"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."
Tuesday 9 November 2010
Amphibology
Amphibology - or amphiboly - is an ambiguous grammatical construction; an ambiguity arising from the uncertain construction of a sentence.
Wouldn't have guessed. My mind jumped to the conclusion that since it was you who posted it, it would turn out to have something to do with frogs (amphibians)!
My daughter Helen commented in November 2008 in her Blog that she was now keeping a notebook of new words that she came across during her reading. "This week I bought a lovely little leather bound book to write new words in as I read them . I've added a few from "1984", but my favourite has to be persiflage (from the French persifler) which means banter." I later discovered that my older daughter, Bryony, also kept a similar notebook.
This inspired me to create a Word blog. This will include both new words, favourite words and the origins of phrases that we commonly use. A definition and some comment, perhaps even a relevant quotation, will acompany the word or phrase.
“I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.” - Winnie the Pooh
Wouldn't have guessed. My mind jumped to the conclusion that since it was you who posted it, it would turn out to have something to do with frogs (amphibians)!
ReplyDeleteThere really is a word for everything, isn't there?
ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating!