Great "wrong" words

[Wildman]

my favourite is Campering, after all you go motorhoming or caravanning so why not campering, as suggested by a Dutch friend.

 

[artie]

Stanley Unwin, eat your heart out.

Beat me to it.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Eddie did say afterwards, "Didn't that used to be somebody's act?".

 

[monkeybiter]

Hmmm 'satisfadequate', I like that, nice ring to it. Might start using it.

 

[graduate_owner]

I had cut up some timber, assisted by my teenage daughter, and was ready to assemble the parts. My daughter came up with - shall we mantle it now? I suppose as the opposite of dismantle it made sense to her.

K

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Dismantle is a better word than the now common disassemble.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

That just made me think. In Cornish vernacular you neither dismantle something nor disassemble it - you take it abroad. A good friend many years ago told me how he'd explained to a rep from a company that they dealt with that they couldn't find a fault with a machine even after taking it abroad. The reply from the rep was "good lord, man - why on earth did you take it out of the country?"

 

[artie]

One of my sons first jobs was stacking shelves in Sainsburys. He remarked how funny it was that the "gruntled " customers never get a mention.

 

[whiskywill]

Not a wrong word as such, but the incorrect use of a word.
A local radio sports commentator is fond of saying a footballer has been "dispossessed" when he loses the ball. How does he become homeless just by playing football?

 

[gregmcateer]

When my Dad received a complaint from a customer, declaring himself to be 'disgruntled', he replied with a nice long letter, assuring said customer he would 'make every effort to regruntle him'.

Worked, too - became his best reference site.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I try not to regruntle people, I try to upgruntle them. ... no that's billhooks, but it's a nice word.

 

[SVB]

From the mouths of children:

Unpuff - deflate (air mattress in this case)
Span (vb) - something one does with a spanner

S

 

[Nelsun]

Rollitate - to rotate something by rolling it (primarily during Lego construction)

 

[Bm101]

That's odd. I was just thinking about this thread today at work weirdly... Nice timing Nelsun!
Brassiliate.
Meaning: To pick up bits of random brass fittings (generally but by no means always while on a builders clean and there's loads of stuff just lying around before they bin about 3 grands worth of fittings, screws and so on), hold it in the air and wonder if you can cut a bit off and make it into a cap lever screw for the latest project somehow because it's got a nice bit of knurling on it and is anybody watching, no, oops I'll just pop this in my pocket then.

 

[mailee]

The American phrase that is often used amuses me, Compartmentalise. :lol: using compartments.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Stanley Unwin, eat your heart out.

Beat me to it.

Wish I'd met him!

The late great Professor was a BBC transmitter engineer during the war, and stayed in BBC Engineering for much of his career.

Here's an interview he gave (for internal use only!) on the new "Type B" sound desks then coming (belatedly) into use in Bush House around 1959: http://www.suppertime.co.uk/blogmywiki/2012/08/prof-unwin/.

Post-war the BBC used three sorts of sound desk: Marconi and "Type A" both of which were in wartime use (IIRC), and later "Type B" which was ubiquitous in radio and TV studios until the mid 1960s (types A and B were BBC design/build).

I started in 1978: Marconi and Type B were still in use - being up-to-date wasn't a BBC priority! The sub-text is that many people, Unwin included, I think, felt the "new" Type B kit was built down to a price.

But if you're a hifi buff... this will make stereo very clear. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ol6iCCgEPQA

 

[Stanleymonkey]

Would shi£tums and Fu££ity lower the tone of this thread?

 

[DrPhill]

I like 'mandraulically'. Doing it by hand.

 

[NazNomad]

I was recently chatting to the OH about cordless raisins. Yes, I know I meant 'seedless', but I was technically still right.

 

[AES]

Nice thread.

Not mine, but I've always liked "testiculate" - someone who's excitedly waving his arms around while talking a load of balls.

Also not mine but I also like "immediately if not sooner", and "just in time to miss ....." (e.g. "How come you always arrive in the kitchen just in time to miss the washing up?"

AES