On 18 August 2010 16:46, Jonathon Fernyhough <j.fernyho...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 18 August 2010 16:16, Liam Proven <lpro...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> A small newt. I thought everyone knew that. >> > > Nope. Not everyone knows obscure words. Just in the same way I don't > *expect* you to know what pedagogy is.
I do, thanks. Indeed I suspect, sarcasm or irony aside, that I actually have a considerably better vocabulary than you do, since you make at least one howler in this very message. >> What, you don't know what "feisty" means? Seriously? >> > > Correct. The entire post was completely serious. > > However: > > From WordNet (r) 2.0 : > > feisty > adj 1: showing courage; "the champion is faced with a feisty > challenger" [syn: plucky, spunky] > 2: irritable and looking for trouble; "too touchy to make > judicious decisions" [syn: touchy] > [also: feistiest, feistier] > > So it could well have been irritable rather than courageous. > > I'm surprised you haven't heard of something musty being described as > feisty. I thought everyone knew that. I think that perhaps you are thinking of the word "fusty" here, which does indeed mean old, musty and smelling of damp. Also see "fustian", referring to heavy tweedy fabric and thus by association carrying connotations of pompous old academicals. "Feisty", however, never carries this connotation, to the best of my knowledge. > Correct. I did not know that narwhals are a whale-like creature that > live in the North Atlantic having a single large tusk, being hunted > almost to extinction by Scandinavian countries, being credited with > starting many sea monster stories (probably even the whole unicorn > thing), despite having plenty of reference in popular culture. So you've never played the alphabet game? It goes around a ring of players and each must name another example of the chosen category, e.g. animals: Player 1 - "ant" Player 2 - "baboon" Player 3 - "cat" ... And so on. Most people get stuck on "N"; few common animals in English begin with N, which is why Ubuntu had a bit of a problem. "Nanny-goat", "narwhal" and "numbat" and that's about it. > > YES! OH GOD YES! Did the bit where I said "enough ranting" give you a clue? > > You're just having a bit of pedantic facetiousness, aren't you? Why, yes, I am. It's a hobby of mine. Gives me great entertainment. So is philology, though, which is why I chose to pull you up. :¬) -- Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lpro...@gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
