Comments by "Karen Phinney" (@karphin1) on "RobWords" channel.

  1. It is hilarious! Reminds me of a book on language I read a few years ago, with some witty translations from Japanese to English. Something to the effect : “if a pedestrian hove across your path (you’re driving of course), tootle him. If he doesn’t move, tootle him with vigour.” Just a screamer!
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  2. Another word, gorgeous….once meant “engorged with blood.” Now, it is a compliment! I really enjoy this discussions about language and words.
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  3. Hahaha……good one!
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  4. Your Dad was my kind of guy!
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  5. Ruth Randell, we’ll known British crime writer, wrote a book called, “An Unkindness of Ravens”. I’d never heard it, before that book.
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  6. Hahaha
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  7. Always enjoy your monologues on the English language, with a few others thrown in for good measure! Studied Latin in high school. A good long time ago, here in Canada. Loved it, was my best subject. So interesting about the origins of our alphabet as well. Thanks for all the interesting stuff!
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  8. I recall Winston Churchill made fun of the idea, that a sentence shouldn’t end in a preposition. He said, “that is the sort of thing, up with which, I will not put”. Haha.
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  9. A perfect analogous phrase, methinks!
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  10. Sounds like you had a fabulous teacher!
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  11. It’s funny, “you don’t need more words for….” , but the richness of English makes literature and conversation in general enjoyable. I love having a large vocabulary. If you just want to simplify communication, ok. But aren’t we going backwards? I always enjoy the Robwords videos!
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  12. Yes, I remember my Mom’s old Hermes typewriter being like that! You had to put in the apostrophe then backspace for the period!
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  13. 😂
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  14. I have a set of runes on clay tablets which I use for divining. They are in a bag, and you draw out three and place them on a white cloth. I have a book which interprets what the runes mean. Beorc for example, means a birth, or a new beginning. Gifu means a gift, but could be an opportunity not necessarily a “present”, literally. A very interesting presentation, Rob! I love these ancient symbols!
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  15. In Canada, we are divided, some people spell it the American way, whereas many of us adhere to the British spelling. Same goes for British spelling for words like jewellery (US jewelry), theatre (theater), and words that have doubled consonants when they have “Ed”, or “ing” added, like cancelling (US canceling), levelling (leveling), etc. Just fun stuff to deal with!
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  16. Interesting, so where does a horse being called, “a cob” fit in?
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  17.  @steeveletur1983  who knew that cows, Spanish or otherwise, could speak English?
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  18. Meant Ruth Rendell, but as usual autocorrect had different ideas! 🙃
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  19. Very clever!
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  20.  @qarljohnson4971  My dictionary defines con, as a sturdy horse with short legs.
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  21.  @b.a.erlebacher1139  Very interesting, thanks for that insight!
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  22.  @Knappa22 . Welsh, and Cornish
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  23. I do love your explanations of the origins of words! Have always been interested in the etymology of words!
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  24. Simplistic. A lot of people use it to mean “simple”. But as my husband used to say, it means,”not well thought out.”
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  25. Interestingly enough, there are a group of viruses know as Coxsackie viruses, and they include polio varieties.
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  26. George Bernard Shaw apparently said he’d give a million dollars to anyone who could redo the alphabet. He also wanted to point out the quirkiness of our spelling, and used a funny example: spelled “fish” “ghoti”. Gh was the sound from laugh, o, the sound from women, and ti, the sound from nation. What a card!
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  27. Studied chemistry, a very interesting video! Love these word explanations!
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  28.  @gbcb8853  Guessing German for, “my hovercraft is full of eels!” 😆
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  29. Thank you, “tak”, Rob! I have always been fascinated by the roots of language and have some books on the subject. Also had a friend who was a retired linguistics professor, we had great discussions on it all. He spoke several Languages, like you, I only speak French and studied Latin in high school (Canada). Was always intrigued by the parallels in those two languages, and later with others. I recall one book I read suggested words like “water” could have a long ago common ancestor, even the Hittite word for water is similar, like “watar “ or something. Amazing. And aqua in Latin, eau in French, and other languages such as an African one, okka. So interesting! I often thought I should have been a linguist! Love your videos, always interesting.
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  30. I understood that Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”, which was written in Middle English, became so popular, that it helped to cement English as the language of the populace. I recall that from my English course at Uni. I loved Canterbury Tales, too!
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  31. I’m guessing you’re a linguist! ☺️
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  32. What did “bike” originally mean?
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  33.  @ianoliverbailey6545  Thanks for explaining that! And I’ve heard “on your bike” by way of saying, “scram”!
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  34. I love the history of words, as well! Such fun to find so entertaining and insightful a site! 😊
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  35. 😂
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  36. It has been a bugbear to me to hear people using criteria, or phenomena, as a singular word. As in, “the criteria is……”, argh. And I was peeved over “the data is”, but realize the ship has sailed on that one, as of a few years. English is evolving, as you point out in your talks! Words morphing and new ones added all the time. And our many borrowings! Fun to watch, and learn, about the origins of so many words we use all the time.
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  37. Thanks for clearing up the edh and the thorn letters! Always interesting!
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  38. I loved the cat too….a monstrous yawn, as if to say….he’s talking a load of cobblers! Lol
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  39.  @RobWords  😆😆😆
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  40. So glad you got Dildo, Newfoundland in there!
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  41. 😆😆😆
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  42. So interesting! Always has been an interest of mine, the origins of words!
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  43. Always fun for us “word nerds”, to watch and learn from! Thanks for your erudite elucidation of Shakespearean English! 😊
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  44. Always enjoy these diverting trips into the history of words, punctuation, etc. I have often wondered where they came from! Thanks for enlightening us!
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  45. 😂
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  46. A new favourite word for me, is “bloviate”. A recent creation, I think, derived from “blow”, as in blow hard! Or, to be talking as a blow hard.
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  47. Not “just” the US spell Hiccup that way, we in Canada, as well!
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  48. True, that!
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  49. I thought the name Britain was related to Brythonic, the Celtic peoples of Brittany, Wales and Cornwall.
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  50. You’ve touched on a few of my “bugbears”, I hear people on the radio, our CBC here in Canada, which should know better, saying criteria when they mean criterion. I also, bc I studied science and Latin, used to get upset about data being used as a singular. I would think, as a collective word it should have a plural verb. Like, “the people are “, not the “people is”, or “many are”, not “many is”. Same for phenomena, often used as a singular. There are other things which I find grating, but heaven knows, I’m not perfect! As to data, I realize the ship has sailed on that. It is now the data is, the data has, but I still am not comfortable with that!
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