Foreign Phrases with a Twist

Winners of a New York Magazine contest who were asked to take a well known expression in a foreign language, change a single letter and provide a definition for the new expression:

  • Rigor Morris:
    The cat is dead.
  • Respondez S’il Vois Plaid:
    Honk if you’re Scottish
  • Harlez-vous Francais?:
    Can you drive a French motorcycle?
  • Veni, Vipi, Vici:
    I came, I’m a very important person, I conquered
  • Veni, Vidi, Visa:
    I came, I saw, I shopped.
  • Cogito Eggo Sum:
    I think, therefore I am … a waffle
  • Que Sera Serf:
    Life is feudal
  • Leroi est Mort. Jive Leroi:
    The king is dead. No kidding
  • Post Mortem:
    Death styles of the rich and famous
  • Pro Bozo Publico:
    Support your local clown
  • Monage a Trois:
    I am three years old
  • Haste Cuisine:
    Fast French food
  • Quip Pro Quo:
    A fast retort
  • Aloha Oy:
    Love; greetings; farewell; and from such a pain you should never know
  • Mazel Ton:
    Tons of luck
  • Visa la France:
    Don’t leave your chateau without it
  • Carne Diem:
    Seize the meat

Female Keywords and Their Meanings

  • “Fine”:
    This is the word we use at the end of any argument that we feel we are right about but need to shut you up. NEVER use fine to describe how woman looks. This will cause you to have one of those arguments.
  • “Five minutes”:
    This is half an hour. It is equivalent to the five minutes that your football game is going to last before you take out the trash, so it’s an even trade.
  • “Nothing”:
    This means something and you should be on your toes. “Nothing” is usually used to describe the feeling a woman has of wanting to turn you inside out, upside down, and backwards. “Nothing” usually signifies an argument that will last “Five Minutes” and end with the word “Fine.”
  • “Go Ahead” (with raised eyebrows):
    This is a dare. One that will result in a woman getting upset over “Nothing” and will end with the word “Fine.”
  • “Go Ahead” (normal eyebrows):
    This means “I give up” or “do what you want because I don’t care.” You will get a raised eyebrow “Go ahead” in just a few minutes, followed by “Nothing” and “Fine” and she will talk to you in about “Five Minutes” when she cools off.
  • :::……
    This is not actually a word, but is still often a verbal statement very misunderstood by men. A “Loud Sigh” means she thinks you are an idiot at that moment and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over “Nothing.”
  • …::…
    Again, not a word, but a verbal statement. “Soft Sighs” are one of the few things that some men actually understand. She is content. Your best bet is to not move or breathe and she will stay content.
  • “Oh”:
    This word followed by any statement is trouble. Example; “Oh, let me get that.”… Or, “Oh, I talked to him about what you were doing last night.” If she says “Oh” before a statement, RUN, do not walk, to the nearest exit. She will tell you that she is “Fine” when she is done tossing your clothes out the window, but do not expect her to talk to you for at least 2 days. “Oh” as the lead to a sentence usually signifies that you are caught in a lie. Do not try to lie more to get out of it, or you will get raised eyebrows “Go ahead” followed by acts so unspeakable that we can’t bring ourselves to write about them.
  • “That’s Okay”:
    This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can say to a man. “That’s Okay,” means that she wants to think long and hard before paying you retributions for what ever it is that you have done.

    “That’s Okay” is often used with the word “Fine” and used in conjunction with a raised eyebrow “Go ahead.” At some point in the near future when she has plotted and planned, you are going to be in some mighty big trouble.

  • “Please Do”:
    This is not a statement, it is an offer. A woman is giving you the chance to come up with whatever excuse or reason you have for doing whatever it is that you have done. You have a fair chance to tell the truth, so be careful and you shouldn’t get a “That’s Okay.”
  • “Thanks”:
    A woman is thanking you. Do not faint; just say you’re welcome.
  • “Thanks a lot”:
    This is much different from “Thanks.” A woman will say, “Thanks a lot” when she is really ticked off at you. It signifies that you have hurt her in some callous way, and will be followed by the “Loud Sigh.” Be careful not to ask what is wrong after the “Loud Sigh,” as she will only tell you “Nothing.”

I hope this clears up most misunderstandings.

Engineering Dictionary

What the Engineer says (What it really means)

  • A number of different approaches are being tried.
    We are still grasping at straws.
  • We’re working on a fresh approach to the problem.
    We just hired three kids fresh out of college.
  • Close project coordination.
    We know who to blame.
  • Major technological break through.
    It works OK, but looks very hi-tech.
  • Customer satisfaction upon delivery is assured.
    We are so far behind schedule the customer is happy to get it delivered.
  • Preliminary operational tests were inconclusive.
    The darn thing blew up when we threw the switch.
  • Test results were extremely gratifying.
    We are so surprised that the stupid thing works.
  • The entire concept will have to be abandoned.
    The only person who understood the thing quit.
  • It is in process.
    It is so wrapped up in red tape that the situation is about hopeless.
  • We’ll look into it.
    Forget it! We have enough problems for now.
  • Please read and initial.
    Let’s spread the responsibility for the mistake.
  • Give us the benefit of your thoughts.
    We’ll listen to what you have to say as long as it doesn’t interfere with what we’ve already done.
  • Give us your interpretation.
    I can’t wait to hear this!
  • See me, or Let’s Discuss.
    Come into my office, I’m lonely.
  • All new!
    Parts not interchangeable with the previous design.
  • Rugged
    Too heavy to lift!
  • Lightweight
    Lighter than rugged.
  • Years of development
    One finally worked.
  • Energy saving
    Achieved when the power switch is off.
  • Low maintenance
    Impossible to fix if broken.

