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Message board > WORD of the DAY, Monday, 21/01/2013
WORD of the DAY, Monday, 21/01/2013
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ldthemagicman
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WORD of the DAY, Monday, 21/01/2013
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The WORD OF THE DAY is "POLYPTOTON".
The WORD OF THE DAY is "POLYPTOTON".
During the Competition, I have no doubt that someone will undoubtedly give us the �Correct � answer. There �s no doubt about that, even though some Members will, no doubt, remark: "I have my doubts about that!" Well, doubtless you will not doubt my undoubted frankness, (but there �s even a bit of doubt about that).
I don�t want to cast doubts on some of the Members, but without a shadow of a doubt, some doubt their own doubts; there�s little doubt of that. It�s OK to have your doubts about something, but that leaves little doubt of your certainty about the uncertainty of doubt. But I doubt it!
I don�t doubt for a second that many Members, no doubt, doubt Les Douglas when he raises doubts by saying, �I have NEVER heard an Englishman say: �I have a doubt�. But it�s true, although I doubt if you believe me.
In all of my years, I have NEVER heard an ENGLISH PERSON say: �I HAVE A DOUBT�.
The WORD OF THE DAY is "POLYPTOTON".
Les Douglas |
20 Jan 2013
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MoodyMoody
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Polyptoton is a disease characterized by small growths in the mouth, caused by eating goose and apples. It is especially common in Toton, a suburb of Nottingham. |
20 Jan 2013
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edrodmedina
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When dinosaurs roamed the Earth (and I was a wee lad), there was a condition the larger dinosaurs also known as the bigosauruses, would get from stepping on the little dinosaurs or smallasauruses. This condition would begin as as small growth or polyp between the bigosaureses (please somebody for heaven �s sake help me with the plurals) toes. The more smallasaureses the bigosaureses stepped on the bigger the polyps between the toes would grow. Fossil remains have been found in the Arizona desserts of bigosaureses that had polyps that must of weighed at least a ton, hence polyp to(e) ton. |
20 Jan 2013
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sarguero
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POLYP = An animal of the phylum Cnidaria like medusas or jellyfish + TOTON= Slang way to say TomTom a trade mark GPS device.
So a POLYPTOTON is the GPS gadget that jellyfish use to locate a good place to have fun on Saturday night.
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21 Jan 2013
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cunliffe
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I �m sorry, but these definitions are not right. Polyptoton has nothing to do with feet, unlike the magnificent �melipot �, which has to do with bare feet. A polyptoton is a person with what some would consider, an illness. He (it �s usually a male) can resist no form of gambling whatsoever. For the linguists among us - and I �m betting there are one or two, although I am not a polyptoton myself, here is the breakdown. Poly - the Greek for �many �, as well as a popular name for parrots and �toton � the name for the state lottery somewhere in the world, surely? So, we get polytoton. As for the extra �p, I �ll get back to you on that one.
I �m at home, curled up watching the birds and waiting for the Jeremy Kyle show. We have got a �snow day � - school closed due to snow. Terrible, I know. |
21 Jan 2013
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manonski (f)
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POLYPTOTON:
Poly (from polygraph): lie, absence of truth, doubt
Toton: slang French words (in Quebec) referring to a woman �s breasts.
Therefore, my dear Les, it means that polyptoton, is a state of doubting if they are real.
And here is a conversation between two guys in a bar:
first guy: "Look at that chick!"
second guy: "Hmm... I �m polyptoton"
Have a great day!
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21 Jan 2013
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ohermann
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The word
POLYPTOTON has, like nearly every word
in any language, many meanings. Although you all have mentioned one of its many
meanings you totally forgot this medical one (and no doubt Les had this one in
mind):
Polyptoton
is the name of a very unpleasant disease which affects partly a brain and partly
a tongue. When a person often repeats a word in a wrong collocation, such
as doubt, very soon an ulcer appears on the person�s brain and tongue. And there
is NOT any cure for the disease � only a long-term psychotherapy applied by Professor
Les Dougles, MD, and his devoted colleagues from the UK, Ireland, the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
And
according to the recent surveys this terrible disease usually spreads among non-native
language teachers. But luckily for ESLprintables members, we have our dear Les
and many of his (native-speaking) colleagues here to help us when we
(non-natives) start suffering from the disease. THANK YOU, ALL NATIVE SPEAKERS HERE. 
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21 Jan 2013
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alex1968
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Hi Guys,
Being Greek, I can assure you that POLYPTOTON does not actually originate from Greek but from a Red Indian dialect of North America.
You are all aware of the story of Pocahontas who goes to live in England...but how many of you are aware of the story of POLLY, the English girl who goes to live with the Red Indian tribe Powhatan???? It was actually a type of, what we would call today, exchange programme between the two cultures. Now, as you may or may not know, the Powhatan tribe had no double consonants or vowels in their dialect.
When Polly - or Poly- as she was known, first went to the tribe, she had a reaction to the water which resulted in constant peeing. This amused the Indians to no end who would laugh out: Poly - p(ee)-to(o)-ton! (ton meaning "much" in Powhatan) every time Polly ran into the woods to urinate.
This in turn became Polyptoton (in Powhatan dialect) meaning :"He who pees often" refering to anyone who had a weak bladder.
Polly brought this word back to England when she eventually returned home in fond memory of her stay there and thus it entered the English language. |
21 Jan 2013
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teresasimoes
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POLYPTOTO
This word sounds like: So many times I�ve heard that word and all its relatives that I feel dizzy. |
21 Jan 2013
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, could pronounce it correctly.... So it became : polyptoton .