3/03/2007

Spectacular Vernacular


Why should we use little words -- why not throw in high-octane words and send readers scrambling for their dictionaries? In the following statements that is exactly what you will find. All are familiar proverbs which have been converted into tongue-twisting twaddle. Do you think you can translate them into simpler English and come up with the original proverb?

(A link to the answers will be posted below.)

(1) A mass of concreted earthy material perenially rotating on its axis will not accumulate an accretion of byrophytic vegatation.

(2) A superabundance of talent skilled in the preperation of gatronomic concoctions will impair the quality of a certain potable solution made by immersing a gallinaceous bird in embullient Adam's ale.

(3) Individuals who perforce are constrained to be domiciled in vitreous structures of patent frangibility should on no account employ petrous formations as projectiles.
(4) That prudent avis which matutinally deserts the coziness of its abode will ensnare a vermiculate creature.

(5) Everything that coruscates with effulgence is not ipso facto aurous.

(6) Do not dissipate your competence by hebetudinous prodigality lest you subsequently lament an exiguous inadequacy.

(7) An addle-pated beetlehead and his specie divaricate with startling prematurity.

(8) It can be no ther than a maleficient horizontally propelled current of gaseous matter whose portentous advent is not the harbinger of a modicom of beneficence.

(9) One should hyperesthetically exercise macrography upon that situs which one will eventually tenant if one propels oneself into the troposphere.

(10) Aberration is the hallmark of homo sapiens while longanimous placability and condonation are the indicia of supramundane omniscience.

How did you do? To see how well you are at translating vitriolic gobbledygook like the ten examples above, click here for the answers.

No.3

7 comments:

Miss Cellania said...

I got them all but number nine. I was tired by then! Lots of words I don't know, but I'm used to working around that.

Serena said...

That was HARD. Thank God you provided a cheat sheet.:)

Hale McKay said...

You're right, Serena. This exercise is no piece of cake. It's a good thing I didn't wait until next week to post the answers!

Hale McKay said...

Miss C, I do the same thing. A lot of times you can just about figure out a word by looking at the context in which it is being used.

Not necessarily so in this quiz.

Camille Alexa said...

One propitious dexterous manipulation of interlocking textilian fibers precludes the future necessity of the original numeral multiplied ninefold.

Scary Monster said...

Waste not want not, got the better of me, Darn!
Hmmmm, These remind me of something...
littlebird blue seems to have gotten knack of it.

cathy said...

Enquiring as to the nature of an object utilizing a popular euphemism for fornication?!