Ebonics Dictionary – 2nd Edition

Once again Leroy was asked to do a simple homework assignment. Still befuddled by the whole school thing, Leroy is a trooper. He was given another set of vocabulary words to use in sentences. Here’s what he handed in:

  • Honor Roll
    We was playin bidwiz on the stoop the other day, man I was honor roll.
  • Planet
    I know this dude who got arrested cause he got him some seed to grow weed, and he planet in the backyard.
  • Dismay
    I went for a blood test, the doctor pulled out a big needle. He said dismay hurt a little.
  • Omelette
    I should punch you dead in the eye for what you just said but omelette this one go this time.
  • Stairway
    Getting high is stupid. It just make you stairway into space.
  • Mobile
    I went to the store to buy some food, I was short on cash, my man said gimme one mobile.
  • Defense
    I saw this dude running from the cops, but he hopped defense and got away.
  • Afro
    I got so mad at my girl, afro a lamp at her.
  • Aftermath
    I don’t feel like being at school today so aftermath, I’m out.
  • Locket
    I slam the door so hard, I locket.
  • Domineering
    My girl’s birthday was yesterday, I got her a domineering.
  • Kenya
    I needed money fo the subway, so I axe a stranger Kenya spare some change.
  • Derange
    is where da deer and antelope play.
  • Data
    At my basketball game, I scored thirty points. My coach said data boy.
  • Beware
    I asked the man at the unemployment office, “Is dis beware I get a job?”
  • Dimension
    I be tall, dark, handsome and not dimension smart. (HA!)
  • Coatroom
    The judge said, “One more outburst like that, you’ll be thrown out de coatroom.”
  • Decide
    My boy frontin’ like he love his girl but eribody know he got a couple of chicks on decide.

Words You Won’t Find in the Dictionary

  • Arachnoleptic Fit
    (n.) The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
  • Beelzebug
    (n.) Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at 3 am in the morning and cannot be cast out.
  • Bozone
    (n.) The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
  • Caterpallor
    (n.) The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you’re eating.
  • Cashtration
    (n.) The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
  • Decaflon
    (n.) The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
  • Dopelar Effect
    (n.) The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when you come at them rapidly.
  • Extraterrestaurant
    (n.) An eating place where you feel you’ve been abducted and experimented upon. Also known as an E-T-ry.
  • Faunacated
    (adj.) How wildlife ends up when its environment is destroyed. Hence faunacatering (v.), which has made a meal of many species.
  • Grantartica
    (n.) The cold, isolated place where art companies dwell without funding.
  • Hemaglobe
    (n.) The bloody state of the world.
  • Intaxication
    (n.) Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
  • Kinstirpation
    (n.) A painful inability to move relatives who come to visit.
  • Lullabuoy
    (n.) An idea that keeps floating into your head and prevents you from drifting off to sleep.
  • Reintarnation
    (n.) Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
  • Karmageddon
    (n.)It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like a serious bummer.
  • Sarchasm
    (n.)The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the recipient who doesn’t get it.

Handy Guide to Deciphering Personals Ads

Women’s Ads

  • 40-ish – 49
  • Adventurer – Slept with all your friends
  • Athletic – No tits
  • Average looking – Has a face like a basset hound
  • Beautiful – Pathological liar
  • Contagious Smile – Does a lot of Ecstasy
  • Educated – Banged her Political Science professor
  • Emotionally Secure – Medicated
  • Feminist – Fat ballbuster
  • Free spirit – Junkie
  • Friendship first – Trying to live down reputation as a slut
  • Fun – Annoying
  • Gentle – Comatose
  • Good Listener – Borderline Autistic
  • New-Age – All body hair, all the time
  • Old-fashioned – Lights out, missionary position only, no BJs
  • Open-minded – Desperate
  • Outgoing – Loud and Embarrassing
  • Passionate – Sloppy drunk
  • Poet – Depressive Schizophrenic
  • Professional – Certified Bitch
  • Redhead – Bad dye-job
  • Reubenesque – Grossly Fat
  • Romantic – Looks better by candle light
  • Social – Has been passed around like an hors d’oeuvres tray
  • Voluptuous – Very Fat, Weight proportion w/ height.
  • Hugely Fat – as tall as you are wide
  • Wants Soulmate – Stalker
  • Widow – Drove first husband to shoot himself
  • Young at heart – Old bat

