We have partnered with TradePub to bring you free industry magazines and resources - no coupons or credit cards required!

Visit: englishforums.tradepub.com


1 2
Share this topic:
Delmobile  +  678582 Sun, 22 Feb 09 06:42 PM
 Just came across another one in a post on a political blog:

Now that I think of it, Senator Shelby, I haven't seen your birth certificate. Is natural-bornedness and citizenship a requirement for your office?[italics mine] 

 

It seems to me that these words, at least in English, are usually created in a somewhat mocking spirit. Sometimes playful mockery, and sometimes more biting. I'll have to check the books on my shelf, but Tom Wolfe springs to mind as a writer who is given to this kind of thing. 

 

No need to thank me -this is really fun. Like a language scavenger hunt. And yes, the piano is my daughter's major instrument, but she also plays in a percussion ensemble and plays French horn well enough to march in the school band, if no better. This summer she wants to take viola lessons Surprise

Joined on Wed, Jan 2 2008
Contributing Member 1,082
Delmobile  +  681037 Fri, 27 Feb 09 11:33 PM
 I think I've found another nonce word - it's not in Webster's, at any rate. "Anonymised," meaning to make anonymous.

 

A new nationwide study (pdf) of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider finds little variation in consumption between states.

 

Link

 

 

MichalS  +  681133 Sat, 28 Feb 09 08:34 AM
That'll do nicely, thanks Smile

I got a question concerning non-resembling. Supposing you were not linguistically creative, how would you paraphrase this? Is not resembling used then or do you normally use resemble as a verb, as in "The boys don't resemble each other".

And btw: would that be okay to say:  these not resembling boys instead of non-resembling boys?
Because the first option sounds kind of weird to my unnative (is there such a word? Big Smile) ear, just as if non-resembling had hidden "each other" in itself which not resembling lacks. So: these not resembling each other boys = these non-resembling boys.. If I'm talking nonsense, just say it. Smile


Thanks
Joined on Sat, Oct 22 2005
Poland
Full Member 109
Delmobile  +  681280 Sat, 28 Feb 09 07:06 PM

 I don't think "not resembling" is technically ungrammatical, but the use of resemble as a verb is certainly more common and sounds much more natural. 

 "Non-resembling" doesn't imply  "each other." You'd still need a noun. 

 

There is a contest for cakes resembling important landmarks. Gina is entering a creation that resembles the Eiffel Tower. 

Gosh, I just baked Jim's birthday cake. Maybe I could enter that. 

What does his cake resemble?

 It's a non-resembling cake, I'm afraid. Just an ordinary round one. It has six layers with dark chocolate filling. Maybe I could stick a toy dinosaur in it and say it's supposed to resemble the La Brea tar pits. 

 

Delmobile  +  681552 Sun, 01 Mar 09 03:10 PM
 Okay, here I am again. We had another couple to dinner last night and I noted two nonce-words, one from me and one from a guest. 

First - I was talking about a man who had broken up with his long-time girlfriend and describing how he'd told us about it. I said, "And then he said - I can't remember the exact phrase he used, but something assholey." 

Another noun + y formation I thought of just now is a term you hear a lot on fashion and home decorating TV shows, "matchy-matchy." ("If we use the plaid for the curtains, we should use something else for the bedspread and then yet another fabric for the chair. We don't want it to be too matchy-matchy.") 

Second from last night - I asked the guests, who live fairly nearby, if they'd walked or driven to our house. I said, "When I saw you coming up the front walk, you were walking with so much verve." The husband of the other couple replied, "If we'd walked all the way from our house, we would have been pretty verveless by the time we got here, believe me."

MichalS  +  684013 Sat, 07 Mar 09 02:16 PM
Thank you for the new bunch of words. I need to ask you a question - what do you make out of bornedness? How come the -ed- is there? Thanks in advance!
Delmobile  +  684507 Sun, 08 Mar 09 09:51 PM
 I think the -ed is there to make the word sound more awkward and hence funnier. Also, of course the correct word is "born," so "borned" sounds like something an ignorant person would say, again making it a bit funnier.
MichalS, 257 days ago
Thank you, Del!
1 2
© MediaCet Ltd. 2009, v5.0.3607.32596. All content posted by our users is a contribution to the public domain, this does not include imported usenet posts.*
For web related enquires please contact us on webmaster@mediacet.com, status updates are available at status.mediacet.com.
*Usenet post removal: Use 'X-No-Archive'. You may not have understood that your posts would end up in the public domain. Please send proof of the poster's email, we will remove immediately.