WORDS. the interrobang

i'm not entirely sure how or why i came across this, but i recently found this strange little grammar anomaly. its a punctuation mark that is meant to be an exclamation point and a question mark. strange. in the official rules of grammar it is not allowed to have more than one exclamation point at the end of a sentence. so when ever anyone ends a sentence like this: 'he said what?!?' it is improper grammar. instead, you are supposed to use the interrobang. huh. will the wonders of the english language ever cease?!?

WORDS. contronym

i learned a new word today! i like to think of my self as being fairly verbose in my use of the english vocabulary. i do find enjoyment from, time to time, using them 'five dollar' words. but today i came across one that really intrigued me: contronym. the strange thing is that it isnt even listed in the websters dictionary.

near as i can explain it is like this: you know what a synonym is, right? it means two words that mean the same thing (eg. broad and wide). and you know what an antonym is, right? it means two words with opposite meanings (eg. up and down). but check this out: a contronym is a word that is its own antonym! the same word means the exact opposite of itself! how crazy/cool is that?!?

some examples: apology. it means to to admit fault in what you think, but it also means a formal defense of what you think. weird, huh? another example: custom. it means something that is usually done, but it also means something that is done special. rad! if you are digging this idea as much as i do, check out this site, there are tons of them!

WORDS. tetris head

tetris head (tet' ris hed): noun, a medical condition brought on by playing a puzzle game for too long. manifested in altered thinking. after you turn off the game, your mind still sees everything through the rules of the puzzle. eg: after playing tetris too long you start to look around and see how you could better stack cars on the road so as to get a four line tetris. for the most part harmess, unless affected late in the evening because it will destroy any chance of a normal restful dream.