this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
28 points (100.0% liked)

Chat

7497 readers
41 users here now

Relaxed section for discussion and debate that doesn't fit anywhere else. Whether it's advice, how your week is going, a link that's at the back of your mind, or something like that, it can likely go here.


Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

What nonsensical words do you like to use in your not so everyday speech?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] idiomaddict@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There’s a German word, schnabulieren, which, though it has a totally different meaning, occupies the same niche as “to dis’ someone.” If you had to guess when they were from, you’d think the eighties, but it was actually the 15th century. “Schnabul-” comes from “Schnabel,” meaning “beak,” though in this case it’s more like “duckbill”, and basically “izate,” as a suffix. It means to snack, but really it’s more to snarf something. It was invented as a joke, to mix Latin and Germanic roots was considered funny at the time.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Medicine still thinks mixing Greek and Latin roots is fun, for example: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.