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Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Don't Cock This One Up

In an effort to resist studying for my midterm tomorrow morning — and taking a cue from Vitamin Q — I composed a short list of human body parts that double as verbs.
  • head
  • face
  • eye
  • mouth
  • teeth (as in, "Babies cry when they are teething.")
  • lash
  • ear ("to form ears," in the corn sense)
  • chin
  • tongue
  • gum
  • nose
  • neck (synonym for "make out")
  • cheek (British for "speak rudely to," like how we use it with "being cheeky")
  • brain (a good one: "to kill by smashing the skull")
  • arm
  • shoulder
  • palm
  • finger (as in, "I fingered your girlfriend," but also in the sense of identifying a culprit)
  • thumb
  • hand
  • nail
  • knuckle (though, more usually as "knuckle down")
  • elbow
  • breast (according to Webster, a synonym for "contend")
  • rib
  • back
  • knee
  • leg ("to walk," according to Webster)
  • foot
  • toe
  • heel
  • butt
  • stomach
  • blister (does this count?)
  • throat (as in, "to sing in a throaty voice")
  • skin
  • hip (a synonym for "tell" or "inform")
  • heart (according to me, as in the recently fashionable expression "I heart New York" to mean "I love New York" or the film "I (Heart) Huckabees")
So what did I miss?

12 comments:

  1. Man, I know that the English language is what you do, but I gotta call you on some of these. Cheeky is a verb? Throaty?

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  2. Uh, no, you of little reading comprehension. "Cheek" is a verb and "throat" is a verb. Look 'em up.

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  3. your profile has two typos in it.

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  4. joke's on you, aaron small. it had THREE typos in it.

    old version:

    I am full of words. My paintings never look right. I have this nasty spitting habbit. I want to be Tina Fey's co-anchor. I once had a sex dream about Princess Toadstool. I will buy a drink for anybody who knows the different between Swicthblade Sisters and Scissor Sisters.

    new version:

    I am full of words. My paintings never look right. I have this nasty spitting habit. I want to be Tina Fey's co-anchor. I once had a sex dream about Princess Toadstool. I will buy a drink for anybody who knows the difference between Switchblade Sisters and Scissor Sisters.

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  5. Okay, now I get it. A little on the slow side. Wierd. Don't think I've heard them used that way. Silly Brits.

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  6. Touche Mackie. As long as we're on the subject, I've given your profile some more thought.

    I have this nasty spitting habit.

    Why not "I have A nasty spitting habit?"

    I think an indefinite article would be more appropriate than the demonstrative pronoun, I believe, unless, of course, you want a more conversational feel. I'll be the first to admit that it's a sentence in an informal blog, though you've already established a more formal style in the preceding sentences.

    EX: I am full of words. My paintings never look right.

    Instead of : I am full of these words. Or, These painting I have in my room never look right.

    See? It's a bit inconsistent.

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  7. you need to edit with a lighter hand, dear.

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  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  9. check out my site when you have a sec.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cool stuff here - I added your link to my blog: patangello.blogspot.com

    Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  11. ball (to have sex with)
    nail (to have sex with)
    nut (to ejaculate)
    pussy ("pussy out," to refuse to participate)
    dick ("dick around," to do nothing)

    I'm not sure if these count, as they're not the offical names for the Precious Parts. They're more colloquial than, say, "head."

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