ChatterBank0 min ago
Which Words Do You Find Peculiar or Funny?
55 Answers
One word that always makes me laugh is "discombobulated".
Another, although the reason will be obvious, is "Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia" - the fear of long words!
Another, although the reason will be obvious, is "Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia" - the fear of long words!
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BJ, here's the kind of example I was thinking of...
"He did not attend the course or sit the final examination but he was deemed to have passed."
There, it is surely perfectly plain that he did NOT, in any true sense, ''pass' the course. What it means is that he was awarded the qualification or whatever, regardless. Thus, the use of 'deemed' caused something that didn't happen...to happen!
And, in your very own tantamount/watch example, if the person concerned was a friend of yours, would you have actually considered him to BE a thief? I supect not, so tantamount to theft was NOT theft; after all you got it back and would have done so in any case.
"He did not attend the course or sit the final examination but he was deemed to have passed."
There, it is surely perfectly plain that he did NOT, in any true sense, ''pass' the course. What it means is that he was awarded the qualification or whatever, regardless. Thus, the use of 'deemed' caused something that didn't happen...to happen!
And, in your very own tantamount/watch example, if the person concerned was a friend of yours, would you have actually considered him to BE a thief? I supect not, so tantamount to theft was NOT theft; after all you got it back and would have done so in any case.
Actually, Tamborine, disestablishmentarianism DID rear its head in the media a few years ago, when Prince Charles was about to marry his now wife. As a likely future head of the Established Church in England (C of E), the question of divorce and remarriage was a possible major constitutional stumbling-block.
Had the C of E been DISestablished, the problem would presumably never have arisen and believers in disestablishmentarianism would have been happier.
Had the C of E been DISestablished, the problem would presumably never have arisen and believers in disestablishmentarianism would have been happier.
Mrs O, you can't be 'whelmed' because that's not the etymology of the word!
Originally, if you were 'overwhelmed' with something, then you were in it so deep that it had gone 'over' your 'whelm' or your helmet. By extrapolation, over time it has come to take on a less physical and more emotional connotation.
Underwhelmed is a facetious play on overwhelmed due to misunderstanding about how the word is composed, and dates from the mid-50s.
Originally, if you were 'overwhelmed' with something, then you were in it so deep that it had gone 'over' your 'whelm' or your helmet. By extrapolation, over time it has come to take on a less physical and more emotional connotation.
Underwhelmed is a facetious play on overwhelmed due to misunderstanding about how the word is composed, and dates from the mid-50s.
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