Thursday, December 31, 2015

Words

It’s the last day of the year! And it’s an etymology day! So let’s have some fun by looking at words that sound dirty but really aren’t.

1. Tittle actually is the word for the dot above lowercase i’s and j’s.

2. Interrobang is just the word for !? or ?!. It just sounds dirty because of the “bang”.

3. Ligatures are two or three letters joined together, like æ, as well as what you tie someone’s hands with when you lock them in your basement.

4. Genericide isn’t the killing of generals. It’s the word for using a brand name as a generic name for an item, like how we usually call them thermoses when they’re really insulated containers. Why it has the suffix associated with killing a human, I don’t know.


Is there any word out there that you’ve always thought sounded dirty even if it wasn’t? And what are you doing for New Year’s Eve?

5 comments:

  1. Ligatures just took on a whole new meaning for me. LOL

    We are doing our usual tonight - watching a lame Bowl game while putting together a puzzle.

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  2. They do sound like dirty words... I love your addition to #3!

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  3. There are, but I can't think of any right now.

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  4. I had never heard of #3 & 4. #1 & 2 I am familiar with.

    I've committed to going over to my family's place tonight. We usually play board games.

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  5. It's already 2016 here. I spent NYE with the kids insisting they had to stay up until midnight. They had a 'party' in one of their bedrooms and I drank champagne and wrote and watched Zombieland....

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Please validate me.