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Those Word Coincidences

Andy X

Andy X

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It's happened to us all, maybe more times than we can bother to recall: you're reading with the radio on in the background (for example) and you eye alights on a word as it simultaneously floats from the loudspeaker.

A recent example, which made me think about starting a thread, involved a magazine article (might've been in FT, I don't remember now) and a podcast interview with the comedian Stewart Lee. The word was 'flotilla', which is a great word if only mildly unusual. It got better though: a few days later, on re-reading the article at a more leisurely pace and with some radio programme on the exact same thing reoccured - "FLOTILLA"! Which was nice.

Repetition notwithstanding I'm quite sure this isn't the most stunnning instance of the times this has happned to me but I can't remember any others, except that I did once manage Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which was very cool. I quite fancy noting them down from now on and then looking back in a few years' time (cf. Ermintruder's horoscope) to see if they suggest anything of an oracular nature, or inspire some impenetrable piece of creative writing as with those Oblique Strategies cards.



Perhaps appropriately, this is going to have to be a thread in two parts. Firstly: I'm curious to know what, if I may be so personal, is your most impressive / unusual genuine example? If anyone is prepared to swear hand on heart that they've managed 'floccinaucinihilipilification' or something then that would be marvellous :bdown: Even 'superheterodyne' or 'popinjay' would be good.

