WordWacky

It seems to me that there’s an inverse relationship between the number of letters and/or syllables in a word and how many different meanings it can have. Is this due to our tendency to nickname — that is, to shorten? Seems logical.

I had to look up the word that meant “having many meanings.” Polysemy itself has one. Good word to know, even if only 17 English speakers in the world will understand when you say it out loud.

I haven’t tried that yet. Let’s say it out loud together: “POL-ly-see-me.” Or the less personable version: “puh-LIS-uh-me.”

After Tatiana sent me this cool video of a pop-up book today, I began to ponder the polysemous word, pop (>30 definitions!).

 

I won’t bore you with all of the definitions of pop. Here are some favorites:

5. to protrude from the sockets: The news made her eyes pop….

13. British Slang. to pawn….

14. Informal

a. to take or swallow (pills), esp. in excess or habitually; take orally in a compulsive or addictive way: Popping all those pills will land him in the hospital.

b. to eat in a continual or thoughtless manner, as snack foods: popping peanuts at the movies.

19. a drink or portion of an alcoholic beverage, as a drink of whiskey or a glass of beer: We had a couple of pops on the way home.

24. pop for, Slang. to pay or buy for oneself or another, esp. as a gift or treat; spring for: I’ll pop for the first round of drinks.

25. pop off, Informal

a. to die, esp. suddenly.

b. to depart, esp. abruptly.

c. to express oneself volubly or excitedly and sometimes irately or indiscreetly: He popped off about the injustice of the verdict.

 

I leave you with some Flickr/Mosaic Maker tag art: File under Pop!

1. Pop time, 2. Pop Art Aluminum Can Hand Necklace-,3. Rhubarb and Raspberry Yogurt Ice Pops, 4. candy pop land, 5. Pop!, 6. the first flickr pop-up card!, 7. Mister Warhol - in pop art photoshop contest, 8. popped balloon, 9. Pops 66 Bottle at Night, 10. Pop 9 experiment 12.06, 11. Pop Art | Paris Hilton, 12. pop pop pop, 13. whirly pops., 14. return for refund., 15. Iggy Pop and The Stooges play London, 16. Pop goes the weasel!, 17. Day 85 : International Tootsie Pop Week, 18. Pop-Up, 19. TATOO POP, 20. Pop’s birthday dinner, 21. The Great Debate: Soda vs. Pop vs. Coke, 22. Bomb Pop, 23. Snap, Krackle, Pop, 24. Pop Tarts, 25. Father and Son

Today’s blog post was brought to you by the letter P and the number 17.

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 9:04 pm and is filed under alphabet, books, pop-ups, words. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.