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03-09-2004, 09:54 AM | #16 |
Wet Nurse's Aide
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 40
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Re: 2/11/2004: Hoarfrost
Mr Undertoad, do excuse for my being pushy, but i do have a request to make of u.
just wondering how many of u Americans have never come across the word "hoarfrost"? a silly question but i want to know the answer. thank u. |
03-09-2004, 10:03 AM | #17 |
Radical Centrist
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
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My best answer: I don't know! It's certainly not part of the common experience, because most of America doesn't have freezing conditions that often.
I never heard it before so I assume that most people haven't heard it. But I could be wrong! |
03-09-2004, 10:05 AM | #18 |
I can hear my ears
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 25,571
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oddly enough, i have the answer to that question. I know it seems incredible, as the question posed would seem to be unquantifiable, but it just so happens, that it was a question that was included in the y2K US census. I have a copy right here. Let's see.........yup, here it is: question 192: "have you ever heard the word 'hoarfrost'?" official result: 27,932,882.33.
in related news, at that time, 35,908,223 people had never heard the word "asshat". i have to admit that I was one of those people. thank you cellar, i'm a better man because of you!
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This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality Embrace this moment, remember We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion ~MJKeenan |
03-09-2004, 10:08 AM | #19 |
I can hear my ears
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 25,571
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oh yeah, welcome, noodles. we already have a "mrnoodle".... are you two related?
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This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality Embrace this moment, remember We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion ~MJKeenan |
03-09-2004, 10:23 AM | #20 | |
lobber of scimitars
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Phila Burbs
Posts: 20,774
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Re: Re: 2/11/2004: Hoarfrost
Quote:
I had heard it before. There is a piece of artwork that I had seen as a child called "Hoarfrost" and learned the word then. Some of us have quite extensive vocabularies, even if we don't use them all the time. "Fuck" is such a versatile word, u know?
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wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis |
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03-09-2004, 10:25 AM | #21 | |
Wet Nurse's Aide
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 40
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Quote:
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03-09-2004, 10:28 AM | #22 |
I can hear my ears
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 25,571
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loud and clear, noodles. now. your moniker. a self effacing racial slur?
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This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality Embrace this moment, remember We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion ~MJKeenan |
03-09-2004, 10:34 AM | #23 |
lobber of scimitars
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Phila Burbs
Posts: 20,774
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People learning languages in a university setting often learn words not in common usage in the countries where the language is most commonly spoken. It's in the textbook, so they learn it. The question becomes ... how did such an obscure word end up in the textbook to begin with? Is it to keep other textbook manufacturers from plagarizing? "Hey, you used hoarfrost! That's my obscure word!! I'm suing!!"
Cartography companies add roads that aren't really roads to their maps so they can catch if their competitors are stealing their work.
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wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis |
03-09-2004, 11:14 AM | #24 |
I think this line's mostly filler.
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: DC
Posts: 13,575
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I'd heard the word, but wasn't certain of the exact definition, other than "some kind of frost."
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_________________ |...............| We live in the nick of times. | Len 17, Wid 3 | |_______________| [pics] |
03-09-2004, 11:57 AM | #25 |
desperate finder
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Luxembourg
Posts: 437
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I'm not that good in english (it's the 4th of 6 languages I learned), but maybe that's why I just knew what it means when I read the word... Maybe I saw it some where during a lesson, can't remember...
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Complex simplex |
03-09-2004, 12:31 PM | #26 | |
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Parts unknown.
Posts: 4,081
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Quote:
Oh, and here's a blurb on hoarfrost that tells what it is and how it forms but didn't really answer my other question of where the word came from. edited to add 2nd paragraph and link. 1st paragraph unchanged.
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♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ Last edited by Beestie; 03-09-2004 at 12:34 PM. |
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03-09-2004, 12:46 PM | #27 | |
I can hear my ears
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 25,571
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Quote:
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This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality Embrace this moment, remember We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion ~MJKeenan |
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03-09-2004, 12:57 PM | #28 |
lobber of scimitars
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Phila Burbs
Posts: 20,774
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According to these guys the origin is Old English, Old High German, and Icelandic, and the meaning was something like "brightness of the sky" ... hoar describes the quality of light of the frost.
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wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis |
03-09-2004, 01:19 PM | #29 |
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Parts unknown.
Posts: 4,081
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Thanks Wolf!! What an interesting site. I just read the whole Best Buy receipt checking story, browsed the moon phases and some other neat things.
See, ask a simple question and get extra stuff. Cool.
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03-09-2004, 02:20 PM | #30 |
whig
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 5,075
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wolf - fuck yea!
lumberjim - better than a self deffacating racial slur, they're ugly. Amazingly photo, took me a few minutes to work out what the hell I was looking at. Nicely done.
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