Ambiguous words

[Anonymous]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 24/04/2022 06:06:51:

No this is not serious ‘list-making’ … it is just something that amuses me sometimes.

Useful if you ever think of compiling cryptic crosswords though.

[Brian GParticipant @briang]

Nice. Apart from its several meanings (which include precise, giving us an engineering connection) it is also Garibaldi's birthplace, so connecting it to two different biscuits.

Brian G

(Currently wishing the Nice biscuit in front of him was the much nicer Garibaldi)

[egaParticipant @ega]

Garibaldi – which we used to call "dead fly biscuits"!

I believe the man himself was popular here, too.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Not so much ambiguous as wrong. I guess most of us would call this a 'machine handle':

It is, of course, a 'Balanced Swape'.

Dave

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

And balanced swape is actually rhyming slang for pain to make

[Nigel BennettParticipant @nigelbennett69913]

Worsted. As in trimmings. And to be worsted in battle.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

I thought balanced swape was an archaic English word for a shaduf.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Hopper on 25/04/2022 12:10:21:

I thought balanced swape was an archaic English word for a shaduf.

Could be, my ordinary dictionary says a swape is a pump handle.

[J HancockParticipant @jhancock95746]

The last word?…………………………dying.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

… Which made me think of ’Terminal’

MichaelG.

[Anonymous]

… which raises the point that some of the meanings of some of the words are not exactly ambiguities. Just the same word used as noun or adjective.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Very true, Peter

’though ‘Terminal’ does seem to pass the ambiguity test.

MichaelG.

.

Ref: **LINK**

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terminal

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Woman.

[GeorgineerParticipant @georgineer]

Posted by Bazyle on 24/04/2022 13:44:05:

Kind of in the opposite direction I remember listening to Voice of America news read in 'Special English' – a vocabulary of just 200 words but sufficient for the task.

I once had a copy of 'The Bible in Basic English' which restricted itself to a vocabulary of a few hundred words, supposedly to make it easier for non-English speakers to understand. Unfortunately the translator had not simplified the grammar and sentence structure at all, so it was, in my opinion, as diffcult to read and comprehend as the King James version.

While on the subject of ambiguous words, the word inflammable is a rare example of a word which has largely been retired and replaced by clearer alternatives.

George

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Georgineer on 26/04/2022 10:56:53:

While on the subject of ambiguous words, the word inflammable is a rare example of a word which has largely been retired and replaced by clearer alternatives.

George

So much so that newspapers now report that police said a house fire was deliberately lit using an "accelerant" which seems pretty meaningless. Makes me think of an oversized carburettor or something.

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

Another Janus-word for your list – fast.

How do you make a horse fast – tie it to a post.

I expect you will end up at University, possibly at Reading, reading reading.

I enjoyed this thread – it was never coarse …

Regards, Tim

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

And how about 'qualified'?

– as in His time at College was only a qualified success.

Along with 'graduated' – marked with a series of lines, or, paid his tutor a large sum on the quiet

Tim

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Posted by Tim Stevens on 27/04/2022 16:59:53:

Another Janus-word for your list – fast.

How do you make a horse fast – tie it to a post.

Regards, Tim

Hmm,,you could just muzzle the horse. Or if it’s an Arab wait for Ramadan?

Yes, I'm putting my coat on…

pgk

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Am I right in thinking that ‘it’ is the most ambiguous two-letter word ?

MichaelG.

[Anonymous]

From today's crossword:

– Intend to be penny-pinching on average (4)

– Left with the threat of evil (8)

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Peter Greene 🇨🇦 on 28/04/2022 01:11:23:

From today's crossword:

– Intend to be penny-pinching on average (4)

– Left with the threat of evil (8)

Sorry – spoiler alert:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mean

Sinister

Edited By Mick B1 on 28/04/2022 12:03:27

[Anonymous]

I was walking past a store in the shopping mall today. In the window was an advertisement picture of a middle-aged woman with the caption "To make her feel good".

It made me think of this thread.

Dunno why.

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Posted by Peter Greene 🇨🇦 on 28/04/2022 18:39:44:

I was walking past a store in the shopping mall today.

"Shop" and "store" are two ambiguous words.

Is what Americans/Canadians call a "store" ever described as a "shop" over there? Can you say "go storing" or does it have to be "go shopping"?

I've noticed UK-based Youtubers with engineering-related channels referring to their "shop", by which they mean "workshop". This appears not to have been native UK English usage until recently.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 28/04/2022 19:58:08

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

Bill – my grandfather was a joiner, and he had a top shop with the machinery in, and a bottom shop where he made gates and stuff that wouldn't go down the stairs. And he retired in about 1950. So, at least in the N of England, it goes back a fairly long way.

Cheers, Tim

[Frank GorseParticipant @frankgorse]

I had also assumed that ‘shop’ ,meaning workshop, was just another of the Americanisms we were stuck with but in Stanley Holloway’s ‘Three ha’pence a foot’ Sam Oswaldthwaite followed his trade ‘in a shop on the banks of the Irwell’ and that dates back to 1932 at least. Also relevant to present fears of rising sea levels!

[Author]

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