Minor Annoyances (Vol 2)

[LaGoosh]

4 hours ago, gmoney said:

I guess my minor annoyance is people thinking the English language makes any sense and that it's only modern adaptations that make it silly or superfluous. It's chock full of contradictions and pointlessness already. 

I never noticed how needlessly complicated the English language is until my son started speaking and seeing how confused he'd get by stuff I said to him and I'd realise how many words we use that have multiple meanings that are completely unrelated to each other. 

[Ronnie]

7 hours ago, air_raid said:

“Colours clashing” meaning either colours wildly contrasting or being too similar, depending on context, is my favourite.

I'd like to introduce you to sanction, which has two totally opposite meanings. "The scheme was sanctioned by the court" doesn't tell you anything without further context.

[air_raid]

38 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

I'd like to introduce you to sanction, which has two totally opposite meanings. "The scheme was sanctioned by the court" doesn't tell you anything without further context.

And the twin bastard stepsisters of all of these, which we have come across before - flammable and inflammable, two opposite-sounding words which mean the same.

[Scratch]

A good friend of mine randomly added a message to our WhatsApp group a few years back saying “I’m on Channel 4 tonight at 8pm” and then said no more. We all tuned in to see him take part in a “face your phobias” type show because he was scared of birds. He’d never mentioned his phobia before and hadn’t told any of us he’d been on this show.

The promo shot was of him holding Why Bird from Playdays.

Edited July 26, 2024 by Scratch

[Carbomb]

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

I'd like to introduce you to sanction, which has two totally opposite meanings. "The scheme was sanctioned by the court" doesn't tell you anything without further context.

 

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

And the twin bastard stepsisters of all of these, which we have come across before - flammable and inflammable, two opposite-sounding words which mean the same.

And, of course, "sanguine" meaning both calm/laid back, and bloodthirsty and savage.

Also, "to dust".

[SuperBacon]

56 minutes ago, Scratch said:

A good friend of mine randomly added a message to our WhatsApp group a few years back saying “I’m on Channel 4 tonight at 8pm” and then said no more. We all tuned in to see him take part in a “face your phobias” type show because he was scared of birds. He’d never mentioned his phobia before and hadn’t told any of us he’d been on this show.

The promo shot was of him holding Why Bird from Playdays.

Didn't know you were friends with Slapnut.

[Merzbow]

Why Bird was a prick, always hated that goody goody and you knew it'd be a dull episode if it landed on her stop.

[gmoney]

Horseshit. Why Bird was the tits. Best stop. Worst stop was that merry-go-round one. 

Edited July 26, 2024 by gmoney

[SuperBacon]

Why Bird was a smug cunt. 

[hallicks]

My memory of it is that Why Bird stop was the best and everything else was dull. 

[deathrey]

I loved Why Bird! Which was the Merry Go Round? Why Bird was Monday and whatever stop it was in Friday was my other favourite

[Ronnie]

5 hours ago, air_raid said:

And the twin bastard stepsisters of all of these, which we have come across before - flammable and inflammable, two opposite-sounding words which mean the same.

Ah, I have sympathy in that case, however! We have a series of prefixes beginning with i- which mean "not", and the second letter varying depending on the sound it precedes: improper, inexact, illegal, irrelevant, imperfect, incorrect, illegitimate, irresponsible ...  

It's pretty obvious to me why somebody would see inflammable and think of it as being something which isn't "flammable", with that second word being related to flame. (Pretty obvious because I thought that that's what it meant for most of my own life.) And since plenty of people did indeed misunderstand what "inflammable" means then "flammable" came into existence. (The opposite of both, if your interested is piqued, is "non-flammable". Note: not "uninflammable"!)

[gmoney]

27 minutes ago, deathrey said:

I loved Why Bird! Which was the Merry Go Round? Why Bird was Monday and whatever stop it was in Friday was my other favourite

The one with the really annoying song ("roll up and ride on Rosie") and a cat, called Poppy I think? 

[Merzbow]

Poppy the scouse cat? See I remember liking her much more, she had that edge to her.

[gmoney]

I don't remember her being Scouse, but possibly why I might have been against her. Why Bird had a lovely rich Welsh voice.