Words

[mr_hippo]

From the moment, I started to read I have been fascinated by words - by their meanings, origin, usage and how they have changed over the years and from place to place. One example is 'moggy' which in my home town is a cat but go a few miles away and it means 'mouse'. In my life, I have often been underwhelmed, sometimes overwhelmed but I do not think I have ever been whelmed!
Just been watching a few episodes of the tv programme 'Countdown'; some words that the contestants offer are not accepted. This got me thinking "What is the most used English word that is not in a dictionary?" One quite common word that I cannot find in any dictionary is 'gullible' and I have tried a few spellings of it but cannot find it - I wonder why this is?

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

You ain't catchin' me out with that one you whippersnapper.

 

[yello]

Shame. I genuinely do like words. Well, language usage in general. In wilder moments, I'm tempted to continue my studies in the subject.

Btw, gullible means to be able to eat a seagull in a single sitting.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

The dictionaries I have in the house include the word. From the Oxford English Reference Dictionary:
Gullible: adj. easily persuaded or deceived, credulous.

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

The dictionaries I have in the house include the word. From the Oxford English Reference Dictionary:
Gullible: adj. easily persuaded or deceived, credulous.

Gullible!

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Gullible!

Okay, heres one that is common in Shropshire but isn't in the dictionary: Brivet.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZNsCXgi_fg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[Night Train]

Arch and I were only wondering, a little while ago, where the term 'bull dozer' comes from, 'dozing' in particular as in meaning shoving dirt about.

 

[Arch]

Arch and I were only wondering, a little while ago, where the term 'bull dozer' comes from, 'dozing' in particular as in meaning shoving dirt about.

A limited bit of research online suggested that a 'bull dose' was a heavy pounding or a beating. However that was also disputed. Wiki says it comes from the Dozer, the blade, but I couldn't find an etymology for dozer in that sense - except as a shortening of bulldozer, so it's a circular definition...

 

[Night Train]

A limited bit of research online suggested that a 'bull dose' was a heavy pounding or a beating.

That rings a bell for what I found many decades ago when I last looked it up.

ETA: Oh dear, we are now conversing on line while conversing on a different subject in real life while sitting less then 3' from each other!

 

[Arch]

That's multitasking!

 

[yello]

I was thinking about the French verb 'restaurer' yesterday. It means to restore, as in a putting something back to its original state; a house, car, whatever. However, as a reflexive verb 'se restaurer' it means to eat something. (You don't have reflexives in English as such but 'se restaurer' is like 'restore yourself' Cool huh? Eating is restoring yourself)

I like reflexive verbs. I presume the verb came first then the reflexive came from it. I don't know French well enough to know whether you can invent reflexives that don't exist but my guess is you can. These are the language bends I like. Probably stuff that only mother tongue speakers of a language can get away with. For example, as an ex-president of the USA once remarked, he was 'leisuring'. I like that. Going out for a couple of beers could be 'pinting', etc.

Anyways, I digress, from 'se restaurer' we get to the noun 'restaurant' - a place where one restores oneself! Though, I guess, it could be a car restorer's workshop too!

 

[Globalti]

The word breakfast has also moved away from its original meaning.

On bulldozer, Wikipedia says this:

History of the word

• 19th century: term used in engineering for a horizontal forging press.
• Around 1880: In the USA, a "bull-dose" was a large and efficient dose of any sort of medicine or punishment. 'Bull-dosing' meant a severe whipping or coercion, or other intimidation such as at gunpoint.[7]
• 1886: "bulldozer" meant a large-caliber pistol and the person who wielded it.[7]
• Late 19th century: "bulldozing" meant using big force to push over or through any obstacle.[7]
• 1930s: applied to the vehicle.

These appeared as early as 1929, but were known as "bull grader" blades, and the term "bulldozer blade" did not appear to come into widespread use until the mid 1930s' "Bulldozer" now refers to the whole machine not just the attachment. In contemporary usage, "bulldozer" is often shortened to "dozer".

 

[swee'pea99]

I don't know French well enough to know whether you can invent reflexives that don't exist but my guess is you can.

I rather doubt it. The fundamental difference between ours and the French language is that theirs exists by dictat, ours through democracy.

The Academie is, admittedly, doing a Canute in trying to protect their mother tongue from le weekend and le download, but they try, and words don't get in the dictionary unless approved by the committee. Ours, by joyful contrast, gobbles up bits it likes from other languages and spews out new words and applications as a matter of course, with the lexicographers doing their best to keep up.

Some of these new words are ugly, some rather lovely, but ultimately they live or die by the voice of the people. We either use them or we don't. We decide. Not the academics, not the committee, not the 'experts', us. That's what gives our language its mongrel vitality. Vive l'Anglais!

 

[swee'pea99]

No, not true at all. I think there is still a big misunderstanding about what it does. There are words aplenty that the AF doesn't endorse in every single French dictionary. (like "lunch" and "brunch" for instance!)

Lots of languages, like German and Dutch, have central authorities, which look after spelling and make recommendations, but they don't rule by diktat and if their changes are ignored, they tend to disappear.

Whatever.

(And there's a word that didn't exist, at least with that meaning, when I was a kid!)