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prettygoodwordMy queue has some words in a row that begin with B, so that makes a good theme, starting with:
blivet (BLIV-it) - n., something annoying, ridiculous, or useless; something for which one cannot find a word; an unpleasant or unsolvable situation or problem.
Sometimes specifically defined as "ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag" [edit: numbers corrected] and by extension, an annoying person (especially one that talks shit), but there are a host of other entertaining specialized uses on the Wiktionary entry. The most common specialized use is for the optical illusion called an impossible fork:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
This is WWII military slang, possibly originally coined by American soldiers or airmen, possibly adopted by them from Australian airmen -- like a lot of slang, the trail is murky.
---L.
blivet (BLIV-it) - n., something annoying, ridiculous, or useless; something for which one cannot find a word; an unpleasant or unsolvable situation or problem.
Sometimes specifically defined as "ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag" [edit: numbers corrected] and by extension, an annoying person (especially one that talks shit), but there are a host of other entertaining specialized uses on the Wiktionary entry. The most common specialized use is for the optical illusion called an impossible fork:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
This is WWII military slang, possibly originally coined by American soldiers or airmen, possibly adopted by them from Australian airmen -- like a lot of slang, the trail is murky.
---L.
