Sunday, October 4, 2009

My weekend word(s)

I got out yet another dictionary this weekend: QPB Dictionary of Difficult Words. I flipped several times and here's what I came up with.

Folks, I know this is very exciting. Please stay seated and hold your applause until the end. Otherwise some words will think you like them more than other words.

bogie: wheeled undercarriage of a rail vehicle; railway coach; truck for coal, etc.

imago: adult form of insect.

pathodontia: study of dental diseases.

triplopia: triple vision.

This dictionary also clears up some issues in pronunciation: all of them riveting. I can't make pronunciation letters, so use your imagination as I help you with your next trip to the coffee shop for breakfast:

Scone: Neither [****] nor [****] has any indisputable claim to be the 'correct' form, and the choice is largely a matter of personal preference. In Britain, [****] is probably commoner, in America [****]. The word should not be confused with Scone, the name of a Scottish village, pronounced [***].

So if you mess this up and accidentally order a [***], you may be buying a Scottish village the way Kim Basinger bought a town in Georgia. Be careful out there.

1 comment:

Rose said...

Hehehehe--good post!