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Quodlibet

quod·li·bet \Quod"li*bet\ (kw[o^]d"l[i^]*b[e^]t), n. [L., what you please.] 1. A nice point; a subtilty; a debatable point. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Also quodlibertarian and quodlibetic - purely academic!

English Spelling? Does English really work this way?

* Pronounce "ghoti".
* Pronounce "Phtholognyrrh".
* Spell "coffee" completely wrong.
Go to the bottom of the page for answers!
Showing posts with label Dictionary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dictionary. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Samples of Wicked Words from the Wickedary

by Mary Daly with Jane Caputi.

  • ACADEMENTIA n: normal state of persons
    in academia, marked by varying and progressive
    degrees; irreversible deterioration of faculties
    of intellectuals
  • BATTLE-AX, n: a Raging, Dreadless, Unconquerable
    Crone BORED, CHAIRMAN OF THE n: any bore-ocratically
    appointed bore who occupies a chair--a position
    which enables him to bore others all the
    more
  • CAT/EGORICAL IMPERATIVE n: the Call of
    the Wild; the Summons of the Weird, conveyed
    through the Mediumship of a Feline Familiar
  • COCKALORUM n: a self-important little
    cock. Examples: Napoleon, Andy Warhol, Fiorello
    La Guardia, Mickey Mouse
  • COCK-AND-BULL STORY n: patriarchal history
  • CRONE n: Great Hag of History, long-lasting
    one; Survivor of the perpetual witchcraze
    of patriarchy
  • CRONE-OLOGY n: Radical Feminist chronology
  • HAG n: a Witch, Fury, Harpy who haunts
    the Hedges/Boundaries of partiarchy, frightening
    fools and summoning Weird Wandering women
    into the Wild
  • POSITIVELY REVOLTING HAG: a stunning,
    beauteous Crone; one who inspires positive
    revulsion from phallic institutions and
    morality, inciting Others to Acts of Pure
    Lust
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Answers:
  • ghoti is pronounced: fish, 'gh' as in tough, 'o' as in women and 'ti' as in motion! Attributed to George Bernard Shaw by some. Visit GHOTI for a rant against this "joke" about english pronuciation.
  • Phtholognyrrh pronounced: Turner, According to a Mr. Turner who insisted on signing his name that way according to Robert M. Rennick in I Didn't Catch Your Name, Verbatim® Vol. XXix, No2. Mr Turner explains: " Look, the phth is like phthisic, which is pronounced t; olo is like colonel, which is pronounced ur; gn as in gnat is pronounced n; and yrrh as in myrrh, is pronounced er. So you have Turner. Nothing could be simpler." Reader's Digest, Jan . 1941, p. 42
  • coffee spelled completely incorrectly is kauphy! or kaughy!