Our word of the week is: Flummox!
Our hero Carlos thought it meant:
“I reckon it means rusty beard, maybe a kind of horrible disease?”
What it really means:
Carlos is not far off in a strange fashion with the whole rather bizarre ‘rusty beard’ thing. At least this shows that he was ‘flummoxed’ by the word flummoxed!
So flummox basically relates to confusion. To be flummoxed is to be confused and in laymans terms ‘to be downright stumped’! To say ‘I am flummoxed by all that’s going on around me’ is to say that you haven’t a clue what the heck is going on with all the madness around you. (Often said in pubs at around 10pm).
Our friends at the http://www.freedictionary.com have this to say:
flummox – be a mystery or bewildering to; “This beats me!”; “Got me–I don’t know the answer!”; “a vexing problem”; “This question really stuck me”
Which I think is a politer way of saying ‘I really don’t have a monkeys about what’s occurring.’
Bring back the word Flummox we say! A beautiful under-used word that even those crazy teenagers in England are not taught. Though if they used it then it’d probably end up as some variation of gangster speak. Instead of being a ‘hoodie’ you’d end up being a ‘flummie’.
Though there are too many letters in ‘flummox’ for our teenagers to use as it can’t be reduced to text speak. And I’m not even going to attempt to try….
Reply to this post with thoughts and votes for next weeks word!
Popularity: 30% [?]
Every week the talented and eloquent Don Carlos will help you to understand those English (and British) phrases and words that could well flummox your average visiting tourist or language student (or even a British person who speaks ‘proper’). Carlos is infamous in his home country of Spain and is well placed to provide such important information that you will not find in a textbook or mini travel guide. His experience primarily derives from being somewhat confused by the banter that goes on around him from his friends in the pub!
Our word for this week is: Wotcha!
Our hero Carlos at first thought it meant:
“Wotcha; it’s a kind of waving Trojan?”
His helpful British friends (after having no idea what the above meant!) have correctly told him that it actually means:
Wotcha: A greeting used by school kids in the late seventies and eighties that has sadly fallen out of fashion. Derived from the words ‘watch you’ and shortened into a more amenable salutation. The correct response is of course to repeat back the word ‘Wotcha’ in an enthusiastic fashion.
Not to be confused with the often used phrase ‘Watch it’ which if said to you by an angry looking bald man means you should probably make a quick exit.
Wotcha is currently undergoing a mini-revival among us 30 somethings who can no longer keep up with teenage speak (what the heck do they mean and why can’t they spell properly?) and have decided to confuse the teenagers by going back to our own school playground language.
For a possibly more informative origin of the phrase please see Wotcha on Phrase Finder, though we prefer our ‘I said it as a kid’ version above.
PS – ‘Flummox’ might well be explained by Don Carlos next week!
Popularity: 39% [?]
