a list of words that are only ever used in one phrase and one phrase only

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scantily clad.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

INTENTS and purposes

― Rotgutt (Rotgutt), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

INTENSIVE PORPOISES

ihttp://www.crru.org.uk/images/porpoise_callout.jpg

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 22:57 (twenty years ago)

damn.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 23:06 (twenty years ago)

When is it ever used not in conjunction with "thurst" ?

when it's used in conjunction with 'desire'?

I love autoantonyms!

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

The word tuffet exists nowhere outside of Miss Muffet's direct sphere of influence.

― Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 23 August 2005 23:29 (twenty years ago)

kith (and kin)
rack (and ruin)

― isadora (isadora), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 01:45 (twenty years ago)

fast = fast asleep!
stark = stuff is always getting put "in stark relief"
hatch = hatch-as-mouth is just a metaphor, though
fro = limited to haircuts
spic = you can imagine why people don't say it a lot
wan = I'm with Archel
wont = as is my wont, as he is wont to do
render = on all yr bills, at least
profuse = lots of "profusion," though
muck = muckraking, mucking drains, etc
scantily = original "scant" gets used plenty
intents = "intent" gets used all the time
rack = nice one

― nabiscothingy, Wednesday, 24 August 2005 02:11 (twenty years ago)

'Wreaking' is nothing without 'havoc'

― Lurky McLurk, Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:01 (twenty years ago)

Hue and cry

is "hew and cry," innit?

― Leeeeeeee (Leee), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:22 (twenty years ago)

i came across a good for real one playing scrabble the other day but i can't remember it for the life of me. it started, i think, with a t, and means essentially an object of fond desire.

also -- livelong, as in "the livelong day"

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:27 (twenty years ago)

Nab, I just meant "muck" as an autoantonym, not as a word that is used in one phrase only.

You can wreak terror as well.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 03:40 (twenty years ago)

Only pools are limpid.

― weather1ngda1eson (Brian), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 06:00 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and last night I also thought that "fast" meaning still is in "hold fast" and "make fast". So there.

― I Dream Of Sleep (kate), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 06:52 (twenty years ago)

See http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.html for words with two contradictory meanings (I don't think 'antagonym' is quite the official term but then I'm not sure there is one.)

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:31 (twenty years ago)

Well I'm not really worried about this,
But can some one please answer me this -
Apart from on commentary, where else on earth
Can you hear the word 'aplomb' being used?

(Half Man Half Biscuit- Keeping Two Chevrons Apart)

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

Hrmmm. I enjoy summer fruits - sometimes I feel like eating a peach, and sometimes I feel like eating aplomb.

― I Dream Of Sleep (kate), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:43 (twenty years ago)

Peel and Unpeel aplomb.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:44 (twenty years ago)

Not quite on topic but I vaguely remember a line in PG Wodehouse about Jeeves (I think) being, if not disgruntled, not exactly gruntled either.

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:47 (twenty years ago)

I am a very dolent person
I eptly work.
Don't tell me a secret, I'll only be creet.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:49 (twenty years ago)

Flammable - might burst into flames.
Inflammable - might burst into flames.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:50 (twenty years ago)

I am norant.

― beanz (beanz), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 08:56 (twenty years ago)

http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/language/gruntled.html

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 09:45 (twenty years ago)

"Contemplate suicide"

Suicide is only ever contemplated, never "thought about" or "considered".

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 10:11 (twenty years ago)

"lo" and behold

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

Lo: Appears in proclamation-ish uses, ie "Lo, how a rose ere blooming/from tender stem hath sprung". Probably used about as much as O, as in "O Archel, how I admire thee".

Quench: Also a blacksmithing term, meaning to plunge the hot item into water (or into captured enemy soldiers, if you're a samurai). Basically refers to applying liquid.

Rack: Racked with guilt/sobs/etc.

Cleave: Biblical! Genesis 2:25: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh".

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

And really, isn't the opposite of "inept", "apt"? Somehow I always thought it was.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 18:59 (twenty years ago)

Some of those "antagonyms" -- e.g. "apparent" and "bound" -- are total bullshit!

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, Nabisco, I noticed that about "apparent" -- the two uses given aren't opposites in any true sense, just different applications of the same idea (visibility, broadly speaking). The sloppy reasoning pissed me off so much that I didn't read any further.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 19:38 (twenty years ago)

Grrr.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 20:06 (twenty years ago)

Also, I know there's a song lyric that runs "...thought about suicide..." but I can't place it right now. Will think on the way home from work.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 20:34 (twenty years ago)

"I've thought so much about suicide / parts of me have already died" is from an Old 97s song. Suspect the overuse of "considered suicide" is just newcasters & reporters trying too hard and then people adopting the construction they hear on the news and think is most correct/proper.

― Laurel, Thursday, 25 August 2005 02:39 (twenty years ago)

When you are "disappointed" does that mean your furniture have been removed?

― Beth Parker, Thursday, 25 August 2005 03:12 (twenty years ago)

Oops, meant "has." Time for bed.

― Beth Parker, Thursday, 25 August 2005 03:13 (twenty years ago)

"Sure as eggs is eggs, mantle with aplomb!"

(I always think of that when I see that word)

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 25 August 2005 03:15 (twenty years ago)

Flann O'Brien did this thread first, in 1941.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 25 August 2005 04:15 (twenty years ago)

ten years pass...

auk (auk and style)

Turns out there's no such saying.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 10:40 (ten years ago)

Booby trap

Obviously "boob"/"booby" is still used in, er, another context, but I think this is the only contemporary usage of its original meaning (a foolish person).

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 11:30 (ten years ago)

booby prize

― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 11:38 (ten years ago)

Achingly beautiful?

― real orgone kid (NickB), Thursday, 26 May 2016 07:50 (ten years ago)

Oh, I didn't know the English term for the concept of "booby prize", thanks for enlightening me.

― Tuomas, Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:19 (ten years ago)

Also, I guess the term "boob tube" is still used in the US, or is it?

― Tuomas, Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:20 (ten years ago)

(Meaning television, not the piece of clothing.)

― Tuomas, Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:21 (ten years ago)

No it's not. And there's no piece of clothing called boob tube.

― Josefa, Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:27 (ten years ago)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_top

A tube top, colloquially known in the U.K. as a boob tube, is a shoulderless, sleeveless women's garment that wraps around the upper torso.

― Tuomas, Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:35 (ten years ago)

Ah OK, well in America we don't have that term

― Josefa, Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:38 (ten years ago)

huh I always thought it was an Americanism

― reader, if you love him so much why don't you marry him? (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:50 (ten years ago)

much of a "muchness"

― japanese mage (LocalGarda), Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:50 (ten years ago)

Finland... UK... USA... do we even speak the same language?

― Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:51 (ten years ago)

"Boob tube" in America means TV, yes, but only someone over age 60 would use that term in that way. We say "tube top" for the garment.

― Josefa, Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:52 (ten years ago)

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