Showing posts with label Terminology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Terminology. Show all posts

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Two definitions of "pet peeve"

A "pet peeve" is something that we personally find extremely annoying but other people often aren't bothered (as much) by. Normally a pet peeve involves something small such as fingernail biting, ear scratching, or lolspeak. As far as I've always known somebody can have multiple pet peeves, as "pet" in this instance means to me as "unique to a person"; for example, a pet peeve of mine is when someone is eating down my ear, and another pet peeve is when someone types "a men/women" when the grammar should be "a man/woman".

When reading a forum today I saw a person discuss one of their "biggest pet peeves", and they were corrected by other forum members saying that a "pet peeve" is a person's biggest peeve: to them it was redundant to say "biggest pet peeve". This contradicted my long-held understanding of "pet peeve", as I defined above; when I Googled the term the general consensus among the websites I viewed supported my interpretation, although a couple of other sites supported the other view.

Do you have pet peeves and a biggest pet peeve, or just peeves and a pet peeve? I can certainly understand the other interpretation and where the redundancy comes from, but I'm curious to hear more opinions given that I had never heard of or thought about it until today.

Saturday, 12 May 2012

Slumgullion

I recently discovered an interesting-sounding word: slumgullion. There are various definitions of a "slumgullion", but most often a slumgullion is a watery meat and vegetable stew. A slumgullion is not normally a high-quality meal, but also not necessarily an unhealthful one, either.

Ofter meanings include it being a term to describe a weak coffee or tea; a muddy, red-coloured substance found in the sluices of mines; and can be synonymous with the word "offal". It can also be used to describe any sort of slime, or in a derogatory manner against any sort of watery meal.

Even without the alternate terms, something called a "slumgullion" does not sound as though it would be an appetising meal!