h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This post has been removed.

This post has been removed.

... Okay. This is the last one, I hope

A couple of Japanese translators have spit TOMA out as meaning "tomato." Some of them havn't.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Nothing to do with atomic research, then ?

Looks like someone has split the ATOM

I like ' gimlet '

( G & T with lime mixed in )

I never thought I was one to play safe and stay with the majority, but my favourite word actually IS "serendipity".

A colloquial definition that I love is digging for worms and finding gold.

My husband disagrees, but he's a fisherman who thinks worms are much more important than gold.

ruggible - which is a long dead English word for the roaring ability of a lion. (It was on Call my Bluff)

And Rum-tum which is a sculling craft used on the lower parts of the Thames

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis - the longest word in the english language.
Quim - sounds cool, but it's not nice.
Abdominous - it means "potbellied".

defenestrate

A real word that actually DOES mean "to throw someone out a window"

'Defenestrate' - wonderful word - memories of sixth form english and the wealth of fantasies conjured up by the discovery of the word.
Does anyone else remember finding out about 'serendipity' from Dr. Who, where it was explained as 'a happy accident'?
'Happy' and 'accident' have always been mutually exclusive in my experience.
'Phlegm' must be the quintessentially British word.

Phlegm is NOT a British word. It's very American. So there.
And how do you get those smileyface thingees? (Ha! My favorite word! Thingee!)

Hi,

Happy Accident is an oxymoron.

Moondancer

Hello All

I think 'bubble' is a great word. And 'oleaginous' is pretty good too.

B

I think Dipthrong should be Diphthong. "Di" means two or double, so there are two "phthongs" in a diphthong. On the other hand, a dipthrong might be a very crowded swimming pool.

What then is a dipthong?

And if scrabble implies hopelessness, how come scramble implies the opposite - scrambling up a scree slope gets you to the top, while scrabbling up a scree slope may well not.

And wouldn't it be better if you could add letters in the middle of words in Scrabble? You could even call it Scramble, and maybe even win sometimes.

Actually, I think it is diphthong. I always thought it meant a sort of peculiar union of two vowels, like mediaeval, except I don't know how to make the 'ae' in mediaeval join together like they should be for a diphthong. Onomatopoeia has a bad case of the diphthongs, which I guess is why nowadays they are mostly dropped off i.e. medieval instead of mediaeval.

Hi Walter,

How are you this morning. I found your mediæval in the symbols.
I could not find the the oe or the ia. Im not sure that I have seen them.


Moondancer

I once knew a girl whose favourite word was "Knickers" - especially if she disagreed with what you said!

phlegm

No, my throat is clear, thanks.