sounds a bit like Indian scalping, which indentally I have heard was taught the savages by the cultured whites, to keep score for promised bounties. I can think of something ribald, but not good enough to post. President Truman used snollygoster to deride some of his critics in a press conference. It seems to be a corruption of Pennsyvania Dutch "schnelle geister" mildly malevolent spirits that could be averted by the proper hex symbols.
Hey, Bill, mildly malevolent spirits that could be averted by the proper hex symbols has got to be the very, very best description of the news media I have ever seen!
Here in Oregon there is a regionalism that's dying as others move in in droves: Pungle is the word. It means to make or gather, depending on context. Ex: I'm gonna pungle up something to keep that gate shut, or Let's pungle up somethin' to eat. I haven't heard it used in several years, since I now live in the urban area, but it used to be common in rural areas in times past.
U.S. colloq. Also 9 pongale, pungale. [ad. Sp. póngale put it down, f. poner put, give.] trans. and intr. To contribute, hand over, or pay. Usu. with down or up. 1851 Alta Californian 19 July 2/3 A singular genius+was ‘pongaling down’ huge piles of gold at a monte table. 1854 Pioneer (San Francisco) Apr. 237 An additional slice of territory and its consequent classical influence upon our language, by the introduction of such precious words+as ‘hombre’,+‘pungle’, et id omne genus. 1857 San Francisco Call 6 Jan. 2/2 ‘Pungale down, gentlemen; come, pungale’, as the vingt-et-un lady used to say. 1884 ‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn v. 33 ‘I'll ask him; and I'll make him pungle, too, or I'll know the reason why’.+ Next day he went to Judge Thatcher's and+tried to make him give up the money. 1910 E. S. Field Sapphire Bracelet xii. 141 I'll have him arrested, and then make him pungle up something handsome before I'll agree not to appear against him. 1959 A. K. Lang in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Mag. Feb. 71/1 The pusher couldn't pungle up Skreen's three hundred. 1975 J. Gores Hammett (1976) xix. 130 Hammett had coffee and pungled up the required fifty cents.
I oncet had a Architectural History professor who often used the terms "tumbledy-down" and "higgledy-piggledy" to describe buildings, i.e. "Here we have an American interpretation of a tumbledy-down English cottage." and "Note how the turrets and spires are piled up all higgledy-piggledy, to give the church an asymmetric silhouette." They remain two of my favorite words, even if I can rarely find a use for them.
And I thought the Sherwood Personality Test was great fun.
When I was small, an aunt used cross her knees, and have me sit astride her upper foot while holding my hands, and sing a nursery rhyme: This is the way the lady rides, prim, prim, prim. This is the way the gentleman rides, trim,trim, trim. And this is the way the farmer rides, hobbledy gobbledy, hobbledy gobbledy, gee! ( The last part being a ride very much more violent and erratic.) I have read the term "dandle" used to describe giving a very small child such a ride.
Snollygosters averted by hex symbols. Every barn in Pennsylvania Dutch territory used to have a hex symbol displayed prominently.They took witchcraft seriously. "Hexe" means witch, and the symbols mostly had a hexagon inscribed inside a circle, with a wide range of subdividing patterns of triangles. I have wondered what the etymologic relationship is between "Hexe" and "hexagon".
Hex symbols What you say about hex symbols, Bill, is accurate, but I would add that the most common design (which includes triangles) is a star, usually 5-pointed. I would be willing to bet that this traditional design is derived from the pentacle, or 5-pointed star, used by magicians (or those claiming to be magicians) in the middle ages for charms and conjurations. This star design also shows up very frequently in quilt patterns; there are a number of well-known, standardized, star patterns for quilts.
P.S. You hardly ever see hex signs anymore, except as parts of a tourist come-on. Indeed, you rarely see a barn painted red any more; apparently it isn't cost-effective.
The five sided figure goes back further than the middle ages-- I heard in a math class about the pathagarian "society" a group founded by Pathagrarus-- in order to gain admission, you needed to be able to construct a pentagon with just a straight edge-- and some paper.. Pentagons where magical, because the number of degrees in the inside angles, is an irrational number.
PS-- i know how to make a pentagon with only a straight edge-- how about you Jo-- you have a math background-- I also know how to make a 5 pointed star by folding paper and making 1 cut-- just like Betsy Ross did for the US flag.
Le Petomane had an unusual talent. I have heard that it is not restricted to males only.A friend who knows I despise pornography sent me a video of a young female smoking a cigarette at both ends. I wonder how common this ability is. Tasteless, but risible.It reminds me of old cigarette ad "Are you smoking more, but enjoying it less?"
to be able to construct a pentagon with just a straight edge-- and some paper..
