100 Things I've Learned -- As I Learn Them #10

[rabid1st]

Hello FList! I haven't been learning much lately, but today, thanks to the online version of the magazine Mental Floss, I learned a plethora of new words. So, I thought I would share them with you all.

First, a list of the winning words from Spelling Bees...http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/128643

My favorite from this list has to be Maculature, 1979--Paper waste and printed materials not intended for reading, AKA junk mail. You might consider those five Oriental Trading catalogs you never signed up for maculature.

Second, a list of regional words that need to go national or international.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/122638

I have several favorite's on this list...arsling and jabble and whoopensocker...

But my overall winner has to be Sneetered (v.), Kentucky--If you’ve ever been hoodwinked, duped, swindled, fleeced or scammed, you done been sneetered. The noun version, sniter, refers to that treacherous person responsible for your unfortunate sneetering.

Unfortunately America may be coming up for a good sneetering soon, thanks to that world-class sniter, Mitt Romney.

Finally, in our Mental Floss word lists, we have a list of words with no English equivalent. Words that express concepts that we English speakers need whole paragraphs to describe. This is the place for the words that mean...falling asleep drunk and naked on the floor...and...moving hot food around in the mouth until it cools off...

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/102722

My personal favorite is Layogenic (Tagalog)--Remember in Clueless when Cher describes someone as “a full-on Monet…from far away, it’s OK, but up close it’s a big old mess”? That’s exactly what this word means.

I hope you all enjoy discovering some new words.

To Learn More About the 100 Things Challenge...go here...http://jdbracknell.livejournal.com/165714.html

Comments

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

I vote for fremdschämen. That deserves to be used more widely, especially in the context of reality television.

[auntiesuze.livejournal.com]

I love words! The regional ones are always fun to check out. Our paper recently had a whole article about Maineisms...and then promptly received loads of messages about words they forgot. We have some great ones like "gawmy" (awkward), "dite" (a little bit of something), "numb" (stupid, as in "numb as a hake" or "numb as a bag of hammers"), and, of course, the ubiquitous adjective "wicked". ;)

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I've always like gawmy and I've never heard of dite. A little dite of cake, hey?

I can't believe it took me this long to answer these comments. Just goes to show that real life can mess with your online schedules.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

A great word for sure. I just had a chance to use it while watching a new reality show called "Take Me Out." I felt fremschamen for the host. I figured the contestants were all attention whores and so not the least bit embarrassed by that tripe.

And I don't generally watch that sort of show, but this one intrigued me enough to check out what the hell it was all about. Turns out it is about an hour long.