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| Image from BuzzFeed |
Just to keep things going, I have three videos from BuzzFeed which talk about some cool words in the English language.
Morton's toe is something very commonly mentioned amongst the Hongkongers, as there is a saying "Poor until your death if you have Morton's toe."
Glabella and philtrum are mainly face reading related in the feng shui category.
Glabella (印 堂 in Chinese) being the space between your eyebrows, represents the luck at age 28 as well as the ease of success throughout one's life.
Philtrum (人 中 in Chinese) being the groove between the nose and the middle of the lips, represents the luck at age 51 as well as longevity, number of child and the sex of the first child.
Semantic actually refers to the meaning of a word, while satiation means having too much of something.
Dysphemism is a representation of linguistic "coolness" and creativity! Can't stop loving it! I particularly like lacuna because there are so many useful ones out there like bakku-shan and backpfeifengesicht mentioned in the post Vocabulary: Words Worth Noticing.
And from the same article, now we know that Scotch tape, Tipp-Ex, Band-Aid, Panadol, Viagra are called proprietary eponyms.
Denominalization is linguistically much more than just using a word that is not a verb as a verb, but hey, the point is not to get too complicated here so I won't explain more.
I don't quite like the meaning given for contrastive focus reduplication because the video didn't mention the kind of emphasis intended. In fact, the emphasis serves as a mean of clarification as a previously mentioned term might have caused confusion. In the video, the man who happens to be talking to a clone of himself, said "I mean the film is interesting, but not interesting interesting." This means the first "interesting" is not as high level as the third "interesting" and thus requires the second "interesting" to clarify.
Lethologica is the "it's on the tip-of-my-tongue" phenomena.
Finally, a sesquipedalian is simply, a person who uses long words.
Amazing stuff this video!
Which phobia interests me? The word gamophobia (fear of marriage) is fun, because this word has inspired a number of Hollywood movies, such as Runaway Bride (1999), as well as many many real YouTube videos. Lachanophobia (fear of vegetables) is interesting, maybe this is why many kids hate vegetables. Definitely phasmophobia, the fear of ghost.
I have also written about trypophobia (fear of ) and aerophobia (fear of flying), if you can't remember, go to my post World: Fun Facts We All Should Know -- Part 2 (Viewer Discretion Is Advised). At that time, trypophobia was not yet scientifically proven, but now, there is a study showing that this anxiety is real!!
Enjoy a list of phobias at Wikipedia! It's really fun to read!
Vocabulary:
Morton's toe -- (n)[C] the second toe that is longer than the big toe.
Glabella (印 堂 in Chinese) -- (n) the space between your eyebrows
Philtrum (人 中 in Chinese) -- (n) the groove between the nose and the middle of the lips
semantic -- (adj) connected with the meanings of words
satiate -- (vb) [T often passive] formal to completely satisfy yourself or a need, especially with food or pleasure, so that you could not have any more
dysphemism -- use of a negative term for something positive
sonder -- (n)[U] the sudden realization that everyone around you is living a life as vivid and complex as your own
lacuna -- (n)[C] a non-English word that describes something for which there is no English word.
proprietary eponym -- (n)[C] a trademark or brand name that has become a generic name for a product or service.
Contrastive focus reduplication -- (n)[C] (also lexical cloning, the double construction) is a type of syntactic reduplication found in some languages that indicates the prototypical meaning of the repeated word or phrase, a form of retronymy.
Lethologica -- (n)[U] the "it's on the tip-of-my-tongue" phenomena.
sesquipedalian -- (n)[C] a person who uses long words
trypophobia -- (n)[U] hear of holes
gamophobia -- (n)[U] fear of marriage
lachanophobia -- (n)[U] fear of vegetables
phasmophobia -- (n)[U] fear of ghost.
Resources:
Vocabulary: Words Worth Noticing @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014/05/vocabulary-words-worth-noticing.html
World: Fun Facts We All Should Know -- Part 2 (Viewer Discretion Is Advised) @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/08/world-fun-facts-we-all-should-know-part_29.html
11 Weird Body Part Words @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/k9bvzqVxEWE
Words And Phrases To Make You Sound Smarter @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/qTsOWDfM1fE
20 Phobias You Might Have @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/Pxh9T-vGyIY
論 額 @ MASTERSO.COM 蘇民峰命理風水網站
http://www.masterso.com/classroom/classroom6_2_05.php
「 中 央 十 四 位 置 」@ MASTERSO.COM 蘇民峰命理風水網站
http://www.masterso.com/classroom/classroom6_2_01.php
proprietary eponym @ Wiktionary
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/proprietary_eponym
Contrastive focus reduplication @ Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrastive_focus_reduplication
Lethologica @ Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethologica
Trypophobia: Why Holes Are SO Scary @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/lFoQ4s6CFYM
List of phobias @ Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_phobias
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/semantic?q=semantic
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/satiate?q=satiate
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sesquipedalian#Noun