PS-- i know how to make a pentagon with only a straight edge--
this is absolutely AMAZING! i spent the greater part of my morning attempting this feat, but was unable to do so without adding a writing utensil to the list of supplies.
[ducking emoticon]
seriously, as for the cutthing thing, the best i could do was an 8-pointed star (it *was* pretty dope, though!). would you share the secret??
Pathagrarus I've never heard of Pathagrarus, and neither, apparently, has Google, since a search turned up nothing. Do you mean Pythagoras? That would make sense, as he was very much into numerology, cabalistics, etc.
To get back to the original thread (if that's not some kind of faux pas), I was going to nominate hoity-toity. There must be something about compound words with rhymes, like "higgledy-piggledy" that makes for ludicrosity.
mea culpa-- you are right-- an other tool is needed-- but not a scribe or writing tool -- a square-- to do the trick you need to be able to create parallel lines.. (you can scribe the lines, or just use your straight edge to tear along them
I sent Bridget a private message on how to do this-- (it works doesn't it?)
it does work!!! btw, for some reason i was taking 'straight edge' to mean a ruler of some kind, either numbered or unnumbered; i assume (now that i've tried it) that you merely meant something solid with a straight edge (as in the edge of a desk). thanks for the trick; my wee ones are happily pentogramming as we speak
"Rollerinaesque" or, for ease of pronunciation, "Rollerinaresque," after a West Village celebrity of some years back, means something like "as joyously wierd as a Cinderalla on roller skates."
To this I add my own, "Rollerinarex" to name her any emulator.
the very, very best description of the news media I have ever seen!
"Schnelle Geiste[r?]" meaning quick spirits or quick minds--rendered as a phrase and regarding some news media that might yield up "quick of spirit, slow of mind."
Snozzcumbers and Frobscottle. How about a book full of wonderful nonsense words. The story is The BFG (big, friendly giant) by Roald Dahl. Read this story to any child between 6-12 and laugh til you cry.
How is a light switch (and remotely) turning a light on or off different from magic?
well its different because most of us, in school, are taught to construct a basic circuit with a flash light, battery and a switch-- and while many might not get the finer points of electricial engineering-- we learn light switchs aren't magic.
but some technology-- (lots of technology) is beyond most humans understanding-- Like MRI's-- we sort of know what they do-- but it no where near as clear to us how its done (quantum physics!)-- we accept it-- but it is a form of magic...
how many science fiction stories have as a premise-- a society that is surrounded by technological wonders-- and they don't know how they work? or how to repair them? I can do simple electrical stuff-- but I wouldn't pass the the "Union test" to qualify as an electrican-- If there was a something to serious interrupt our society-- how many of us really understand how grocery store scanners work? or computers? or a light switch?
This board tend to be well educated-- and I would be very glad to be stranded with most of you-- but I watch Jay Leno-- and his Jay walking--when he goes out in the street and ask simple questions... most people, if not idiots, are ignorant! (I don't think it is just Americans--we just have the best educated idiots.)
Dooflop - My mother-in-law's word, the equivalent of thingamabob or doojiggy.
I'm also very partial to "framistat" to mean the same thing. I've got a friend who, when confronted with something that's not working, usually declares "This framistat appears to have a bent flange." Which is another funny word.
as I'm feeling a bit guilty for foisting Robin v. Marian on an unsuspecting public I wondered what had gotten into you. Oh, well, I suppose everyone's entitled to lose their mind once in a while.
One of the silliest words I can think of fits the double-rhyme theme: hugger-mugger.
About "rassafras"--I think that might be from an old comic strip. Pogo, or possibly Lil' Abner. Our Pogo expert might be able to tell us if it was there.
as I'm feeling a bit guilty for foisting Robin v. Marian on an unsuspecting public I wondered what had gotten into you.
Aksherly, I think Pooh-Bah I should be congratulated for Robin & Marian. The thread brought our differences into sharp relief, yet the exchange of views remained amiable. Given recent events, I think it is remarkable that a group of people should be able to express such divergent views with such civility and friendship, and for facilitating that test, I thank PB1.
>Bobyoungbalt: Indeed, you rarely see a barn painted red any more; apparently it isn't cost-effective.
There are still plenty of red barns around here. I live in the Oley Valley, an area which contains a lot of old Pennsylvania Dutch farmsteads. In fact, the whole Valley is a National Historic Area! [proud of hometown e]
I stand by my original statement. Of course you have red barns in a historic district. But out in the real world, I don't see many. How about a poll of other areas, like the mid-west where there is more farming than here ? Y'all out there -- do you have red barns?
Barn? What's a barn? OH, i remember-- that what they call the big concrete block buildings that snow plows live in for the summer-- (and garbage trucks at night--) NO they are not red.
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