In Your Own Words

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by PsychoticEpisode, Jul 18, 2009.

  1. PsychoticEpisode It is very dry in here today Valued Senior Member

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    Ever make up a word or words of your own? Maybe an accidental blurting out of some combination of vowels and consonants that seem to fit the situation you were in at the time? Perhaps mispronunciation enabled you to coin a new word that worked better than the real word. How you remember words and how your brain interprets them may also unwittingly allow you to establish a new word or phrase'

    Recently in the Religion sub-forum I came up with psychocryptictheology. A combination of two common English prefixes seemed to fit perfectly in from of the word theology for the purpose of getting my point across. Several times in my life I have come up with new words, not intentionally, but accidental.

    One day at work I blurted out the pseudo-word constabulate when a person in the office was shuffling paper. People took the word on and started using it every time somebody did something, no matter what. Like.....did you and the missus do a little constabulating last night. It was good for morale and worth a few laughs.

    Mispronunciation is one way for great sounding words to appear that act as a substitute for the real word you're trying to utter. My young daughter used to always pronounce the word catsup (or ketchup) as pekitch. I still pronounce it that way whenever I see a bottle of Heinz's best.

    How our brain interprets what we hear can also lead to some exciting new terminology. Jose Feliciano recorded a Christmas song many years ago. I was a youngster and wasn't up on my Spanish, so whenever Jose would belt out Feliz Navidad I thought he was saying Release Puppy Dogs. Imagine my surprise and embarrassment when I learned of the true lyric.

    So how many of you are willing to share your manufactured words with us. Perhaps we can judge their quality and possibly lobby Webster"s to adopt it. Or maybe we can have a good laugh.
     
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  3. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    Yes.
    The first one of mine that springs to mind I invented for the title of a poem.
    Inamerrata

    Based on "inamorata" - someone you're besotted with and "errata" - list of mistakes.

    Kids' mispronunciation are sometime a great way of making you take a new look at word you already know. And most families have "in words" stemming from such mispronunciations - usually saved carefully to embarrass you when you introduce your new G/F/ B/F to the parents.

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    Known (in the UK at least) as "Twisted Lyrics".
    Elvis Costello's song Pump It Up used to be ALWAYS sung as "Puppy Dog" in my teens, and of course the most famous one I know of is Desmond Decker's Israelites.

    "Wake up in the morning,
    same thing for breakfast"
     
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2009
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  5. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Infotainment...what I call the news.
     
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  7. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    Is that a word that you made up, or are you merely passing on an existing word?
     
  8. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    I've called some people here a 'human-supremacist', but I'm not sure if that's actually a new word (or rather a new contraction of words).
    Probably not..
     
  9. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I actually made that word up over 30 years ago!

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  10. EndLightEnd This too shall pass. Registered Senior Member

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    I made up a work the other day at work, fuckitability.

    If something has a high fuckitability then theres a good chance im just gonna say "fuck it".
     
  11. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    jokinya

    Its what my kids say when I catch them in a lie. "dang Mom, I was just jokinya"
     
  12. tuberculatious Banned Banned

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    overfunctional.
     

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