It’s funny how easy it is to remember some things from school and not others. We used to have a test on a Friday of general knowledge. I was an expert at capital cities (although I couldn’t place some of the countries on a map). Anyway, it certainly increased my chances of winning (but not making) my first £1,000,000.

Here’s some of the proper terms (collective nouns) that were regulars in the test.
a shrewdness of apes
a destruction of wild cats
a skulk of foxes
an exaltation of larks
a paddling of ducks (on water)
a team of ducks (in flight)

I’ve just looked them up and realised that they didn’t teach us:
a superfluity of nuns
- I wonder why?

Which words stick in your mind from long ago and why?

Pythagoras, Jo--
I remember being awed by the fact that someone from so
long ago had such a long-lasting effect on what is taught.

I remember mispronounciations, which usually caused some embarrassment: "civil" was "kivil", and try saying "unfed" with the stress on "un".

"Dad, what does 'unfed' (as above) mean?"

"YCLIU" pre-empting tswum

That's how I got started with dictionary and Thesaurus.

yes! mispronunciations...
epitome I read as EP i tome
paradigm was PAR a DIG em

another word I remember is career, used as a verb, as in to career down a mountain road -- I used this on an English paper and got marked down for making up a word!

http://members.aol.com/tsuwm

> got marked down for making up a word!

Same problem. I used "oderous" (in the sense of smell) for "odious" (unpleasant) in the same way that Shakespeare had in the play we'd been studying the week before (poss the Scottish play) and got marked down for an incorrect word - I was cross - if it was OK for Shakespeare then...
It hastened my enthusiasm for giving up English at the earliest opportunity.

(It took me ages to work out epi-tome too).

"Persephone" was some sort of communication instrument at first glance! Never could quite master Greek mythology...

When I was in the eighth grade (13 yrs old) I was a finalist in the school's spelling bee. I lost on "aeronautics." The English teacher reading the words to us pronounced it "ar-E-o-nau-tics." I knew the ae combination form, but went with his pronunciation. I have never recovered from that :-)

PS Jo - is it bad luck in your parts to utter the word "Hamlet" when you are in rehearsal for said play?

Jo,

VERGES
Yes, I thank God I am as honest as any man living
that is an old man and no honester than I.
DOGBERRY
Comparisons are odorous...

Much Ado About Nothing, Act III, Scene v

8-D

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Got my Danes and my Scots mixed up. Jo, is it considered bad luck to utter the word "Macbeth" etc, etc???

Yes, I too was marked down for making up a word: I used fracas in an essay and was told it didn't exist. Clearly it still rankles, as this was a wee while ago!

The truth, I swear!
I once met a seminary student who legally changed his name.
His new name was pronounced OG-ree POE-bee because he had
liked the (supposed) sounds of these words he'd seen in a
book: ogre, and phoebe.
That was in the late 60's, and I can't help wondering if he
ever changed it to something less hippie-like.

After I presented my undergraduate honors thesis, a famous astronomer was kind enough to tell me that "ephemerides" is pronounced "eh-phem-ER-i-deez", not "eh-PHEM-er-ides." I'd used the word about a million times in my presentation, and I can still picture him wincing each time.

My Economics lecturer introduced us to the great philosopher Dez-cart-eez. I'll leave it to you to work it out.

In school I remember a religion class where I pronounced 'celibacy' to rhyme with Shirley Bassey. I still get a red face when I think of it!

And there was a colleague of mine whom I met for the first time over the phone. I asked him politely. 'who's calling?'. He replied - ' no memory?'. I said, 'no, I don't'. His name was Noel Memery.

Anna

Its a bit of thespian thing, never to utter the words of the Scottish play (in a theatre, anyway) otherwise calamitous things will happen. Hamlet on the other hand, no problem!

>Much Ado About Nothing, Act III, Scene v

Thank you (for your materially significant correction) and "Palabras neighbour Tsuwm".

>"Persephone" was some sort of communication instrument at first glance! Never could quite master Greek mythology ..

Didn't she marry the famous Greek God "Ansaphone"?

Ho, ho, ho jmh. I'm sure we can drag that old chestnut on for a while.

>>Didn't she marry the famous Greek God "Ansaphone"?<<

Can't remember, Jo, but it does, like Quasimodo, ring a bell...

:o)

>Didn't she marry the famous Greek God "Ansaphone"?<

I thought his name was Telaphone.

> I thought his name was Telaphone.

Yes, his family was from Alabama. Surely you've heard of the famous Mobile phones?

>Yes, his family was from Alabama. Surely you've heard of the famous Mobile phones?<
Ohmigawd, Rubrick!
You deserve at least the Alexander Graham Bell Award for
that one! Oh, my laughter is ringing!

'Brick -

There's a graoner, if ever was! Does the wordsmith permit such agonising puns?



Hey! I can speak markup!

I always had problems with any word with both m's and n's. For years I went around referring to crinimals and I still have nightmares about those things with fronds that live on rocks on the bottom of the sea, and about wind-speed measuring devices.

Bingley

I too had a problem with the things at the bottom of the sea. It took me a long time to realised that anenomes did not rhyme with garden gnomes.

I still cannot pronounce colliery - I always want to say collierely.

How do you find corollary?

My heart always went out to the Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood I think her name is, who confessed in an interview that as a girl she'd always thought molesters were the people one called to exterminate subterranean mammals.

Bingley

>How do you find corollary?

Not good! I just hope I never have a coronary!

In my maths class at university it was used a lot as you may expect. We had one lecturer with a very strong Glasgow accent and it took one of my friends until the end of the third term to discover that he had been saying "lemma" in his algebra lectures - she had been writing "lemon"!

I was nearly grown before I realized that, in the hymn,
Jesus did not climb the hill of cavalry.
Also, my schoolmates and I had to work rather hard to learn
the proper spellings of Cincinnati and Mississippi. (In fact, I can only hope that I got them correct here!)

I did know that, when my Rho D'Island friend spoke of
hunting for quogs, that he meant quahogs. I'll take his
word for it--we don't have them here. (anemones either.)

> I was nearly grown before I realized that, in the hymn,
Jesus did not climb the hill of cavalry.

On that same note - the Scottish comedian, Billy Connolly, once asked a friend of childhood experiences of misinterpreting or mishearing words. She told him that she had always thought there was a teddy-bear called Gladly who lived in Heaven. Gladly had something wrong with his eyes, she knew, because every Sunday her parents would sing 'Gladly the cross I'd bear'.

Are you sure that wasn't Billy Conoly?

Surely you mean Bily Conoly

Speaking of classes at university - in my first year European history class we had a lecturer with a HEAVY middle European accent. She was lecturing us about various medieval papal bulls and at the same time was emphasising the uncertainty and lack of order characteristic of the period. To my shame, I wrote in my notes at one stage a totally incoherent sentence about the 'cows' and the 'bulls' - the 'bulls' bit I'd got right. The 'cows' bit OUGHT to had read 'chaos'! Feeble defence, I know, but she really did have a very thick accent.

You are not alone!! How often do I still hear people say renumeration when they mean remuneration?

I know which I'd rather have...

I remember a mnemonic for two words:

We should not consider the sins of venal individuals as venial.