Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

[ad hoc]

Because of other widely understood meanings.

I remember when I first was in Rome and people kept referring to Romans, like it was perfectly normal to talk about these modern day people walking around or driving cars and such as Romans, and that this word was not purely reserved for people in sandals and armour.

Then today I was marking an assignment written by someone who works in Geelong (near Melbourne), who made reference to the Victorian Education Department (and she wasn't passing judgment on it)

[Incandenza]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

I always have to pause for a second to remember that when people say "Georgian," they might be talking about the country and not the state.

[ursus arctos]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

Ha!

ad hoc and I were just discussing that on Twitter, and neither of us has problems keeping the former Soviets, Rednecks and English fops in wigs apart.

It's weird the way these things work. If you are speaking to someone, a lot of it comes from visual cues.

Which is why I imagine that Russians from the Black Sea who live in Atlanta have problems.

[Femme Folle]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

Gusset

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

Well, if we're going to get sidetracked on to the "words with mulitiple meanings" topic, one could cast the net from Tbilisi a little further and move from the mildly confusing "Georgian" to the altogether thornier "Caucasian".

Sticking, though, to the "words that sound odd" concept, I sometimes reflect on the name of my hometown Leeds. I mean, the town you grow up in is a kind of given, like a part of your identity, so you don't naturally tend to look at it from outside and question it, even nomenclature-wise. But when I do, I think "what a weird place name that is!". Like, what is a "leed"?

[Fussbudget]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

Hamburger (and Frankfurter, to a lesser extent)

[Taylor]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

Evariste Euler Gauss wrote:

Sticking, though, to the "words that sound odd" concept, I sometimes reflect on the name of my hometown Leeds. I mean, the town you grow up in is a kind of given, like a part of your identity, so you don't naturally tend to look at it from outside and question it, even nomenclature-wise. But when I do, I think "what a weird place name that is!". Like, what is a "leed"?

Funny you should say this - I've always thought that as well. It just doesn't sound like a north-of-England place name, does it? When I was a kid it made me think of massive industrial cables, soaked in torrential rain. Now I go there quite a lot and... arf.

It's actually a corruption of the Roman name for the town, Leodis. I think a lot of the oddest-sounding British place names (which don't follow the usual conventions of -ton, -chester, -mouth, -field, -castle, -bridge, etc.) are distortions of Roman names. Like London, which is another word I sometimes stare at and almost giggle.

We're right off topic already, aren't we? Sorry.

[willie1foot]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

"gusset"

Big Dave's or just gussets in general?

[Wyatt Earp]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

-chester is generally Roman too, from castris.

[evilC]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

[hobbes]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

"Plectrum"

I win the thread.

[Levin]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

Don't you mean pick?

[Andy C]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

-chester is generally Roman too, from castris.

It's a bit more complicated than that. Place names ending in -chester, -cester and -caster denote a Saxon settlement on the site of an earlier fort. The Saxon word derives, obviously, from the Latin, but the fort itself was sometimes British rather than Roman.

Chester is a Saxon name: the Roman city was called Deva; Winchester (Saxon) was the Roman Venta Belgarum; Cirencester was Corinium Dobunnorum, and so on.

[adams house cat]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

Town name. Staines? Maidenhead?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

The old name for Leeds (well, the West Riding generally) was Elmet.

I wish that had survived.

It would be funny if Leeds fans were chanting "Elmet! Elmet! Elmet!".

[Er Liquidatore]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

I remember when I first was in Rome and people kept referring to Romans, like it was perfectly normal to talk about these modern day people walking around or driving cars and such as Romans, and that this word was not purely reserved for people in sandals and armour.

There are a distressing number of people here who actually consider themselves the same people.

[Moonlight Shadow]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

Quite a few can be seen at Lazio games I gather...

[Er Liquidatore]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

And in equal numbers at Roma, if not more. In fact a huge part of Romanista identity is tied up in all that crap. And yes, much of it is fascist.

[Sean of the Shed]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:

The old name for Leeds (well, the West Riding generally) was Elmet.

Of course, the rest of the country would have pronounced it Helmet.

[beak]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

Taylor wrote:

Funny you should say this - I've always thought that as well. It just doesn't sound like a north-of-England place name, does it?

On a similar note, I was amazed as a child when I found out that Pontefract isn't in Wales - it seems to me still a very Welsh sounding place name.

[evilC]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

adams house cat wrote:

Town name. Staines? Maidenhead?

Cockermouth.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

[Crusoe]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

Philtrum.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

evilC wrote:

Cockermouth.

Or to give it its somewhat more colloquial local name "Nob-'er-Gob".

[via vicaria]

Perfectly normal words that just sound wrong

evilC wrote:

adams house cat wrote:

Town name. Staines? Maidenhead?

Cockermouth.

Braintree gets to me. The literal implications (also felt to a lesser extent with 'Liverpool') are vaguely disturbing. Rottingdean near Brighton has a fairly nauseous ring to it. 'Ugley' near Stansted would probably win in a 'wrong name (towns category)' contest though.

I'd imagine the not-from-there aspect amplifies that feeling. I grew up in a place next door to Bushey, which for some reason friends of mine felt was a ridiculous name, but I had never had cause to question.

The flipside is when you come across a town name that's so 'right'. I had a little joyous moment when passing by Scagglethorpe, safe in the knowledge that I could be nowhere but Yorkshire.