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General discussion (archive)The Overly Fancy Word Thread(108 posts)(108 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 15, 2014
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cmdr_flashheart: One thing a friend told me was that the Finnish language doesn't have the sound for "b", so a word like "bacon" translates to pekoni; I think it's interesting how some languages don't have certain sounds :]
I don't know how it is in Finnish, but in Japanese I think of it as interchangeable. I wouldn't say Japanese don't have "L" or "V', just that L and V are largely interchangeable with R and B.

If you're not used to it and have a name like Beverley (for example), it will take some getting used to, but I think many people would adapt to it quicker than they realize.
Posted March 15, 2014
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cmdr_flashheart: I don't know either Finnish or German, so I have no idea how to pronoun those words :]

One thing a friend told me was that the Finnish language doesn't have the sound for "b", so a word like "bacon" translates to pekoni; I think it's interesting how some languages don't have certain sounds :]

I typed in bacon, but you can search for others. I am sure there are sites which compile etymologies for the vocab of other languages.
Bak is certainly recognizable in bacon with your etymology, from Swedish.

I would as such recommend German over Finnish - they do have "die Finsternis" and +100 M speakers, as opposed to Finns with some 5 M, albeit charming, speakers and some celebrity fans such as JRR Tolkien. ;-)

We do not naturally have soft vowels - but we can - "la politesse oblige."

Bulvaani.

This is a fabulous Finnish word loaned from Russian - which designates an impotent front-man in business dealings, a dummy.
Posted March 15, 2014
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TStael: And if only someone would post from which origin "die Finsternis" came forth.
Thy wish is my command :-)

Sorry, German only.

Friedrich Kluge, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Bearb. von Elmar Seebald. 24., durchgesehene und erweiterte Auflage. Berlin ; New York : de Gruyter, 2002, S. 295 zu finster:
Adjektiv, 8. Jahrhundert, mittelhochdeutsch vinster, althochdeutsch finstar, altsächsisch finistar, finistri* „Finsternis“. Das Wort hat in dieser Form keine Vergleichsmöglichkeit. Daneben steht aber besser vergleichbar mittelhochdeutsch dinster, althochdeutsch dinstar, so daß angenommen werden kann, daß vorausliegendes þ- unregelmäßig zu f- abgewandelt ist. Zugrunde liegt eine o-Bildung zu indogermanisch * temos- „dunkel“ (->Dämmer-). Der Bildung entspricht lateinisch tenebrae „Finsternis“ (aus * temes-rā) und altindisch támisrā „dunkle Nacht“ (* temarā), ursprünglich also * temā-os- + -ro.
Posted March 15, 2014
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Wishbone: One of my favourites is robotics. Granted, it's not significantly sesquipedalian, but I find the origin of the word funny. Isaac Asimov coined it back in 1941 without knowing it. He used it in his robot stories, thinking the word already existed. As it happens, it didn't exist, so he is credited with being the originator of the word.
Actually, it's derived from <i>robotnik</i>, the Czech word for slave, as first used by Karel Capek in his 1920s play "R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)". Asimov was merely building on what Capek started.
Post edited March 15, 2014 by TwoHandedSword
Posted March 15, 2014
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Wishbone: One of my favourites is robotics. Granted, it's not significantly sesquipedalian, but I find the origin of the word funny. Isaac Asimov coined it back in 1941 without knowing it. He used it in his robot stories, thinking the word already existed. As it happens, it didn't exist, so he is credited with being the originator of the word.
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TwoHandedSword: Actually, it's derived from <i>robotnik</i>, the Czech word for slave, as first used by Karel Capek in his 1920s play "R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)". Asimov was merely building on what Capek started.
I know that. I didn't say he coined the word "robot". I know about Karel Capek's play. But he was the first to use the word "robotics" as the science (or discipline, if you will) of designing robots. And he did it unknowingly, thinking the word existed already. Naturally, that is what it would eventually be called regardless, but he was the first person to actually use it.
Posted March 15, 2014
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TwoHandedSword: Actually, it's derived from <i>robotnik</i>, the Czech word for slave, as first used by Karel Capek in his 1920s play "R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)". Asimov was merely building on what Capek started.
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Wishbone: I know that. I didn't say he coined the word "robot". I know about Karel Capek's play. But he was the first to use the word "robotics" as the science (or discipline, if you will) of designing robots. And he did it unknowingly, thinking the word existed already. Naturally, that is what it would eventually be called regardless, but he was the first person to actually use it.
and as a sidenote - the "slaves" in R.U.R. were not robots, but closer to androids or clones. Asimov did actually create the term for a mechanical being, though it was not his intention. Roboti does not mean slave, by the way, but worker (or something similar...) - so the title of the play translate to something like "Rossum's Universal Workers"
Post edited March 15, 2014 by amok
Posted March 15, 2014
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Wishbone: But he was the first to use the word "robotics" as the science (or discipline, if you will) of designing robots. And he did it unknowingly, thinking the word existed already.
Ah. That makes sense. Fair enough; I concede the point.

