Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Nonwords...I have been making a little list of nonexistent "words" that I've heard people say. (Very compulsive of me, I know.) I can tell from their pronunciation exactly how they think the word is actually spelled, too. (The example sentence isn't necessarily what the speaker originally said.)

subline: "That was a subline experience."
paradign: "We're working from a different paradign here."
pneumonics: "I used pneumonics to remember it."
expedentially: "The problem grows expedentially larger each day."
Amsel Adams: (No sentence necessary.)
ideal (used in place of "idea"): "I had an ideal that it would turn out like this."

Definitions, anyone?


8 comments:

argotnaut said...

Congradulations on this fine list.

Gwen said...

The hair stands up on the back of my neck when my husband says "I'm fatigued" (pronounced sort of in the French manner, 'fatigayed'). He's not French or a French speaker, and I'm pretty sure this ain't an English word, so aaaggghhhhh. I like most everything else about him, so I endure it. Or, as we say in Saskatchewan, "endurr". Loved your list, by the way.

Andrew said...

This doesn't really count, but on the old Dick Van Dyke show, a young man often used the word "fruitle." As in, "This effort is fruitle!"

Then of course there's Joey on "Friends" with his "Moo point." "Yeah, it's a moo point...like the opinion of a cow. It doesn't matter."

Gwen said...

Okay, got another one. There is an epidemic here right now, of people who say, "whole nother", as in "That's a whole nother issue." Ack. And this is supposed to be a university town.

liz said...

I do say "'nother" sometimes, but only with a silent apostrophe.

Liddy said...

Two new evil non-words from my advisory committee meeting this morning: fermiliar and statisticky. rahr.

liz said...

Just compulsively redoing the updates with actual live links:

Update #1: "half-hazard" [haphazard], "high-bred" [hybrid], and "nuptuals" [nuptials]

Update #2: "cumberbun" [cummerbund]

Update #3: "unequivocably" [unequivocally], "dialated" [dilated], and "relator" [realtor]

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