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Joined: Jan 2001
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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
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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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
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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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
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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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
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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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Yeahbut® you don't count, eta. You're 'borderline.'
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
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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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
'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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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
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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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
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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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Honkin' is surely an expression that had its origins in Detroit ... ?
- Pfranz
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