Steph Posted February 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 Some records have my grandmother's name listed as Eugene. I'm quite sure that her French-Canadian mother meant that to have a soft, beautiful sound, with three syllables and a gentle "g". But she ended up as just Gene or Jean. Makes me think maybe her family got tired of correcting people's pronunciation after they moved from the French-friendly population of Wisconsin down to the Wild West of Oklahoma. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoody Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 3 hours ago, Steph said: English has many names which started out male but are mostly female now. Got this list from Wikipedia: Ashley, Beverly, Evelyn, Hilary, Jocelyn, Joyce, Kelly, Lynn, Meredith, Shannon, Shirley, Sidney, Vivian, and Whitney Supposedly all those were once masculine names but most of them sound completely feminine to my American ears. Not only to your American ears. I never supposed them to be male names in their origin. Your grandmother's name is somewhat special. I know that French people add 'e' to a male name to indicate it is the female version (Yvon => Yvonne for example). But Eugene to my ears sounds as a male name at first for I do not consider it to be Eugen => Eugene. But this topic is really, really interesting. What was the search entry to get the informations out of wikipedia? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 Perhaps it was Eugénie and simply misspelled in some places? Have you ever seen her name spelled any other way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted February 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 Ric, some records said Eugene Louisa and some records said Eugenia Louise. And probably there were variations on those. Those are just the two I remember from when I was doing my genealogy as a teen. Took me until a few years ago to realize which name my great-grandmother probably whispered over her as she rocked her. Hoody, I started plugging in some of the names I knew which used to be for men and now are for women, starting with Evelyn and Meridith, and eventually I plugged in enough to come up with this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unisex_name Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbobam Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 The name Leslie is conspicuously absent here. ( : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 As is Francis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted March 9, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 pianola: a piano equipped to be played automatically using a piano roll (I wanted it to be a Scrabble word and it turned out to be one. I like when that happens.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted March 10, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2016 Some of the names which are Scrabble words: Laura Brent Joe Jill Jane Jimmy John Johnnie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbobam Posted March 11, 2016 Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 What's a 'Scrabble word'? Don't they just have to be in 'The Dictionary'? (I haven't played in a real long time.) Here's a catalogue shot from 1914. I'm not sure how to make the 'today's dollars' conversion, but I'm guessing you'd have to be pretty rich to get one of these. ( : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted March 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 Love! P.s. $29,614.50 http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ P.p.s., basically a dictionary word, but for my games it means a word in the official English Tournament Word List. One of the other options for the version of the Scrabble available on Facebook is to use the Merriam Webster Dictionary. Another option is the Collins Official Scrabble Word List, which has a British flag beside it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted March 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 grotesqueryn. - Grotesque action, speech, or manners; grotesque doings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbobam Posted March 12, 2016 Report Share Posted March 12, 2016 Three or four syllables? ( : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted March 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2016 LOL ... that word could get severely mangled, couldn't it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoody Posted March 13, 2016 Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 On 3/12/2016 at 1:50 AM, Steph said: LOL ... that word could get severely mangled, couldn't it. Literally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbobam Posted March 23, 2016 Report Share Posted March 23, 2016 I'm going to leave it to you to look at the image below and decide to which word I'm referring and whether or not you want to look further into its definition. This was a brand new one to me, although its concept has been used in many movies and television situation comedies over the years. ( : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted March 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted March 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2016 Here's one I'm SURE to remember when I need it. MBAQANGA noun pl. mbaqangas a South African dance music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbobam Posted April 14, 2016 Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 I've been binge-watching some hilarious Canadian television, and learned about Loonies and Toonies! These are the popular names for the Canadian one and two dollar coins. A little further research taught me that Canada has no paper money smaller than a fiver. They used to have one and two dollar bills, but these were phased out in the eighties and nineties respectively. The Toonie is pretty cool-looking, with its two differently colored metals. I've never actually seen one, which sort of surprises me. ( : Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 coolness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted April 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2016 10 Phrases From Shakespeare We Still Use 400 Years After His Death Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted May 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Words which could be their own opposites. I know there are some better known examples, but this one struck me today: "resigned" That could mean you quit ... or you signed back up. We have a different word for sign back up ... "reenlist" ... but I am still not sure that "resign" couldn't mean "sign again". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManofKent Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 I need reasons to use 'Crepuscular' more often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted May 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 oh yes ... me too. I've been using "pulchritude" a lot these days. I need to work "crepuscular" in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ann Posted May 24, 2016 Report Share Posted May 24, 2016 On 5/22/2016 at 1:38 PM, Steph said: Words which could be their own opposites. I know there are some better known examples . . . . My father was an LP gas man, so "flammable" and Inflammable" started bothering me early . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted May 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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