...'topiary'? Is there anyone that doesn't know what topiary is? But why is that? I mean, there's probably about four people in the whole country that actually do topiary, and about three people that would actually be interested in it beyond saying, "Ooh, look at that funny hedge, tee hee".
So, the challenge must be thrown down...
Is there a more obscure word than 'topiary' which everyone knows the meaning of? Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
I don't know about a single word, or owt like that, but what I do find astonishing is the number of people that will attempt a kind of armchair psychological analysis, without any real idea of what the fuck they're talking about. It's like every retard with a mouth bigger than their brain has picked up the vocabulary of psychoanalysis but not a single one of them has really any idea of what to do with the tools they've found. You can see this a lot in the relationships forum in Handbag; and occasionally on here (think Turtle). It's strange because I don't really know where these people are getting this info from. People would seem more at home talking about Freudian analysis than they would a Faraday cage, despite the fact that the latter is on the GCSE science syllabus and the former isn't. It's baffling really.
I came across elements of psychology for my degree, but that's hardly widespread enough to account for the number of people who spout total shit when analyising people's behaviour etc.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
The world wouldn't know the meaning of topiary if it wasn't for Edward Scissorhands bringing hedges to the nation.
I didn't know what gouache was until you posted it before. It isn't very often I learn a new word these days. I'm going to work it into at least three convrersations today. Even though I not sure how to say it.
Posted by OJ (Member # 752) on :
quote:Originally posted by dang65:
Is there a more obscure word than 'topiary' which everyone knows the meaning of?
Schadenfreude
Insurgent
Actually, I get more exercised by the words people think they know the meaning of because they're in fashion, but don't. Like bohemian, libation, or probably any of the cod-psychological terms Thorn alludes to.
eta: But it's debatable how obscure a word can be if everybody knows it. Do you perhaps mean words that should be obscure because they have such a narrowly specific meaning? Like grommit or merkin? Or words for concepts that you think are complex and therefore are surprised that many people know?
[ 03.08.2005, 06:47: Message edited by: OJ ]
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
I wouldn't have thought schadenfreude qualifies as obscure, in the same way as topiary. Everyone indulges in schadenfreude. Look at the tabloids: it's practically our national religion.
Posted by OJ (Member # 752) on :
You could compare ballet to topiary as a pursuit. It isn't a mass participation pursuit like football (or schadenfreude?), but numbers of people either watch it occasionally or indulge in it as a hobby. You could say the same of topiary - people see it on their Sunday visits to stately homes and may attempt it in their own gardens after one too many encounters with Charlie Dimmock.
So why is one obscure and not the other?
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
Yeah, what Thorn said about amature psychology. Man that shit makes me mad. Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by OJ: So why is one obscure and not the other?
I kind of see your point, though I'd say that ballet was something that would be introduced to children (maybe not so much these days?) and participated in by them. Topiary? Nah. As for seeing it at stately homes, well one might also see peacocks, or a sunken fence, but who knows what the word is for keeping peacocks? (Er, if there is such a word.) Anyone that does crosswords will know what a ha-ha is, of course, but I don't think topiary is a common crossword word?
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Abby: Yeah, what Thorn said about amature psychology. Man that shit makes me mad.
I'm guessing someone tried a bit of amateur psychology on you when you were a child?
How did that make you feel?
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: I don't know about a single word, or owt like that, but what I do find astonishing is the number of people that will attempt a kind of armchair psychological analysis, without any real idea of what the fuck they're talking about. It's like every retard with a mouth bigger than their brain has picked up the vocabulary of psychoanalysis but not a single one of them has really any idea of what to do with the tools they've found. You can see this a lot in the relationships forum in Handbag; and occasionally on here (think Turtle). It's strange because I don't really know where these people are getting this info from.
I think the pop psychology meme gets its virulence from the fact that it isn't just passive 'facts', it actually gives people a way to objectify others. Tremendously empowering, if you can describe - whether to yourself or others - your boss/brother/mother/husband etc etc as a bundle of misfiring complexes rather than a being as rational and feeling as yourself. Journalists do it an awful lot and 'teh public' take their cue from there.