Obviously the less frequently used the word the more pleasureable the coincidence. Statistically 'it' must happen all the time with 'A', 'The', 'We', 'But', 'was' 'has', etc. but we just don't notice. Life might prove unbearable if we did as we'd be missing the filtering of the 'cocktail party effect', and be forever distracted by the noises coming out of other peoples' mouths.

~~~~~~~~~​

Secondly, (and it was these posts mentioning German compound words that made me think of it) there doesn't seem to be a word for this amusing little phenomenon...

Shall we have a go at inventing one?

Having mulled it over I've decided I quite like the sound of

Didymolexikathreftis


...but it's too unweildy, besides which I know next to nothing about Latin grammar and actually nothing about Greek (and my vocab's not too hot either). Are there any rules for cut-and-shutting bits of words together? I'm a tad suspicious of some of these results [below] from a well-known search engine. Was there really a Latin word for 'coincidence'?

Also I couldn't find an easy ancient Greek translator, so modern will have to do.

All of which got me thinking: wouldn't it be fantastic if in a nearby parallel universe television is instead called 'electromakriorama' or something. What if their phonograph was called a gramophone and their gramophone a phonograph? What if their telephone thing is called the 'fantasmavox'?

"Ah, bollocks; me fanta's dead. Can I borrow your charger?"

Any road, here are a few foreign-type words related to these happenings from two venerable languages commonly cannabalised for the building blocks of words - many of which could just have been made up for all I know - to get into the word-crafting mood.

Does anyone fancy having a go at coining FT's very own neologism - preferably short and snappy (four or five syllables)? I don't think my first effort rolls off the tongue easily enough and we really need a word for this thing. Definitely.

If there was one in some language other than English wouldn't we be using it?

Over to you lot: "come and 'ave a go if you think you're autistic enough."

Failing that, any really mind-boggling examples of whatever 'this' is?? I wonder if anyone has ever experienced a three-way coincidence of this sort such as word on page or screen / radio / nearby conversation? Now that would be jaw-dropping.


English ¦ Greek ¦ Latin
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Word ¦ Léxi ¦ Sermo
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Coincidence ¦ Sýmptosi ¦ Accidit
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Read ¦ Anágnosi ¦ Legere
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Hear / To hear ¦ Akoúo / na akoúso ¦ Audite / Audire
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Double ¦ Dipló ¦ Geminus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twin ¦ Dídymo ¦ Geminae
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pair ¦ Zévgos ¦ Par
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copy /To copy ¦ Antigrafí / Na antigrápso ¦ Exemplum / Ut effingo
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mirror /To mirror ¦ Kathréftis / Na kathreftísei ¦ Speculo / Et Speculum
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Surprise / To surprise ¦ Ekplixi / Na ekplíxei ¦ Mirum / Vi necopinantis
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shock / To shock ¦ Sok / Na sokárei ¦ Inpulsa / Nutantium
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Oh, alright then.

I'll tell the OED to put it on the back burner for now :poet:
 
Andy_X said:
Oh, alright then.
Click to expand...
I have a release candidate for patent zero (if you see what I did there) but it's not ticking all your boxes.

  • It is a neologism, in that it's a word which does not exist (I'm very confident that is the case, since I deliberately-created it, over 30 years ago;
  • I think of it, in my head many times, but have never publicly-shared it, or used it verbally;
  • It has the capability of gaining currency amongst, well, people who speak English and who suffer from confident verbosity;
  • It describes a human habit that is of such stunning-annoyabilty to those that recognise it being done, they can be driven to the edge of infuriated madness and beyond (nb there is a high degree of probability, dear reader, that you notice this particular Verbal Fraility That Has No Name Right Now, because you are cursed with being a perceptive thinker that engages their brain before operating their vocal cords....but, you've actually done this sin sometimes yourself. You hate it if you do commit this paticular verbal idiopathy yourself, and it can make you want to nearly kill other perpetrators.....
  • But (and there had to be a 'but')....it is unsnappy, in it's wordliness. Distended. Clumsey. Yet possessed of a certain fey faux neo-Græcian charm.
And....now that it's after 4am on a Monday, I need to get up, and prepare to go to work. So you aren't going to hear it right now. But you will like it. One I take it out of its box, and unleash it upon the word world

And it might even go viral (sorry, I'm not sure if this is meeting a criterion you never actually specified), and/or even be a dictionaryable entity in its own baleful magnificant self.

Laters...
 
You seem to be answering my question without answering it. Which is Fortean in itself. I like that.

There are no boxes to tick, nor any need to look to the ancients for inspiration necessarily. My motive for the thread (which I accept has attracted no interest (so be it)) is precisely to coin a term for this ever so common experience which remains inexplicably nameless amongst the many languages of the world.