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amok: and as a sidenote - the "slaves" in R.U.R. were not robots, but closer to androids or clones. Asimov did actually create the term for a mechanical being, though it was not his intention. Roboti does not mean slave, by the way, but worker (or something similar...) - so the title of the play translate to something like "Rossum's Universal Workers"
Considering the time period in which it was written — less than a decade after the Bolshevik Revolution — it makes sense that Capek was exploring the theme of a specially created, dedicated working class with no real option for advancement. Aldous Huxley would take it one step further in Brave New World, with his idea of Epsilons that were specially bred to be good for little more than grunt labor.

What made Asimov's robots unique is that they had the inherent intelligence to be much more, but were still trapped by the sociopolitical fears of a society that wasn't about to make room for an intellectual co-equal, much less a superior. Though that did eventually change as well; you might even say it became the foundation for some of his later work.
Posted March 16, 2014
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TStael: And if only someone would post from which origin "die Finsternis" came forth.
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toxicTom: Thy wish is my command :-)

Sorry, German only.
Sehr schön, vielen Dank! :-D

I can sort of see the dunkel-dinster-finstar to Finsternis linkage, but it is rather a leap and bound to my mind from temes-ra though! Very poetic word, and I think, very ur-German, too.
Posted March 17, 2014
I kind of like the German word "Fanal". It would translate as "beacon" to english (as in "beacon of hope") but only in German it has this certain ring to it.
Posted March 17, 2014
fancy words are cool, they make and keep a language from being dumbed down too much.

The words i dont like (in any language) are the "filler words" when used excessively and without particular reason.

http://www.examiner.com/article/um-filler-words-and-like-how-they-function-uh-language-you-know
Posted March 19, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: Although if you ask most of the guys I share the office with, I have a predilection to use words of brobdignagian scope with dismaying frequency.
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Wishbone: An interesting example of a word from literature which has been incorporated into the actual language itself.

Can anyone come up with more?

One of my favourites is robotics. Granted, it's not significantly sesquipedalian, but I find the origin of the word funny. Isaac Asimov coined it back in 1941 without knowing it. He used it in his robot stories, thinking the word already existed. As it happens, it didn't exist, so he is credited with being the originator of the word.

Edit:
Oh, and chortle and galumphing, both from Lewis Carroll's poem Jabberwocky, are officially recognized words now.
I would proffer cyberspace and the opposite meatspace, although they're not especially lengthy words. Supercallifragilisticexpiallidocious would be a preposterously long contrived word from literature, but it's referenced above.

Depending on your definition of "literature", I could offer "jovial" and "serene"?
Posted March 20, 2014
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TwoHandedSword: What made Asimov's robots unique is that they had the inherent intelligence to be much more, but were still trapped by the sociopolitical fears of a society that wasn't about to make room for an intellectual co-equal, much less a superior. Though that did eventually change as well; you might even say it became the foundation for some of his later work.
I see what you did there ;-)
Posted March 20, 2014
Ristel von Fistel Blabver. Famous Dutch count named after a nasty type of skin infection.
Posted March 20, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: Depending on your definition of "literature", I could offer "jovial" and "serene"?
Really? Where are they from? Thinking about the root of jovial, I'm guessing it's derived from Roman mythology. According to Merriam-Webster the origin of serene is:
Origin of SERENE

Middle English, from Latin serenus clear, cloudless, untroubled
First Known Use: 15th century
So not so much literature for that one. Both words date back hundreds of years though. I was hoping for more modern examples.
Posted March 20, 2014
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tinyE: antidisestablishmentarianism
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TwoHandedSword: Actually, it's one of those words early dictionaries kind-of-sort-of made up to look cool.
No, that one's a real word, going back to Victorian England; Gladstone supposedly used it, though I cannot find it in his works. More likely it was used by others to describe his position; early in his career, he was a vocal opponent of the movement to disestablish the Church of England.

Defenestration is another grand old word. There were two notorious acts of defenestration in Prague, Pražská defenestrace, whence the word in other languages. The first, in 1419, started the Hussite Wars; the second, in 1618, started the Thirty Years' War. (To be fair, conditions would have boiled over into war soon enough, but throwing the opposition out the window does escalate an already nasty situation.)

[Walt Kelly, "Late Early Poop on the Jack Acid"]
"Yes! Defenestrate him in the tradition of our country! Justice to all traitors!"
"Don't defenestrate him! Throw him out the window! Justice is too good for him!"
Post edited March 20, 2014 by cjrgreen
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General discussion (archive)The Overly Fancy Word Thread(108 posts)(108 posts)
(108 posts)