Tag: language

Word nerd

According to Merriam-Webster online, an acronym is only a word made up of initial letters from a set of words. It is a form of an initialism, which is anything made up from the initial letter or letters from a set of words. Example? Radar is an acronym (for “radio detection and ranging”), but FBI is only an initialism (for “Federal Bureau of Investigation”). Radar is also an initialism, of course, as all acronyms are initialisms, though not all initialisms are acronyms.

So, that’s all for my nerdy sharing for tonight. Goodnight!

Dear God, thank you for my nerdiness. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Learning SOMEthing

Context: As a way to help them behave, we did a bad word/phrase of the day two years ago in one class. The words and phrases weren’t actually very bad, but most of them were quite useful for the kids – they were things that they said to each other all the time in English, anyway. Now they could use them in French.
…..

In class this week, a student asked, after finishing the test, if he and another kid could go study in the hall. I told him to ask in French. He said, “N—— et moi pouvons… casse-toi?”

The first part was right… “Can N—— and I…”

The second part means either the command, “Get out of here!” or, even, “GTF out!”

Most of the class, after a momentary pause for all to process and draw breath, burst out laughing as his well-intended effort of unintentionally forcefully telling the teacher to leave class immediately.

At least he remembered something from sophomore year! 😛

Post-a-day 2023

“Give us a brake”

In eighth grade, I submitted a partnered science project about soap and how it interacts with water, in which I had typed all about how the soap “brakes” up the surface of the water, etc., etc. Our teacher had us come look at the display and read through it. It took me a long time to understand what the issue was, though I understood immediately that something was wrong with the typed pages on the display. It took some obvious hinting and and bit of clarifying from the teacher before I truly got it that I was supposed to have used the word “break” instead of “brake”. Every single one was written as “brake”. At least I was consistent.

It took me years to understand and to accept how I had made such a big mistake. How had I, one who pays such close attention to details, messed up something so simple? Quite simply, because I had used the word I understood to be accurate, and I hadn’t really realized there were two different words. Why?

Because of the constant road signs around Houston throughout my childhood that read, “GIVE US A BRAKE” and had a character of a road worker on it. I knew the phrase well enough, and, because I didn’t know the spelling differences at play, I never understood the signs. I genuinely always thought they were some form of protest it workers union’s form of complaining about how people driving needed to chill out and not honk at and be mad at the road construction workers, because they were working hard. I always understood the sign to mean, “Give is a break.” I never knew – not for a while after that project – that the signs were just asking people to use their brakes to slow down as they pass through the construction areas… never knew.

And I got to feel like an idiot in eighth grade science class because of that simple little fact.

So, yeah… wasn’t a fan of signs using misspellings or fake words in the first place. Definitely wasn’t after I figured out that one.

😛

Post-a-day 2023

Nerds

My man and I just unintentionally got into a Duolingo battle to win the family scoreboard for the week, simply by coincidence. We both happened to do a lesson, and also happened to see how the score had changed for the other.

In the last seconds of the timer, he passed me up and got first place. I had a 30-point lead on him, but he eeked it out, nonetheless, by completing half a legendary round with bonus right before the time ran out for the day. So, even though he hadn’t finished the lesson, he’d gotten halfway through it, and it gave him the first 40 points for today and the next 40 points for tomorrow’s scoreboard. Ridiculous.

It was a fun little event.

I love this man.

Even though we have really been passing each other off lately, I remember that I love him despite it all, and even because of most of it.

Thank you, God, for our idiocy and nerdiness. Thank you for, even after all this time, giving me someone who can enjoy this adventure so well with me. Thank you for all of it. Also, please, heal all my mosquito bites, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Nutso

Some people are just too into things…

Eight years? Really?!?! I mean, I’ve been using Duolingo that long, but not every single day before midnight(!!!). Talk about nerd alert, I guess.

Granted, I’m at over 900 days in a row right now. That’s over two and two-thirds years right there of doing this thing daily. I already know I’m a nerd, though. But eight years??? Just, man… wow. That’s a lot.

Haha

Post-a-day 2022

Nerd

I don’t say the word “blog,” despite the fact that it is recognized as one. I reference the full word, “weblog,” because that’s what it is, a log on the web. Captain’s log, October seventh… I always think that, you know, when I cross the word “log”.

Anyway, that’s beside the point. Back on track here.

Another word I use only in its full – though almost entirely unknown to be so by the majority of the population, as also is the case with weblog – form is the word “perquisite”. I do not use “perk” or, even, “perque”. I use the full form, always.

For both of these and more, I am a nerd. 😉

Post-a-day 2022

Oh, no…

Duolingo is changing. And I am not at all looking forward to it. One of the things I love is going to do a random story or few. Now, it looks like we won’t be able to do stories in a row anymore, because it is being set up by levels, and you can only do the story when you reach its level on the lessons, or a story you have already completed.

Not excited, folks… not excited.

::massive sad face

Post-a-day 2022

Wait, weight

Two things here. Firstly, language, and secondly, looks.

Language: I find it important to be conscious of what language we use around everything in life. This includes body weight and fitness. So, I do not like to use the term ‘to lose weight’ or any form of it. Why? Because, like they say with hypnosis and all other subconscious-connected things, if we “lose something,” our brains will aim to “get it back.” So, if we say that we’ve lost weight, our brains subconsciously can be always on the lookout to find that lost weight. It may sound utterly ridiculous, but the ways in which our words can impact our thinking, our habits, and our lives is quite profound.

So, I say things like, “released,” “went down in,” “got rid of,” etc. weight or fat, or I just say that one “weighs less,” instead did that someone “lost weight.”

Now, that being said, I move to the second item on the agenda.

Looks: Have you ever seen or known someone who actually looks like he or she lost weight? Like it is actually missing from their bodies, and they look, somehow, incomplete without it? Like they need to fill out, and presently look shrunken and somewhat collapsed and odd in their own skin? Some people seem like they are actually made to be a bit thicker, tougher, more solid, and so they look odd – like they’re missing something – once they have lost their weight…, because it seems it really was lost somewhere and ought to be found.

Post-a-day 2022

QOTD

Today’s quote of the day? Courtesy of my mother: “Yeah, well, he snozed*, so he loze*…,” followed by and filled with intense laughter from the both of us. (*Rhyming with ‘hosed’ and ‘nose’)

Obviously, she had full intentions of using real words. However, her somewhat passive effort to switch the sentence to a past tense clearly failed, thus her quite literally choking on her own words (through laughter) halfway through the sentence. We could barely breathe, let alone talk, we were laughing so hard. It was glorious.

Post-a-day 2022

(Ugh, totally missed still)