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

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kith (and kin)
rack (and ruin)

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

'Wreaking' is nothing without 'havoc'

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

Hue and cry

is "hew and cry," innit?

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

Only pools are limpid.

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

Peel and Unpeel aplomb.

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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

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

I am norant.

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

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

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

"Contemplate suicide"

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

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

"lo" and behold

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

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

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

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

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

Grrr.

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

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 (eighteen years ago) link

"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 (eighteen years ago) link

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

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

Oops, meant "has." Time for bed.

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

"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 (eighteen years ago) link

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

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

ten years pass...

auk (auk and style)

Turns out there's no such saying.

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

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 (seven years ago) link

booby prize

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

Achingly beautiful?

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

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 (seven years ago) link

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

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

(Meaning television, not the piece of clothing.)

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

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

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

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 (seven years ago) link

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

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

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 (seven years ago) link

much of a "muchness"

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

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

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

"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 (seven years ago) link

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

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

You should come to Brooklyn

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

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 (seven years ago) link

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

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

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

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

Wit in "To wit"

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

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