Is there a word you hear or say that makes you giggle?
I see others have asked about favorite words. How about a word or two that when you hear it or when you say it, you get a giggle.
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Pumpernickel and nincompoop both send me into fits of laughter.
Well, I said “toe deformation” once (I have absolutely no idea why) and someone misenterpreted it as “toady formation,” so every time I say, or someone else says, deformation or formation, (haven’t had a reason to say toe deformation again…haha.) I just crack up.
Also, “muffins” makes me laugh, but that came about from an inside joke with my friends.
@lefteh; “nincompoop” makes me laugh, too.
Szechuan shrimp…it’s a mouthful!
When I first heard my mother say, “We need shishkabob skewers” I cracked up. I was about 8.
The word “soiled” grosses me out and makes me giggle.
When my kids were young (and grumpy) teens, and I wanted to take a photo, I’d say, “Say ‘penis’,” and that did it.
sacco sacco and Engelbert Humperdinck
“Way”.....As in the response to “No way!”
*I always think of Wayne’s world and laugh to myself.
*Honourable mentions:
Three urban slang words that keep me amused:
Sssssss’up
Fo shizzle…..What’s a shizzle? For sure?
Yo! Best used in conjunction with ‘brotha’, and ‘s’up’
“Schlong” is a funny word.
@MacBean; Ahh!! I just saw that and laughed my head off…
I just e-mailed it to my friends…haha.
Any stupid word that can be construed as dirty. Huh Huh Huh! (a la Beavis and Butthead)
Genitals and Lake Titicaca
The Grand Tetons. Huh huh…huh!
Nubbin
Jalopy
Shenanigan
Hooligan
Munson
Brody
Hoo-hoo
Wig wam
Chingodera (my father-in-law says that one and I have no idea what it means)
And the capper:
Chupacabra!
@TheHaight: one of my faves too, along with Djibouti
My chemistry teacher used the word “farshnegulls” to describe our test tube clamps. He was a former ski instructor and said that the clamps reminded him of equipment be used on skiies. I have no idea how to spell it but it sounded a little German.
Anyone know what I’m talking about?
Most of the slang words for breasts. They all make me giggle. Also, not one word, but the phrase “That John Denver’s full of crap man!” My father in laws favorite term for all young kids “Boogerpicker”
Your awesome, Gail. I have no idea how you dug that up but thank you!!
Ishkabibble does it for me.
@Indy; Thank my paternal grandmother who spoke Yiddish when I was in the room so I wouldn’t understand. A perfect way, I discovered, to learn another language. I was about six and dying to know what my aunt and grandmother were saying. So, nu, I learned.
(you’re= you are.)
You’re welcome.
Uranus. Definitely. My kids used to sing along with some Blues Clues song about the planets, (great learning tool), but everytime it got to the line about “Uranus spins on it’s side”, I just can’t help but laugh. Who named that planet, anyway? A proctologist?
braunschweiger
roid rage
cankle
uvula
gherkin
wainscotting
helmet
spleen
carbunkle
colostomy
mucus
Dunkleman
cunning linguist
succotash
@WDLittle – that has to be the grandaddy of them all
I also submit dootie like dog dootie but can’t find how to spell it. gail?
Doodie but I have seen it as doody. Funny word.
@Bri_L and mrjadkins: I think you’re right… doody is the way I’ve seen it. Very funny word. Especially when you consider the pronunciation against “duty”. Politicians claim to be “doing their duty” and now I’m gonna’ laugh at that one everytime I hear it in the coming elections! Thanks… (I think). ;-)
Carbunkle. No idea what it means.
Flabergasted
Whizbang
Diddle
Piddle
Fiddle
Whittle
Pecker
Flibertygibbet
Bunghole
Cornholio
Smashashmasha
Sonofa…...!!!
Panties
Schvettyballs
Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious
Pussy cat
Juan
Gosh!