Do unleash. My idle fantasy is exactly for something to go viral, or dictionarywards at least. Now that yer 'selfie' is now a fascinating concept for future scholars to muse on nostalgically we must surely do better.
 
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Andy_X said:
You seem to be answering my question without answering it. Which is Fortean in itself. I like that.

There are no boxes to tick, nor any need to look to the ancients for inspiration necessarily. My motive for the thread (which I accept has attracted no interest (so be it)) is precisely to coin a term for this ever so common experience which remains inexplicably nameless amongst the many languages of the world.

Do unleash. My idle fantasy is exactly for something to go viral, or dictionarywards at least. Now that yer 'selfie' is now a fascinating concept for future scholars to muse on nostalgically we must surely do better.
Click to expand...

Re word coincidences, I had a fairly recent one which I mentioned in the coincidences thread:

I was puzzling over a cryptic crossword with Beeb radio on in the background & looking for a 14 letter word beginning with V. Was pondering verisimilitude when someone on the radio actually said it. What are the chances?
 
I do t'cryptics on work days, usually in four different newspapers, and sometimes find the same word cropping up several times in a week across the range of puzzles. The clues are usually slightly different but the answer jumps out at me.

Recently I was doing the Evening Standard one and though 'Wow, this is easy! It's like doing yesterday's!'

Which was because it WAS yesterday's, accidentally reprinted. o_O
 
clexter (kleks'-tur)

[Modern English: Bastard hybridization of 'cluster' and 'lex' (as in Greek lexis - 'word'; cf. 'lexicon)]

n. Any grouping of multiple encounters with, or presentations of, a word or phrase coincident with respect to time and / or location - especially a grouping of such instances involving a word or phrase rarely encountered in everyday usage.

v. To perceive or allege such a grouping.

Related Terms:

Clextard - 1. A person who emphasizes the co-occurrence of multiple instances of a given word or phrase as if said co-occurrence has significance. 2. (Pejorative) A person apparently oblivious to his / her own repetitious flogging of a given word or phrase.

Clextromancy - A divination technique based on the relative occurrence of words or phrases in the subject's spoken or written expressions.

Enclexter - To compile and circumscribe a set of word or phrase occurrences as a clexter.
 
Excellent! That's just the ticket, EG: short and sweet, does what it says on the tin. I can easily imagine 'clexter' becoming common currency.
 
Andy_X said:
Excellent! That's just the ticket, EG: short and sweet, does what it says on the tin. I can easily imagine 'clexter' becoming common currency.
Click to expand...

Thanks ... :hoff:

... But I'm still wondering what Ermintruder's proposal was ... :thought:
 
hunck said:
Re word coincidences, I had a fairly recent one which I mentioned in the coincidences thread:

I was puzzling over a cryptic crossword with Beeb radio on in the background & looking for a 14 letter word beginning with V. Was pondering verisimilitude when someone on the radio actually said it. What are the chances?
Click to expand...

That's a good one - hardly a frequently used word and six syllables is worth bonus points!

escargot1 said:
I do t'cryptics on work days, usually in four different newspapers, and sometimes find the same word cropping up several times in a week across the range of puzzles. The clues are usually slightly different but the answer jumps out at me.

Recently I was doing the Evening Standard one and though 'Wow, this is easy! It's like doing yesterday's!'

Which was because it WAS yesterday's, accidentally reprinted. o_O
Click to expand...

Yep, I've found that when doing crosswords. Also I've noticed identical general knowledge factoids cropping up in clusters on various of the more bookish quiz game shows (not that I'd watch any of these if it was entirely my choice) such as Mastermind, The Chase, Only Connect, Pointless, Eggheads etc. Whether this is down to Morphic Resonance or whatever I couldn't say...
 
Andy_X said:
Me too!
Click to expand...

Tomorrow. Well, later today (probably, though only if offline insanities permit) since it's now well after midnight.

I had a 200 mile road round-trip to/from work today (and that after just 3 hrs of shut-eye) so I ended-up going to sleep at 5pm local time, then waking-up at midnight.

My biorythms are totally non-existent these days....(I find that being employed as a lion-tamer on tightropes is having a negative effect upon my overall well-being).

So back to sleep again for me, for now, in my horrible biurnal so-called 'life'.... :-(

ps my altneuwort is still in the process of returning from the recollective recesses of my repository. Better that it gets reheated for a while, anyway, as it's gone slightly cold

pps You know how it feels when you think you've possibly lost your phone, but you don't want to search all your pockets, properly, because that will just serve to confirm an unacceptable situation...but: that shape in your other pocket probably is your phone, anyway?? <inserts vaguely-appropriate animated post-ironic emoticon and then deletes same>
 
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:cooll: Roger that. Standing by :)

