[Carlhole]

Some words are meant only to be used in print because to use them in normal speech makes one sound ridiculously and falsely intellectual.

Such a word is "sycophant". And I've known what that word means for a very long time. But I do remember wondering about it when I first encountered it as a kid. What the hell's that? The elephant at the Bates Motel?

Anyway, it's one of those words that intellectuals often use to sniff at lesser beings than themselves and it means "mean, servile flatterer".

For me these days, however, it's not good enough to merely know the meaning of a word; I have to know where it came from. And it's amusing to discover that the words that fancy-pants intellectuals often use have their origins in the common and vulgar language of ancient streets.

Sycophant

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Online Etymology', '1')537 (in L. form sycophanta), originally "One who shows the fig," from sykon "fig" + phanein "to show." "Showing the fig" was a vulgar gesture made by sticking the thumb between two fingers, a display which vaguely resembles a fig, itself symbolic of a cunt (sykon also meant "vulva"). The story goes that prominent politicians in ancient Greece held aloof from such inflammatory gestures, but privately urged their followers to taunt their opponents. The sense of "mean, servile flatterer" is first recorded in Eng. 1575.

[roccman]

Every time I use the word fuck (and it is not the weekend) my son pops me $10.

This is why I am always broke.

On the weekend I get a free pass to use the word fuck, fucker, fuckward, dick fuck, mother fucker , and mo fo...

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('roccman', 'E')very time I use the word fuck (and it is not the weekend) my son pops me $10.

This is why I am always broke.

On the weekend I get a free pass to use the word fuck, fucker, fuckward, dick fuck, mother fucker , and mo fo...

[lateralus]

My father used to write down a new word everyday and he actually had a tape of words and meanings that he listened to all the time. One word that stuck with me all these years since then is:

Troglodyte

(A member of a primitive race or tribe of cave-dwellers, a caveman)

That word, for some obscure reason, always sends my mind back to my father and his study of the English language.

Nice thread idea by the way. Cheers.

[jboogy]

loathe or loath ?it's too hard to understand , and hate means the same and sounds better. When my daughter says she loathes me she has to say it slow and carefully enunciate every letter , kinda takes the bite out of it and we just laugh.

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Online Etymology', 'T')roglodyte
"cave-dweller," 1555, from L. troglodytae (plural), from Gk. troglodytes "cave-dweller," lit. "one who creeps into holes," from trogle "hole" (from trogein "to gnaw;" see trout) + dyein "go in, dive in." Slang shortening trog "obnoxious person, boor" is recorded from 1956.

[jboogy]

some words that are never used except in old literature; harlot ,strumpet , balderdash , haberdashery , trollop

[Aaron]

nig·gard·ly /ˈnɪgərdli/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[nig-erd-lee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective 1. reluctant to give or spend; stingy; miserly.
2. meanly or ungenerously small or scanty: a niggardly tip to a waiter.
–adverb 3. in the manner of a niggard.

roccman - You don't happen to be from California do ya?

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Orange (Eng.); Orange (Fr.); Naranja (Sp.); Arancia (It.)

Interestingly, none of these terms come from the Latin word for orange, citrus aurentium; instead, they all come from the ancient Sanskrit "naga ranga", which literally means "fatal indigestion for elephants."

In certain traditions the orange, not the apple, is the fruit responsible for original sin. There was an ancient Malay fable--which made its way into the Sanskrit tongue around the Seventh or Eighth Centuries B.C.--that links the orange to the sin of gluttony and has an elephant as the culprit.

Apparently, one day an elephant was passing through the forest, when he found a tree unknown to him in a clearing, bowed downward by its weight of beautiful, tempting oranges; as a result, the elephant ate so many that he burst. Many years later a man stumbled upon the scene and noticed the fossilized remains of the elephant with many orange trees growing from what had been its stomach. The man then exclaimed, "Amazing! What a naga ranga (fatal indigestion for elephants)!"