I actually encountered it in a Debate Room as Hell article about... Spoiler: This belongs in the debate room but I'm banned from there by request ...the reaction to Brett Favre's volleyball funding scandal and the question of whether White athletes' missteps are treated more leniently than those of their Black colleagues. The article asserted that some athletes were granted a pass based on their celebrity and called that pass "sportswashing." However, when I went a-Googlin' I found a different definition.
Sassenach noun a typical Englishman or something considered typical of England —often used disparagingly by Scots and Irish
avuncular adjective relating to the relationship between men and their siblings children; relating to an uncle.
Mondegreen - a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of the lyrics of a song. Money for nothing, and chips for free...
"Excuse me, while I kiss this guy" Jimmi Hendrix (actual lyrics "while I kiss the sky") "Hold me closer Tony Danza" Tiny Dancer by Elton John (actual lyrics"Hold me closer tiny dancer") "Saving his life from this warm sausage tea" Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen (actual lyrics "Spare him his life from this monstrosity")
Up until last week I thought the lyrics to the song Numb were "I, I wanna get numb, and f*ck you in the fun..." I wondered why they allowed the profanity on the radio. Then I found out the lyrics actually are "I, I wanna get numb, and forget where I'm from..."
Huh, I never heard the Queen one before. I know Hendrix used to lean into the "kiss this guy" mondegreen (thanks for the cool word, @Louanne Learning!) and laugh and blow kisses to his bandmates sometimes
"Wrapped up like a douche" Blinded by the Light—Bruce Springsteen (covered by Manfred Mann) Actual lyrics "Revved up like a deuce" Well no wonder—the correct version doesn't make any sense! Unless it means like a little deuce coupe, but nobody knew what that meant. Nobody I knew anyway.
Almost every song I hear is like this. Sometimes when I'm streaming a song I'll set the lyrics to show and be amazed at my own stupidity. We're not talking Gump. We're talking 1/4 Gump. I seldom hear what's said. I thought of writing a story where the scientists describe their subject this way. They increase his IQ to nearly 10 Gumps. (I'm reading Flowers for Algernon, of course.)
It applies to dialogue in movies too, like the one where I thought Ripley in Aliens said "The only way to be sure is to take off and nuke the site for morbid." Turns out it was from orbit. Or where I thought in Conan the Destroyer the king said "A liar's Ahab!", but in reality he said "A lion ate him!"
No results for this word in Etymology online, but from the Wiki page: The American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, recalling a childhood memory of her mother reading the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (from Thomas Percy's 1765 book Reliques of Ancient English Poetry), and mishearing the words "layd him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen".[4] "Mondegreen" was included in the 2000 edition of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary, and in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added the word in 2008.
Flyting - a dispute or exchange of personal abuse in verse form From the Miriam-Webster dictionary: Flyting in 15th- and 16th-century Scotland is analogous to a modern-day rap competition during which rappers improvise clever disses and put-downs against their opponents. Similarly, the makars (a Scottish word for "poets") engaged in verbal duels in which they voiced extravagant invectives in verse against their rivals. The base of flyting is the ancient verb flyte (also spelled flite), meaning "to contend" or "to quarrel."
That's really cool, to know that rap battles have been going on for centuries. I'm going to have to present this tidbit to some of my older and less melanin-tolerant ( )... people... back home. "No, [REDACTED], those youths on the TV are engaging in a traditional Scottish form of performance art that goes back half a millenium."
Lokasenna (Old Norse = The Flyting of Loki) is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda ( a collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative Medieval poems). Here's the beginning verses: Loki: "Hail, Æsir! Hail, Asyniur! And ye, all-holy gods! all, save that one man, who sits within there, Bragi, on yonder bench." Bragi: "I know that were I without, as I am now within, the hall of Ægir, I thy head would bear in my hand, and so for lying punish thee." Loki: "Valiant on thy seat art thou, Bragi! but so thou shouldst not be, Bragi, the bench's pride! Go and fight, if thou art angry; a brave man sits not considering." Idunn stepped in to protect her husband. Idunn: "I pray thee, Bragi! let avail the bond of children, and of all adopted sons, and to Loki speak not in reproachful words, in Ægir's hall." Loki: "Be silent, Idunn! of all women I declare thee most fond of men, since thou thy arms, carefully washed, didst twine round thy brother's murderer." Idunn: "Loki I address not with opprobrious words, in Ægir's hall. Bragi I soothe, by beer excited. I desire not that angry ye fight." Gefjun: "Why will ye, Æsir twain, here within, strive with reproachful words? Lopt perceives not that he is deluded, and is urged on by fate." Loki: "Be silent, Gefjun! I will now just mention, how that fair youth thy mind corrupted, who thee a necklace gave, and around whom thou thy limbs didst twine?" Odin interfered, but Loki called him "unmanly" as well. Odin: "Knowest thou that I gave to those I ought not – victory to cowards? Thou was eight winters on the earth below, milked cow as a woman, and didst there bear children. Now that, methinks, betokens a base nature." Loki: "But, it is said, thou wentest with tottering steps in Samsö, and knocked at houses as a Vala. (Vala: seeress) In likeness of a fortune teller, thou wentest among people; Now that, methinks, betokens a base nature."
I was going to dig that out when I got home, but I'm pleased you beat me to it. Now I get to relax and enjoy a classic whilst sipping a margarita on the river bank.
liquor cycle (pronounced licker-sickle): moped or scooter that is driven after someone has lost his license after driving drunk.
Yoink: An exclamation that, when uttered in conjunction with taking an object, immediately transfers ownership from the original owner to the person using the word regardless of previous property rights.
