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I was outside this morning, looking at the morning glories in their full morning glory - wide, deep blue and white, trumpet shaped flowers, facing the sun - all joined together on a vine that climbs across a wooden swingset I built 20 years ago. The vine transforms the swingset's clunky, angular "built to remain durable under heavy use" 4x4 and 4x6 framework into a bit of backyard art.
Morning Glories. Glorious.
What other "naming words" just nail it?
"Butterfly" - Flutterby would have been perfect.
Names they just plain got wrong? "Door"?
Cobweb - That should be copweb (see cop above).
Matt
[edited by: Matt_Probert at 3:52 pm (utc) on Sep. 30, 2007]
Looked up "cop etymology". Didn't see any mention of German origins.
I always liked "jackanapes". Just the sound of it fits its definition perfectly. :)
I was outside this morning, looking at the morning glories in their full morning glory
I must admit it took me a moment until I realized you were using the term "morning glory" in its botanical meaning. I only knew the term - as Wikipedia puts it - "common slang for Nocturnal penile tumescence in men"
I always thought Cop was a British abbreviation for " Constable on patrol"..KF
It is.
Guess what <snip> gets you ;) *
Marshall
* Origin is British from l o n g ago.
[edited by: Marshall at 9:44 pm (utc) on Sep. 30, 2007]
[edited by: lawman at 11:03 pm (utc) on Sep. 30, 2007]
common slang for . . tumescence
I'm ruined! The bloom is off the . . morning glories. I shall never look at them again with such . . innocence! ;-)
Sunflower. Spike. Nice spiky sound to match the shape of a spike. Rainbow. Melody is particularly melodious, as is well, melodious.
>>Cop
More likely from capere, or maybe a reference to copper badges but least likely is the acronym, they weren't used much before the 20th century. Cob is also the oldest Germanic root I've ever been able to find, cop being a #*$!ization of that.
The snipped acronym is a clever story, but again, acronyms weren't used much before the 20th century, let alone way back when that particular word surfaced. Another acronym origin that is wrong is Ship High In Transit.
If the word was evident before the 19th century, you can be sure that an acronym isn't the root.
Kids in So. Calif. used to yell out the car windows at the cops, "Old pennies!" meaning dirty copper.
Torque. Bladder. Sunglasses.
The Web.
Cop as in spider :
In Dutch we use the word "spin" for spider, but in dialect we also use the older word "spinnekop".
The last part of this word kop (or cop) refers to the word kop wich means "head". As a spider in fact looks like a giant head with feet...
[edited by: Lipik at 12:39 pm (utc) on Oct. 4, 2007]
Rattle. Quack. Meow. Buzz. Whoosh. Hush. Boom. Every schoolchild should be familiar with Poe's The Bells and why a vocal spat can be referred to as a 'rhubarb'.
Then you have other languages, Bengali birds that go, coohoo'koohoo and Finnish birds that go tsirp tsirp while Norwegian birds go, kvirrevitt. Afrikaans bees go zoem-zoem and Korean cows go um-muuuu.
A snoring Arab sounds like karkara but a snoring Kiribati is ringongo.
The Tulu of India have a bunch of words to describe different splashes;
Gulum for a stone falling into a well, gulugulu for filling a pitcher with water, caracara for water coming from a pump, budubudu for bubbling water, gushing water is jalabala, salasala for pouring water and calacala for the sound of children wading through water.
Bubba..A southern gentleman with questionable intelligence...
[edited by: King_Fisher at 6:55 pm (utc) on Oct. 5, 2007]
Shot gun
Watermelon
Fruit cake
Nutmeg...(no reflection on our esteem fellow poster)...KF
Shotgun house makes sense if you've ever seen one. :)
Being an educated Bubba you probably know what a house is that has a
"dog trot" breeze way...KF
Oops.
