More place names made useful
Current mood: Eternally grateful to my fantabulous friends (who read this blog)
Current music: The computer's whine - a hint that I'm going too fast for it to keep up?
Thank you, thank you to my wonderful Anblogeda readers! Where would I be without you? Having pondered deeply on some of your comments on the previous post I now have two more entries for 'How to Mull Correctly'. Enjoy.
DUNEDIN (n)
The population of surplus sheep in any given region. Usually defined as the difference between the sheep population and the human population. For example, if there are 40 million sheep in New Zealand but only 4 million people, then it can be said that New Zealand has a dunedin of 36 million. However, the term dunedin can also be used when there are sheep where no sheep should be, e.g. 'Due to an error of judgement by the new farmhand, Lord Demsworth's library now housed a dunedin of twelve ravenous, book-eating ovines.'
Picture taken from http://norwest.biz/tshirts.html
Not to be confused with TAURANGA (n), the population of surplus cattle in any given region.
GODALMING (ppl adj)
Descriptive of a street musician who possesses considerably less than the usual amount of musical talent, but who is quite convinced of his genius. He thus plays louder than any other busker in the vicinity, in order to prove his skill to himself, the competition, and any unfortunate passers-by within a 500 m radius whose eardrums are still intact.
Example of usage:
Could someone please run down to that godalming busker around the corner, and pay him a tenner to go away?
Hence:
godalm (v) - To make an unnecessarily large amount of noise in a futile attempt to promote an embarrassingly small amount of talent.
godalmer (n) (somewhat derogatory) - A godalming street performer; a person who godalms.
Incidentally, I came up with my definition of 'Godalming' (suggested by Lovely Louise) by merely looking at the word itself, and seeking inspiration in its sound and construction. I had no prior knowledge of the town (which is in Surrey, it seems), so it is quite possible that there are no godalmers in Godalming.
My excellent friend Edsters, however, has been to Godalming and has offered an alternative definition as "wandering aimlessly but thoughtfully next to a river". This sounds good to me, and I don't see why a word can't have more than one definition. I'm sure it would be fairly obvious in context as to which meaning is being referred to, as one is infinitely pleasant and the other is anything but.
I had a little look in Wikipedia to see what this Godalming place was all about, and found a rather odd story about the Rabbit Woman of Godalming. Go check it out.
Anyway, I must dash off, but do take a gander at the comments for the last post. There's a nice little conversation going on...
Current music: The computer's whine - a hint that I'm going too fast for it to keep up?
Thank you, thank you to my wonderful Anblogeda readers! Where would I be without you? Having pondered deeply on some of your comments on the previous post I now have two more entries for 'How to Mull Correctly'. Enjoy.
********************
DUNEDIN (n)
The population of surplus sheep in any given region. Usually defined as the difference between the sheep population and the human population. For example, if there are 40 million sheep in New Zealand but only 4 million people, then it can be said that New Zealand has a dunedin of 36 million. However, the term dunedin can also be used when there are sheep where no sheep should be, e.g. 'Due to an error of judgement by the new farmhand, Lord Demsworth's library now housed a dunedin of twelve ravenous, book-eating ovines.'Picture taken from http://norwest.biz/tshirts.html
Not to be confused with TAURANGA (n), the population of surplus cattle in any given region.
GODALMING (ppl adj)
Descriptive of a street musician who possesses considerably less than the usual amount of musical talent, but who is quite convinced of his genius. He thus plays louder than any other busker in the vicinity, in order to prove his skill to himself, the competition, and any unfortunate passers-by within a 500 m radius whose eardrums are still intact.
Example of usage:
Could someone please run down to that godalming busker around the corner, and pay him a tenner to go away?
Hence:
godalm (v) - To make an unnecessarily large amount of noise in a futile attempt to promote an embarrassingly small amount of talent.
godalmer (n) (somewhat derogatory) - A godalming street performer; a person who godalms.
********************
Incidentally, I came up with my definition of 'Godalming' (suggested by Lovely Louise) by merely looking at the word itself, and seeking inspiration in its sound and construction. I had no prior knowledge of the town (which is in Surrey, it seems), so it is quite possible that there are no godalmers in Godalming.
My excellent friend Edsters, however, has been to Godalming and has offered an alternative definition as "wandering aimlessly but thoughtfully next to a river". This sounds good to me, and I don't see why a word can't have more than one definition. I'm sure it would be fairly obvious in context as to which meaning is being referred to, as one is infinitely pleasant and the other is anything but.
