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Recently, Jackie mentioned how she love the word waygoose. So i offer up henway?
Anyone know what's a henway?
and if you cross a horse with donkey you get a mule, but how to you get appaloosa?
what's a henway? about 3 or 4 pounds.(hen weigh)
and how do you get appaloosa? shake-a the limb-a (vague italian accent)
Got any more?
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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From Word-Detective:
Since I have the NSOED open, I might as well quote its definition of "deadpan," which is
"expressionless, impassive, unemotional; detached, impersonal." Although "deadpan" can be
used to mean simply "unemotional," it's most often heard in the context of humor or joke-telling,
where a "deadpan" mock-serious delivery often amplifies the effect of a good joke. Say, for
instance, that I happen upon my brother-in-law tinkering with the engine of his lawnmower. I
stand back with a deadpan air of confidence and announce, "What you need is a henway."
Puzzled, he asks "What's a henway?" I say "About five pounds," and he throws a wrench at me.
All right, so Noel Coward I'm not.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Is the face (or has the face) ever been referred to as a pan?
I ask this because now the idea of a dead pan is going to baffle me for the rest of the day.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Word Detective: Can you tell me the origin of the word "deadpan"? I can't find it even in
the Shorter Oxford Dictionary. My guess is that it has its origins in the theatre and may even
have something to do with pancake makeup, but that's a wild guess. -- Dinah, via the internet.
It's not a bad guess, but I think the first thing you should do is buy a new dictionary. I have a
copy of the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (NSOED), published in 1993, which
supplies a perfectly adequate definition and even a brief etymology.
Since I have the NSOED open, I might as well quote its definition of "deadpan," which is
"expressionless, impassive, unemotional; detached, impersonal." Although "deadpan" can be
used to mean simply "unemotional," it's most often heard in the context of humor or joke-telling,
where a "deadpan" mock-serious delivery often amplifies the effect of a good joke. Say, for
instance, that I happen upon my brother-in-law tinkering with the engine of his lawnmower. I
stand back with a deadpan air of confidence and announce, "What you need is a henway."
Puzzled, he asks "What's a henway?" I say "About five pounds," and he throws a wrench at me.
All right, so Noel Coward I'm not.
"Deadpan" does indeed have a theatrical origin, first appearing in the New York Times in 1928
(in an article citing actor Buster Keaton as the quintessential "dead-pan" comic) and was
frequently used in the show-business daily Variety around that time. The key to "deadpan" is the
use of "pan" as theatrical slang for "the face" (reflecting the use of "pan" to mean "skull," found
as early as 1330). So "deadpan" is simply another way of saying "expressionless face."
"Pancake," meaning a kind of thick makeup often used in the theater, first appeared in 1937 as a
trademark of Max Factor & Co., and may well be a bit of a pun, referring both to the thickness
of the product (which was, incidentally, originally marketed in a broad, "pancake-shaped"
container) and to the fact that it forms a sort of "cake" on the actor's "pan."
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