Showing posts with label new word wednesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new word wednesday. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

New Word Wednesday

Yeah, ok, so it's been over 6 months since my last New Word post. Such is life.

tip - This can be a noun or a verb, synonymous with the US use of the word dump.

Here is the Cambridge Dictionary's definition.

I heard it for the first time -- or probably more accurately, picked up that I was hearing a new word -- about a month ago. Friends who I was petsitting for described their house as "a bit of a tip" when I went to pick up keys. Since then I've noticed it a couple times. A colleague used it to describe the mess of wires coming out of a full rack of computers, for example.

(On most days it could be used to describe my flat or my desk at work. So ample opportunities to use this one! )

There is also the term fly-tipping, which contrary to how it sounds doesn't mean paying flies a gratuity for excellent service. It's short for tipping-on-the-fly, i.e., dumping-on-the-fly. Illegally. Those dirty rotters.

I actually remember having fly-tipping explained to me quite a while ago, during some random lunchtime discussion. I didn't remember though, until tip was explained to me.

Since I couldn't find any fun, legal-to-post, cartoons of messy rooms to liven up this post, I'll leave you with Shel Silverstein's poem, Messy Room.

Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or--
Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!

My bedroom isn't quite that much of a tip. Yet.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

New Word Wednesday


knackered - what I will be when I get off the plane in Brisbane on Sunday after traveling for two days

More specifically, knackered means to be utterly exhausted or worn out. It's actually one of the first new words that I learned after I moved to Scotland (almost two years ago!). I'd stayed up all night working on something (or possibly reading a book), and when relating this to my officemate, he said, "You don't look knackered." And after giving him my I-have-no-idea-what-you-just-said blank stare, he explained.

Since then, I've learned that knackered can not only be applied to people, but objects as well. For example, you can say, "After walking home last night in the ferocious wind and rain, my umbrella was completely knackered." Umbrellas don't have a long life here in Edinburgh.

Knackered is fun to say, although I have to admit it's not one of the words that's crept into my regular-use vocabulary. It would have been very appropriate to describe my condition on Sunday after my running partner and I tried a new route. We're experimenting with hills. The less said about that the better.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

New Word Wednesday

I'm going to give this a try, at least a couple times a month posting on a regular topic -- new words or new word uses that I've learned since I've been in Scotland. We'll see how it goes.

pear shaped - An adjective describing a situation that went awry, perhaps horribly wrong. As in, It all went pear shaped.

It's funny how I can hear a word for what seems like the first time, and after that I start hearing it all over the place. Pear shaped is one of these. A friend used it in conversation a couple months ago, prompting a big "What?" from me. Since then, I bet I've heard someone use it at least once a week. Which means that I must have heard it without it registering for a good year and a half.

This also happened with Hiya. Hiya is probably the most common casual greating used here, but it took a good two months after I moving here before it registered that was what people were saying. Weird.

But back to pear shaped. It's definitely one of the more fun words I've learned, and I'm hoping it will make its way into my regularly used vocabulary.

Note to self, seriously screw up something at least once a week so that I have a reason to work pear shaped into my conversations.

Photo courtesy of Opus104 on flickr.