Oct 26th, 2009
Help save the words!
Oxford Fajar (a subsidiary of Oxford University Press) has launched a campaign called Save the Words.
“Each year hundreds of words are dropped from the English language. . . . Today 90% of everything we write is communicated by only 7,000 words. You can change all that. Help save the words!”
There’s a section where you can adopt a word, complete with a pledge to use that word as often as possible. You can search for a particular word or have one randomly generated for you. I chose the latter option, and as soon as I saw the usage example I knew I had found my word:*
teterrimous
adj.
most foul“The ninja inadvertently announced his presence when he let out a most teterrimous fart.”
__________
*Because ninjas are cool and butt-related humor is hilarious.
IHmm. Would that sentence actually read as “most most foul”? ;)
But why such a teterrimous example? The spell check doesn’t like it either.
@Frank: Spell check? We don’t need no stinkin’ spell check!
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Okay, come on, people–get over to the website and adopt a word, then tell me what it is!
OK, mine is “magophony,” which means “a massacre of magi or priests.” I will find a way to incorporate this into my language somehow…hmmm… I do like the website’s sentence suggestion: “An outbreak of magophony in Italy caused a sudden drop in applications for theological studies.” Haha!
How do you choose?
I love all three…
odynometer
n.
instrument for measuring pain
I’m not saying Steven in bad company, but he scores an 11 on the odynometer.
aquabib
n.
water-drinker
“An aquabib by day, alcoholic by night” – that’s your grandfather.
theomeny
n.
the fury of God
Tempting theomeny, Barry the bee lied about his bee ancestors: Bee Gandhi, Bee Attila, Beejesus.
@Shannah: That is a most excellent word!
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@Katie: Gosh, it IS hard to choose. I guess you’ll just have to adopt all three.
I am SO doing this.
LOVE the ninja sentence (in the anime that I watch, the main ninja does that)!
Will look for your word in future posts.
@JD: Okay, now you HAVE to tell me what you’re watching that has a farting ninja. That is definitely something I need to put on my to-watch list.