Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Some Words You May Never Have Heard

Peccadillo: A slight or trifling sin; a fault
Sesamoid: Having the shape of a sesame seed
Squamous: Covered with scales
Erubescence: Process of turning red, blushing
Histoplasmosis: A respiratory illness caused by inhaling festered bat or 
bird dung
Bilbo: A finely tempered Spanish sword [Yo! Baggins!]
Fecund: Fruitful
Sudorific: Causing perspiration
Saponification: The process of making soap
 
*THE GERMAN LANGUAGE HAS ABOUT 185,000 WORDS. FRENCH HAS FEWER THAN 
100,000. [I find this amazing! Can anyone attest? j dw d]
(*Once again, I am reluctant to release the source of these factoids.)
-- 
Un-not my address if you wanna reply.

(*Once again, I am reluctant to release the source of these factoids.)
SpeechWriter. Episode two. Who knows. :)
Sebastiano

 
I'll tell if you promise not to let anyone know. :)
They come from "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader"



Joe from Massachusetts

CD-ROM.  :>)
You're probably right. BTW, cédérom? Boy, that's indeed an ugly word.
Sebastiano

They come from "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader"
LOL. That's great. I have to buy that. :)
www.bathroomreader.com/home.html
Sebastiano

 You're probably right. BTW, cédérom? Boy, that's indeed an ugly word.
most people here say "cěděrom" instead of "si-di rom"


Several years ago, this word "cédérom" was given the French
government's seal of approval, in an effort to prevent one more
anglicism from corrupting the pristine French language. I don't think
it caught on, though.
A similar fate befell the Province of Québec, when, in an effort to
eliminate English words from Québecois French, it decreed that
hereafter "hamburger" would be replaced by a word now famous in French
cuisine, "hambourgeois". Imagine if you went to McDonald's in Italy
and had to order a "hamborghese"!
See "Sandwichs & Hambourgeois Gastronomiques" at Mo's Deli in
Montréal.
http://www.bar-resto.com/moes/daily-f.htm
Another example of Québec's linguistic dilemma is the case of Kentucky
Fried Chicken, the "McDonald's of chicken", known as "KFC". Where
McDonald's has the Golden Arches, KFC has these three letters as its
symbol. However, in Québec, the three letters had to be changed when
the name was translated into French. "Kentucky Fried Chicken" (KFC)
became "Poulet Frit (du) Kentucky", or "PFK". My daughter, who is very
fond of KFC chicken, was so amused by her first glimpse of a "PFK"
sign in Québec that I had to stop the car so she could get out and
take a picture of the sign.
Even in Japan they say "KFC"
http://www.washington.edu/ark2/archtm/Tky5.html
But in Québec they have to say "PFK"
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cslewis71/190815.html
The Italians are not above linguistic tyranny. "Football" or "futbol"
was deemed a foreign word by Mussolini, and replaced with "calcio",
and that's why only in Italy is the word "futbol" "fuori gioco".
Joe from Massachusetts

most people here say "cěděrom" instead of "si-di rom"
That's a different pronunciation, but we still write cd-rom. We say
"manŕttan" but we write "Manhattan".
That French word is like the Spanish word güisqui for whisky. We don't
do that in Italian. We don't write Uischi. I'm not saying that our
choice is the best one, but it's the one I'm used to, and the one I
prefer.
Sebastiano

and that's why only in Italy is the word "futbol" "fuori gioco".
We also say "offside". I don't think that somebody uses the word
"futbol". AFAIK "futbol" is a Spanish word.
Sebastiano

 prefer.
I say "cd" (/tSi'di/).
Bye, FB

I say "cd" (/tSi'di/).
Me too.
Sebastiano

> most people here say "cěděrom" instead of "si-di rom"
Č 'cietz' per dire jazz, invece di 'giaz'.

> È 'cietz' per dire jazz, invece di 'giaz'.
Oops... senza accento, 'E'.

 Peccadillo: A slight or trifling sin; a fault
Armadillo - a peccadillo as long as your arm.
Joe from Massachusetts

 prefer.
ok... ok...  *astonished*

 are you trying to say they WRITE cédérom instead of cdrom?
CD-ROM n. m.
Synonyme(s):
cédérom n. m.
 L'Académie française a proposé la graphie cédérom en 1996.
 Le sigle francisé cédérom, devenu nom commun, prend un s au pluriel
(cédéroms).
 Dans l'usage, on constate que la graphie francisée cédérom s'emploie
surtout seule (terme isolé), alors que le sigle CD-ROM (plus
fréquent), souvent utilisé seul, lui est préféré dans les formes
composées, comme lecteur de CD-ROM, ou dans le contexte où on le
retrouve associé à d'autres sigles ou termes relatifs aux différents
types de disques compacts (ex. : CD audio, CD vidéo, DVD, etc.).
If the Académie française says it's a word, then it's a word.
Joe from Massachusetts

 If the Académie française says it's a word, then it's a word.
I've always hated their "mean" form of patriotism.
and now more than ever.

 and now more than ever.
Au contraire, their way of making up new words is very nice.
Bye, FB

 I heard/understood "jets."  It took me half a minute to figure it out.
I had the same experience in a CD store in Lecce, and spent my half-minute
trying to think if there was a jazz group called Jets.

Armadillo - a peccadillo as long as your arm.
LOL.
Then there's the badillo, which is a very bad peccadillo.
And the coloradillo, which is a racist peccadillo
Sebastiano