Funniest Words in the English Language

Funniest Words in . . .
the English Language . . .

Grub. Yes, grub. That was the funniest word EVER for me .. in Grade 1!

I had never heard the word ‘grub‘ before and it sounded so ridiculous and … FUNNY! Oh, sure … it makes me chuckle NOW, but what are some words that really ARE funny … at least to me, now! I have posted about ‘The Funniest Languages in the World‘ but this post will be about Funny English words!

According to Wikipedia :

“Certain words have been suggested to be inherently funny. Vaudeville tradition holds that words with the letter k are funny. A 2015 study at the University of Alberta suggested that the humor of certain nonsense words can be explained by whether they seem rude, and by the property of entropy – the improbability of certain letters being used together in a word.“

Yeah, I was as surprised as you were, that there was an actual Wikipedia article about ‘Inherently Funny Words’! And turns out, there might even be a science to it!

“From whong to quingel: the science of funny words” the basic theory is that words have entropy. And ….

“Well, what they’ve found is a strong inverse correlation between funniness and a property called entropy. This is a way of expressing how usual the letters in the NW are – so the less commonly they’re used in English, the lower the total entropy of the NW. To put it another way, the less “wordy” these NWs are, the more they strike us as humorous.”

I guess it takes a research scientist to take the fun out of research, even if the research is ABOUT FUN! LOL!

To me, a word is funny because it invokes a memory of something funny, a ridiculous idea, a sound that does not sound ‘right’ or even how a person pronounces it! I actually think the word ‘ORANGE‘ is very funny! And probably because …NOTHING RHYMES WITH ‘ORANGE‘ ! Well, actually, there might be….

And guess what the following words have in common …. NONE OF THEM HAVE ANY RHYMES EITHER!

silver, purple, month, ninth, pint, wolf, opus, dangerous, marathon and discombobulate.

And sticking with the word ‘ORANGE‘ is a an interesting ‘Chicken vs Egg’ controversy … which came first … the colour or the fruit!

And don’t think that English ALONE has funny words. A future post will decribe Funny Canadian Words and Slang Phrases, a taste of which is below in a YouTube video!

Okay, going on the record, my list, in no particular order, some of my favourite funny words are:

Orange, Lollygag, Gonzo, Doozy, Malarkey, Gobbledygook, Flerken, Brouhaha, Stupendous, … and of course, the most ubiquitous word in the entire English-Canadian Dictionary … “‘eh!” And the most famous Canadian political words ever spoken … Fuddle Duddle!

And the single greatest cartoon strip of ALL TIME is Calvin & Hobbes, which also introduced many funny and amazing words – that only a Tiger and a 6-year old would understand! There just might be future post involving Calvin & Hobbes too!

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!

ENJOY! TTFN!

40 Funny Sounding
English Words

5 Funny English Words
and Their English Meanings

Weekly English Words with Alisha
Funny Sounding Words

Top Funniest Words
in the English Language

How to Speak Like a Canadian
21 Funny Canadian
Slang Words and Phrases

Funny Sounding Words
From Around the World

Ancient Technology . . . or Be Kind to Your Digital Elders!

Ancient Technology . . .
or . . .
. . . Be Kind to Your Digital Elders

Where we you in … no, not ’62, but 1984!!!

1984 immediately brings to mind two thing – my Grade 12 class on George Orwell’s novel and … the introduction of the original Macintosh computer … and that famous commercial, broadcast only ONCE, during the Super Bowl that year. It is considered The Greatest Commercial of All Time!

But did you know that it was originally introduced by none other than Steve Jobs at an Apple meeting? And of course, this is made available through the magic of … YouTube!

Steve Jobs Introduces the
Macintosh for the FIRST TIME!

When I originally started in The CALL Facility in 1989, there was ONE SINGLE SOLITARY MACINTOSH IN THE ENTIRE ROOM! The rest were all IBM computers. Yes, IBM!!!

It had been about 5 years since the original Mac had been introduced and made commercially available, but it had one unique incredible feature – it was the only computer (to the best of my knowledge back then!) that offered different operating systems (known back then as System 6) in DIFFERENT LANGUAGES!

To switch to Japanese, the ONLY other fully functional operating system that was installed at the time, required a full reboot after ‘blessing’ a folder that contained … the Japanese Operating System! And then, when finished, the same procedure had to be performed … IN JAPANESE, to reboot and return to System 6!

I think the very first document I ever produced in The CALL Facility .. was how to switch from English to Japanese and then back to English in System 6.0 on the only Mac, probably in all of Clearhue!

And there is my segue into languages! Communication! Ideas! Imagination! Cooperation!

This so-called ‘New Normal’ that we are now wrapped up in, still requires teamwork and literally thinking ‘outside the box’ that was our previous workplace location! We are truly … reinventing the box, while simultaneously physically being outside of our boxes! 👍

Truly astonishing that we can ZOOM, text, email, video and phone so easily now – and that allows us to maintain communications, both social and professional, with the click of a button! 30 years ago, this would have been in the realm of Harry Potter kind of magic .. and Harry Potter didn’t exist until 1997!

