Words you dislike? Or really like?

budwom said:
good grief, I just saw this, some friends and I have been at time Apostrophe Police on people's signs outside their cottages (at a nearby lake). You just can't possibly accept "The Johnson's" unless everyone happens to refer to the head of household as The Johnson. Not even open for discussion. Yet another example of the decline of our civilization and what used to be a language.
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Can you surreptitiously insert a "^big" into it?

-jk
 
JasonEvans said:
Do not rule out someone tossing out Duke's name to jin up the bidding and make some waves. That kinda thing happens a lot with us.
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Interesting. I've always like the expression "gin up", but I've never known it's origin and I've never seen it spelled j-i-n. I've always seen a leading "g", not a "j". I've often heard the phrase used to describe artificially-incited excitement, so I've sort of assumed that the expression derives from liquor, where "gin up" basically basically mean excitement due to intoxication. But that's only one of four explanations I've now read about, none of which is certain. In roughly reverse order of likelihood:

1. "Gin" derives from "engine", which pre-industrial revolution meant "clever" but also had the secondary meaning of "contrive" or "trick". In this sense, then, "gin up" is both complimentary and derogatory at the same time. You are doing something clever, but it's basically a clever ruse.

2. "Gin up" is short for "ginger up", which is a racing expression from Victorian England, and basically means you're sticking a ginger root up a horse's bum before the race to make the horse appear excited and attentive and draw bets, even though the horse's excitement isn't at all about the race itself. Pretty much fully derogatory there.

3. The aforementioned "liquored up" version, also fully derogatory.

4. Jason's "jin up" version, which comes from "djinn" or "genie" and pretty much means "derived from magic". So in that sense it's a little more light-hearted and humorous than that others. After all, djinn are known for having a bit of a sense of humor, albeit kind of a dark humor.


It seems that Jason's version is the least-favored as the original origin, but the spelling seems to be trending. Here's one article I drew from, in case you're curious.
 
dudog84 said:
I see what you did there. Braggart. :p
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I am. My strategy back when I ran a lot of 10k races was to position myself behind a callipygian person, my pals and I found it very inspiring. We were just discussing this strategy this week, it cut several minutes off our time if we found the right pace butt.
 
dudog84 said:
Callipygian

Sorry, you're gonna have to look up the meaning yourself.
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Had to look that up - good word. I think different people have different practical definitions of this term. OPK is clearly a Kardashian fan (not surprising). Others prefer the opposite extreme - minimal gluteus maximus. To each his/her own.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
Had to look that up - good word. I think different people have different practical definitions of this term. OPK is clearly a Kardashian fan (not surprising). Others prefer the opposite extreme - minimal gluteus maximus. To each his/her own.
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I didn't look up the definition, but my recollection is that the meaning is "shapely," which leaves lots of room for interpretation.
 
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 said:
I didn't look up the definition, but my recollection is that the meaning is "shapely," which leaves lots of room for interpretation.
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Calli means beautiful in Greek, that there is your root...etymology was the best high school course I ever took even if the teacher eventually was found guilty of pedophilia (ouch)...
 
Ok, I have a new despised word. Well, the word is not new, and I don't hate it when it is used the way we have always used it.....the word is flowers.

Perfectly fine word.

But can we please, for the love of all that is holy, stop saying 'i think you have to give him his flowers'? I can't listen to a sports talk show on the radio without hearing this.

I used to think 'props,' as in 'give him his props' was kind of annoying, but can we get 'props' back in place of 'flowers'? Please? If I never hear 'give him his flowers' again that would be great. K. Thxbye
 
rsvman said:
Ok, I have a new despised word. Well, the word is not new, and I don't hate it when it is used the way we have always used it.....the word is flowers.

Perfectly fine word.

But can we please, for the love of all that is holy, stop saying 'i think you have to give him his flowers'? I can't listen to a sports talk show on the radio without hearing this.

I used to think 'props,' as in 'give him his props' was kind of annoying, but can we get 'props' back in place of 'flowers'? Please? If I never hear 'give him his flowers' again that would be great. K. Thxbye
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Wow, No Flowers For Algernon — er, rsvman.
 
OldPhiKap said:
Wow, No Flowers For Algernon — er, rsvman.
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That books is horrifically out of date...and still brilliant, if you can get past the parts that are relics of times gone by. I know you're just playing games with the title, but I just wanted to say that's in the pantheon of all-time great books for me.
 
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