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“She liked the word “ineffable” because it meant a feeling so big or vast that it could not be expressed in words. And yet, because it could not be expressed in words, people had invented a word to express it, and that made Liesl feel hopeful, somehow.” - Lauren Oliver from “Liesl & Po”

New words enter our vocabularies sometimes by our own design but most times quite by chance through various forms of media, cultural slang, business buzzwords and the like. One day you’ve never heard the word then the next day there it is again ... and again ... until suddenly you’re using it as though you’ve known it all along. New becomes commonplace and old words sometimes fade away.

This article lists 12 words that are common today but caused consternation in some circles when first foisted upon the world by necessity or perhaps only by a creative thinker but for whatever the reason, they stuck and we use them today.

12 Horrible Gobbledygook Words We Reluctantly Accepted | Mental Floss

Are you a word purist or do you welcome slang and buzzwords into your vocabulary easily enough? Are there any new words or phrases used today that really bug you and that you'd like to see fall by the wayside? Any that you particularly enjoy using and wish you’d known all along because they’re so appropriate & expressive?

tabby;1420619 wrote: “She liked the word “ineffable” because it meant a feeling so big or vast that it could not be expressed in words. And yet, because it could not be expressed in words, people had invented a word to express it, and that made Liesl feel hopeful, somehow.” - Lauren Oliver from “Liesl & Po”

New words enter our vocabularies sometimes by our own design but most times quite by chance through various forms of media, cultural slang, business buzzwords and the like. One day you’ve never heard the word then the next day there it is again ... and again ... until suddenly you’re using it as though you’ve known it all along. New becomes commonplace and old words sometimes fade away.

This article lists 12 words that are common today but caused consternation in some circles when first foisted upon the world by necessity or perhaps only by a creative thinker but for whatever the reason, they stuck and we use them today.

12 Horrible Gobbledygook Words We Reluctantly Accepted | Mental Floss

Are you a word purist or do you welcome slang and buzzwords into your vocabulary easily enough? Are there any new words or phrases used today that really bug you and that you'd like to see fall by the wayside? Any that you particularly enjoy using and wish you’d known all along because they’re so appropriate & expressive?




This might drive Spot crazy.



Effable, ineffable, yup there is a difference.

My Mother used to get quite tounge tied particually when exasperated.

I remember her once ordering her cat to stop ' scumpering' about.... what ever scumpering was but we all use It now.

Discombobulated Is a wonderful word especially In a discombobulated Kerrfuffle type way.

Who knew donate wasn't a real word?:yh_glasse

tabby, you are so interesting! I love learning stuff like this, thanks!

They were very cranky back in the 1800s, weren't they?

"Nuculer" bugs the crap out of me. I wasn't even sure I was spelling it correctly, it grates on my eyes as well as my ears.

SnoozeAgain;1420664 wrote: They were very cranky back in the 1800s, weren't they?

"Nuculer" bugs the crap out of me. I wasn't even sure I was spelling it correctly, it grates on my eyes as well as my ears.


No such word this side of the pond - we speak English like what she was meant to sound like, like!

It was a Bushism (as in George W) and the lovely and intelligent Sarah Palin continues its use.

ditto

The same

The word "ditto" is commonly used as a way of saying "me too", or "I agree".

'Ditto' comes from Latin, and means about 'as has been said before'.

Here are some modern words & phrases that recently made it into the dictionary. Some of them are unfamiliar to me and some of them I hear often these days. I'm a great sufferer of earworm, using its second usage ... all these years and I had no idea it had a name!

Meet the Dictionary's New Words: F-Bomb, Sexting, Bucket List - Entertainment - The Atlantic Wire

Here are 18 obsolete words that the author feels should still be in our vocabularies. I agree ... they're perfectly good words! My own laptop is guilty of resistentialism at times. I've never lunted although sometimes I jirble my coffee in the morning and who doesn't like a snoutfair?

18 obsolete words, which never should have gone out of style | Death and Taxes

7 Words that Came About from People Getting Them Wrong | Mental Floss

On a personal note I'd like to see everyone who uses the word 'gobsmacked' have to scrub their mouth out with a wire brush! Bit extreme but such a horrible word.

Taking some examples from the past two hundred years is interesting. Reminds me of high school having to endure Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

For anyone interested there is a great BBC documentary called "The Adventure of English." There is the book by Melvyn Bragg, The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language

As much as I loved the BBC series on it, reading the book is a lot like keeping and interest in Leviticus.

BIRTH OF A LANGUAGE

It looks interesting, TD, thanks for the tip-off!

As you wend you way through the day, I hope no one runs roughshod over you but if they do, try not to take umbrage!

12 Old Words that Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms | Mental Floss

Imladris;1430191 wrote: On a personal note I'd like to see everyone who uses the word 'gobsmacked' have to scrub their mouth out with a wire brush! Bit extreme but such a horrible word.


I use that word all the time whilst expressing a state of physical and mental shock.

A wire brush you say?

Well I'm GOBSMACKED

12 Lonely Negative Words ~~~~~> 12 Lonely Negative Words | Mental Floss

Yup thats what I thought it meant.

4. INEFFABLE

(Via French from Latin in- ‘not’ + effāri ‘to utter’)

Ineffable—something "that cannot be expressed or described in language"—can breathe a lonely wordless sigh. Its partner doesn’t come around much any more. Effable once meant "sounds or letters, etc. that can be pronounced." It is used only rarely to mean "that which can be, or may lawfully be, expressed or described in words," or as a snickery double entendre:

She: Are you dumping me? What went wrong?

He: I can’t explain. It’s ineffable.

She: Are you saying I’m not f—able?



Read the full text here: 12 Lonely Negative Words | Mental Floss

--brought to you by mental_floss!

YZGI;1441194 wrote: Yup thats what I thought it meant.


Be careful how you use it then! :yh_rotfl

They don't include any explanations for the eventual turnarounds in meaning but it's still interesting to see the evolution of language. It's ever fluid!

27 Words That Used To Mean Something Totally Different