GW Suggestions
Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2014 2:14 am
The first humble submission (SUPERNUMARY) was simply one that popped up out of nowhere, while the other, CAN, came about in this manner:
My niece, Susan the Angel, works at a prestigious law firm, and one day (during the latter half of the previous century) the managing partner came up with a whimsical contest to see who could come up with the most distinctly different uses of the word “Can”—whether in proper English or in slang. (Business must have been slow that day).
Susan e-mailed the challenge to me, and it didn’t take long to think of ten or so--of which I can only recall nine:
1. A cylindrical metal container; “a can of chicken noodle soup”;
2. To have one’s employment terminated; “Sue Orr Settle got canned after losing the big antitrust case.”
3. Completed and ready for release (often associated with creative arts); “After a couple of retakes incorporating updated CGI, this baby’s in the can!”
4. A toilet; “You could get a lot more done if you’d leave the newspaper on your desk when you use the can”.
5.An indication of the ability to do something; “I can think of a dozen better excuses than that one”.
6. A German experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968.
7. To preserve food by heating it in glass jars with rubber-ringed lids to a temperature high enough to cook it and kill all botulism bacteria; when removed from the source of heat the vacuum formed seals out all bacteria or other pathogens.
8. A dance, popular during the previous century; “Chiquita can do the can-can ‘til everybody else is worn down to can’t-can’t”.
9. To stop or put an end to; “Can that chatter! We’re supposed to recon’ the enemy’s location, not advertise ours!
Simply because CAN is a word that, while not appearing in the GW Dictionary, has so many different meanings and uses I'd like to see it chosen as a GW; perhaps a reader can come up with that tenth usage of the word which--for some time--has escaped me.
My niece, Susan the Angel, works at a prestigious law firm, and one day (during the latter half of the previous century) the managing partner came up with a whimsical contest to see who could come up with the most distinctly different uses of the word “Can”—whether in proper English or in slang. (Business must have been slow that day).
Susan e-mailed the challenge to me, and it didn’t take long to think of ten or so--of which I can only recall nine:
1. A cylindrical metal container; “a can of chicken noodle soup”;
2. To have one’s employment terminated; “Sue Orr Settle got canned after losing the big antitrust case.”
3. Completed and ready for release (often associated with creative arts); “After a couple of retakes incorporating updated CGI, this baby’s in the can!”
4. A toilet; “You could get a lot more done if you’d leave the newspaper on your desk when you use the can”.
5.An indication of the ability to do something; “I can think of a dozen better excuses than that one”.
6. A German experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968.
7. To preserve food by heating it in glass jars with rubber-ringed lids to a temperature high enough to cook it and kill all botulism bacteria; when removed from the source of heat the vacuum formed seals out all bacteria or other pathogens.
8. A dance, popular during the previous century; “Chiquita can do the can-can ‘til everybody else is worn down to can’t-can’t”.
9. To stop or put an end to; “Can that chatter! We’re supposed to recon’ the enemy’s location, not advertise ours!
Simply because CAN is a word that, while not appearing in the GW Dictionary, has so many different meanings and uses I'd like to see it chosen as a GW; perhaps a reader can come up with that tenth usage of the word which--for some time--has escaped me.
