One of the greatest strengths of the English language is any noun can be an insult if delivered in the right tone.
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@afewbugs hahaha our kids used to do this as a way of ending a conversation they were bored with.
"You're a <last noun used in the preceding sentence>."
It made no sense whatsoever and eventually I called them out on it when I could stop laughing.
@FourT4 "Your Mom is a last noun used!"
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@CarstenBoll @Flisty @afewbugs
Steady on old thing, you don't feed them to the object of your affection, you persuade them to bathe in beans. In public.
Or so I'm told ... -
@c0dec0dec0de @Flisty @DamonHD @afewbugs I figured it's because you'll end up moving about like one of those shopping trolleys with a wonky wheel.
@CarstenBoll @c0dec0dec0de @DamonHD @afewbugs yeah what the US calls trolleys we call trams. This is a shopping trolley/cart situation
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@CarstenBoll @Flisty @afewbugs
Steady on old thing, you don't feed them to the object of your affection, you persuade them to bathe in beans. In public.
Or so I'm told ...@Fragarach @CarstenBoll @afewbugs red nose day is coming up ...
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@CarstenBoll @c0dec0dec0de @DamonHD @afewbugs yeah what the US calls trolleys we call trams. This is a shopping trolley/cart situation
@CarstenBoll @c0dec0dec0de @DamonHD @afewbugs I once raced in a shopping trolley down a street in Brisbane when on a trip there as a student. Classic international activity apparently
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@quixoticgeek @cassana @afewbugs or mix and match!
"You're totally tabled, you utter biro!" -
@quixoticgeek @cassana @afewbugs or mix and match!
"You're totally tabled, you utter biro!"@jetlagjen @quixoticgeek @afewbugs The funny thing is that it only works with a solid British accent. I used to get mistaken for Canadian when talking English for a long time, but then I moved to the UK, and all that shifted to modern RP with hints of Essex and London. And suddenly this magical world of creative vocabulary and wordplay opened up to me.
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RE: https://mstdn.social/@sodslawyer/116056688380387248
One of the greatest strengths of the English language is any noun can be an insult if delivered in the right tone.
@afewbugs also nearly every alliterative “verbing the noun” construction sounds like an euphemism for masturbation.
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RE: https://mstdn.social/@sodslawyer/116056688380387248
One of the greatest strengths of the English language is any noun can be an insult if delivered in the right tone.
@afewbugs See Australian usage of "mate" ...
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@FourT4 "Your Mom is a last noun used!"
@afewbugs exactly this. "You're a dog brush", that sort of thing.
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@quixoticgeek @cassana @afewbugs you got wallpapered, didn't you
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RE: https://mstdn.social/@sodslawyer/116056688380387248
One of the greatest strengths of the English language is any noun can be an insult if delivered in the right tone.
@afewbugs I should say this is, in fact, a strength of any language.
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@afewbugs New grammar module:
British english insultative vocative: “You (insert random creatively applicable noun).
Emphatic insultative vocative: “you absolute …”
This one is of course related and regularly combined with the common exclamatory vocative: "Oy!", e.g., "oy, you absolute disco light!" -
@afewbugs also nearly every alliterative “verbing the noun” construction sounds like an euphemism for masturbation.
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@jetlagjen @quixoticgeek @afewbugs The funny thing is that it only works with a solid British accent. I used to get mistaken for Canadian when talking English for a long time, but then I moved to the UK, and all that shifted to modern RP with hints of Essex and London. And suddenly this magical world of creative vocabulary and wordplay opened up to me.
@cassana @quixoticgeek @afewbugs that's delightful! I hope you're having fun with it.
Although it only works in British accents, it does work in *all* of them.
"Ahm bluddy loo rawlled, eh?" (Cumbria)
"Ye buzz seat!" (West Midlands)
"We'll gan get bridged" (Geordie)
"He is such a bookcase!" (RP) -
@afewbugs See Australian usage of "mate" ...
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@afewbugs also nearly every alliterative “verbing the noun” construction sounds like an euphemism for masturbation.
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RE: https://mstdn.social/@sodslawyer/116056688380387248
One of the greatest strengths of the English language is any noun can be an insult if delivered in the right tone.
@afewbugs
Haha, not only the English language. My mom freaked when I called my brother "een aangebrand stuk protoplasma" = a piece of burnt protoplasm in my teens.
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@CarstenBoll @afewbugs @DamonHD @Flisty
Exactly this!
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RE: https://mstdn.social/@sodslawyer/116056688380387248
One of the greatest strengths of the English language is any noun can be an insult if delivered in the right tone.
@afewbugs My kid sister *hated* it when I called her words she didn’t understand. I used to ask how the weather was in German, with a sneer in my voice, or call her an australopithecus. Drove her mental. Good times.
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