A Little Less Seriousness
Tuesday, Apr. 27, 2004 11:17 a.m.
I don't know about you but there are some words that just tickle me. I hear the word being used and I laugh. Maybe it is the context in which it's used that's funny, or the things you associate the word with, but if neither then it is the word itself, the way it sounds on your tongue or on other people's tongue, that brings on the giggles.
I was talking to K some time over the phone. He was telling me he was about to play a computer game called Battlefield Vietnam, and then he started chuckling because he remembered how his brothers used to crack up over the word "battlefield", because they associate it with the solemn voice-overs of war documentaries. So they'd always say the word a la the voice-overs and laugh. I understood what he meant because I have my own store of funny words, as do some of my friends.
Here's a short list.
- Hoi polloi - English word of Greek origin, referring to the masses or the common people, as in the sentence, "The thing I hate most about the Christmas season is having to wrestle with the hoi polloi for bargains at the stores." What a weird word this is. It looks funny. It sounds funny. I'm grinning already.
- Buxom - The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines it as 'vigorously or healthily plump; specifically : full-bosomed'. LOL. I don't know, I just think there are more pleasant ways of saying you're generously endowed up there. This word does not conjure the image of Pamela Anderson for me, more like a squat matronly earth-mother type.
- Village bicycle - "She's a village bicyle, everyone's had a ride!" *chuckles*
- Sebati - a Malay word meaning approximately 'even' or 'homogenous', as in the sentence: 'Whisk the ingredients until the mixture is sebati.' Figuratively we use sebati to mean 'one and the same', when we refer to intrinsic qualities, or traits that have become inseparable from the person, for example: "His laziness has become sebati with his blood." I think this became a funny word thanks to this Malay cooking show host, B.J. Kadir, who has queenish mannerisms and often uses the word in the course of his cooking demonstrations. It was the way he said it, and the frequency with which he said it. It's just funny.
- Kesedapan - a Malay word meaning more or less 'in a state of pleasure'. (Sedap means delicious.) The context is always sexual when my friends and I use it. When someone is late for an appointment and you have to call them up to see if they've even left the house, you might say something like, 'What are you doing still at home? Kesedapan is it?'
- Salah parking - a Singlish coinage. 'Salah' means 'wrong' in Malay and 'parking', well you know what that means. Together they refer to that awkward situation when your, er, member (okay, penis) somehow gets itself in an uncomfortable position underneath your pants and you have to adjust so it doesn't poke out in strange places or bend at weird angles. You get the picture.
- Goncang - a Malay word meaning 'to shake'. It's also slang for 'masturbate'.
- Come - I remember this incident very clearly. I was attending a Semantics tutorial and our lecturer was talking about how there are words which have acquired alternative meanings from their original definition, and he was asking us if we could think of any such word. One brave guy spoke up and said 'Come', and all of us had to try very very hard not to burst out laughing. The lecturer was incredibly impassive. Maybe it was because he didn't catch it. He just said, "What did you just say?" and the guy lost his nerve and said "Forget it", and the tutorial went on. But the point is, I find 'come' a funny simile for 'orgasm'. Maybe because it's such a commonplace, innocent-looking word.
I'll be sure to add to this list as and when I recall the words. What are yours? Which words or phrases tickle you?
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Ramadan - 08 October 2006
Where I Have Been - 03 October 2006
Baby Talk - 10 August 2006
6 Weeks of Separation - 16 July 2006
Unacceptable Rudeness - 21 June 2006