by compound complex 33 Replies latest jw friends
Greetings, Fellow Lexophiles:
Last night, I watched a cool road movie, The Trip, with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. They were counseled by Steve's dad to take an "anticlockwise" route home, rather than the clockwise one Steve had proposed. Here in the US we use "counterclockwise." I had never before heard "anticlockwise."
Do you have some words new (or old) to you to share?
THANKS!
anticlockwise
British
In the opposite direction to the way in which the hands of a clock move round.
As our English Grammar curriculum was British based [we were once a Colony] I have used anti- all my life.
But of course I am not attempting to counter your version and cause you to be anti-me !
Never would I, should I, could I be anti-AFRIKANMAN! However, since I am older than you, I am ante-AFRIKANMAN.
THANKS!
I think other languages have better words than English for certain things.
We use the words "full stop" rather than "period" for the little dot at the end of a sentence. I think us Brits have the better term than the Americans on that one. But I do prefer the American pronunciation for evolution, here it's generally pronounced "evil-ution".
I think the German nein is much better than our "no".
I like the French word parlais (speak) and think it's a beautiful word.
Thanks, pale.emperor, for your thoughts. I agree on "full stop."
Yes, French is beautiful and so, too, Italian. Some time back I recall that the French word for twilight, crepuscule, was voted the most beautiful French word.
Right back atcha, fellow lexophile.
Let me start by saying that I think you Yanks have it right.
Counterclockwise is much better than anticlockwise.
Why do I think this? Well, us Brits have counterargument, counterpoint and counterbalance.
Anti-argument and anti-point would be so lame. XD
I've recently been trying to teach myself Arabic. Reading and writing the Arabic script is the easiest aspect of it to learn! XD
I also learnt German at school and would describe myself as intermediate in that language. So my suggestions for interesting words might have an 'exotic' flavour. XD Hope you don't mind none.
Here are are two interesting Arabic words: jameel ('beautiful') and qabeeh ('ugly'). Jameel is easy to pronounce and you're almost smiling as you pronounce it. Qabeeh is harder to pronounce - you have to pronounce 'q' at the back of your throat and you also have to pronounce 'h' at the end of the word. Qabeeh means 'ugly' and it's also an ugly-sounding word.
Here's a favourite German word: Fussgaengerzone.
It means 'pedestrian precinct'.
Let's break it down ... Fussgaenger means someone who goes on foot ('foot-goer') and Zone means area/zone. Pretty neat, huh?
Pretty neat, huh? -- LUHE
YES!
Thanks for the look into other languages.
Crepuscular and donnee'.
Those were on Jeopardy! and an online newspaper.
I knew about crepuscular, but not donnee' - such beautiful words.
Thanks for this, CoCo.
Scion.
Not new, but Chappaquiddick brings it to mind.
Firstly; love love love The Trip movies. Hilarious banter with gorgeous scenery and luscious music who could ask for more.
Had never thought about anticlockwise vs the american version counterclockwise before and now I'm like oh yeah of course, you yanks are so funny. Counter itself is a very interesting word.
I heard an American say quag in quagmire the other day like quack. I pronounce the quag in quagmire like frog quogmire.
Quagmire another interesting word.
One of my favourite words is donnybrook - just love that word.
