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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 197
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 197 |
There is a commercial for a credit card that is supposedly Cyberized. The advertisers imply that your card is safe from internet fraud and many other terrible things that happen when you go online. However if you read the fine print at the end of the ad you discover that all Cyberized means is that you can check your balance online. 
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
The 4th category, perhaps, is for Meaningless Words coined by someone who thinks that they do have a meaning - Malapropisms almost (but not quite) come into this category - I suppose Creative Mondegreenism might be a better term.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
The whole of medicine would be up a mucky creek with no paddle if not for Category 2 words! You go to the doctor and say "Doctor, I have this skin rash". She prods you about and announces in a serious voice that ah, yes, you have a skin rash. 'Cept she uses LATIN! Ah, the last refuge of the scoundrel (sorry father  )
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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OP
veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
"caboobers" are great! Though I'll have to be careful expressing a liking for them, I think. Especially in the case of rollicking great big caboobers. Isn't "doohickie" a verb, meaning "give a love-bite to"? ..and I've been told that "widget" is the official name for the thingumajig that lives in a beer can (especially Guinness) and injects nitrogen when you open the can, thus providing a "draught beer" effect. Or did I imagine it? Sorry, my standards are very exacting, I know.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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OP
veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Brill! "We're evolving towards being fully Web-enabled and Cyberized by the second quarter of the current financial year"  Works for me. Could do with a few more Category 2 financial terms, though!
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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OP
veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
newly made Enthusiasts
Yep, pretty meaningless in my case, right enough!
I like chief cook and bottlewasher for when you don't want to divulge your occupation. Sure there are some good Category 2s in that area - impressive euphemisms for jobs that no-one wants, and no-one wants to admit doing.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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OP
veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
yaknow, likeGuilty as charged, Helen! I'm inclined to stick in "y'know" as a sort of filler word, too. But it isn't necessarily meaningless, despite the fact that there's no point in saying something the audience knows already. I reckon "you know" actually means " I don't know". Or maybe "you know" is somehow short for "Do you know what I mean?" We're in a strange language land here, because uncertainties become certainties and questions become statements at the drop of a hat - y'know?
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 197
member
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member
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 197 |
If you want meaningless words for occupations how about consultant. I'm sure there can be legitimate consultants, but mostly, it seems to be a tag stuck onto jobs to make them look more high tech than they really are. My husband informs me that he is a consultant, but that still doesn't mean that I know what it is.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
.... and the Indonesian for whatsit, thingy and all these other words is [insert drum roll here] anu. Something has obviously got lost in translation somewhere.
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460
addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460 |
I think my favourite is "Vice-President in charge of Special Projects".
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