It's a favourite stunt of nutter conspiracy theorists to explain the behaviour of others in terms of them being in the grip of some kind of 'mentality' - but all of us, let's face it, have resorted to such cheap tactics to some extent, at some stage.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by OJ: Do you perhaps mean words that should be obscure because they have such a narrowly specific meaning? Like grommit or merkin? Or words for concepts that you think are complex and therefore are surprised that many people know?
I think it's the first one, but either really. Some words become well-known because they just sound funny, like grommit. I guess topiary is sometimes used by witty uncles when talking about haircuts, so it might have become well-known through that. Maybe it featured in an episode of Reggie Perrin or a Carry On film and has been in common useage ever since without many of us knowing quite where from.
Posted by OJ (Member # 752) on :
I thought the last one was Animal from Sesame Street, but apparently it's the Lion King.
Posted by OJ (Member # 752) on :
I'm now wondering exactly why I know what a bradawl is, despite never having used one. Ditto cochineal.
Thanks dang Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Is it something to do with the brain just absorbing vocabulary like a sponge, whether we'll need it or not? Thus, we know what a plié is, despite never going to see a ballet or being likely to perform one in one's sitting room. The real mystery is why the brain chooses to hold on to words like 'flume' but not the name of the person approaching you, waving, in the street.
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
early onset alzheimers
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Sorry. What?
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
Or too many druqs in the 60's. That's what I tend to say to explain why I can remember the meaning of pusillanimous but forget the name of the waving person.
Do you think it's to do with how you first learn the word / fact? It would seem to be that you remember things that you find interesting, or that there is some kind of hook or connection to something else.
I remember pusillanimous because I first heard it during a play I saw and studied when I was 16, the name of the play now escapes me but the word pusillanimous remains with me. I can even remember the intonation in the actors voice when he said it. I'm actually quite good with names usually but would hazard to say that I would forget a name if the person didn't interest me all that much. That sounds harsh, but it's probably true.
Maybe people remember topiary because it is usually portrayed in a slightly comical way, slightly sneered upon, for what it symbolises? So from the first time you hear the word it remains in your memory as it is something slightly different from the norm and mildly amusing.
[ 03.08.2005, 10:01: Message edited by: Uber Trick ]
Posted by rooster (Member # 738) on :
quote:Originally posted by Uber Trick: Maybe people remember topiary because it is usually portrayed in a slightly comical way, slightly sneered upon, for what it symbolises? So from the first time you hear the word it remains in your memory as it is something slightly different from the norm and mildly amusing.
Or scary, like when the topiary animals attacked in The Shining.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
quote:Originally posted by Uber Trick: pusillanimous
That's a new one on me, I must confess. "Lacking in courage and manly strength and resolution." Ah, there you go see, I'm unlikely to have come across that word before.
I do know that I had 'lackadaisical' written a school report once though, and that made it fairly memorable, once I'd bothered to look it up.
I also remember learning 'eponymous' when I was a kid from a radio DJ saying the name of a band's new album - "Their 'Eponymous' album." - and thinking that was a strange name and looking it up? Actually, I believe that several bands have actually called albums 'Eponymous', no doubt to their later embarrassment.
Posted by Vanilla Online Persona (Member # 301) on :
Is this thread based on a conversation in Fight Club, like why would a man ever need to know what a duvet was? No? Oh well. I didn't know what topiary was either.
However, I do know what Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch means, even though its not a proper word and that makes me the hardest person on this thread.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
quote:Originally posted by rooster: Or scary, like when the topiary animals attacked in The Shining.
Or smutty, like when Torrance makes a joke about his wife's pubes in The Shining.
Posted by squeegy (Member # 136) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: I came across elements of psychology for my degree, but that's hardly widespread enough to account for the number of people who spout total shit when analyising people's behaviour etc.
