What Word Did You Learn Today?

[BillF]

I was told at school never to use what you call the Oxford comma. Still, as you say, more common in the U.S.

[paul secor]

I was taught in school to use the last ("Oxford", though I never heard it called that) comma, and still use it. My wife, on the other hand, knows more about punctuation and grammar than I do, and never uses it.

[A Lark Ascending]

Yes, I would never use a comma before an 'and'.

The comma serves a purpose in separating out a list up to that point. I've never quite understood why it is sometimes inserted before the 'and' when the 'and' does that job.   

[mjazzg]

bogan

"the term bogan (/ˈboʊɡən/) is an Australian and New Zealand slang word that can be used to describe a person with a lower working-class background, or whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour exemplify a gratified working class mentality and depending on the context, can be pejorative or self-deprecating."

[paul secor]

I came across this while reading Robertson Davies' The Cunning Man:

Paracelsian physician: Paracelsianism was a medical movement based on the theories and therapies of Paracelsus. It was prominent in late-16th and 17th century Europe and represented one of the most comprehensive alternatives to learned medicine, the traditional system of therapeutics derived from Galenic physiology. Based on the principle of maintaining harmony between the microcosm, Man; and macrocosm, Nature.

Edited 19 Aug 2015 by paul secor

[danasgoodstuff]

I was taught that you should use the Oxford comma when, for example, your flag has red, white, and blue on it, each in their own separate parts of the flag, but not when you're talking about the colour you get when you mix red, white and blue together to make a new colour.  But it was often not clear to me which of those two examples applied to any other particular situation, and we never called it the 'Oxford comma' back then.

[xybert]

bogan

"the term bogan (/ˈboʊɡən/) is an Australian and New Zealand slang word that can be used to describe a person with a lower working-class background, or whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour exemplify a gratified working class mentality and depending on the context, can be pejorative or self-deprecating."

Ha ha, funny seeing bogan come up here. It's a very specific term, as in, you could be all the things in the above definition but still not be a bogan, and you could be a bogan and be none of those things. It used to be that you had to be from West Auckland as well but i think the phenomena has spread out. Here's the best example i could find (NSFW language):

 

[mjazzg]

bogan

"the term bogan (/ˈboʊɡən/) is an Australian and New Zealand slang word that can be used to describe a person with a lower working-class background, or whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour exemplify a gratified working class mentality and depending on the context, can be pejorative or self-deprecating."

Ha ha, funny seeing bogan come up here. It's a very specific term, as in, you could be all the things in the above definition but still not be a bogan, and you could be a bogan and be none of those things. It used to be that you had to be from West Auckland as well but i think the phenomena has spread out. Here's the best example i could find (NSFW language):

 

I came across it in a btl comment describing Shane Warne and his recently unveiled 'tasteful' mural

[xybert]

bogan

"the term bogan (/ˈboʊɡən/) is an Australian and New Zealand slang word that can be used to describe a person with a lower working-class background, or whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour exemplify a gratified working class mentality and depending on the context, can be pejorative or self-deprecating."

Ha ha, funny seeing bogan come up here. It's a very specific term, as in, you could be all the things in the above definition but still not be a bogan, and you could be a bogan and be none of those things. It used to be that you had to be from West Auckland as well but i think the phenomena has spread out. Here's the best example i could find (NSFW language):

 

I came across it in a btl comment describing Shane Warne and his recently unveiled 'tasteful' mural

Ha ha, Warney definitely has a bit of bogan about him.

[Matthew]

Fushionless: According to Wikipedia:  1 Scottish, of food or drink : lacking in flavor or nourishment : insipid. 2 Scottish, of a person. a : physically weak : lacking energy. b : mentally or spiritually dull.

Interesting, I never even heard it before today.

[JSngry]

frabjous

[T.D.]

18 minutes ago, JSngry said:

frabjous

I discovered and was fascinated by "Alice in Wonderland"  as a child, so have known that odd word almost my entire life. Even remember the line: O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

[ghost of miles]

Mnemonic.

[Matthew]

Valetudinarian: Someone who is unduly anxious about their health. 
 

I never knew of the word until this morning. 

[Matthew]

"Gammon" as slang. Is this only a UK thing?

[Brad]

On 2/22/2019 at 10:52 PM, ghost of miles said:

Mnemonic.

That’s how I passed the bar exam. The professor teaching the bar prep course, John Pieper (still in business), emphasized mnemonics. I memorized those backwards and forwards. He knew bar exams (especially New York’s, which along with California’s and Florida’s, was the hardest in the US).  He took every bar exam in the country.  In addition, anytime he said such and such will be on the bar exam, we took it as gospel. Damned if he didn’t predict every question that was on the exam.  Thanks again John!

[Matthew]

Farrago. A messy, confused mixture or conglomeration. Well, I never heard this one before.