Quirks of the English language (part 4)

English can be a strange and confusing language, with lots of weird and wonderful quirks. This week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog highlights a few more of those quirks.

A baseball player strikes the ball to avoid a strike.

1) Cucumber as a cool

The sentence, "Are you as cool as I am?", can be said backwards and still makes sense.

2) Contradictory language (part 1)

strike

Verb
1. To hit.
2. To miss in an attempt to hit (esp. baseball).

Real words or fake? (part 3)

I often like to feature true or false quizzes on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, and something else that features frequently on the blog is words. In fact, every blog post I've ever published has included lots of words!

Strawberries get a thumbs up from me.
Not when they commit a robbery, though.

So this week, I've decided to combine the two, and feature a true or false quiz about words!

Take a look at the following words and try to work out whether they're real words, or whether they're fictitious made up creations...

1) Strobbery

A strobbery is a robbery committed by a strawberry.

True or false?

Cool words from around the world (part 2)

It's been several years since I last featured cool words from around the world on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, but finally the wait is over! That's a long-winded and overly dramatic way of saying that this week's blog post is once again on the theme of cool words from around the world.

Mmm, strawberries.

1) Earth berries

In Norwegian, strawberries are known as 'jordebær' which literally translates as 'earth berry'. Although it's a cool name for strawberries, it's also a weird name, because unlike root crops like carrots, beetroot, turnip, etc, strawberries don't actually grow directly in the ground.

That said, strawberries have no connection to straw, so I suppose the English word is just as weird!

New words, and when they were first used (part 3)

For every word ever used in the English language, there was a moment when someone used that word for the very first time. So on that theme, this week I take another look back through history to find out when a few words were originally used for the first time.

An elderly man teaching a youngerly child how to ride a bike.

1611: Elderly

The word 'elder' has been around since before the 12th century, and yet the word 'elderly' wasn't used until 1611. It seems like an obvious oversight to go over four centuries before someone had the idea to add 'ly' to the end of elder to refer to old people.

Having said that, the word 'younger' has also been around since before the 12th century, and we still haven't had the bright idea to refer to young people as 'youngerly'.* I suppose George Lucas came close when he used 'younglings', but as yet no-one has yet thought to use the word 'youngerly'.

* Except me. (c) Charles Fudgemuffin.

Old words that are dying out (part 2)

As I've mentioned before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, language changes and some old words eventually die out. According to a survey by Perspectus Global, many words which were common just a few decades ago are disappearing from the vocabularies of younger people.

Here are a few more words that people aged 18-30 have never heard of:

1) Boogie (28%)

Silhouettes boogieing.

I tend to associate the word 'boogie' with the generation before me, so perhaps that explains why some of the younger generation have never heard of it. Anyway, for the benefit of the 28% of 18-30 year olds who don't know what 'boogie' means, it means to dance, specifically to pop music.

I think it may have been quite a cool word back in the day, but obviously if you said 'boogie' nowadays you'd probably sound like you were old and unfashionable, unless you said it ironically for a joke.

Quirks of the English language (part 3)

I would imagine that English must be quite a tricky language to learn for foreign speakers, due to its many quirks and peculiarities. Here are a few more of those quirks...

A bomb about to go boom.

1) If tomb is pronounced 'toom', and womb is pronounced 'woom', then shouldn't bomb be pronounced 'boom'?



2) If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?



3) What is the only word in the English language that you can make shorter by adding two letters?
Short.

Learn 32 French words in seconds!

In a few days' time on July 14th it will be Bastille Day, also known as the National Day Of France, so to celebrate, this week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog features a quick French lesson teaching you how to say 32 words in French.

Le French fries.
(Not really. The correct translation is actually
'les frites'. French people don't bother
clarifying that French fries are French.)

Even if you're not very good at learning new languages, I guarantee you should have no problem memorising the following French words...

English     French

ambulance = l'ambulance
animal = l'animal
biscuit = le biscuit
bracelet = le bracelet
centre = le centre
certain = certain
chance = la chance
difference = la difference
direction = la direction

Old words that are dying out

A few years ago one of my work colleagues was feeling annoyed with her doctor, so I told her about a clueless doctor I had once seen called Dr Burke. I joked, "Burke by name, berk by nature!" The girl I worked with was confused by my comment and it turned out she had never heard of the word 'berk'.

An old typewriter for typing old words.

For the benefit of anyone else who has never heard of the word 'berk' it means an idiot, but anyway I was shocked to discover that apparently berk is a word that some younger people have never heard of.

As it turns out, my former work colleague isn't the only one to have never heard of some older words. According to a survey by Perspectus Global, here are a few more words that people aged 18-30 have never heard of:

1) Balderdash (27%)

When I discovered that 27% of 18-30 year olds have never heard of the word balderdash, my first reaction was, 'That's balderdash!"

For the benefit of anyone in the 27%, balderdash means nonsense. It's not a word I've ever personally used myself, but I think it would be cool if more people used it, because it has an amusing ring to it. It's the sort of word that just makes you smile by the sheer ridiculousness of it.

Balderdash!

I tend to associate the word 'balderdash' with posh people, so maybe it's not just a generational thing as to why so many younger people have never heard of it.

Quirks of the English language (part 2)

English is one of the most popular and commonly used languages in the world, but it's also a language with many quirks. Here are a few more of them...

Unfortunately, I didn't have a photo of my foreign neighbour Keith
receiving eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated
weightlifters, so this photo of one genuine sleigh will have to do.

1) I before E.

Except when your foreign neighbour Keith receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters.

Weird.



2) Why does 'fridge' have a D in it but 'refrigerator' doesn't?