Beautifully illustrated here:
quote:Originally posted by Uber Trick : Maybe people remember topiary because it is usually portrayed in a slightly comical way, slightly sneered upon, for what it symbolises? So from the first time you hear the word it remains in your memory as it is something slightly different from the norm and mildly amusing.
Posted by OJ (Member # 752) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vanilla Online However, I do know what Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch means, even though its not a proper word and that makes me the hardest person on this thread. [/QB]
Er, so do I, but I don't feel the need to shout about it.
Let me introduce you to one of my favourite words: vainglory.
I think I first remember reading that word in Anthony and Cleopatra, but I could be mistaken.
[ 03.08.2005, 10:42: Message edited by: OJ ]
Posted by Vanilla Online Persona (Member # 301) on :
Two Welshes on the same thread .... we're on our way to creating a ghetto.
Posted by OJ (Member # 752) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vanilla Online Persona: Two Welshes on the same thread .... we're on our way to creating a ghetto.
Quick, one of us had better leave before we exceed the quota.
Which reminds me: quango is another one of those words isn't it?
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
quote:Originally posted by squeegy:
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: I came across elements of psychology for my degree, but that's hardly widespread enough to account for the number of people who spout total shit when analyising people's behaviour etc.
Beautifully illustrated here:
quote:Originally posted by Uber Trick : Maybe people remember topiary because it is usually portrayed in a slightly comical way, slightly sneered upon, for what it symbolises? So from the first time you hear the word it remains in your memory as it is something slightly different from the norm and mildly amusing.
Fucking hell squeegy, I wasn't trying to do any "pop psychology" just think about and discuss the thread topic. Feeling bit snippy today are we?
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Yeah. I've had another 'pop psychology' thought, sparked by the alzheimers comment. Maybe it's all to do with long-term and short-term memory. Vocabulary like topiary gets stored in the long-term memory, whereas peoples' names get stored in short-term, in the manner of oldsters being able to remember what their friend Enid had for breakfast in Eastbourne in 1924, but not where they put their teeth that morning.
Posted by squeegy (Member # 136) on :
Just making an observation
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
Fair enough but how was my response "pop psychology" or indeed a spouting of "utter shit" compared to the rest of the responses on this thread?
Is it because I thought about and analysed why people might remember topiary and by extension thought about the learning process of which I do happen to know a little, working as I do with people with learning difficulties and constantly having to find new and different ways to help them learn things?
Please explain yourself.
Posted by squeegy (Member # 136) on :
quote:Originally posted by Uber Trick: Please explain yourself.
Just.Making.An.Observation.
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
Yes.But.It.Was.Unfair.
Posted by Bandy (Member # 12) on :
Scrawny to Squeegy:
I'm assuming that you've also missed the irony of Thorn questioning people's right to psychoanalyse by considering their backgrounds and hypothesising as to why they would want to behave in that way.
Life (and the forum) would indeed be fucking boring if nobody ever thought about why they were doing something. This topic, for example, would read like this:
quote: Originally posted by Dang65: Topiary?
quote: Originally posted by Thorn: Pop psychology, perhaps
quote: Originally posted by Louche: Gouache
quote: Originally posted by OJ: Schadenfreude. Insurgent.
You get the picture.
[ 04.08.2005, 05:31: Message edited by: Bandy ]
Posted by squeegy (Member # 136) on :
Look, its not a big deal. I wasnt calling you a thicko or anything but you do seem determined to blow this out of proportion. It was, as you said, a snippy comment. Fine, lets leave it at that. Or must you have an apology for every imagined slight on the board?
Posted by scrawny (Member # 113) on :
quote:Originally posted by squeegy: Look, its not a big deal. I wasnt calling you a thicko or anything but you do seem determined to blow this out of proportion. It was, as you said, a snippy comment. Fine, lets leave it at that. Or must you have an apology for every imagined slight on the board?
