Politblogo

Tuesday amusing word: frisbee

After a hard day's work of archaeological research into the ancient Bultec civilization, these Smithsonian employees are on their way home after having frusben.

Today's amusing word is "frisbee."  A frisbee is a discus-like, usually plastic object that's thrown around in a popular outdoor pastime.  People who throw frisbees are known as "frisbers."  To throw a frisbee is "to frisb"---hence "frisber" and "frisbee".

People have wondered for a long time about the etymology of "frisb."  There's a clear German cognate, not really in common use---"frisben," which means "to spin a round object in the air."  "Ich frisbe, du fribst," and so on.  It's mostly regular in the German present tense, just like it is in English: "I frisb, you frisb, he frisbs."  But "frisben" in German has irregular imperfect and perfect past tenses.  "Ich frosb" means "I frisbed" in English.  However, the perfect tense looks like this: "Ich habe gefrosben," which looks temptingly close to the English form "I have frusben."  They are not translations of each other, and the English form might be explained by analogy to "to spin": "I have spun". 

Whatever the etymology of frisbing may be, most people know frisbee play as an entertaining and energetic pastime, with few rules.  "Frisbee" is also a pretty funny word, with the "z" sound and the "b" sound next to each other: an unusual combination.  It's verb form "to frisb" is a little awkward-sounding, but no more so than a number of other English words.  In the meantime, this ancient game that comes from the long-vanished Bultec civilization in South America is played by millions of frisbers today.  Happy frisbing!

Tuesday amusing word: shampoo

Today we briefly discuss a truly ridiculous word, a word that is not really onomatopoeic, in that it does not reflect anything about the class of objects to which it refers.  But it shares some characteristics that make many onomatopoeic words funny, such as that dominant "oo" sound.  I am talking about the word "shampoo."

Aside from the always-funny "oo" sound, it is very easy to tease out "shampoo"'s most hilarious feature: the fact that it sounds like a term for a movie prop in a crude humour teen comedy flick.  "Shampoo."  "Sham."  "Poo."  Fake excrement?  Since it's quite possible that most of these special hair care products are little more than snake oil, it seems like a very apt name to me.  And the use of the world "poo", of course, makes it even funnier, because it brings out the inner naughtly little child in all of us. 

That's "shampoo" for you.  Millions and millions of people, the world over, douse their hair with the stuff on a regular basis.  So why it is not more commonly seen in its humorous aspect?  Shampoo!

Tuesday amusing word: lugubrious

Today our amusing word is a sad word.  It sings a mournful song as it is spoken.  But it is the mournfulness of a drunk person pouring his or her broken heart out on a sober person walking him or her home, a sober person who is half amused by the inebriated ramblings and the comical teetering and the prospect of the drunken companion's hangover the next morning. (At least in the movies, or novels, or whatever.) The word is: lugubrious. 

Once again, an onomatopoeic word.  The "u" sound is a drunken sound, and when placed after the liquid consonant "l", it is not merely drunken, but completely plastered by hard liquor.  But look: it has yet another "u" in the next syllable.  And it bears the ungainly, teetering "-ous" suffix.  Lugubrious.  Loooogoooobrious.  Loooooogooooooooooobrious.  Is that not pathetic?  Is that not amusing?  So mournful, yet so silly-sounding.  That's "lugubrious" for you.

Tuesday amusing word: smarmy

I told you that we'd have a Tuesday amusing word.  I spent most of the day travelling and the rest without Internet access, but I bring it to you gasping and panting, at the technical end of the day.

The majority of the world's amusing words share one characteristic: onomatopoeia.  Yes, even the abstract ones.  Just like "smarmy."  Has anyone observed a smarm?  Tasted or felt anything that had the quality of smarm?  No, of course not!  But nevertheless, "smarmy" is a necessary component of the English language. 

(Actually the root of "smarmy" is, in fact, "smarm," which means "to smear."  But we will ignore this, because no one talks about "smarming" anymore.)

But look at "smarmy."  Is it not a smarmy word?  Does it not sidle off the tongue like a much-maligned used car salesman?  Does it not require a sneer as it is uttered?  It is so much more evocative than words like "obsequious" or "fawning"---each of which are amusing words in themselves, beyond doubt.  The sibilant "s" combined with the voiced liquid "m"---what a contemptuous, slick transition!

And as we have been recently reminded yet again in the Canadian non-wingnut blogosphere, it is so easily applied and used.  That's because "smarmy", as well as being amusing, is a sad word.  So, so sad.  But so necessary.

Tuesday amusing word: upbraid

Today I am introducing a new weekly feature as an experiment: the Tuesday amusing word.  It is inspired by the games I used to play with my siblings, wherein we'd give each other some arbitrary number of points for the use of an amusing sounding word, the rarer the better.

Well, today's word is "upbraid."  Without looking at a dictionary, I generally take it to be a near-anachronism that is synonymous with scolding.  But look how much more evocative that word is.  It brings to mind someone being twisted up into a braid with criticism.  Or maybe it involved yanking on braids?   Maybe it is sexist, because it is women who mostly have braided hair?  But was that true in the past?

And look: it has been dictionary.com's word of the day.  I am very pleased that I am not the only person who has been intrigued by this word.  If you look at the actual entry, it does appear to have an etymological connection with "braid."   But it doesn't appear to have any direct sexist connotations today, at least not from a Google search of that word.

Still, it's a pretty amusing sounding word, no?  The combination of the unvoiced and voiced bilabial stops is interesting.