Use two words together and tell me you don't know what they mean, without telling me you don't know what those two words mean.
True, but it's usually obvious if someone uses a word without knowing what it means--reaching for "colonnade" when you mean "cannonade", for instance. I've seen someone in a published book reach for "mortified" and land on "mollified."It's hard to think of words you don't know the meaning of.
"The fusilier colonnade was awe inspiring as it flew overhead on its bombing run!"
(I actually had a guess for both, but had no idea what a fusil was and missed by a bit, but was totally off on colonnade).
True, but it's usually obvious if someone uses a word without knowing what it means--reaching for "colonnade" when you mean "cannonade", for instance. I've seen someone in a published book reach for "mortified" and land on "mollified."
(Without looking the words up, "fusilier" is IIRC something like a grenadier--a soldier-type who specializes in explosives and such, and "colonnade" is something like a loggia with columns as more of a featured feature--an exterior architectural thing, with columns.)
That's "When the Tigers Broke Free," from the movie of The Wall, it does seem as though the name stuck long after muskets had been obviated as military weapons; and "cannonaded colonnades" was a phrase in a song Brian Wilson presented to the Beach Boys when he was trying to get Smile recorded. (if I remember right, Mike Love blew up over it and the lyricist, whose name I've forgotten, quit)That must be why I was think colonnade sounded explosive! (I knew it was architectural, but for some reason was thinking it was like ornate decoration). I knew a fusilier was a soldier of some sort (royal fusilier from a Pink Floyd song? - I was thinking they were ceremonial) but not that a fusil was a flintlock musket.
Dunno about radio programs, but that's the gameplay of Balderdash.I'm trying to remember which NPR quiz show had a segment where the panelists made up definitions to a word and the contestant has to guess which one is the real one.
Rings a vague bell. Call My Bluff?I'm trying to remember which NPR quiz show had a segment where the panelists made up definitions to a word and the contestant has to guess which one is the real one.
Rings a vague bell. Call My Bluff?