An ait, or an eyot as it is sometimes spelled, is a small island, especially one found in a river, but also in a lake. Ait is, in fact, derived from the Old English word for small island. As in: “On a bare ait at midcurrent, completely surrounded and only inches above that muddy roiling water, huddle the squealing pigs.” Not to be confused with: “Yo momma gave me a blowjob. Watchoo think about that. Ait!”

Check out: Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape

Interested in guest humping? Send WH an email.

Labels: Guest Hump, Old English

It has come to my attention that our friend penultimate is being subjected to a lot of abuse. What kind of abuse? Inaccurate humpage!

Penultimate is being used to mean "quintessential” or "archetypical" when really it means "next to last." Example: It will be the penultimate vacation. Many people also mistakenly use “penultimate” when they mean "the very last."*

I personally blame Lemony Snicket and his children's book, The Penultimate Peril. This title makes one believe that penultimate is the ultimate, utmost peril, rather than the next to last peril. Doesn't it, humpers? Isn't it misleading? That Lemony is one subversive fellow. And to think he is shaping young minds.

I hope this is not my penultimate post.

P.S. If you really want to stump someone and look all smartsy, use the word antepenultimate, which means “third from the end.”


*Common Errors in English Usage, Paul Brians

Labels: Guest Hump

homernym |ˈhōmərˌnim | noun
1. Homerphone (def. 1).
2. a word the same as another in sound and spelling but different in meaning, as chase “to pursue” and chase “to ornament metal.”
3. (loosely) Homergraph.
4. a namesake.
5. Biology. a name given to a species or genus that has been assigned to a different species or genus and that is therefore rejected.

Labels: Guest Hump

Do-rag
(also spelled doo-rag or durag)

Apparently, a do-rag is more than just a pantyhose-like covering for the hair. It's a man-of-all-work.

The history of the do-rag is most notably attributed to Civil War era slaves. They would leave them out over night to soak up dew so when they wore them in the morning they would keep their heads cool. And the dew changed into Du, but its first appearance seems to predate that time. It is, however, most closely associated with Afro-American culture because the slaves brought that style with them from their native lands.

From the 1930s to the 1960s, do-rags were used by African-American men to hold chemically processed hair-dos in place while they slept. Originally they were made from pieces of handkerchief or women's stockings, now they are made from polyester. Do-rags resurged as a fashion trend among urban youth in the 1970s and 1990s. Typically, do-rags are black, but can be worn in other colors. Do-rags are also regularly used to maintain cornrowed hairstyles.

The do-rag was also used by black-ops soldiers in covert missions to often conceal blond hair in night time situations. The do-rag would be used as an addition to black face paint and black BDU's.

Do-rags have been used by bikers since the 60's as a convenient way of managing their hair while wearing helmets, as well as avoiding the need for a hat afterwards to hide their 'helmet-head'.

Bikers? Black-ops soldiers? Wordhumper gives the do-rag Two Humps Up!

[from Wikipedia]

Labels: Guest Hump

Heckle: heck·le
Inflected forms: heck·led, heck·ling, heck·les
1. To try to embarrass and annoy (someone speaking or performing in public) by questions, gibes, or objections; badger.
2. To comb (flax or hemp) with a hatchel.
[Source:The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.]

To comb flax or hemp with a hatchel? Who knew! I though heckling was just amusing one's self at another's expense. Now I like it even more.

Labels: Guest Hump, Hump This

Not to go down a particular track, 'specially in consideration of the last post, but since we've covered ourselves with Shit, we may as well move onto, into everyone's favorite: Cunt. Obviously - and boringly - offensive to us, the word is thrown around by the Brits and the Micks with less meaning than a 3 penny tip to your local barista. But for us its eh..eh..a big deal, no? Call a girl a cunt and she'll without a doubt want to feed you your balls. Call some guy a cunt - particularly effective when you append with something like "dickless" - only if you're ready to throw down; or feel - because he really is both those things - you won't have to.

Still, why draw a line in the sand on a word that is complimentary at best and of questionable origin at worst. Who knows.

Mathew Hunt, a guy who clearly has smoked the good shit, knows. Matt tracked the word - in his weird and highly subjective (you're clearly into some freaky shit, Matt, but thats fine by me) devotes a good bit of effort tracking the word from Indo-European to Celtic to Dutch. His findings, while questionable scientifically (I just like saying that), offer us a rarified peek into the cu...word.:

The prefix 'cu' is an expression of "quintessential femineity" (Eric Partridge, 1961), confirming 'cunt' as a truly feminine term. The synonymy between 'cu' and femininity was in place even before the development of written language: "in the unwritten prehistoric Indo-European [...] languages 'cu' or 'koo' was a word base expressing 'feminine', 'fecund' and associated notions" (Tony Thorne, 1990). The proto-Indo-European 'cu' is also cognate with other feminine/vaginal terms, such as the Hebrew 'cus'; the Arabic 'cush', 'kush', and 'khunt'; the Nostratic 'kuni' ('woman'); and the Irish 'cuint' ('cunt').

Thus, 'cu' and 'koo', both pronounced 'coo', were ancient monosyllabic sounds implying femininity. 'Coo' and 'cou' are modern slang terms for vagina, based on these ancient sounds. Other vaginal slang words, such as 'cooch', 'coot', 'cooter', 'cooz', 'cooze', 'coozie', 'coozy', 'cookie', 'choochy', 'chocha', 'cootch', and 'coochie snorcher' are extensions of them. 'Coochie snorcher', as in The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could from The Vagina Monologues, is a childish euphemism for 'cunt' that has generated the following elaborate variants:

'hootchy-kootchy'
'hootchie-kootchie'
'hootchie-cootchie'
'hootchy-cootchy'
'hoochie-coochie'
'ootchimagootchi'
'ouchimagooga'.

Cuntinue

There you have it. The cunt unraveled.

Cunt: A Cultural History [MatthewHunt.com]

Labels: Arabic, Guest Hump, Hebrew, Irish Gaelic, PIE

Many corporate-types think hiding behind a bunch of over-used words and phrases makes them sound intelligent. They should reconsider; they are only embarrassing themselves. And these words.

I propose the following words be banned from offices everywhere:

Utilize – Because no word has ever been more over-utilized. It’s also a bit pretentious.

Offline – As in, “Let’s take this offline.” Usually this is said in a meeting, meaning, let’s have a private conversation later. But you’re not online. So you can’t go offline. See?

Verbiage – This, like utilize, is used by pretentious people to mean “copy.” Just say copy. “I need some copy for the paragraph about doo-dangers.”

*This will be an ongoing column, because there is a glut of worthy words being abused in today’s offices. And someone has to stand up for them. Someone has to Hump them!

Labels: Guest Hump

Tintinnabulation |ˌtintəˌnabyəˈlā sh ən| noun

A ringing or tinkling sound. ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from Latin tintinnabulum ‘tinkling bell’ (from tintinnare, reduplication of tinnire ‘to ring, tinkle’ ) + -ation .

Labels: Guest Hump, Latin