Comments on: Of Trotskyism and skateboarding

By: skate shops

skate shops — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 09:41:41 +0000

Wow really good to know about your article. keep up the great job and the spirit.

By: Shane R

Shane R — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:55:36 +0000

@Alison

I’ve spent many hundreds (thousands?) of hours on the back of a horse as well. Oddly, even though I’ve been thrown off aplenty, I’ve never really injured myself. Skateboarding however has been the cause of countless broken bones.

But, I digress. We’re talking about words here. My favourite horsy word is ‘Latigo’ . Sounds so much better than ‘girth’, no?

By: Stephen Bullon

Stephen Bullon — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:10:17 +0000

Dickens certainly had characters prone to malapropisms – the Beadle in Oliver Twist says “We name our fondlings in alphabetical order” – but Mrs Malaprop herself is a character in Sheridan’s 1775 play the Rivals.

Nina’s friend sounds like a fellow student of mine (many years ago now) who disappeared from her own birthday party for about 1o minutes, then reappeared saying: “I’m fine, thanks. I’ve just been decomposing myself”.

By: Nina Braun

Nina Braun — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:51:06 +0000

And of course thinking about sports, there’s also the Bielmann Pirouette on ice. My favourite however, is a “malapropism”, named after Dicken’s Mrs Malaprop, who had the misfortune to use certain similar-sounding words in the wrong context. A girlfriend of mine used to have the same problem, or at least, we were never quite sure whether she did it accidently or just to make us laugh. One example from her: Make sure you read the destructions before you use the new camera.

By: jon cox

jon cox — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:26:26 +0000

While reading your latest mail, I came across the word fakie in a description of another term. I looked it up, and was surprised not to find it in the on-line dictionary. Any idea why?

By: Alison

Alison — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:43:01 +0000

I read the e-mail on your update, and was wondering what a Caballarial was, then I found out you need to be airborne, and then I read ‘riding fakie’ and that this means facing the opposite direction. I thought this was pretty smart because when I say ‘riding’ I usually mean on the back of a horse and the idea of me (or any other brave soul) sitting facing the tail end while the horse does some kind of jump – maybe with a loop – made me realise that I’m not as good a rider as I thought I was… My train of thought was supported by having heard ‘Caballero’ in connection with Spanish riding, so at first I was sure that sitting backwards on a leaping, looping is horse is how it’s done. If anyone has ever attempted this I’d love to see the video!

By: Helen Williams

Helen Williams — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:28:41 +0000

Ha ha! My favourite sporting term named after a person has always been the Fosbury Flop – it sounds funny, and it’s kind of cool. And I can remember that one; as, like the skating terms above, it describes, or at least hints, at what it is. Most ‘isms’ I can cope with, and they often encourage me to research where the the hell the -ism came from, but if I’m asked to remember the names of chemical elements or plants that are named after people – forget it. Bloody Mary… now there’s eponym I really like

By: Alex Croft

Alex Croft — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:38:19 +0000

Good blog, it’s a different language , lol , I also spend a lot of time wondering where certain words come from

By: Alan Newbury

Alan Newbury — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:13:30 +0000

Haha, dude!! Excellent.
What about:
Christair- Christian Hosoi
The Ollie- Alan “Ollie” Gelfand

and

Jungist- Carl Jung
and by far the best

Bushisms- http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm

By: Baldy

Baldy — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:12:14 +0000

You should check out Rodney Mullens book, now that is a good read