Supercilious
Upchuck
Peepee
Willie
Schmeckle
I giggle a lot obviously.
facetious (pronounced fah-kett-ee-ous, which is a joke between my friend Caroline and I).
@WD – John McCain loves to talk about his duty. And it does bring a smile to my face when he mentions it.
Caca is funny too.
Gail, you are awesome.
Now back to the question. The word that does it for me is ‘nucular’.
@stevenb: haha
I also laugh at the name Jorge. My good friend in college would always tell people “my name’s pronounced whore – hey.”
The French word for tired is Fatigué (pronounced fatty-e-gay). The first time I heard it in clalss I couldn’t stop laughing (I was an immature freshman). It’s even funnier when it’s spoken using accurate French.
@Indy318—True story: Saying you’re tired in a middle school/high school French class loses its charm quickly when you are, in fact, both chunky and queer.
@MacBean, I’m sorry to hear about your experience the French language. I guess you avoided that adjective like the plague whenever you had the chance. It was just that the first time I hear the word, everyone in the class stared at one another like the teacher had just cursed or mispronounced the word.
pantaloons
bloomers
(notice a trend here)
tighty-whities
A fairly successful family joke was “Feeling Gravy?”
I liked the way my French teacher pronounced the word for Seal (foe-k) you say it fast in high school and it sounds like the (as my mom says “f bomb”)
Vajayjay
Skivvies
fafenhagen ( I heard it once and it still makes me smile…what is it?)
In Shakespeare’s Henry V, the opposite joke occurs. Catherine of Aragon wants to learn some English and is taught by one of her maids. They run through some body parts-the hand, nails, elbows, chin. etc. Then Catherine asks what the translation of “le pieds” is. The response is “foot..” Heary laugh on stage because in French , foutre (pronounced similarly to “foot,” means.
This would have been particularly shocking for a French Princess to utter in the early fifthteenth century.
gailcalled: I love that scene too! Henry V is one of my favorites.
Asparagus… I once heard someone in a restaraunt pronounce it ‘ASS—par—RAGE—us—. It was on one of his “horses doovers”! ha ha!! when the server told him how it was pronounced, he said.. “We don’t get that fancy food ‘round my part of Texas!” We tried really hard, but couldn’t help ourselves and burst out laughing.
Revolting – pronounced re-VOLT-ing – another in-joke with some friends of mine…
pupate
scrotum
bajingo
meniscus
phenolphthalein
boobies
“fer sure”
righteous
Duuuh!
like….(add any word in the world to this one)
cootie
wuss
sick (not the ailment)
@mee ouch: That stupid Pussycat Dolls song is on the radio ALL THE TIME here, but I giggle a little bit every time I here the line with boobies in it.
Boobies, boobies, boobies….Tee Hee….
Grrrr! “hear” not “here” Sorry – I had to correct myself!
Barbie…you are forgiven…..Now go to your room!
flatulent, flaccid, dang, crapulous, bulbous, persnickety, cantankerous, curmudgeon – to name a few.
@gail: Really? I’ve been pronouncing it incorrectly in my head for years
i have always pronounced it Flass id
Do I ever lie to you, Aug? It’s actually Flak-sid (like Freud’s Id.)
Gail, you teach me something new everyday…Thanks!
sorry, Gail, but both are accepted pronunciations. (fla-səd and ˈflak-səd)
REG: Flaccid – I don’t really think “pronouncing” it is really the problem do you?
—Ezra: how did you get that upside down and backwards “e”? The linguistic times, they are a-changing, as we keep noting.
@Brian- it can refer to other things – viz; hands, plant parts, leadership.
@ Gail – true but you of all people know that while many words have many meanings, there are some words that tend to be tied to a single meaning, especially if the context was predetermined as to have made the person who heard it “giggle”.
Also, most in the Fluther crowd know how childish I can be. To quote Homer Simpson “I can’t even hear the word “titmouse” without giggling”. snicker
ə
in unicode hex input on a mac, it is ALT 0259.