Surely it's a stupid idea to insert extra letters into an abbreviation!

10 cool Japanese words and expressions (part 2)

As I've pointed out several times before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, I'm a big fan of the Swedish language, but another language I think is pretty cool is Japanese.

As the 2020 Summer Olympics were originally scheduled to take place in Japan next week, that's therefore as good an excuse as any to feature anopther round-up of some of my favourite Japanese words and expressions.

"Bah! I'm too early! He's a not yet dead person."

1) Not yet...

One Japenese word which I find amusing is the word for 'widow'. The kanji symbols for widow literally translate as 'not yet dead person'.

I suppose that technically it's true, but I still can't help thinking it's an unusual way to describe a widow!

True or false quiz: Cool foreign words

For the benefit of any non-English speakers reading this blog post, perhaps a more accurate title for this quiz would be 'Cool non-English words' because of course, for example, if you're German then some of the words in this quiz, such as (spoiler alert) 'verschlimmbessern', aren't foreign words!

Anyway, this week it's time for another true or false quiz, and this time the subject of the quiz is 'cool words from other languages'. Take a look at some of the following 'foreign words' and see if you can work out whether they're real translations, or if they're just silly fabricated words that I made up!

Separated at birth.
A walnut and a brain.

1) Walnut = Brain nut

A cool translation that I really like is the Serbian word for walnut which translates literally as 'brain nut'. I've often thought that walnuts look like little miniature brains, and so apparently did the person who invented the Serbian language!

True or false?

New words, and when they were first used (part 2)

I often like to recycle old ideas, and this week is no exception, as the Charles Fudgemuffin blog takes another look at a variety of words, and when they were first invented.

Regular muffins.
Well, regular in that they're not fudgemuffins,
but muffins which can talk are certainly not regular!

All of the following 'first use' dates were taken from racist dictionary Merriam-Webster*.

* See previous blog post.

1703: Muffin

When the word 'muffin' was first used in 1703, the word 'fudge' had already been in use for 29 years, with its first recorded use being in 1674. The word 'fudgemuffin', however, only came into common use fairly recently!

Cool Words From Around The World

I feature words on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog quite often ... every week in fact! Every blog post is filled with words and photos!

But what I mean is that from time to time I like to take a specific look at cool words from around the world, so this week it's time for another round-up of cool words from around the world...

Look at all those 'toes of the hand'!
Editor's note: "Charles, you've got it the wrong way round.
It's fingers of the foot, not toes of the hand."
Charles: "I know, I was just being stupid. Sorry."

1) Foot fingers

The Italian expression to describe a toe is 'dito del piede' which literally translates as 'finger of the foot' which is a very cool way to describe your toes!

2) Tartle

I'm very bad at forgetting people's names, so I tartle quite a lot. That's because 'tartle' is a Scottish word which means to hesitate when introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.

So just to make things absolutely clear, to tartle means to, er ... well, it means ... er, obviously tartle, er ... is a word, er ... and it's meaning is, er ... well...

New words, and when they were first used

The word 'gravity' was first used in 1504.
It's also the name of one of my short stories!

When I use words each day I generally assume that most words have been around forever. However, of course every word had to at one time be used for the very first time.

Here are the earliest known usages of a variety of words, according to racist dictionary Merriam-Webster*.

* See below.

1504: Gravity

In 1687 Isaac Newton published his theory of gravity. However, according to Merriam-Webster, the word 'gravity' had been in written use since as early as 1504. Hmm, something doesn't add up. How can you talk about something before it was even discovered!?

1627: Messy

Apparently, the word 'messy' was first used in 1627, so presumably up until 1626 people must have been really tidy.

Quirks of the English language

There are over 400 million people in the world who speak English as their first language, and it's the official language in 67 countries! So this week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog takes a look at some of the quirks of the English language.

Hair(s).

1) We say "hair" when referring to lots of it, but we say "hairs" when referring to a few.


2) The word 'queue' is the letter 'q' followed by four silent letters.


3) A colleague asked me, "Is it pronounced 'ee-ther' or 'eye-ther'?
I told them it was either.

True or false: Real word or made up (part 2)

"Not to be used for bribing snollygosters."

It's time for another test of vocabulary as the Charles Fudgemuffin blog features another true or false quiz based on unusual words.  Some of the words are real, while others are completely made up.  See if you can guess which is which...

1) Snollygoster

A snollygoster is a shrewd unprincipled person motivated by personal gain.  For example, a politician who cares more about feathering their own nest than serving the people could be described as a snollygoster.

True or false?

10 words and phrases which sound like other words in a different accent

Apologies to any native speakers if I haven't got all of the following accents quite right, but here are a few words or phrases which when pronounced in a certain accent sound like a new phrase altogether...

Bacon sandwiches could cause confusion in Jamaica.

1) Beer Can

If you say 'beer can' in an English accent, it sounds like 'bacon' in a Jamaican accent.

2) Jam Ear Can Beer Can

Taking it one step further, if you say 'jam ear can beer can' in an English accent, it sounds like 'Jamaican bacon' in a Jamaican accent.

True or false: Real word or made-up

Words are the theme of this week's blog post.

There are lots of weird and wonderful words in the English language, so this week the Charles Fudgemuffin tests your vocabulary. Are the following words true or made-up?

The only clue I'll give you is that in some cases the answer is not what you'd expect.  Or maybe it is what you'd expect and I've just said that to throw you off the scent.  Anyway, have a look at the following unusual words and see if you can guess* if they're real or made up...

* Please note, if you already know the answer, then you don't need to guess. You can instead use your knowledge.