I've lost effluvia,...

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which according to Merriam - Webster, means I cut one. I most certainly did not. But, I have to ax it from my vocabulary.

I was emailing my erudite father in law and the word seemed to be right for my subject line... I believed for years that effluvium meant a vapor - something ethereal arising from a subject - a whimsical or loosely connected topic. I used it constantly.

This morning, I questioned myself because he's such a Word Use Nazi (which I like, but it keeps me googling for accuracy), and I'll be damned if it doesn't pretty officiously mean fart.

I sent him my morning farts this morning. I want to discontinue my email account rather than see the searing response I'm going to get. I will never live this down.

Me, English teacher.

Has there been a word that you've used ....incorrectly and in mortifying fashion?

Do I really have to bow to this definition? Effluvia sounds too pretty for farts.

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Type: Question • Score: 6 • Views: 1,537 • Replies: 13

[+3] - djjd62 - 02/13/2011[i]`I don't know what you mean by "glory,"' Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument...

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@Lash,

`I don't know what you mean by "glory,"' Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'

`But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument,"' Alice objected.

`When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'

`The question is,' said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

`The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master - - that's all.'

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@Lash,

you weren't wrong.

"a vapor - something ethereal arising from a subject "...with a pungent odor.

1 Reply

I just told my wife that the Potsdam Declaration allowed for the State of Israel post WWII!

1 Reply

@Rockhead,

Well, thank you darling. I may retake the effluvial beachhead, cause I liked that word, and as ddjj (bunch of ds and js guy) said - I think I'll just countermand effluvia for myself.

Who's to stop me!! (besides FIL, who is right now, probably gasping for breath from laughing at me and mocking me.)

(shakes fist in air defiantly!!!!)

Thank you all, you few. You happy few. You band of homies.

2 Replies

@Chumly,

Way to write history and make it yours, Chumly!!

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@Lash,

Just avoid stepping on the miasma, Lash..

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@Lash,

Best laugh in days.

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http://www.davyking.com/fart.htm
An Ill Wind
fart literature, with sound effects

1 Reply

Don't you mean effusive?
meaning to spread out . .

1 Reply

@Lash,

The amazing thing about effluvia is that in Italian, as well as in French, it is almost always connoted with a pleasant odor.

Effluves (in French) are very often heady, subtle and Effluvio is often agreeable in Italian (gradevole).

1 Reply

@PUNKEY,

No, but I like that word, too!

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@Francis,

Oh Jesus. I am more French every day. (grin) Thank you, darling.

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@edgarblythe,

Edgar, thanks for the great laughing this morning. The Joyce write up was hysterical...and in league with the rest of the expose - completely disgusting. Ah, humanity: ye gassy pervs.

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I've lost effluvia,...

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