Your New English Words

[imron 4,930]

In the enchanted wood and the magic faraway tree there was also plenty of mention of boughs.

[li3wei1 433]

There's also The Golden Bough, by James Frazer, a comparative study of religions. Never read it, but it was name-checked a lot in university courses.

[liuzhou 375]

I, too, thought that 'bough' was commonly known.

 

I've even met Chinese people who know it. That may come from their knowledge of Jane Eyre, the only English book they seem to have heard of.

 

'Bough' is used frequently in the novel.

[tooironic 395]

My Chinese history professor knew it from The Golden Bough. But it was new to me.

[imron 4,930]

Hypnic jerk - when you suddenly jerk wide awake just as you were about to fall asleep.

[Demonic_Duck 1,158]

Ugh, I hate those jerks.

[liuzhou 375]

I'm rather fond of the recently discovered   "cataglottism"

 

[a. F. cataglottisme ‘a kisse or kissing with the tongue’ (Cotgr.), ad. Gr. καταγλώττισµα, -ισµός ‘a lascivious kiss’.] 

 

(I wish to point out that I recently discovered the word, not the concept. Oh, where is she now?)

[Kobo-Daishi 68]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxonian

 

I've been listening to audiobooks of Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn series of mysteries and that's a word they mention in the first of the series, A Man Lay Dead.

 

Being American, I'd never heard the word before. Read the Wikipedia article for the Cambridge equivalent.

 

Kobo.

[Shelley 1,703]

You probably won't have heard of Oxbridge then, which is a term to cover both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxbridge

[roddy 4,714]

Sardiniously. A word so rare it has seven results on Google. It originates (as far as I can tell) in the diaries of Frank Hurley, photographer on Ernest Shackleton's unsuccesful trip South. 

[Melanie1989 62]

Indubitably - a word i recently discovered (i won't even admit to where) and cracked up laughing at. It means certainly, unquestionable. Eg, "It was indubitably apparent he was lying".

 

It sounds so funny to me, but i don't think it's commonly used -correct me if i'm mistaken. Inspired by Clerks, i think i'll "bring it back".

[Shelley 1,703]

There was a famous character that used indubitably as a catch phrase almost. There was also a cartoon dog that wore a scarf, a top hat and a monocle that used it. Now you have jogged my memory and I can't quite put my finger on it, its on the tip of my brain as it were.

 

Its going to bug me til I remember

 

 

Edit:

 

Goofy gophers -

The pair's dialogue is peppered with such over politeness as "Indubitably!", "You first, my dear," and "But, no, no, no. It must be you who goes first!"

 

Also Sherlock Holmes used it a lot. So it wasn't a dog but two goofy gophers.

[imron 4,930]

phlebotomist - someone who draws blood from veins, e.g. for doing blood tests.

[realmayo 1,672]

mondegreen - a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near-homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning

e.g. 'Scuse me while I kiss this guy (from a lyric in the song "Purple Haze" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience: "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen

[tooironic 395]

I knew the last two words. Guess my English is not as bad as I originally thought...

[roddy 4,714]

I had a really good one, but I've forgotten it. I can remember the literal meaning was a flow of water from snowmelt. Anyone know it?

[Shelley 1,703]

water from melting snow that flows over the surface of the ground into streams and rivers = snow melt

 

 

That was all i could find in the dictionary, would be keen to know what you were thinking of cos now my interest has been piqued.

 

And there's another one people may not be familiar with, pique - to excite, arouse interest.

[imron 4,930]

pique - to excite, arouse interest.

An excellent word and one of my pet peeves to see people write it as peak e.g. 'peaked my interest' instead of 'piqued my interested'.

[Shelley 1,703]

One i learnt today - Psychopomp

 

Psychopomps (from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός - psuchopompos, literally meaning the "guide of souls")^[1] are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply to provide safe passage.

 

Classical examples of a psychopomp in Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology are Charon, Hermes, Mercury and Anubis.

 

 

Had to look it up.

[Shelley 1,703]

Inspired by the so now there's a thirteenth 5 year plan song thread, it was mentioned that the song was

 

Also, this song is mad addictive.

 

 

It reminded me of the word for songs that get stuck in your head, they are earworms.