Comments on: 10 More Whatchamacallits And Their Real Names

By: Marianne

Marianne — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 23:19:18 +0000

These words are so useful! I might have to try and work them into my vocab xD

By: Broi

Broi — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 12:05:34 +0000

The guy is still a gob*****e

By: Tribol

Tribol — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 21:19:20 +0000

nope

By: MoonChild02

MoonChild02 — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:40:39 +0000

This is true. Tangles were blamed on fae playing with hair while people were sleeping, and plaiting horses' manes during the night. Hence the term "elf-locks". That information can be found in the book "Faeries" by Brian Froud and Alan Lee. Fae and faeries, including elves, were thought to be the causes of many things people could not explain properly.

The word "stroke" is actually a shortening of the phrase "Elf stroke".
Unaccountable deaths of humans and other animals were said to be due to "Elf-shot", and the flint arrowheads found in Europe were attributed to those fae.
Unexplainable bruises that a person would wake up having were called said to be "faery pinches", or "faery nips".
Those who wander and get lost were said to be "pixie-led".
When something went bad, it was said to be "elf-taken".
When infants died SIDS or were plagued with other unexplainable infant illnesses and deformities, the infants were believed to be changelings, and not the real children. In Shakespeare's play "Richard III", the character Margaret calls Richard, "Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog!" She called him thus because Richard III was hunch-backed, born by cesarean section because he was breach (meaning, his feet were downwards instead of his head when he was born), he was born with natal teeth, and he was a horrid person.

There know that there are MANY other examples, but that's all I can find for right now.

By: Secret Name

Secret Name — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 02:28:26 +0000

That photo you used for Don Juanism is a friend of mine. Yehuda Duenyas. And you stole the photo off of Gothamist. ???

By: Alisha Crider

Alisha Crider — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 05:30:07 +0000

I'm gonna seem like a total podsnap when I start using these words

By: josiah

josiah — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:48:34 +0000

agreed

By: tui

tui — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:36:03 +0000

I am also australian and have never heard of a stew like that being called a hochmagandy. When I googled it I found that the word is Scottish in origin and is currently being used to define pre-marital, recreational *****.

By: wordcat

wordcat — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:17:02 +0000

Yearning for the crisp petrichor of a spring morning but waking late to the nidor of lamb seared for her mother’s famous salmagundi, Natasha emerged from her hibernaculum with the distinct feeling that her muliebrity was compromised by ferocious elflocks and a rumbling tenesmus, both of which she had been gloriously lacking in a freshly abandoned dream, in which Arthur McDonegal, a moronic but prodigiously beautiful podsnap of a boy who suffered from a serious case of Don Juanism, had chased her across the scree at the foot of a nearby hill.

By: katerinaelaena

katerinaelaena — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:47:01 +0000

Podsnaps are so common these days…

Then again, so are those suffering from “Don Juanism” =)