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Sunday 22 May 2011

Sunday Rest: Word Not To Use Today: blipvert.

Good grief, is there anything good about the word blipvert?

Does it sound beautiful, crisp, bouncing and full of the joys of living?

No.

Is its meaning clear, or at least guessable?

(You'll have to tell me this, because I happen to know what it means already: but the way it's been cobbled together is truly horrible.)

Is it easy to pronounce?

No. A p followed by a v is truly spitworthy (well, it is if you're first language is English, anyway).
I suppose it is obvious how it's supposed to be pronounced, though, so that is one small (very small) point in its favour.

blipvert is a very short advertisement. It comes, obviously, from blip in the sense of a short sound (though the temporary failure meaning will surely enter people's minds first). The vert bit is from advert - though there's nothing to tell you it isn't from subvert, convert, or, indeed, pervert.

In fact the whole word is a totally rubbish: it's not even as if we can need a word for a very short advert very much!

Word Not To Use Today: blipvert. Blip is a twentieth century word which imitates the sound of an electric monitor. Vert is, as I've said, from advert, which is from the Latin advertere, to turn one's attention to.

EEErgh...

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