Welcome to the Funtime Open Thread! It’s our first new OT in four whole days! Exclamation points are cool!
OK, I’m done. Just kidding! No really, I’ll spare you more unnecessary punctuation. Today we’ll be going back to school with some grammar trivia. It’ll be more fun than it sounds, I promise.
What is (are):
1. Onomatopoeia?
2. Ellipses?
3. An oxymoron?
4. Malapropism?
And now for the -phones, -nyms and -graphs:
5. Synonyms?
6. Antonyms?
7. Heterographs?
8. Heteronyms?
9. Homophones?
10. Capitonyms?
11. Homonyms?
12. Homographs?
Bonus – A gerund?
And now, some grammar fun in cartoon form:
19 replies on “Funtime Open Thread: Words About Words”
1. Words that sound like sounds, frequently found in comic books (as “Whizz”, “Sploosh”, and “Wham”).
2. Three extremely irritating little periods in a row, typically used on the Internet to end sentences by people who have trouble pressing the space bar. I guess maybe their thumbs don’t work?
3. A contradiction in terms. Such as “drawing a blank”.
4. Using a wrong word that sounds like the right one. The only example I’m coming up with is saying you saw an “operation” in a darkened graveyard when you mean an “apparition” (ghost).
5. Words that mean similar things, e.g. “small” and “tiny” (or “chocolate” and “heaven”).
6. Opposites! Night and day, hard and soft, fancy and plain, sweet and sour . . .
(This is one way to properly use an ellipsis.)
7. Um. My dimly remembered root words tell me it has something to do with “different writing”. The same word spelled different ways, maybe? Like “gray” and “grey”?
8. Um again. Different somethings. Everything I think of falls under synonym or antonym. I give up.
9. Words that sound the same but have different spellings and mean different things, like “read” and “reed.”
10. Words that capitalists use? Or words that are always capitalized? Or meaningless buzzwords used by Congressmen who work in the Capitol? No idea.
11. I think this is words like “read” that can be read two different ways, as “reeeed” for the present tense and “red” like the past tense. Or is that a homophone? Drat, I might be mixing these up.
12. “Same writing”. Never heard of this one.
Gerund: I met it for the first time in high school with its friends the participle and the infinitive, and they were always hanging out together in the textbooks so even though they are nothing alike I keep getting them mixed up. I think it ends in “ing” but that’s all I remember.
I think I’ve lost the right to call myself a grammar nerd now. :-(
What is (are):
1. Onomatopoeia? Where the word sounds like the noise it makes, like Buzz.
2. Ellipses? Irregular circle segment, I think… I sell windows for a living and we make these so I should know this – DOH!
3. An oxymoron? Can’t think of the definition but rather an example… “He is a short giantâ€
4. Malapropism? Not sure so my guess is something bad – Mal = bad
And now for the -phones, -nyms and -graphs:
5. Synonyms? Different word, same meaning
6. Antonyms? Opposite meaning
7. Heterographs? Boy and girl graphs – homographs would just be boys or girls, but not both.
8. Heteronyms? Boy faeries who like girl faeries & vice versa … no wait, those are nymphs…
9. Homophones? Different word sounds the same
10. Capitonyms? Where the faerie headquarters is located
11. Homonyms? Same word different meaning – Live & Live for example
12. Homographs? Boy graphs that like other boy graphs
Bonus – A gerund? Is it anything like a Eunic?
Thanks for the hearty chuckle!
1. Onomatopoeia? Words that sound like the noises they describe. BOOM! CRASH! TINKLE!
2. Ellipses? … I find ellipses so awesome, I misuse them all the time…
3. An oxymoron? A self-contradicting phrase, like jumbo shrimp or plastic glasses
4. Malapropism? A unintentionally hilarious misuse of a word or phrase. Like procrastibate.
And now for the -phones, -nyms and -graphs:
5. Synonyms? Different words with the same meaning. ex.: nice and kind
6. Antonyms? Words with opposite meanings. ex.: up and down, correct and Oxford comma
7. Heterographs? Shit, I forget. Bar graphs that prefer the company of pie charts.
8. Heteronyms? I think you just made this one up.
9. Homophones? Words that sound alike but have different meanings. ex.: there, their and they’re, compliment and complement
10. Capitonyms? I bet POM gets this one.
11. Homonyms? Crap! Is this what I said for number 9?
12. Homographs? *selena surrenders*
Bonus – A gerund? This is some kind of special verb, but I can’t remember why, specifically, it’s special.
Ellipses: the unofficial punctuation of Persephone magazine. I’m thinking of banning them.
AND THE OXFORD COMMA IS NOT WRONG.
