Posts tagged language

Word from nowhere: Perturbed

Chad and I visited Goodwood – Festival of Speed today (think Glastonbury for the petrol head middle-classes). We meet up with friends, the sun was shining and all round a good day was had.

At one stage I turned to Chad and said: “Are you alright? You are looking mildly perturbed”. He told me he felt fine. Where do these words come from?

I also learnt today that I don’t like the sound of really loud cars screeching past me. I have a bad involuntary reaction which reminds me of a cross granny. My brow furrows, lips pucker and I take a sharp intake of breath. Attractive ;+{

Post to Twitter

Word from nowhere: Cognizant

Yes my friends, with hindsight, the the word ‘aware’ is definitely more than sufficient.

I used this interesting word in the pub earlier this evening. Ouch – contact the Plain English Campaign.

Post to Twitter

Word from nowhere: Dopey inter-relationship phrases

This doesn’t strictly fit into my ‘Word from nowhere’ category. In fact it could be in a new category called ‘Words from a known source that you say all the time with your partner and make you laugh’. But hey let’s go crazy and keep it in the former category …

Chad and I have a number of daft phrases which we have accumulated over the last six years (it was our anniversary yesterday) and use all the time. Here are a few…

  • “It’s like Beirut in here!”: when a place we are in is really noisy or really quiet (this comes from a Catherine Tate character)
  • “I knew before”: this is in a French and Saunders sketch. You have to say this really loud and the ‘before’ needs to last about five seconds. This is definitely one for when we are indoors at home!
  • “I can do that!”: another Catherine Tate special – a very liberating catchphrase as it encourages you to do anything
  • “Have you ever heard of a thing called Butter? Gold in colour and slippery to the touch”: If I say the word ‘butter’, as in “Could you pass me the butter please?”, then Chad out of reflex says this (it’s a scene from Little Britain)
  • “Oh bless”: we say this one in a sickly sweet way, mimicking this comedy airhostess that served us on a plane who said it ALL the time i.e. “Hi there, oh bless, would you like some tea? Oh bless you, here is your tea of bless, thanks, bless” -no kidding it was brilliant
  • “That madam is a one cent coin”: This has to be said in a dramatic, breathy and condescending way. We say this if someone does something unintentionally annoying. This one is from the funniest shop worker in the history of people that have worked in a shop. A Little Britain character in her own right who works on a cross Channel ferry

So share with me some of your dopey catchphrases please..

Post to Twitter

Word from nowhere: Vomitus

I have worked in healthcare communications for a long time now but yesterday was the first time I have had to use the correct medical term for chundering (delightful).

Another favourite medical term of the same genre is ‘Flatus’. Don’t know what this is? If you had flatulance you would be passing a number of them!

Whoever said PR was glamourous didn’t work in healthcare
PR ;+)

Post to Twitter

Word from nowhere: Juxtapose

This is going to be a new section to my blog: words that I have said for the first time.

Today I used the word ‘juxtapose’ in a team meeting.

Not sure where that came from – pretentious, moi… N x

Oh here’s another word – insomnia!!! I cannot sleep but I can hear Chad and both cats snoring!!!

Post to Twitter

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes