flimflam [One of the many onomatopic reduplications expressive of contempt; cf. fidfad, skimble-skamble, whimwham. Possibly based on a Scandinavian word which may have existed in some Eng. dialects; cf. ON. flim a lampoon, flimska mockery, flimta to flout.]

some wordsmiths have been described as being flimflam *men.

*meant to be all-inclusive

Ooh, ooh--I like the term ricochet words much better: it has more bang to it.

place names can y'all think of?

Bora Bora

Baden Baden

Walla Walla

does Ho-ho-cus count too?

New York, New York

Sing Sing

Oh, if you can say New York, New York, then I sure as heck can do the double national capital + nation again:

Luxembourg, Luxembourg
San Marino, San Marino
Monaco, Monaco
and (almost) Andorra la Vella, Andorra

Back in '44 the first words I heard as I stepped onto
the beach at Leyte were: "My sister very goog pom-pom."

Pom-poms were cheap back in those days.

Later, during WWI in France, I was invited to invest in a 'zig-zig coucher'. I did; and have never regretted it to this day.

And then there was that time in New Orleans...

Hubba-bubba

Edit: I think there's 'hubba-dubba,' too.

Pago-Pago

In reply to:

---

flimflam [One of the many onomatopic reduplications expressive of contempt; cf. fidfad, skimble-skamble, whimwham. Possibly based on a Scandinavian word which may have existed in some Eng. dialects; cf. ON. flim a lampoon, flimska mockery, flimta to flout.]

some wordsmiths have been described as being flimflam *men.

*meant to be all-inclusive

---

Not to nitpick, but I think the adjective form of onomatopoeia is onomatopoetic...

>onomatopoetic

it's good that you didn't nitpick then. I blame Bill Gates, as the word in the original was onomatopœic [no t], in which œ didn't survive the cut & paste.

as a typo, onomatopic is not quite rare -- 15 google hits.

Onelook has 9 listings for onomatopoetic (which I keep wanting to read as uh-NO-muh-ta-po-ET-ic. Or ON-oh-mah-toe-po-ET-ik). Anyway, it has 12 listings for onomatopoeic.

15 hits sounds quite rare to me.

>rare

my view of "rare" has been warped by the OED; when they marked a word rare it signalled that they found fewer than three usages in the Written Records.

Ah! I see, tsuwm. But I don't expect the OED considers the 'written record' to include Google hits! Ha! I'd love to hear what someone on the OED thinks about Google sites as 'written record.'

> I'd love to hear what someone on the OED thinks about Google sites as 'written record.'

I can answer this precisely, if'n I can only find the apposite email! for now, I'll précis it for you: at this point in the time-space continuum, not much.

Hey, this is great, tsuwm. I just discovered you 'below the fold'. Maybe we can do some cross-threading.

Dr. Bill [wwh] has come up with another good one:

Dum-Dum

dum·dum ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dmdm)
n.
A hollow-point small-arms bullet designed to expand upon impact, inflicting a gaping wound.

[After Dum Dum, a town of northeast India.]

re Hubba-bubba Edit: I think there's 'hubba-dubba,' too.

There is also hubba-hubba, Wordwind.

When I was a kid there was a litty ditty that went around that went like this:

Hubba hubba
What a figure
Two more legs
And you'll look like Trigger.

"Trigger" dates this ditty, of course. "Trigger" was the famous Palomino that starred with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Roy Rogers actually had Trigger stuffed when he died. I wonder if Trigger is still around?

Yep. Trigger is still around - at the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in Branson, MO:

this museum is dedicated to the famous duo Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. So, if you're a fan, head over for an afternoon of looking at exhibits that include personal artifacts of the two celebrities and western and cowboy related items, such as Roy Rogers' trusty horse, Trigger, stuffed and mounted. Be sure to visit the entertaining Happy Trails Theatre with daily performances by Roy "Dusty" Rogers, Jr.

http://www.10bestcityguides.com/details.process/OID_0D9A56E1
/MID_433/CID_11/SID_26/BID_61545/BID_61339/

Personally, I'm not sure I would want to see Trigger stuffed. I would rather see him in reruns. :)

plutarch, please shorten up your link.

here's one from the AWAD archives (hi Bill): shilly-shally

Reduplication of the question shall I?. {AHD}

NB: note punctuation!!

plutarch, please shorten up your link.

How do I do that, tsuwm?

I have been posting here for over 3 years, as you know, and I have never had a link that was too long before. I'm not sure why this is a problem for anyone, but if it is I'll be happy to straighten it out lickety-splickety. :)

> a problem

It just means that everyone has to scroll to and fro across the window for any post in the whole thread, Plutarch, so it helps if anyone wanting to use a long URL can break it into two lines (or use one of the redirection sites as advocated by our upside down friends). It's just a small bit of 'housekeeping' that makes life easier and may be a useful tip for any newcomers.

Hope it's OK now. Thanks.

tutu welcome!

Getting back to the mutton. We now have bling-bling to dazzle us.

as ASp has reminded us whereelse, a whole nother obsession is the Higgledy Piggledy setup line of the double dactyl.