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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>but what of words used once, are oncewords words if they had meaning, as these did, for just one other person?
I'm not sure how serious your question is, but you have pretty much defined a nonce word, which is a word invented for (and expected to be used only for) a special occasion; i.e., for the nonce. some nonce words surprise the inventor, catching on and thereby disqualifying themselves from the description.
then there is the phrase hapax legomenon [Gk, something said only once], a word evidenced by a single citation.
(thus there is a distinction: a nonce word is identified by intent; a hapax is distinguished by evidence -- or lack thereof. :)
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I'm not sure how serious your question is, but you have pretty much defined a nonce word, which is a word invented for (and expected to be used only for) a special occasion; i.e., for the nonce. some nonce words surprise the inventor, catching on and thereby disqualifying themselves from the description.
then there is the phrase hapax legomenon [Gk, something said only once], a word evidenced by a single citation
(thus there is a distinction: a nonce word is identified by intent; a hapax is distinguished by evidence -- or lack thereof. :)
Thanks very much for that.
I meant the question in earnest *and* in silliness. As far as I can tell, there is often no distinction. This is supported, by a stretch, at the end of Kant's Third Critique. Having founded metaphysics on ethics (controversial, I'm sure) and embedded human being therein, he ends with two or three terrible jokes; the *structure* of his writing, at least, puts humor on the edge of the abyss and at the heart of being.
Here is another question: Is a word used once *in* the special occasion of a poem written for a single person a nonce word? At once, the occasion vanishes and is preserved, but the word remains as its remnant. (I know this all sounds like post-modern drivel; I'm only trying to be concise). Whether or not these words catch on, they both outlive *and* preserve the moment.
The notion of a hapax legomenon is similarly interesting. Considering the meaning of its Greek origin, can a hapax *be* a hapax? Can a word evidenced by a single citation *be* a word used once, or is its occurrence as evidence a second use, and the word a word used twice?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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How could linguaphiles love nonwords?
So *many* things are not words, but if words per se are their source, are nonwords not words too?
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Pooh-Bah
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And, with the persistent perversity of this board, this nonword thread is now demonstrably a word-related thread.
Is a nonword thread itself perverse, or is it a relief from perversity? :)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bulwer-Lytton [bum]
Ænigma strikes again!
"I never heard the last of those three shots that rang out that dark and stormy night, bang! bang! by the time the sound reached my ears the bullet had left a small hole in the middle of my forehead and nothing at all from the ears on back."
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm hot on the trail... here's the scoop so far bzzt tsuwm has been found pfzzzt Museum of Questionable zaatz imposters abound ziitz the secret code word is zuutz over and plonk
Ahem, your attention please, ladies and gentlemen. Breaking news has just come to hand which impacts upon some of us, and upon some of those of us it impacts upon more than some of the others of those of us it also impacts upon. Or doesn't. As the case may be. I trust this is clear to you so far, because I'm already confused...
The Secular Office of Global Incredulity, known world-wide known as SOGI, has just announced the suspected demise of one of its agents-in-someone-else's-place, one Catastrophic - er, what's that? Oh, why didn't you say so in the first place?, um, I mean Anna-and-the-King-and-I ... ah, one moment please ... Listen, is it MY fault if the stupid burks in the newsroom can't string two words together ... it's only a ****ing news release after ... whaddya mean, can I read? I'll get up alongside your head in a min- oh, okay, I'll try. But owe me, prick, big time
Ah, ladies and gentlemen, some person, who may be either a man or a woman, but whose name is definitely virtually ununderstandable and unpronounceable, and who hails from Atlanta, Geor.. I'll have you know that "hails" is a damned sight more PC than "comes" - Rain? What's rain got to do with anything? No, as far as I'm aware it's not raining in Atlanta, Georgia!
Look, this person has gone missing in action somewhere in deepest, darkest Minnesota. Yes, it's Minnesota. No, it's not Wisconsin or North Dakota. Hey, you wrote this drivel ... well, I suppose it could be Montana. Yep, they do have a lot of letters in common. Hell, I dunno, I do the news round here, waddya think I am, Anagram Corner or something?
Ah, sorry folks, it's a SHE. Says so right here in writing, even if its sources are a bit suspect. Okay all, seems as if she's gone missing in action, looking for a friend called - Okay, which pillock in the news room's screwing with my head? You can't say this. I don't care where you copied it from, you can't ... okay then, I damned well will! and I spell, t - s - u - w - m. There. The association between the two is a wad of, ah, sorry, I'll read that again, awad. Awad? No, it must be, sorry, a wad, but you usually have a wad of something, and there's neither an "of" or a "something" after it. This is really all getting too much for ... What is, I mean... ah, one minute please, *sob*
We interrupt this news flash to bring you a news flash. Thirty seconds ago, a long-standing member of the SOGI news reading team committed suicide by forcing the elevator doors open in the basement of SOGI House and then summoning the lift down before stepping into the elevator shaft. The question is, what was wrong with his life? Why did he do it? What drove him to it? He was a word man, wouldn't hurt a fly ... Hello, what's this on his desk? "The Secular Office of Global Incredulity, known world-wide known as SOGI, has just announced the suspected demise of one of its agents-in-someone-else's-place..."
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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well... that was certainly a bit off, al... are you sure that shouldn't have been posted in the "odd press" thread?!
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addict
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addict
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inselpeter: At the risk of exposing a bad case of verbal insufficiency to the entire world, am I the only one who doesn't understand a word of all this nonword-nunword-nonceword business? I just don't get it. Maybe I should chalk it up to the end of a long day, sleep on it, and have another go at it tomorrow  . Or the rest of you are simply much too quick for me. I can't keep up!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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well, I suppose it could be Montana. Yep, they do have a lot of letters in commonOh! Oh! I laughed out loud the whole time I was reading that! How do you think up things like that? Oh, thank you for making my day!  P.S.--Is SOGI where the Soggy Bottom boys hang out?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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The fishermen's boys of Gloucester Mass. used to call the floes on the (thawing?) harbor there "Buckaleenos," and they may still do. They made a sport of jumping from one to the next, which they fittingly called "Jumping the Buckaleenos."
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