I can’t believe those words just came out of my fingermouths.
Fingermouths made me giggle
Fun fact: the ə character is called a schwa.
i like the word fingernouths too
thank you, I invented it.
fingermouths reminds me of “tummy sticks” (The Wedding Crashers, anybody?). “Let’s play tummy sticks!” yikes
Don’t forget Yiddish; and these are words that begin only with “s”.
gluteus maximus
goober
puttana
splendiforous
scrotum
starkers
arse
gob-smack
simpleton
peon
rube
milf
nob
(ir)regardless…..now in the Oxford Dictionary of Current English, I was forever ‘corrected’ whenever I utilized this word in a sentence. It makes me chuckle now to see it in all it’s ‘glorious’ content in the dictionary of all dictionaries…lol
@meeouch: Please tell me that last isn’t true! If irregardless is now a recognized word, then the end of the world as we know it can’t be far behind.
augustlan….my mom still insists it’s a ‘real’ word. That makes me giggle all the more.
According to the almighty Preface, the new edition reads as such:
“Based on the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (11th edition), the Compact Oxford English Dictionary is directly informed by the evidence of how the language is actually used today, drawing on the analysis of hundreds of millions of words of real English contained in the Oxford English Corpus….....”
“Et tu Oxford?”
We’re doomed!
Ain’t is now in the dictionary…..after 20+ years of being told it was not a word. If she had not passed this would kill my grandmother
Language is a living thing; it changes. If Shakespeare were alive today, he’d cringe at what we consider “proper language”.
@Tiny; I did note that you sorry, u used the subjunctive as it was meant to be – to indicate the fact that Shakespeare isn’t and cannot be alive. “Proper” language evolves; no one will argue that. But there is this week, this day, this minute, standard English so that we can understand books, newspapers, and other written documents.
MItsu’s answer is a perfect example, partially because of where the text breaks.
“If she had not passed this” (passed what?) or “If she had not passed, this would have….”
Like I’ve said before gail, I know the rules, I just don’t always choose to use them. I’m glad ain’t is now a word, I like to use it when I’m speaking about silly things.
I agree that mitsu’s example creates ambiguity, but we’re not in a court of law, and I got her jist; therefore, she used language properly.
Tiny: I didn’t mean to sound critical and was not picking on Mitsu. As you know, I always find our language and the use of it interesting. Of course, I got her gist; but I was musing on standard English and not informal chatter.
There is a wonderful George Gershwin song from “Porgy and Bess;”
“It Ain’t Necessarily So” (1935): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Ain’t_Necessarily_So
@Mac: Thinking of anyone in particular?
Very funny, however, by my standards. I am sending that on to my college classmates list-serv. They get particularly riled up when someone qualifies “unique.” Thanks.
@gail—I thought of the entire collective first, because I figured most everyone would get a little smile out of it. Even those who are particular fans of grammar rules usually still have enough of a sense of humor about it. But when I started thinking of people in particular, you were the first one who came to mind. I actually was going to PM that link to you, but then this question popped up with new activity that was relevant and I thought I might as well share it with the whole group!
haha! Qualifying “unique” annoys me, too. I catch myself doing it sometimes because I pick up other people’s speech patterns so easily. I always want to kick myself when I notice I’ve done it.
@mee ouch, I flippin love that word gob-smack.
Fluther is the uniquest! Pronounced however youse like!
The day that conversate becomes an accepted part of my native tongue, I’m changing languages and maybe countries.
I just returned from a gold mine where i I I panned for gold. Where am I?
@Seesul: Eureka (the town, not the exclamation)?
Negative. Hint deux: I just took a picture of a seaplane taking off past my window.
“Pudding.” or “Pudding Cup.”
@breedmitch frizzer would also do it for me :), a certain question about Janets and pools comes to mind…
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