Disorientating words
Oft-spoken words, which when read, have the ability to seem completely alien and unheard of, or be translated from the script of another language.
Despite much staring at them, these words often cause the reader to have a temporary lapse in being able to pronounce them in their commonly-accepted manner, or, in severe cases, almost believing they aren't 'proper' words at all.
egs., ocean fallen lured
31.7.08
Manual of Life - Disconcerting Phenomena #34
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9 comments:
My favourites are "wean" and "which". I have more such words, of course...
Oh you should totally try this exercise under "herbal influence" :) Howlarious.
In my case its not just a word, but my name .. it just sounds very alien at times.
oh....wat u wrote just reminded me of an incident....guess was in cl 9 or 10.....was taking my english tests.....n all of a sudden....i forgot how to spell CAT......can u beat that!!!! i mean i had to actually write out various combinations like kat, qat, etc to finally conclude that may be 'cat' is right after all.....!!!!
i still have no clue how cud something like that happen........!!!!!!
I'm glad you used the word 'disorientating'. That used to be one of my bugbears and now I can't bear to see it said otherwise.
space bar: your comment had a disorienting effect on me. ("Incentivize?" "Pressure"? (used as a verb) Ugh ugh ugh.)
shyam:
Wean! Now that's awesomeness.
sush:
Hola. Well, if we're going to go for names...
Spark:
That's...bizarre.
Space:
Same here. I used to argue my head off with anybody who used it, and now I can't believe 'disorienting' is a proper word.
Sorry I'm resurrecting an old ghost-post but you have to look out for glove here.
(Who knew I was looking for the word petrichor all these years? And no, it does not mean laboratory predator.
Space:
Never apologise. That was lovely - must try and get hold of the book.
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