August chatter

[Dave Miller]

Interesting articles, Vv. Thank you.

[Verbivore]

The dangers of relying on voice-to-text software are demonstrated by this event, where the software heard and rendered Canberrans as Ken Behrens, thereby creating a new person.

[Little Jack Horner]

With regard to paremvolia, my daughter thinks that it is not a figure of speech at all but, rather, any spoken interruption by someone when another person is speaking. I think she may be right. It seems to follow the rough meaning of the definitions that were quoted before. But I am not sure that such an occurrence needs a special word?

[Verbivore]

Aug 23, 2021 1:36:36 GMT Little Jack Horner said:

With regard to paremvolia, my daughter thinks that it is not a figure of speech at all but, rather, any spoken interruption by someone when another person is speaking. I think she may be right. It seems to follow the rough meaning of the definitions that were quoted before. But I am not sure that such an occurrence needs a special word?

Perhaps it's a euphemistic synonym for rudeness?

[Verbivore]

Lipograms

… and an aptronym thrown in for good measure – an author named Wright.

[Little Jack Horner]

The lipogram with which the narrator spoke about this topic was really very good indeed. I certainly wouldn’t have noticed it unless I had been programmed to expect it. I once wrote a (very) short story avoiding the letter A and I found it extremely difficult to compose it in a way which didn’t sound too awkward and stilted.

Thank you for that, Vv.

[Verbivore]

Inspired by this news article and bored during lockdown, I went looking for strange place names. Some of these have enjoyed previous mention here, but I don’t recall any long lists of such monikers – so here goes, at least for the UK and AU. No doubt I've missed some (I've deliberately limited the list to UK and AU names) that others may wish to add.

First are many Bottoms, including:
Boomers (AU)
Broad (AU)
Bullyhole (UK)
Deans (UK)
Dog's (UK)
Donkey's (UK)
Fancy (AU)
Grassy (AU)
Hole (AU)
Lagoon (AU)
Long (AU)
Lovely (AU)
Monkey’s (UK)
Officers (AU)
Prickly (AU)
Round (AU)
Scratchy (UK)
Stumpys (AU)

Hills:
Ass (UK)
Bullshit (AU)
Clap (UK)
Flirtation (AU)
Pishill (UK)
Rooty (AU)

Mounts:
Breast (AU)
Bugerim (AU)
Bugger (AU)
Great Groaner (AU)

Knobs:
Blue (AU)
Buggery (AU)
Chinamans (AU)
Funny (AU)
Yorkeys (AU)

and Nobs:
Delicate Nobby (AU)
Prominent (AU)

Creeks:
Fanny (AU)
Pisspot (AU)

Points:
Pleasure (AU)
Tonguers (AU)

Excretables:
Break Wind Reserve (AU)
Crapstone (UK)
Doo Town (AU)
River Piddle (UK)
Wyre Piddle (UK)
Shitterton (UK)
Shittington (UK)

Anatomicals:
Back Passage (UK)
Golden Balls (UK)
Sandyballs (UK)
Bell End (UK)
The Boobs (AU)
Boobs Flat (AU)
Brown Willy (UK)
Burrumbuttock (AU)
The Butts (AU)
Clitheroe (UK)
Cockburn (AU)
Cape Cockburn (AU)
Cockermouth (UK)
Cockfield (UK)
Cockfosters (UK)
Cock Wash (AU)
Dick Court (UK)
Fannie Bay (AU)
Fannyfield (UK)
Gropethingye Lane (UK)
Minge Lane (UK)
Mossy Nipple Bend (AU)
Muff (UK)
Penistone (UK)
Pensioners Bush (AU)
Sthingyhorpe (UK)
Thrush Forest (AU)
Titwobble Lane (AU)
Titty Ho (UK)
Twatt (UK)
Wetwang (UK)
Willey (UK)

Verbs:
Come By Chance (AU)
Cumming Street (UK)
Mincing Lane (UK)
Ogle (UK)
Packenham Upper (AU)
Shag Head (AU)

Miscellaneous:
Cream Puff Corner (AU)
Faggot (UK)
Fudgepack upon Humber (UK)
Innaloo (AU)
Menlove Avenue (UK)
Upperthong (UK)


PS: Australian place names do not carry apostrophes of possession: they were eliminated by the Geographical Names Act of 1966 because the then-newly installed mail-sorting OCR machinery was confused by them (or the inconsistency with which people applied them to addresses?). I've found no explanation why early apostrophes (in e.g. O'Brien) didn't also confuse those primitive OCR devices, but it's possible that people were less likely to omit those when addressing an item.

[Little Jack Horner]

A strange collection of place names indeed. But I think some of them need to be checked out. I can find no reference in any reliable source to a Dean’s Bottom, a Dog’s Bottom, or a Donkey’s Bottom in the UK. There is a Dean Bottom in Somerset and a Donkey Bottom in Hampshire but to call the last a “place” is a perhaps a hyperbole as it seems to be nothing more than a piece of low-lying heath with not even a footpath shown on my map. Of course, there are very many other “bottoms“ in the UK, a bottom being just a piece of low-lying ground. We have mentioned Scratchy Bottom on this forum several times but, again, it is merely a shallow valley close to the sea with no other features shown on even a large-scale map other than a footpath and a few contour lines.

There is a Shuttington in Staffordshire and a Shillington in Bedfordshire but so far as I can see no Shittington anywhere. Where is Monkey’s Bottom? Maybe these are local or children’s names? I can find nowhere called Sthingyhorpe (not even Thingythorpe which could make sense). Fudgepack upon Humber must surely be a fraud but Faggot is a small, uninhabited island off the Northumberland coast. Back Passage is an alleyway in London but hardly a “place”. 

But I would love it if some of these places really are places. Come along, Vv, we need some citations. If you are locked down, use the spare time productively.

[Verbivore]

Here you go, LJH. As to the veracity of the citations, I leave that to your ascertainment.

Dean's Bottom, Surrey Heath
Source:
here

***

Shittington, Bedfordshire
Sources:
here
and
here
and
here
and
here
and
here

***

Fudgepack upon Humber

Sources:
here
and
here
and
here
and
here

***

Sthingyhorpe
All I can now find on that are mentions on various forums (most of those being on ProBoards) are remarks to the effect that the boards' net nannies have substituted thingy for four letters in Scunthorpe. Perhaps the same thing happened in the list I found it on.

Because I’ve deleted my browsing history (done automatically every midnight) I can no longer find references to: Dog's Bottom, Donkey’s Bottom (though you mention a Donkey Bottom in Hampshire, so perhaps the list compiler gratuitously added the 's), or Monkey’s Bottom. They were on lists that I’d found at the time, but of course everything found online (even on our own board) needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

As to what does or doesn't qualify as a place: isn't a street, a lane, or a hollow still a place, a 'somewhere'?

[Verbivore]

Patrick of Name Explain discusses Dull, Bland, and Boring.