Once
while giving a driving lesson, I told my daughter to quit pussyfooting
around. She became highly offended that I would use such language, and
didn’t learn a thing that day besides that her mother has a vulgar
vocabulary. Oh, the things she has yet to learn. Anyway, “pussyfooting”
wasn’t even rude enough to make this list of rude-sounding words that
mean something completely different from what they sound like. Here’s a
snippet:
15. DREAMHOLE
A dreamhole is a
small slit or opening made in the wall of a building to let in sunlight
or fresh air. It was also once used to refer to holes in watchtowers
used by lookouts and guards, or to openings left in the walls of church
towers to amplify the sounds of the bells.
16. FANNY-BLOWER
According
to one 19th century glossary of industrial slang, a fanny-blower or
fanner was "used in the scissor-grinding industry," and comprised "a
wheel with vanes, fixed onto a rotating shaft, enclosed in a case or
chamber to create a blast of air." In other words, it’s a fan.
17. FARTLEK
Fartlek
is a form of athletic training in which intervals of intensive and much
less strenuous exercise are alternated in one long continuous workout.
It literally means "speed-play" in Swedish.
And those are just some of the more innocuous words from
the list of 50 at mental_floss.
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