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Fun with Homonyms....and the like

Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

UncleRay said:
I am wanting to understand what your problem is.:confused:
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What they mean is "should have" and they write "should of" because they have only heard it spoken and don't understand the meaning of what they are now writing. Same with "could of" instead of "could have."
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

another example of why the game "telephone" can be so much fun.....


Apparently there was a person who went to Sunday services every week as a child from well before he could read. There is a ritual prayer that includes a line that "Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate" which was mumbled / muttered quickly as everyone said it by rote. Our friend, who heard something like "punch us pilot" had to try to make sense out of these syllables that sounded like nonsense, in the context of suffering, and so the story goes he thought the words were "Jesus suffered under a bunch of spiders" until he was old enough to know how to read and see the actual words for himself.

Not sure if it is true or apocryphal....


Good thing Mel Gibson never heard that story, I suppose....;)
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

goldy_331 said:
What they mean is "should have" and they write "should of" because they have only heard it spoken and don't understand the meaning of what they are now writing. Same with "could of" instead of "could have."
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Sorry, Goldy, that is one of my enormous pet peeves, too. I was just trying to highlight the curious mid-Westernism of "to be ____ing." In my post I said "I am wanting to" instead of "I want to." I suppose the English is correct, I've just always found it odd.
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

UncleRay said:
Sorry, Goldy, that is one of my enormous pet peeves, too. I was just trying to highlight the curious mid-Westernism of "to be ____ing." In my post I said "I am wanting to" instead of "I want to." I suppose the English is correct, I've just always found it odd.
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Yeah, I overlooked the odd phraseology you used and didn't realize you were peeved about it as well. Ever been to Texas? Down there you might could hear some different expressions too.;)
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

My sister returned to Chicago after about 10 years living in Indiana having lost the ability to use the infinitive "to be."

ex. The baby's diaper needs changed. The leftovers need reheated.

Thank Christ she got over that stupidity!
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

duper said:
My sister returned to Chicago after about 10 years living in Indiana having lost the ability to use the infinitive "to be."

ex. The baby's diaper needs changed. The leftovers need reheated.
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and there is that Irish locution, "for to"....you need for to do your homework, you want for to win your game, etc.

that doesn't bother me at all, if anything it is quaint and charming (although I usually hear it more from colleens which helps for to make it pleasant).
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

FreshFish said:
and there is that Irish locution, "for to"....you need for to do your homework, you want for to win your game, etc.

that doesn't bother me at all, if anything it is quaint and charming (although I usually hear it more from colleens which helps for to make it pleasant).
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It could be a syntactic carry-over from the Irish language. I don't know. My uncle doesn't say it, and he has a lot of those little weird Irish things, but it seems like the kind of thing that comes from another language. Kind of like the consistent use of double negatives by a lot of native Spanish speakers. Some habits are just hard to break.
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

duper said:
It could be a syntactic carry-over from the Irish language. I don't know. My uncle doesn't say it, and he has a lot of those little weird Irish things, but it seems like the kind of thing that comes from another language. Kind of like the consistent use of double negatives by a lot of native Spanish speakers. Some habits are just hard to break.
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I've been around a more than a few first-generation immigrants from Ireland and they have different accents depending upon what part of the country they came from...the ones from belFAST (they accented the second syllable) were noticeably different than the ones from Donegal, for example. Also, they all were considerably older than me which may also have been a factor.

Sometimes I'll put on The Secret of Roan Inish just to listen to the pennywhistle and the accents....lovely movie.
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

FreshFish said:
I've been around a more than a few first-generation immigrants from Ireland and they have different accents depending upon what part of the country they came from...the ones from belFAST (they accented the second syllable) were noticeably different than the ones from Donegal, for example. Also, they all were considerably older than me which may also have been a factor.

Sometimes I'll put on The Secret of Roan Inish just to listen to the pennywhistle and the accents....lovely movie.
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My uncle is from County Claire, and after living in this country for about 40 years. his brogue is thicker than anyone you will ever see in an American movie or tv show. I literally have to listen to him speak for a few minutes before I start to understand him every time I see him.
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

I really like the word "callipygian."

I like the way it sounds when I hear it, I like the way it feels in my mouth when I say it, I like the images it brings to mind when I think about it.....
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

True story: I knew a woman once who played on a women's softball team sponsored by an accounting firm. The name of their team: The Assettes.


Bonus for me, she was pleasingly callipygian.
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

Ah - speaking of team names and homonyms, my all time favorite was the Cornell electrical engineering intramural hockey team: The Eulers.
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

FreshFish said:
I really like the word "callipygian."

I like the way it sounds when I hear it, I like the way it feels in my mouth when I say it, I like the images it brings to mind when I think about it.....
Click to expand...

Back when I played club volleyball there was a team named Callipygian. It was a men's team. :rolleyes:
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

I learned something new the other day....the word "pandemonium" has as its etymology "pan-" as in an aggregation of, "demon" as in demons, "ium" as place.

So pandemonium is like a room full of demons.

Oddly, learned it at an interesting website called www.askphilosophers.org, where there is Q&A between those interested enough to ask questions and a panel of professional philosophers to provide answers.
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

I saw a weird juxtiposition in the same article....a team wanted to re-sign someone and someone else resigned.


Not sure why the pear-pare-pair-pere combo occurred to me,
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

One person on my facebook feed is complaining about people who are posting self-pity.

Whoa, woe!
 
Re: Fun with Homonyms....and the like

Meh, this is as good a place to ask the question as any.

For my job, I'm a business systems analyst. I write instructions to application developers on how a system should act when certain events occur. In one of my system rules I wrote, "When the system identifies that the...that does not comport to the layout provided..." Is any of this language above the norm? My developer complained about the word "comport" being present. I've never thought it to be a difficult word. Am I wrong with that thought? Another of my BSA coworkers agrees with the developer. I think they're off their rockers and need to pick up a book some time that's not about glittering vampires and the like.
 
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