The Wondrous Wacky World of Words

By Ben Bennetts

How are you on words? Do you know your oxymorons from your tautologies; your alliterations from your euphemisms; your acronyms from your homonyms; or your onomatopoeias from your palindromes? Is 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' a nonce word or a nonsense word? Can you create neologisms by prefixing, suffixing, back-forming, compounding, and blending with the best of them? Can you define the word 'word' without using the word 'word'? Do you know what it means to munch a brick or bend someone’s ear? Is a 'fire distinguisher' a spoonerism or a malapropism? Are you a logophile, an etymologist, a lexicologist, a philologist, a logologist, a linguist or just someone who enjoys a walk in the park?

If you know the answers to all these questions, you’ve no need to read this essay. If not, read on and be amused, amazed and ameliorated.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ben Bennetts
• Release date: May 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9780957321861

Ben Bennetts

After retiring in December 2007 from a busy career as a consultant electronics engineer, I took up walking long-distance trails both in my home country (UK) and in other places such the Himalaya in Nepal, the Sierra Nevada in Spain, and the levadas in Madeira. These activities kept me physically fit. To stay mentally fit, I started a blog (https://ben-bennetts.com) and began writing books. To date (February 2021), I’ve published twenty-one books on topics as diverse as religion, winemaking, an erotic novel (using the pseudonym, J C Pascoe), two storybooks for children, various autobiographies, idiosyncrasies of the English language, long-distance walking, keeping fit as we age, how to create and self-publish either an ebook or a paperback book, a book of cartoons, and a series of blog collections. You can read more about the books on my website, ben-bennetts.com/books. The books are available as e-books on www.smashwords.com and in Amazon’s Kindle Store.Contact me at [e-mail]

Book preview

The Wondrous Wacky World Of Words

Ben Bennetts

With illustrations by Jenny Bennetts

SUMMARY

How are you on words? Do you know your oxymorons from your tautologies; your alliterations from your euphemisms; your acronyms from your homonyms; or your onomatopoeias from your palindromes? Is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious a nonce word or a nonsense word? Can you create neologisms by prefixing, suffixing, back-forming, compounding, and blending with the best of them? Can you define the word word without using the word word? Do you know what it means to munch a brick or bend someone’s ear? Is a fire distinguisher a spoonerism or a malapropism? Are you a logophile, an etymologist, a lexicologist, a philologist, a logologist, a linguist or just someone who enjoys a walk in the park?

If you know the answers to all these questions, you’ve no need to read this essay. If not, read on and be amused, amazed and ameliorated.

(^_^)

Copyright © 2015, Ben Bennetts, Jenny Bennetts

Published by Atheos Books at Smashwords

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. The eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please buy an extra copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not buy it, or it was not bought for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and buy your own copy. Thank you for respecting my hard work.

ISBN 978-0-9573218-6-1

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE MEANING OF WORDS

Meta-words

Defining words with words: recursion

Difficult-to-define words

Words that don’t mean what you may think they mean

Long words

Autological and heterological words

Oxymorons

Tautologies

Words that begin with word in the dictionary

FORMING NEW WORDS

Neologisms and Archaisms (time-worn) words

Forming new words from old: prefixing and suffixing

Back-forming

Compounding

Blending

Coinages

Loanwords (borrowed words)

Calques (Loan Translations)

Initialisms, acronyms, eponyms and abbreviations

Nonce words

Nonsense words

Mnemonics

Spellings

DIFFERENT TYPES OF WORDS

Homonyms (Homophones and Homographs

Synonyms and antonyms

Onomatopoeic words

Words I have difficulty with

Strange/unfamiliar words

Pangrams and other oddities

SPECIAL WORDS

Slang

Sexy words

Vulgar words

Euphemisms

Banned/non-PC words

Racist words

WORD PLAY

Alliteration

Puns

Rhyming words

Tongue twisters

Word marriages

Anagrams

Palindromes

Spoonerisms

Malapropisms

Word games

THE LAST WORD

Names for and activities of people who like words

Website links

Good background reading books

About the author, Molly Wordmaid, aka Ben Bennetts

About the illustrator, Polly Painter, aka Jenny Bennetts

Other books by Ben Bennetts

(^_^)

INTRODUCTION

Picture of me drawn by my friend Polly Painter

Hi, I’m Molly; Molly Wordmaid. I live in a somewhat dilapidated well-thumbed Merriam-Webster (MW) dictionary in a small apartment in the M-section. Outside my door it says Molly, noun, a name given to a female. Next door to me on one side lives another Molly, but she’s a brightly-coloured killifish. On the other side lives a shellfish called Mollusc, sometimes spelt Mollusk. I don’t talk to him. He’s soft and squidgy and stays in his shell.

Words are my game; my claim to fame. I love words. I visit all over my dictionary, chatting to my word friends, asking them questions, understanding their origins, discovering all sorts of things. I love the sounds of words. Say discombobulate. It has rhythm, cadence, balance. Onomatopoeia is another such word, a six-syllable delight meaning sounds like the thing it describes. A snake hisses. Hisses is an onomatopoeic word. Say it. Hisssssesss. Yep, that’s what some snakes do. No need to explain the word. It describes itself. Autological. Lovely. How about bucolic? You can almost smell the countryside. Demure conjures up shyness coupled with coyness and beauty. Try saying any of these words: diaphanous, ebullience, effervescent, eloquence, ephemeral, epiphany, evocative, fragrant, gambol, gossamer, halcyon, imbroglio, ineffable, inglenook, insouciance (and nonchalance), lagoon, languor, lassitude, mellifluous, opulent, panacea, pastiche, plethora, quintessential, ratatouille, redolent, scintilla, serendipity, sumptuous, surreptitious, tintinnabulation, vestigial. All lovely words to say, to savour, to repeat with relish don’t you think?

And then there are homophones, much beloved by a friend of mine called Mike Maroo. He also lives in M-section and is much prone to writing homophones: words that sound the same but which are spelt differently and have different meanings. He writes hoard instead of horde, their