Words you just don't get

[WellVersedInEtiquette]

I'm reading a book that describes a place as bucolic. I know what it means. I've read it before I just can't get my head to read it as anything other than bubonic.

Lucked out

Does it mean I was very lucky
Or
I was not lucky at all?

I have two colleagues who use it in completely opposite ways and I don’t know who is correct.

@RaffertyFair
I stopped reading and signed in just to say laconic doesn't mean terse or abrupt; it just means using a minimum of words. I hope the thread is already full of people telling you that but I fear it's full of people reading what you said and believing it.

Extant - it means that something still stands or still applies but to me it should mean the opposite.

Erstwhile - it just means former but to me it sounds like it should mean naughty!

Ah, thanks @GrannyHaddock, I thought it was something like that, but I lost confidence because nobody seems to use it that way! Obviously, I could have Googled it, but that didn't seem to be in the spirit of the thread

@TarquinGyrfalcon 'lucked out' usually means being lucky. Maybe the other colleague is getting it confused with 'struck out' or being 'out of luck'?

This story is both amazing and frustrating at the same time - it’s written using words that you’d never use!

Beebo.org/smackerels/how-i-met-my-wife.html

@CaitlinsYellowSocks

That would make sense.

Colleague 1 will say “I went shopping at the weekend for a dress and lucked out” meaning she found the perfect dress, in the correct colour and size.

Colleague 2 will say “I went shopping at the weekend for a dress and lucked out” meaning she couldn’t find anything she liked.

Perhaps colleague two is thinking it means “I was out of luck”

@RaffertyFair
I stopped reading and signed in just to say laconic doesn't mean terse or abrupt; it just means using a minimum of words. I hope the thread is already full of people telling you that but I fear it's full of people reading what you said and believing it.

Nope, the thread isn't full of people correcting me because what I wrote is correct CoalTit

I'm sorry you wasted time signing in simply to put me down when in fact your opinion is erroneous

laconic in British
(ləˈkɒnɪk) or laconical
adjective
(of a person's speech) using few words; terse

Word Origin and History for laconically
laconic
adj.
"concise, abrupt," 1580s, probably via Latin Laconicus , from Greek Lakonikos , from Lakon "person from Lakonia ," the district around Sparta in southern Greece in ancient times, whose inhabitants were famously proud of their brevity of speech. When Philip of Macedon threatened them with, "If I enter Laconia, I will raze Sparta to the ground," the Spartans' reply was, "If." An earlier form was laconical (1570s). Related: Laconically .

Spendthrift is a funny one as to be ' thrifty' is the opposite of spending! It's a silly word really.
I do get ' sight for sore eyes ' though. It's quite derogatory.
For years I struggled with ' who's she? The cats mother!' 'She 'being a she cat of course. I get it now.
So many weird sayings out there.

I take ' butter wouldn't melt' as the person being so kind and sweet even butter doesn't want to melt in front of them.

"Butter wouldn't melt" is short for "Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth", isn't it? Not that that's necessarily any clearer!

I used to think 'prurient' meant careful; a mix of prudent, diligent, painstaking. 'She took a prurient interest in the account books'.

Nope.

Also, not quite the same thing, but I always get thrown reading older books where to 'make love' to someone is to declare your passion. 'He made violent love to her as she stood by the looking-glass adjusting her hat'. Excuse me?

Paradigm. I have to look it up every time and even now can't remember what it means. Also pejorative.

I do get ' sight for sore eyes ' though. It's quite derogatory.

In what way is it derogatory The80sweregreat?

You're a sight for sore eyes means that seeing the person is so lovely it's made the viewer feel good - it's like having a soothing balm for sore eyes.

I thought the phrase ‘butter wouldn’t melt in their mouth’ meant the person was cool and calm about something, eg — being accused of lying or behaving badly and then denying it. i.e. they are trying to look innocent 😇 and probably succeeding!
And ‘egregious’ works when describing someone’s really bad, disgraceful behaviour. (could be lying, could be another action.)

at the idea of a prurient interest in the account books — now there’s an erotic novel about the secret lives of auditors just begging to be written. 😉

@LuYu Yes. I always loved that bit in 'Emma' when Mr Elton makes violent love to her in the carriage!

Agree with lots of those already mentioned, especially raze to the ground.
I remember having trouble with 'troop' at school in a history lesson once. We were told that eg 5,000 troops were killed in a battle and I asked how many people that was. I thought troop was a collective noun so if there 5,000 troops, that might have meant 500,000 soldiers.

It may have been the same lesson where I couldn't understand why the soldiers were firing from a 'prone position ' which I thought meant putting themselves in a risky position where they were prone to attack.

disabuse - I always hesitate over using it. The abuse part being a red herring.

The trouble with ‘terse’ as a synonym for laconic is that it carries a slightly pejorative inference. If you say that someone’s reply was terse it sounds as if they were being a bit short with you.
Laconic sounds more neutral, just ‘using few words’.

'Enervating' is the one that always catches me out too. It sounds like a cross between 'energising' and 'invigorating', but actually means the exact opposite!

These are brilliant! Keep them coming!

AuntieOxident I always think laconic sounds more negative than terse. Laconic has an edge of contempt, to me; I seem to remember Ted Hughes being described as writing 'laconic' replies to various Plath biographers, with the implication that he thought they were time-wasting idiots and couldn't be bothered with their nonsense.

To me, 'terse' connotes a certain level of stress, like you're really worried or busy and just don't have time for detail. But maybe that's because my brain always makes a terse/tense connection? I see the given synonyms for terse are things like 'brusque' and 'gruff', which definitely indicate negative intent.

Pulchritude. How can the ugliest word in the world mean "beauty"??