Antiquarian Hebdomadal - Oversharing, Puns and References Edition
AKA Word-Nerd Weekly - April 2024
Hi there! (Welcome Back Kotter reference [1st reference is free, you can find the rest yourselves]- I'm nowhere near as tall or handsome as Washington was in the show.) March was a time of great change and travel for me. From the southern border of Washington state, I moved to near the southern Oregon border, with several hundred miles driving to move all my books and some cookware and clothing. For the last couple weeks I've been living very close to the southern California border. I am sure there is some deeper meaning or synchronicity to all this southern borderness, but I fail to see it currently. (I crossed so many borders, I could file bankruptcy on my own bookstore.)
But enough about me, our first word is hilarious!
Aibohphobia a palindrome that means fear of palindromes.
“Appears first as a response to National Challenge #36 - in a newspaper column written by J Baxter Newgate. The challenge was to invent a phobia. The column did not identify the entrant. (Source: Orlando Sentinel, Oct 22, 1977)”
Thanks for the backstory Wiktionary.
I would link the source, but I'm an anti-linkist, because I feel that links distract from the flow of the story I'm typing tapping.
(Yes, this was sent from my Android powered smartphone government surveillance device. You pc master-race types may be correct about using a superior medium, but when someone is starving, rat burger (or tacobell) fills the stomach just the same as filet mignon.)
Predictably, the antonym is also a palindrome. Ailihphilia - the love of words spelled the same backwards and forwards. Like tacocat - an adorable fur and claw filled corn shell, or Saippuakivikauppias - a soapstone vender (is this even a thing? Not really, but it's the longest single-word palindrome in the world, thanks Finland).
Ah Finland, the land of fins.
Sadly this image is from the Swiss. For shame Finland, for missing this pun-portunity. How uncultured, I was forced to import this swiss cheese.
That's enough puns for now back to the big old funny words.
Balotade
Never look a gift horse in the mouth, unless you are a horse dentist. This age old advise is about showing gratitude for a gift, instead of trying to figure out how much the gift is worth (checking the mouth tells alot about the health of a horse. Source = Mr. Ed).
Priceless gifts can keep on giving. This word gift came from
https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/
And it came with free extra gifts to learn about, yerk and capriole.
These horse puns are all long in the tooth, so I'm balitading right over yerk, like an insensitive jerk, and yerking up some new knowledge with Capriole, O-ley!
The horse equivalent of the “Toyota leap.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fLMg57BGr2I
My last video link from YouTube embedded just by dropping it in the post, not sure what’s wrong with this one, any ideas?
Ok that enough horsing around for this post. I hope you all have a prancingly great day! And if you experienced groaning from any of the puns, Hay, I warned you.
*groan*
Were you aware, being near the southern California border, you're not all that far from the horse latitude?