Um, guys, there is going to be a movie about LARPers starring Peter Dinklage, Ryan Kwanten, Summer Glau and Danny Pudi (among others). I feel like all my nerdiest Christmases have just come at once.
http://knightsofbadassdom.com/
I don’t know if one movie can contain the collective awesome of Peter Dinklage and Summer Glau. I am not even entirely sure what a LARPer is, but I am going to see this movie.
Live Action Role Player – See movie Role Models (with the super hawt Sean William Scott) for more info…
Also, anyone who has played Vampire the Masquerade (think fancy costumes walking around pretending to be a vampire) or any other White Wolf game, or boffer Larps like Nero – think foam bats to hit people with and little grisgris bags that are thrown at other to indicate spell casting.
(Please don’t ask me how I know this…. LARPers are on the bottom of the Nerd totem pole)
Never be ashamed of your LARP love! Some of my most awesome friends are LARPers. Personally I wouldn’t be able to stay in character at all/take it sufficiently seriously but I stare at their weekend pics in envy.
How does everyone feel about male feminists? On the one hand, I love that my partner calls himself a feminist, and I think everyone ought to be behind feminism and equality, but on the other hand, I roll my eyes so hard when I have a debate with a man who calls himself a feminist who disagrees with my personal examples of objectification. A man is never going to know what it’s like to face constant and varying levels of discrimination, from the workplace, to the streets, and in the homes, so a man (even a feminist man) trying to tell me I haven’t been objectified, or that a catcall is a compliment, makes me just as frustrated as dealing with a straight up misogynist.
Straight people can be allies to people in the LGBTQ community, but they don’t call themselves queer. They will never know what that experience is, and it would belittling to presume so.
1. Words that sound like a noise – boom, crash, splash, etc.
2. …
3. Contradiction. My favorite being “Happy Monday”.
4. A big word. That I have no idea about.
And now for the -phones, -nyms and -graphs:
5. Mean the same or very similar things.
6. Opposite.
7. No clue.
8. Pfft.
9. Sound the same but spelled differently.
10. :/
11. :(
12. :C
Bonus – -ing words!
Ooh this looks fun! I know most of those, skimming, but I’m just checking in to say that in Phoenix we are experiencing a haboob! I have lived in the desert my whole like (well, since age 3) and I have never seen this before! It’s bonkers! My dad called to warn me, so I went outside and sure enough, a wall of dust like out of “The Scorprion King.” Two minutes later, I couldn’t see the apartment building across the parking lot from me. Now it’s just howling and dust everywhere. The truly crazy, part, though, is that I had called for Chinese food delivery without knowing about this impending apocalypse, and all of the sudden the guy is calling me! I was like, “You shouldn’t be driving!” He seemed really excited. He said he’s never seen an Arizona sandstorm before. Should I have made him come in? He got a 75% tip out of it.
Anyway, also, today was Day 1 of my “simulated Bar exam.” It wasn’t pretty. Tomorrow is the MBE. I hope I don’t have more bar nightmares tonight.
Whoops, “my whole life.” I’m typing in the dark, so I can see the outside.
1. If I remember Mrs. Munger’s class correctly it is a word that sounds like how its said example sploosh!
2. … and isn’t it like a smashed oval too or is that just math class? Its also a tool I vaguely remember from my one graphic design class maybe
4. Saying a word that sounds similar to what would be correct but is not at all the right word Mrs. Malaprop was the name of a character in the play The Rivals
5. Words that mean the same or just about the same as the word you are using
6. Words that mean the opposite of the word you are using
9.Merry,Marry ,Mary
Sadly that is all I got without cheating
1. Words that represent sounds, such as “Bonk” and “Pow”
2. Three dots that indicate eliminated text
3. A self-contradicting phrase, such as “tight slacks”
4. Use of the wrong word, generally for a humorous purpose
5. Words that have the same or very similar meaning
6. The opposite of the above definition
7. Alternate spelling of a word
8. Words that have different spelling and pronunciation
9. Words that are pronounced the same but may be spelled differently
10. Words that need to be capitalized, such as proper nouns
11. Words which have both the same spelling and the same pronunciation
12. Words which have the same spelling but may have different pronunciation
(Number 10 is a total guess. I did go back and make sure that my list has proper parallel construction. Neeeeeeerd!)
Ooh, I wanna play. But I won’t. For fairness and America or something.
I’ll do the bonus, though. A gerund is the form of a verb, ending in -ing, that acts as a noun. All gerunds end in -ing, but not all verbs ending in -ing are gerunds. Sometimes they’re present participles.
So… I was half right? (see below)
Way more than half!
a gerund is an -ing word! (right?)