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#30886 06/02/01 06:49 AM
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'Restive' and 'inflammable', at first sight, suggest meanings opposite to their actual meanings, so I call them inaptonyms, though surely someone can suggest a less inapt term for them than my inept effort. There's another, more interesting, type of inaptonym, namely words such as 'pulchritude', where the inaptness is more visceral than visual, if you know what I mean. More inaptonyms anyone?


#30887 06/02/01 09:54 PM
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Opponym?


#30888 06/03/01 04:39 PM
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journeyman
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c.f. GWBushisms - Now, don't missunderestimate me, I'm totally apolitical.


#30889 06/04/01 02:37 PM
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I would suggest 'pedagog' (or pedagogue, or paedagogue) in both categories.

BTW, if you don't mind a personal question, what does a lawyer do in Alice Springs? I have this mental picture of Alice Springs being much like Tombstone, Arizona. Perhaps you can enlighten my ignorance about northern Oz.


#30890 06/04/01 07:13 PM
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bob- if nothing else-- a lawyer would be keep busy with all the production companies that want to come to use Alice Springs as a set for a movie!

Isn't it written into the ausie constitution (or what ever legal document exist for ausie government) that every Oz movie has to have at least one scene set in Alice Springs? it sure seems that way from this side of the world.

It like tourist in NY-- we treat them fairly nice-- but just to make sure they have a real NY experience, we rip them off at least once... other wise how else would they know they experience the real NY? If nothing else, we at least make them pay retail-- or full price in the musuems!


#30891 06/05/01 01:01 AM
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what does a lawyer do in Alice Springs?

AWAD, silly!


#30892 06/05/01 01:17 AM
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The language abounds in inaptonyms ( I do like that word ) , but the vino has killed too many brain cells for me to recall any right now. Catch me in the morning.
However, you may be able to answer this - an Aussie colleague recently told me " now don't tell any porky pies (lies)"...hehe , so where does this originate from?
Woohay, I feel less like a stranger now...straying from the topic at hand!!


#30893 06/05/01 07:03 AM
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now don't tell any porky pies (lies, so where does this originate from?

pork pies = porkies = porky pies = Lies
is one of many Rhyming slang phrases (usually of Cockney -London East End- origin) to become assimilated into (mainly UK and Aussie) English. Do an AWAD search on Cockney in the last 3 months and you may find lots more.

Rod



#30894 06/05/01 11:43 PM
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many Rhyming slang phrases (usually of Cockney -London East End- origin

Ta, Rod....Of course, I had researched this before and found a great site.... just never connected the Aussies to Rhyming Cockney Slang...reminds me a bit of Pig Latin, but this is so much more ingenious. Probably most invented and enjoyed by the "teapot lids"


#30895 06/06/01 06:13 AM
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How about priceless and infamous? The other one I think doesn't sound at all like what it is: wurm or wyrm for a dragon.


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