In the good old days, people used to be able to call each other c*nting shitfaces without so much as a batted eyelid. S'not like that anymore. Anyway, you posted, she responded, you bowed out with the truly lame 'just making an observation'. Where's your stamina?
Why can't we ever fight like we used to?
ETA: Damn. Just realised Ben, BM and Dang were having a bit of a how's your father on the other thread. As you were.
[ 04.08.2005, 05:44: Message edited by: scrawny ]
Posted by squeegy (Member # 136) on :
quote:Originally posted by scrawny: Where's your stamina?
Piss off, you c*nting shitface
But seriously, I just thought it was funny that Thorn brought up the topic and Uber posted an example of it. So I thought Id bring it up as a bit of a joke (albeit a fairly crap one). And she did get mighty offended about it all. Quite a petty thing to have a proper argument about, isn't it?
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
Well, isn't it, Scrawny?
Posted by 69 Comeback Elvis (Member # 9) on :
There are a lot of words like topiary in the sexual dictionary of everyday use – words that everybody knows but only a few do. Teabagging, rinding, fisting, felching and going down on a minor to name but five.
Posted by scrawny (Member # 113) on :
Yes. It really is.
This whole freelancing thing is killing me - have two deadlines tomorrow and instead of actually doing any work, so far today I've made tea, looked up the timetable for my local swimming pool, found out about Kevin Blechdom what FtC and Amp were on about, and now I'm hanging around on here trying to encourage Squeegy and Uber to have a fight in the manner of a lascivious old man encouraging two blonde cheerleaders to grapple in mud for my entertainment.
Am one step away from admitting that 'the morning' isn't my most productive time and going back to bed. Posted by scrawny (Member # 113) on :
I don't know what rinding means. The rest, no problem.
What is rinding, Elvis?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by 69 Comeback Elvis: There are a lot of words like topiary in the sexual dictionary of everyday use – words that everybody knows but only a few do. Teabagging, rinding, fisting, felching and going down on a minor to name but five.
Plus... carpetbombing, anal-eclipse, oogly shabubu, and the Bradford refried bean.
Posted by 69 Comeback Elvis (Member # 9) on :
It's a Reggaeton phrase. To bump and rind. It's how the girls make their bums move like that. You stitch some thread to the inside of their arseholes and feed it through the body and out of the mouth. A "master rinder" will control up to seventeen of these meat puppets at once. It's why Reggaeton dancers' mouths gape like angler fish.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
I've got a scar on my splatch from Bradford refried beaning. In the right light it looks like Ronnie Corbett.
Posted by jonesy999 (Member # 5) on :
quote:Originally posted by 69 Comeback Elvis: It's a Reggaeton phrase. To bump and rind. It's how the girls make their bums move like that. You stitch some thread to the inside of their arseholes and feed it through the body and out of the mouth. A "master rinder" will control up to seventeen of these meat puppets at once. It's why Reggaeton dancers' mouths gape like angler fish.
Excellent.
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
quote:Originally posted by squeegy: Look, its not a big deal. I wasnt calling you a thicko or anything but you do seem determined to blow this out of proportion. It was, as you said, a snippy comment. Fine, lets leave it at that. Or must you have an apology for every imagined slight on the board?
Not for every "imagined" slight no, but for snippy, unfair and unnecessary comments then yes, manners are important. Thanks for the apology. /ends
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
Christonabike.
Posted by Gail (Member # 21) on :
Elvis has wandered back into the building. Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
alright, Vogon?
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Also... a praline cosh, a hazard bath, a midway fong, chubbles, tubeway bingo...
Posted by scrawny (Member # 113) on :
I feel so... conservative. Posted by omikin (Member # 37) on :
madeley's purse, the monkey switch, sorting by column, badging, collecting buttons, beanfeast, vorderman's gap.
Posted by scrawny (Member # 113) on :
Although I did find this extraordinary picture of Elvis teabagging a dwarf.
Posted by dang65 (Member # 102) on :
Not forgetting: Deadpan halogen, frequent raisin, innate dinner and stove gipsy.