I know the feeling: my body clock is temporarily shot.
 
Today I was thinking about crosswords and hoping to pick up my usual cryptic ones in the Metro, Times and possibly even the Standard.
For some reason I started making up a clue for Oslo - 'A city in a go-slow'. Clever, huh!

Later I did indeed come across a Metro, which had a cryptic clue something like 'Not now, the capital of Norway' with the answer 'then'.

Well, I was impressed!

Edit - after writing this post I went off to potter in the kitchen for a bit, and came back to find Techy watching Doctor Who; an episode set in Norway, wherein there was a mention of Oslo...
 
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This morning I did a search on'ere for references to the indie band Viola Beach, using just 'Viola'.

Since then I've been bombarded all day with references to the word as a woman's name in things I've read and on t'wireless.

Just now it was an answer in R4's music quiz, Counterpoint. Viola, not a common name.
 
Out on t'mokes, we sometimes get idiots shouting at us from vehicles.
I don't care because 1. They're wasting their breath as I can't make out what they're saying and 2. What they are actually expressing is a gratifying statement of how jealous they are.

Anyway - t'other day I did catch an astoundingly insightful comment from a passing car. It was 'Pedal faster!'
Which are the very words printed inside the expensive cycling socks I was wearing.
As if I need a reminder.
 
My late father has been on my mind lately, dunno why. We generally had a less than satisfactory relationship; I was only a girl and he also had sons.

However, at the end of his life I was the only person visiting him every day and we had some nice chats.

Anyway... today I was out on a bike ride and came to a pelican crossing. A vehicle that stopped was carrying a boat, like a little yacht.

After I crossed, I stopped and looked back at the vehicle and the yacht, and noticed that the registration number began with a 3-letter word that was a nickname my father used to call me.
OK, Dad, I haven't forgotten you!
 
Yesterday I was doing some training with a colleague. While Lorna ate lunch I did the Standard cryptic crossword, where her name came up as an answer.
I found this quite funny but Lorna, who doesn't do crosswords, did this - :roll:
:chuckle:
 
Just now I was looking for my reading specs which I'd misplaced.

Deciding to use my phone's light to look under my bed, I thought 'I can never remember whether the command is 'flashlight' or torch'!'
At that moment the narrator of the YouTube 'scary stories' video I was listening to described seeing something floating in the air, looking like a flashlight or torch.
As I thought 'Did she really say that?' she repeated the line.
I laughed, scratched my head and spotted the specs lying on the duvet. :)


Another -
Last night we were eating chocolate and I made a swan out of the foil, as I would when my children were small.
(My schoolfriend Gaynor Williams taught me to do this when we were about 9.)

I showed Techy the swan and he laughed and said 'It's like in Bladerunner where they have the, er, what is it -' and someone on TV said 'unicorn'.
Techy said 'Thank you!' :chuckle:
 
I was just browsing another thread in which bugmum was salivating over ‘luscious' Damien Lewis. I had the radio on as background when a woman on radio ‘comedy’ show Preppers more or less did the same and said his name. My reading his name & the show mentioning it happened almost simultaneously.
 
I worked a last crossword answer a week back, the answer had to be 'efts'. No idea, I looked it up, yep it's a newt. Who knew. I put the crossword book down, picked up the reading book I had on the go and two pages later there was the author talking about 'efts'.
 
I know about efts—but only from crossword puzzles!
red_eft_salamander_newt_nature_button-rf80864d8815f4ab184fb9c5a215294a0_k94re_630.jpg
(Image shamelessly stolen from https://www.zazzle.com/red_eft_salamander_newt_nature_button-145767256331122294)
 
Yes
hunck said:
Just as I was writing ‘itch’ as the answer to 1 across in a crossword, a segment came on the radio about why scabs itch.
Click to expand...
Yesterday's Metro eh. :thought:

I haven't acquired today's yet.
Got my best pen ready an' everythin'.
 
I've only just discovered this thread, so forgive the lateness of this reaction.
Andy X said:
All of which got me thinking: wouldn't it be fantastic if in a nearby parallel universe television is instead called 'electromakriorama' or something. What if their phonograph was called a gramophone and their gramophone a phonograph?
Click to expand...
I don't know the common usage in the UK and elsewhere, but in the U.S. we say "phonograph" for what is properly a gramophone: the thing that plays flat disks at (approximately) 33, 45, sometimes 78, and rarely 16 RPM. The phonograph, which came out of the Edison labs, used cylinders - although Edison did produce disks which used a slightly different standard than gramophone records. We generally don't say "gramophone". Can someone fill me in on the current UK use of the two words?

And getting somewhat back to topic:

I often experience a similar phenomenon, where a word or concept pops up in conversation, or even just in my head, and over the next day or two it seems like everyone is talking about it. One could put it down to simple synchronicity, with various societal stimuli making us all think of the same things, but it's sometimes spookier than such an explanation would allow for.
 
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