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#22126 03/10/01 07:34 PM
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I have a question concerning the Grinch. In the e-mail it says that it was just a word Dr. Seuss made up, and yet, according to my Larousse: grinche, adj (Helv) grumpy, grouchy. The "Helv" means it is Swiss French.

I find this to be quite a coincidence. Does anyone have more info on how he might have come up with his name?



#22127 03/10/01 07:42 PM
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my bet is that he "borrowed" it.


#22128 03/10/01 09:57 PM
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As usual, tsuwm's suggestion sounds correct.


#22129 03/10/01 11:18 PM
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As usual, tsuwm's suggestion sounds correct.

idem ['nodding' e]


#22130 03/10/01 11:42 PM
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Yup. I'll bet he thought "grinch" sounds just like a vile old miser.

What other words sound like what they mean, at least to your ear? Or sound like they don't mean, like hoi polloi, which always sounds like it should mean the upper crust rather than we of the unwashed masses.


#22131 03/11/01 12:49 AM
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Disagree, Sparteye, m'dear. I believe he indeed borrowed it... his last name is Geisel (which means "hostage" in German, but that's neither there nor here, nor here nor there, funny things are everywhere!) and who knows? His parents may have very well been Schweizers.

Good question you've posed. Let me think on it.


#22132 03/11/01 02:20 AM
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Sparteye asked What other words sound like what they mean, at least to your ear?

Vulgar, since you asked.


#22133 03/11/01 04:03 AM
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What other words sound like what they mean, at least to your ear?

spit.

crunch.

slither.

btw, there's a word for that... is it onomatopoeia??

Somewhat related, during the recent chat with Wendalyn Nichols, the editorial director for Random House Reference, she noted that the word "enervate" is commonly misused, because it just *sounds* like it should mean 'to fill with energy'. OTOH, that's not exactly onomatopoeia; it's more akin to word association (enervate-energy). I wonder if there's a word to describe that phenomenon? tsuwm, oh master-of-useless-words? can you help?


~b


#22134 03/11/01 05:50 AM
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she noted that the word "enervate" is commonly misused, because it just *sounds* like it should mean 'to fill with energy'. OTOH, that's not exactly onomatopoeia; it's more akin to word association (enervate-energy). I wonder if there's a word to describe that phenomenon?

Pseudomatopoeia?


#22135 03/11/01 12:27 PM
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"Tintinabulation"
Edgar Allen Poe "the Bells" (I think)


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