|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
zzxjoanw - see point #4, above
epicaricacy - Novobatzky, in Depraved English, breaks it down this way: epi (upon) + chara (joy) + kakon (evil) {"..[this] book lacks authentic quotations or etymology, incredulous readers must rely on the bibliography of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other resources from which the words were selected." - Library Journal}
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Here's from Google searching: "*NOTE: The Music-Lovers Encyclopedia by Rupert Hughes (all editions from 1914 to 1956) has this entry: zzxjoanw (shaw) Maori. 1. Drum. 2. Fife. 3. Conclusion. According to Philip Cohen in Word Ways (Nov. 1976), there are several problems with this entry, notably the fact that it's an impossible Maori word, both in spelling and pronunciation. Cohen suspects that Hughes made up the word as a joke. In his book, Earth, David Brin has a Maori character playing a zzxjoanw. Asked about this, Brin said that he'd gotten the word from Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary [Dan Tilque]. Anne Woodley, who is from New Zealand, agrees that ZZXJOANW is not a Maori word. She writes, "There are no Z, X or J in the Maori language - also the the phonetics aren't right for the Maori, or indeed any Pacific Island language, all of which come from the same family." ...That's pretty much what you all have been saying all along. And I don't think you understand what I've been saying...and this is it: Could there be the possibility that Mrs. B, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, could have been correct? Could she have been privy to information we don't have? I'm just looking at possibilities in the face of apparent impossibility. I'm definitely not saying she was categorically correct, come hell or high water. I'm a lot more interested in why someone who was looking for and cataloguing 'preposterous' words would have included this one, no matter how preposterous it appears to be on the surface. Rather than throw the baby out with the bath water, I'd like to know how this baby got into her lexicon. What was her source? And I'm not smoking anything, for the record. 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>I'm a lot more interested in why someone who was looking for and cataloguing 'preposterous' words would have included this one...
you should also consider the possibility, ridiculous as it might seem to you knowing Josefa as you do, that it was just a joke, it being the last word and being, according to some testimony here, just about as preposterous as you can get. also, in *conclusion, the third definition seems odd somehow--why do you suppose that she chose to disinclude that?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
You know, tsuwm, I could just kiss you for no other reason than you use words like disinclude.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742 |
>Could there be the possibility that Mrs. B, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, could have been correct? Could she have been privy to information we don't have?
If you want it monosyllabic - No.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>I could just kiss you...  now don't you go using your gypsy wiles on me! <scrambling and cross-threading like mad>
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Ha!!!!!! tsuwm, your 'blush' has made me laugh outright tonight!
Back to Mrs. B. We need to examine her probable purpose in proposing her lexicon. She read a lot of dictionaries--and she compiled a preposterous bunch from her bigger bunch. I don't believe she was offering a lexicon of bona fide words, but one of often preposterous words.
And, tsuwm and dxb, the faux-Maori word was such a terrific choice, as tsuwm has very perceptibly noted, as the final word. And it is, as tsuwm has also suggested, an ironic final entry in that she chose not to include the third definition 'conclusion.' Mrs. B. was a wit in her own way.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
You will note, presumably, that sjm and I, fellow New Zealanders, both agree without any conditions whatever that Mrs Byrne was full of it.
Period.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742 |
>You will note, presumably, that sjm and I, fellow New Zealanders, both agree without any conditions whatever that Mrs Byrne was full of it.
Welcome to Ragnarok.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
I think you and fellow New Zealanders are without a sense of humor in Mrs. B's case--unless, that is, being 'full of it' is not pejorative.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,315
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
253
guests, and
2
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
