Giant Oblong Geranium?

wtf=what the ****

I can help you with query Number 4. A "bride-elect" is a bride-to-be or a chosen bride if the wedding is symbolic.

As for:

One who has a perverse sexual relationship with a prostitute might more easily suffer AIDS than one who insists on proper sexual behaviour may.

I would write:

Prostitutes spread AIDS. A man who frequents prostitutes is obviously in danger of contracting AIDS.

Or by editing your statement:

A man
(a clearer word in English than "one")

who has relationships with prostitutes
("Perverse" is a pejorative term and I'm assuming that you want to convince your reader rather than alienate your reader)

is more likely to contract AIDS than a man who does not.
(A man could frequent prostitutes while insisting on chastity and safe sex for other people).

I'd guess that WTF might stand for "What the ****", but I'm a dear sweet old lady and I don't know words like that.

Re: Giant Oblong Geranium?
1. I have no idea, having never heard this before, but I imagine you've dropped the verb phrase which is most probably "is like" and the object's article "a" -- thus your head "is like" (a) giant oblong geranium = nothing good. It sounds like a funny insult to me. Head likened to a big block head. Head also likened to a dumb plant.

2. What the f*ck. An expletive of surprise and dismay.

3. Woot. I don't know. Possibly you meant to type "Wot" which was used frequently by British humorists, notably P.G. Wodehouse, to mean "what" spoken with upper class diction. It was used not as a real question exactly, but as an amusing ending to a sentence. "I think I may have a nightcap, wot?' Would mean I'm going to have a nightcap (a drink).. what do you think, would you like one as well? what are you going to do about it?"

4. bride-elect. Technically speaking a bride is only a bride on her wedding day, thus... the bride-elect is a woman who has been engaged and is planning a wedding. She has been chosen to become a bride but isn't quite there yet.

5.

The sentence can be improved by changing a few words (might to may -- see note below) (suffer to contact for a clearer meaning of the action) and dropping the final "may."

One who has a perverse sexual relationship with a prostitute may more easily contact AIDS than one who insists on proper sexual behaviour.

For more information on may vs might check here.

I'm still slightly disturbed by the fact that the only one I knew was the wtf one

Thanks Noddy24, Piffka and -andrea-.

Regarding "woot", it should be "w00t", see the name of this image:
I think most of you may understand what this image means.

Actually, I know that one as "What the f*ck, over?" I think it's a quote from a movie or maybe some book by Hunter Thompson.

w00t

Good find, Craven de Kere.

Hi Oristar, Glad your questions were answered. My only comment is on question 5. I don't think there's anything technically wrong with the sentence. It sounds British to me. It's not worded the way a US person would word it.

As for the giant, oblong geranium--what a bizarre insult.

You're not, I promise!


and w00t?

w00t belongs to gamers the world over. It seems to have been derived from the obselete 'whoot' which essentially is another way to say 'hoot' which itself is a shout or derisive laugh. But others maintain that w00t is the sound several players make while jumping like bunnies in Quake III. Still others want you to believe that it comes from the phrase 'wow loot' used in multiplayer RPGs many moons ago. Fiction or fact? I suppose you'll just have to decide what 'w00t!' means to you...

Well explained, Eastree! Thanks.

PS. I wonder why the word geranium can be used as an disparaging term?

In and of itself, geranium isn't a bad word. But when it's used to descibe someone's head, it takes on a certain aspect. In fact, any flower would. Any nonheadlike thing would (more or less).

In the case of geraniums, they've got loose, soft, kind of floppy petals in a variety of colors. So I pictured weird hair, longish and floppy. Maybe more than one color.

Calling someone's head a giant oblong geranium seems like something a person would say when really really high. The statement itself is somewhat nonsensical, and certainly not a typical insult or expression in English.

I read this aloud when I saw it -- "Giant oblong geranium?" -- and my 3-yr-old picked up on it. So now we will say "giant oblong geranium" to each other at random times, and we have a little song and everything. I think it's catchy. Should be the name for a band.

(I'm really hoping it's not, like, slang for genitalia.)

"Giant Oblong Geranium present their first hit single: Miniature Slightly Deformed Violets!"

Ha!

But no no it's "The Giant Oblong Geraniums". They're hip, disaffected youths with punk influences who sneak in an occasional sweet melody.

Well, it's no stranger than my friend's band, Godspeed, You Black Emperor.

That is pretty strange. What's it from?

I've had a lot of friends who formed bands and I still have some little file in the recesses of my brain marked "Cool Band Names", and I keep an eye out. It's right next to "Cool images for tattoos". I highly doubt I'll ever do anything about either (maybe on the tattoo, if I find something irresistable), but I go on collecting and filing. Maybe band names will come in handy when the sozlet grows up.