July 29, 2002

9:45 PM

The Linguistic Fun Page. If you're stuck on a cube-farm somewhere, I especially recommend the Hellatine Dictionary of Bureaucratese. The remote links are much better than the local ones, although I did especially enjoy The Collective Nouns Page (An anthology of prostitutes, a smuth of jellyfish)
posted by anastasiav (9 comments total)

Well, this certainly promises hours and hours of fun. In the "Translation Funnies" section I loved this sign, from a Paris hotel elevator:

Please leave your values at the front desk.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:50 PM on July 29, 2002

Miguel, I knew somehow I was posting this for you...
posted by anastasiav at 10:02 PM on July 29, 2002

Yay! Ladle Rat Rotten Hut!!

This is one of those things I remember, I knew was on the web but didnt have the proper keywords (hopefully you can see why) to hunt it down. Thanks!
posted by vacapinta at 10:09 PM on July 29, 2002

I am officially looking forward to browsing this all day at work. It reminds me of a themed version of The Meaning of Liff.

Great link!
posted by aclevername at 3:58 AM on July 30, 2002

Thank you for these wonderfully entertaining links. This is what keeps me coming back to MetaFilter.
posted by MrBaliHai at 4:46 AM on July 30, 2002

And, of course, there is this.
posted by Fabulon7 at 6:13 AM on July 30, 2002

Noam Chomsky is linguistic un-fun.
posted by kmel at 10:12 AM on July 30, 2002

Thank you anastasiav! Just want you to know that our staff meetings make liberal use of the Hellatine Dictionary words, and now I know what to email to co-workers who miss any of the said meetings and who ask later, "What did we talk about?" These fine examples will just about cover it:

"agonate;
v., To torture a subject and those damned to discussing it by the repeated reopening of previously settled elements.
(inverbiative: agony)

aholibate;
v., To bring both sides in a campaign to equal levels of small-minded meanness of spirit.
(contraction: a-holes debate)"
posted by Lynsey at 1:32 PM on July 30, 2002

Oh man. My boss commits lexicide all the time.
posted by Foosnark at 8:43 AM on July 31, 2002