I had a little look in Wikipedia to see what this Godalming place was all about, and found a rather odd story about the Rabbit Woman of Godalming. Go check it out.
Anyway, I must dash off, but do take a gander at the comments for the last post. There's a nice little conversation going on...
posted by Aureala @ 7:35 pm
PIPSOH!
4 Comments:
At Friday, July 07, 2006 8:15:00 am,
Anonymous said…
Ah, I enjoyed your entry on dunedin. For the info of those people who plan on travelling to the lovely New Zealand for a holiday, it's pronouced "dun-E-dun", rather than my first hilarious attempt of "duna-deen". Apparently there's a Cadbury's chocolate world there- I haven't been, but a few friends who have been there wax lyrics (?) of the town. having spent a short 10 days in NZ, I would definitely give a free promo for the tourism office of that country. it's awesome people :o)
Balderdash. well, it's a group game where the person who's "it" that round picks a word out (either from the game card if you own the board game, or just randomly from the dictionary). and if everyone playing doesn't know the meaning of the word, then the word is the word. and everyone has a sheet of paper and they make up the meaning for that word. the person who's "it" writes down the correct meaning for the word. then all answers are confidentially submitted to the it person, and all answers are read out. everyone then tries to vote for the correct answer. if you guess the correct answer, then you get a point. if someone picks your definition, then you get a point too. then it's the next round and a different person is it. yeah, it's a fun group creativity game but you have to think! there's some skill involved in writing answers that sound like the proper one, being able to correctly guess the right answer (hint, people often look around the room for inspiration when making up definitions, so if an answer has something to do with an object in the room, it's likely not to be it!) and also people sometime guess their own answer in order to throw people off and get them to vote for that answer! (coz people are like sheep sometimes!) So that is Balderdash!
At Friday, July 07, 2006 11:16:00 am,
Aureala said…
There's a Cadbury's Chocolate World in Dunedin and you haven't been? I thought that would've been a big 'pull-factor' (in econo-speak). It would be for me... I might have to take a look round next time I venture into the Great Unknown Southern Hemisphere. But mainly I'd like to see all the fabulous scenery in New Zealand, as showcased in 'The Lord of the Rings' films. How much d'ya think it would cost to hire a helicopter and fly over the mountains?
The phrase you're looking for is 'waxed lyrical'. Why anyone should invent such a bizarre term as 'wax lyrical' for 'talk an awful lot' is quite beyond me. It has nothing to do with wax and nothing to do with lyrics...
Balderdash sounds like a great game, though unfortunately I currently don't have enough English-speaking friends locally whom I could play this with. Would it be possible to play it in an online fashion (e.g. via this blog)?
At Sunday, July 09, 2006 11:12:00 pm,
aidanrad said…
The original and greatest Cadbury World is in Birmingham - always received orders, when studying there (at the university, not the chocolate factory, sadly) to stock up on ever-discounted or special-issue selections before returning to the family home for the holidays. And always happy to do so...
"Godalming" - lovely stuff (your definition, that is, not the place which is rather dreary...) Don't know either if there are any buskers there, but perhaps if the word can gain widespread enough currency we can safely guarantee there never shall be ever again...
Let's do it. Future generations of Surrey commuters - and their ears - will, er, wax lyrical in gratitude...
At Monday, July 10, 2006 7:27:00 am,
Anonymous said…
oh yeah, you'd think I would've made it to the Cadbury world, hey? unfortunately, Dunedin was just out of our route. I was with a bunch of friends and we had a pretty tight schedule. we do a Lord of the Rings Safari. saw a few places around Queenstown where they filmed. As for the helicopter.... hmm, just had a quick look, for the ones over the snow and glaciers, it's looking like around AUD230pp, which is what, $1300 at least HK? I'm too sure what the exchange rate is at the moment, around 5 still? or is it 6?
yeah, the only thing with the blog-based Balderdash would be that you'll have to be the it person (tho you can still make up a definition). but everyone would have to email you confidentially their balderdash definition. or put it up anonymously on the site (and that would include you, with the correct definition). of course, the rule would be no cheating and going to look up the word! actually, you might not have to be the it person, if the word and the proper definition is put up anonymously... yeah, blog-based balderdash is doable....
anyway, gotta get working....
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