I still have some ‘ancient technology’ including my first ever computer, a Commodore SX-64, outrageously described as a ‘portable computer’ weighing in at a whopping 23 POUNDS!

A few years ago – 2017 seems SO long ago now – Systems had an Open House with the theme of ‘Time Travellers – Meet the Team – Systems Through Time‘ and it was a ‘Blast from our Past‘!

And both my Mac SE that I bought in 1989 and my venerable SX-64 are still working! Amazing!

The CALL Facility – 30th Anniversary!

A few great articles to take you down Memory Lane here:

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!

ENJOY! TTFN!

Old Computers Did it Better

Evolution of Laptops
and Portable Computers (1975-2020)

Macintosh 128K
Vintage Computer Review

Macintosh 1984 Promotional Video
WITH Bill Gates

The Oldest Word in the English Language . . . or Maybe the First?

The Oldest Word . . .
in the English Language . . .
. . . or Maybe the First?

What is, or perhaps might be, the oldest word in the English language? Could it be the FIRST word too?

Well, according to a 2009 study, the oldest words are, according to “Today I Discovered The Oldest Words In The English Language“:

According to a 2009 study by researchers at Reading University, the oldest words in the English language include “I“, “we“, “who“, “two” and “three“, all of which date back tens of thousands of years. The discovery was made by tracking the divergence of ancestral words into different languages (including English) with an IBM supercomputer.

And that makes SO much sense! Self awareness, consciousness, self-identity and the famous phrase from René Descartes, “Cogito, ergo sum” or as we know it better, “I think, therefore I am“. And how wonderfully ironic that an IBM supercomputer was used too!

And numbers too! I previously posted about “The Original and Universal Language of Math” so that ties in quite well too!

And from another favourite website, Dictionary.com – The Oldest Words In The English Language, comes their roster of oldest words and it appeals to the poet in all of us!

In an unrelated study, the linguistic boffins at Dictionary.com revealed the oldest words in their online dictionary, although these only go back to 900AD or so. They include “love“, “black” (which predates “white” by a significant margin), “mother“, “give“, “man/woman“, “fire“, “hand“, “hear“, “pull“, “spit” and “worm“. Interestingly, “old” itself is one of the oldest words in the English language. As Dictionary.com explains:

Other authorities post similar results and go one step further, “Scientists discover oldest words in the English language and predict which ones are likely to disappear in the future” by predicting which words will become obsolete!

Babbel is another great resource for language and word information, and they list their ‘Oldest Words in The English Language‘ as well. All very similar and all fascinating in their reasons.

And what happens AFTER the first word is used? LANGUAGES! A future post will discuss the ‘Oldest Languages in the World‘!

So, just think about it … every time you say a sentence such as, “I am going on a coffee break!”, “We should order pizza tonight!”, “Who wants to go to Tofino for two or three nights?” . . . you are using the oldest words in the English language! Even the pizza … check my list below for The First Ever Pizza Delivery!

Words come and words go. There was even a 40 New Words That Were Added to the Dictionary in 2019. And that too will be a future OAC Bog Blog topic – how do new words come into existence?

And of course, a bit of frivolity here, with some other dubious and historical ‘Firsts’ or ‘Oldest’ using words, of course!

As long as there are words out there, there will be interesting topics!

ENJOY! TTFN!

What are the Oldest Words
in the World?

What’s the Earliest
English Word?

The World’s Oldest
English Dictionary

15,000 Year Old Words
We Still Use

‘May I say how delightful it is to hear he use of the word ‘Egad’.’

What’s in a Name? or . . . . . Where Did THAT Word Come From!

What’s in a Name . . .
or . . .
Where Did THAT Word Come From!

What if your name … became an ACTUAL word?

You could become … eponymous! So for instance, try and guess which words in the following paragraph are named after a person! Hopefully this will be the most tantalizing post … EVER!!!

“That is a nice cardigan! Are you boycotting polyester? Your sideburns make me think of the ’60’s! And order me that jumbo sized burger please! I am going to buy some nice fuchsias and dahlias for my kitchen. I am looking forward to the saxophone concert tonight! You were always such a maverick! Let’s go to Pilates and unwind, then soak in your jacuzzi while we work on solving the riddles of the universe with new algorithms!”

I snuck in an Easter Egg there too! LOL! If you guessed cardigan, boycotting, sideburns, jumbo, fuchsias, dahlias, saxophone, maverick , Pilates, jacuzzi, and algorithms, then you are not a dunce! Snuck another Easter Egg in there at the end!

Words that do become part of pop culture or fully enshrined in the English language could be from an invention, cultural importance, fictional references, personal traits or just about ANYTHING, including .. an elephant!

The more I looked, the more interesting sites I found that have dozens and dozens of words, and the best of them are at the bottom, where you can find alphabetical listings of words!

AND another interesting topic for a future post will be how nouns are turned into verbs! Say what? Oh, I am certain you will understand if I mention I am going to go … Google something! LOL!

Now, going for lunch, listening to some Gregorian music and making a grilled cheese sandwich! Okay, just stop it with the Easter Eggs!

Category: Eponyms