Smile Words Responses
Last week we asked people about their favorite words ... words that make them smile and to use at least three of them in a sentence. Thanks to all of you who played with this and here are the responses:
From Alex (in case you missed it in the Comments section of the original message): (JW: Alex is dubbed the unofficial king of Smile Words)
I began writing my autobiography, "Foibles, Pecadillos, and Conundrums" but realized that it was really a "time toilet," since my life was really tomfoolery...could be the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease) acting up!
From Brent Toellner:
I’m not even sure that it’s a real word ... in fact, one of my clients trademarked it, but it came out of a focus group that we had about dipping ice cream out of the carton and how annoying it was when you got "knucklemuck" when trying to get the last bit out of the bottom.
It’s not really a word, but we all knew what she meant when she said it, and it really resonated with us. New packaging is forthcoming.
From Paul Harris:
check out website regarding green coke.
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/green.asp
(JW: Thanks Paul for clueing us into this urban myth!)
From Jessica Burbrink: (who puts a tasty spin on a super word)
Some of my favorites are under synonyms for the word "thing":
Doohickey
Whatchamacallit
Thingamajigger
Thingamabob
Others:
Lickety-split - fast
Brouhaha- a brawl
Gargantuan - big
Asparagus - a vegetable (also a frustration word used by my 4 year old one day several weeks ago)
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (Spelling?) Not sure what it means exactly but it always makes me think of the Mary Poppins song.
A gargantuan doohickey, whatchamacallit, and thingamabob became involved in a brouhaha lickety-split, all while eating asparagus that was supercalifragilisticexpialadelicious.
From De Wet Coetzee:
Two of my favourite words or phrases are in Afrikaans (South Africa).
The first got value when a Iranian lecturer we had for business economics in Windhoek, Namibia (at the University of Namibia) pointed out that she spoke no or little Afrikaans, but that there was one word that just didn't have the same impact or significance in any other language. This word is "Deurmekaar" which means confused, but literally translated reads "through each other" or all mixed up. Confused just does not say the same thing!
The second is also an Afrikaans term "Ja-Nee" which literally translated is "yes-no". It is generally used as friendly confirmations like "yes (ja-nee) you'll have your work cut out for you" or "(ja -nee) it looks like another hot summer". The special ness is the contradiction of the term and the non committal attitude it sometimes reflects.
From Martyn Carr:
The huggermugger flibbertigibbet was completely bamboozled by all this bafflegab codswallop.
The discombobulated interviewer exclaimed “cryminintly” as he was hornswoggled and completely gobsmacked when the kerfuffle regarding the story of the lollygagging ninnyhammer and his gooleganger wove together addlepated recipes for rutabagas and nasturtiums in a cockamamie manner which was in turn compounded by the bafflegab by the local jurisdiction which prohibits such codswallop, for as any persnickety cook truly knows the tastes will be catywampous unless an aardvark is included in the dish which is the huggermugger of all but the most flibbertigibbet of individuals.
Just thought you would like to know the late breaking news. Alex
From Jonathan Vehar: