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

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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)

... but only someone over age 60 would wear one.

― Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:53 (ten years ago)

You should come to Brooklyn

― Josefa, Thursday, 26 May 2016 08:55 (ten years ago)

The high water mark of "boob tube" was probably the 70s, so "over age 60" is a little exaggerated, but it's not a current hip hep and happening phrase. It is definitely generally understandable still. "The tube" for tv is probably a little more in use, but then again tvs aren't as in use as they used to be.

― Three Word Username, Thursday, 26 May 2016 10:05 (ten years ago)

Genuinely surprising that there's no porn streaming site called BoobTube.

― Eyeball Kicks, Thursday, 26 May 2016 11:18 (ten years ago)

"Boob Tube"? You don't mean "Goggle Box" ?

― Mark G, Thursday, 26 May 2016 11:40 (ten years ago)

Wit in "To wit"

― Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Thursday, 26 May 2016 11:45 (ten years ago)

two years pass...

Raring in 'Raring to go'?

― Alan Alba (Tom D.), Thursday, 12 July 2018 17:58 (seven years ago)

six months pass...

I don't think I even quoted it secondhand. Actually, my students want Maduro gone, and I've seen the strange-bedfellows approach b/w the Trump administration and the parents of the students who have no butter or meat.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 10 February 2019 01:04 (forty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq7LM4rOcV4

― Wee boats wobble but they don't fall down (Tom D.), Sunday, 10 February 2019 01:54 (seven years ago)

druthers

― ɪmˈpəʊzɪŋ (darraghmac), Sunday, 10 February 2019 03:08 (seven years ago)

seems like the word 'fraught' is accompanied by 'with danger' at least 95% of the time. partly to be perverse, I like to dislodge it from danger and use it in other contexts.

― A is for (Aimless), Sunday, 10 February 2019 04:23 (seven years ago)

i rarely use fraught in the "with danger" context. I use it as a replacement for "problematic" which has semantically shifted in recent years.

― sarahell, Sunday, 10 February 2019 05:08 (seven years ago)

Only pools are limpid.
― weather1ngda1eson (Brian)

only green is limpid

― the scientology of mountains (rushomancy), Sunday, 10 February 2019 12:16 (seven years ago)

just read this wonderful malapropism:

"These guys covered the gamete with Rock N’ Roll, Blues, R&B and splendid jams."

which reminds me that mature haploid cells aside, the gamut is only ever run.

― the scientology of mountains (rushomancy), Sunday, 10 February 2019 15:20 (seven years ago)

three months pass...

Damsel in distress.

― Ned Caligari (Tom D.), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 07:08 (seven years ago)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damselfly

― specific goats my way (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 08:10 (seven years ago)

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