Wonderful Words!

[EvB]

We have had a number of posts on the English language and the mangling thereof. Since that trend started, the grammatical and style quality of my posts has gone down, down, down into the ultimate depths (mostly due to being busy and stressed)


So, my friends, to make amends, I'm starting this (hopefully) fun and educational thread on words, their origin, and their meanings.  ANYTHING to do with language (primarily English, since that is the common language here - but anything goes)

I respectfully request that:

You address one word at a time, unless the words are somehow related and you can explain that.

You feel free to question a word and its meaning as well as offer an explanation for one.

You not feel the need to be "fancy" -- any word you find interesting is fine. remember, Bill Clinton held up an entire nation with an argument over the word "is."

You ask/offer info on how the word evolved, as well as how it is used. 

Modern and long-standing slang count.

Common phrases are as welcome as single words

Variations in spelling, grammar and punctuation are fair game.

Acronyms are also fair game.

Making fun of the entire topic is encouraged, but please, not to the detriment of the opportunity to share and learn (IOW - please don't allow your humor to kill the thread)

And, since our primary focus is English, please discuss the various idiomatic use of words in different regions. (Torch vs. Flashlight is one of my favorite examples - since I have a fear of being burnt, though not of fire itself.)

Please do include puns - but explain them if you think necessary and ask if you don't get it.

Okay then!  Let's have at it!

[EvB]

My first contribution:

opprobrium

infamy; disgrace arising from shameful conduct; vilification(slander); scorn; contempt; Ex. opprobrium hurled against him; ADJ. opprobrious: expressing contempt; shameful or infamous

[Pirate King Atomsk]

Ooh, nice.

Hmm..well, I guess the most unused word I know is: "yonic"

Short Definition:
the opposite of phallic

Long Definition:
A yoni is like a phallus, only female.

Anything vaguely oblong appears phallic to our post-Freudian eyes. Anything with a hole may legitimately be called yonic. Donuts, for example, are yonic. In fact, any significant indentation qualifies. Thus, bellybuttons are yonic too.

[EvB]

Anything vaguely oblong appears phallic to our post-Freudian eyes. Anything with a hole may legitimately be called yonic. Donuts, for example, are yonic. In fact, any significant indentation qualifies. Thus, bellybuttons are yonic too.

True enough -- but CLASSICALLY speaking, yonic images have a sharp-end oval quality.

I particularly like this image - since it is the Yoni Mudra - a mediation posture on the feminie with the hsape crated by the huma hand:

[Pirate King Atomsk]

True enough -- but CLASSICALLY speaking, yonic images have a sharp-end oval quality.

I particularly like this image - since it is the Yoni Mudra - a mediation posture on the feminie with the hsape crated by the huma hand:

It's a vagina, get over it.

[PhantasticSanShiSan]

It's a vagina, get over it.

Oooooooooh, FACED!

[EvB]

Oooooooooh, FACED!

Errrrrrrrrrr . ..  Kinda.  I think I was misunderstood.  I wasn't trying to suggest that a yoni WASN'T female genitals - it clearly IS!  It's just that in cultures where they are more apt to call a snatch a snatch - and feel POSITIVE about it - they will incorporate those images into spiritual ritual without trying to hide what they are.

Nuthin' to get over here.  Mostly, I was thinking that the snatch ain't exactly ROUND.

Still, if a baseball bat can be seen as phalic, a donut can be seen a yonic - seems reasonable enough.

Re: Wonderful Words!

[PhantasticSanShiSan]

Crystal Meth Venus from Die Br?cke