Any language, explain what it means if it’s not English.
For example (as a non-native speaker) I’ve always liked the English word ‘unprecedented’, mostly in the context of fiction. Especially if it paints some entity to be really mystical or wondrous or it’s own never before seen order of magnitude in any way.
Epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhän.
It’s the longest word you can make in Finnish without using compounds, which can be infinite length.
It means, very loosely translated "I wonder if the outcome was a result of their lack of ability to cause others to be disorganized. "
I know, Finnish is an enviable language.
Am I understanding that Finnish has a way to combine words without being considered to be a compound? My very limited exposure to compound words (through German) was the very idea of mashing the words together made them compound.
We have a concept of word inflection, which can be used to replace a lot of words that English would use to denote something being a question, ownership markers, causes and effects etc.
Compounds are fun too, since you can do chaining:
Viskibassokitaravahvistinpiiri
Whisky base guitar amplifier circuit
We have a concept of word inflection, which can be used to replace a lot of words that English would use to denote something being a question, ownership markers, causes and effects etc.
I don’t speak Finnish, but I believe a good example for such an inflection is how in English you can glue an -s to words to make them plural. In some other languages, you say “many word” instead, because they don’t have such an inflection.
Fuck
The Swiss army knife of English. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxpV8D8K9JI
English: Spaghettification (being ripped/stretched apart extremely violently)
Oh and almost forgot: Yeet is an actual word now, so that as well.
German: Zeitgeist (so well known you’ve probably heard it already [“spirit of the times”])
Programming languages: print(“lol, lmao even.”);
antidisestablishmentarianism. its a fun word to say.
i feel the same way about pneumonoultramicroscopicsyllacovolcanoconiosis. it’s fun to say!
it’s not considered a real word anymore (and from what i gather, never really was a real word, in the opinion of the english nerds who decide such things) but i learned how to say it, dammit! i can’t unlearn that!
i might have even learned how to spell it correctly. i didn’t check the spelling as i wrote it in this comment but i also don’t think it matters if i incorrectly spell a word that isn’t really a word. so… yeah…
anyways, it was possibly used as a complicated version of what was known as ‘black lung’ disease, which coal miners in the appalacians contracted from inhaling silica dusts, for anyone curious.
It should be “silico” instead of “syllaco”. It comes from “silicon”, like the dust you mentioned.
Steadfast. As a native English speaker it feels like a very strong, grounded word which also suits its meaning. Originally literally means fixed in place, it’s come to mean loyal and unswerving.
Stalwart Stolid Solid
Subtle, rhythm, and Wednesday. The spelling is just absolutely wild.
It’s about as messy as old British coins and Roman measures.
I also enjoy “one”. There’s just a random “w” in there when you pronounce it.
Yeah, “wan” would make 5000% more sense.
The subtle debt rhymed in rhythm on Wednesday.
I love the word helicopter, because unobviously, the root words aren’t heli and copter, but are “helico”, meaning spiral, and “pter”, meaning wing.
Gruntled. It means pleased or contented. It’s the positive form of the much more common “disgruntled”. If someone is caught in the rain, they may be disgruntled about being wet. But you very rarely hear the word “gruntled” used.
Similarly, “whelmed” is a word, which basically means “submerged” or “engulfed”. You can be _over_whelmed by emotion, meaning you were completely overtaken and swept away by the emotion. You can be _under_whelmed by an experience, meaning it failed to fully meet your expectations. But you can also just be whelmed. The experience did exactly what you expected; no more, no less.
Waffle not the food just the word. It’s fun to say.
Anesthetize
The ‘esth’ right into a t is just about the coolest combination of word sounds in any word in English.
Second favorite is cwm. :)
As someone with a lisp who tends to turn ‘s’ and ‘z’ sounds into a ‘th’ sound, i will respectfully disagree that it is a cool combination. it hurts me a little that i can’t always say words properly but i suppose i could always ask a doctor to aneththetithe me.
I love the word trabajaba (pronounced trah-buh-hah-buh). It means “worked” in Spanish.
My favorite word is cunt.
Very versatile word in Straya and NZ
autodefenestration is a fun one
defenestratafenestra isn’t a real word but i use it to tell people i stopped using Windows and switched to Linux.
There are plenty of feminine given names that roll off the tongue incredibly well. Names like “Anna” and “Elaine” and “Katherine” do not begin to scratch the surface… But again, I pay more attention to names than the average person because I am obsessed with linguistics, and that obsession is what made me click this thread and type out a reply in the first place.
I knew a girl with such a cute name but she was not very good looking so guys used to say “name scam”
Paraprosdokian. A sentence with a twist in it. Eg. Some people are like slinkies: not really good for much but they bring a smile to your face when you see one tumble down a set of stairs.