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
I sent you some Blechdom mp3s about a million years ago, Scrawny. Get up to speed, woman!
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Lord Snatchy's Cummerbund, central pork, Fagward Ho!, papoose abuse, smunking, carrier's risk...
Posted by omikin (Member # 37) on :
i love smunking.
relationships do tend to lose the magic after that though. no-one wants to marry the girl they've smunked.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Wrist envy, French gargling, empty promises, cathetugging...
Posted by scrawny (Member # 113) on :
quote:Originally posted by London: I sent you some Blechdom mp3s about a million years ago, Scrawny. Get up to speed, woman!
I know, I totally adored 'love you from the heart' but at the time I only had time to look at her website which is a scaryass collection of never-ending gifs. Now, however, I know lots!
Posted by scrawny (Member # 113) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: cathetugging
Now that's just a step too far.
Posted by omikin (Member # 37) on :
have you ever played dutch backgammon, bm?
+++YOU MUST BE 18+++
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by omikin: have you ever played dutch backgammon, bm?
+++YOU MUST BE 18+++
I lost a toe! My dutch backgammon days are long gone.
D'you use doubling dice?
Posted by omikin (Member # 37) on :
no point in playing if you're not going to go the whole hog lol.
sorry to hear about the toe. i nearly broke my ear last time! had tinnitus for a month.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
Abi Tinnitus?
Posted by omikin (Member # 37) on :
incidentally, which rules did you play? bough's or the whitehouse convention?
Posted by 69 Comeback Elvis (Member # 9) on :
Smunking is like Chinese food. You have to go out for it.
I was first told that joke (substituting the word smunking for the phrase blow job) when I was about 11. I had no idea what a blow job was. I wasn't even 100% clear on Chinese food. Or why you woud have to go out for either. But I laughed along. I admit it, I liked to flirt.
Or 'helmet tattoo' – the art of pressing flowers in your foreskin.
Posted by omikin (Member # 37) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: Abi Tinnitus?
shyeah, like i want another dose of kloof-rot.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by omikin: incidentally, which rules did you play? bough's or the whitehouse convention?
Bough's. Definitely. Although since it's taken off in the States there are all sorts of new variations... twists, if you like! Oh, rofl! I've tried Klondike Dutch and Chicago Dutch. They're fast, admittedly. But what you gain in speed you tend to lose in sensation, aftershock and misery.
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
quote:Originally posted by 69 Comeback Elvis: Or 'helmet tattoo' – the art of pressing flowers in your foreskin.
My mum still does that, in case you thought it was a dead art.
Posted by London (Member # 29) on :
quote:Originally posted by scrawny: I know, I totally adored 'love you from the heart' but at the time I only had time to look at her website which is a scaryass collection of never-ending gifs. Now, however, I know lots!
[ 04.08.2005, 07:21: Message edited by: London ]
Posted by scrawny (Member # 113) on :
Oh but I shall! Was just on their website. Looks :coll:
Posted by 69 Comeback Elvis (Member # 9) on :
quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: My mum still does that, in case you thought it was a dead art.
My mum was lucky enough to be born a hermaphrodite (“she’ll never go long without a paying customer,” Granddad would say proudly). And she could do the most amazing impressions using actual insects she had pressed between the heavy folds of her cooch.
Mum had a cocko up top, then twat, then balls – a most unusual arrangement that looked, in the early evening light, one leg on the make-up table, preparing herself for the shaft ahead, not unlike Kirk Douglas screaming.
I remember one Christmas, when the charades had dried up, Mum hoiked herself onto the dining room table and ordered the lights be dimmed. “This is a special one Alan,” she smiled, I was always her favourite. Mum delivered the most haunting and beautiful rendition of the Barbara Dixon and Elaine Page classic, ‘I knew him so well’ I have ever seen. She played Dixon and a Cabbage White, animated wonderfully by her quivering quim walls and nodding cock, was Paige. How she got so much pathos into a butterfly I'll never know.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
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