Men’s Ads

  • 40-ish – 52 and looking for 25-yr-old
  • Athletic – Watches a lot of NASCAR
  • Average looking – Unusual hair growth on ears, nose, & back
  • Educated – Will patronize the shit out of you
  • Free Spirit – Banging your sister
  • Friendship first – As long as friendship involves nookie
  • Fun – Good with a remote and a six pack
  • Good looking – Arrogant
  • Very good looking – Dumb as a board
  • Honest – Pathological Liar
  • Huggable – Overweight, more body hair than a bear
  • Likes to cuddle – Insecure mama’s boy
  • Mature – Older than your father
  • Open-minded – Wants to sleep with your roommate but she’s not interested
  • Physically fit – Does a lot of 12-ounce curls
  • Poet – Wrote ex-girlfriend’s # on a bathroom stall
  • Sensitive – Cries at chick flicks
  • Very sensitive – Gay
  • Spiritual – Got laid in a cemetery once
  • Stable – Arrested for stalking, but not convicted
  • Thoughtful – Says “Excuse me” when he farts

Dating Dictionary

  • Dating
    The process of spending enormous amounts of money, time, and energy to get better acquainted with a person whom you don’t especially like in the present and will learn to like a lot less in the future.
  • Easy
    A term used to describe a woman who has the morals of a man.
  • Eye Contact
    A method utilized by a single woman to communicate to a man that she is interested in him. Despite being advised to do so, many women have difficulty looking a man directly in the eyes, not necessarily due to the shyness, but usually due to the fact that a woman’s eyes are not located in her chest.
  • Friend
    A member of the opposite sex in your acquaintance who has some flaw which makes sleeping with him/her totally unappealing.
  • Indifference
    A woman’s feeling towards a man, which is interpreted by the man as “playing hard to get.”
  • Irritating Habit
    What the endearing little qualities that initially attract two people to each other turn into after a few months together.
  • Nymphomaniac
    A man’s term for a woman who wants to do it more often than he does.
  • Sober
    A condition in which it is almost impossible to fall in love.
  • Attraction
    The act of associating horniness with a particular person.
  • Love at First Sight
    What occurs when two extremely horny, but not entirely choosy people meet.
  • Law of Relativity
    How attractive a given person appears to be is directly proportionate to how unattractive your date is.

Definitions from the Cynic’s Dictionary

  • Artificial Insemination
    Procreation without recreation.
  • Author
    A writer with connections in the publishing industry.
  • Bookcase
    A piece of furniture used in America to house Bowling trophies and Elvis collectibles.
  • Boss
    A personal dictator appointed to those of us fortunate enough to
    live in free societies.
  • Bulimia
    Retched excess.
  • Chic
    Considered smart without the deadening implication of intelligence.
  • Childhood
    The rapidly shrinking interval between infancy and first arrest on a drug or weapons charge.
  • Clique
    A group of insiders who greet outsiders with their backsides; a closed circle of asses.
  • Consultant
    A jobless person who shows executives how to work.
  • Denial
    How an optimist keeps from becoming a pessimist.
  • Dentures
    Two rows of artificial ivories that may be removed periodically to frighten one’s grandchildren or provide accompaniment to Spanish music.
  • DNA
    A complex organic molecule characterized as the building block of life and appropriately shaped like a spiral staircase to nowhere.
  • Erudite
    Exhibiting a degree of book learning fatal to success in any business or romantic enterprise.
  • Experience
    In the working world, something you can’t get unless you’ve already got it, in which case you probably don’t want any more of it.
  • Fiber
    Edible wood pulp said to aid digestion and prolong life, so that we might enjoy another six or eight years in which to consume wood pulp.
  • Fitness
    Salvation through perspiration.
  • Funeral Home
    A stately manse occupied by transients who continually receive visitors but lack the energy and inclination to entertain them.
  • Genetic Engineering
    Tampering with chromosomes so that science might develop a new miracle cure or a rabbit that plays the banjo.
  • Gourmet
    A food fetishist.
  • Hip
    Smartly attuned to the latest cutting edge clichés.
  • Hooker
    A working woman commonly despised by people who sell themselves for even less.
  • Ideologue
    Generally an obscure humorless zealot who finds fulfillment by spouting the ideas of famous humorless zealots.
  • Jeans
    Lower half of the international uniform of youth, the upper half being the zits.
  • Job
    A state of employment everyone wants but few look forward to on a Monday morning.
  • Kleptomaniac
    A thief with breeding.
  • Laboratory Animals
    Furry foot-soldiers drafted in the name of science. Some die nobly in the battle to eradicate cancer; others give their lives so that we might produce a peach-scented dandruff shampoo.
  • Lawyer
    A professional advocate hired to bend the law on behalf of a paying client; for this reason considered the most suitable background for entry into politics.
  • Lecher
    A stud with liver spots.
  • Looting
    A public shopping spree generously sponsored by local merchants in the wake of a riot.
  • Lottery
    The equivalent of betting that the next pope will be from Duluth, or that the parrot in the pet store window speaks Flemish.
  • Martial Arts
    A family of Asiatic self-defense disciplines consisting largely of sweeping ornamental gestures of the arms and legs; amusing to look at but disappointingly ineffective when one’s opponent is armed with a semi-automatic.
  • Math Anxiety
    An intense lifelong fear of two trains approaching each other at speeds of 60 and 80 mph.
  • Mugger
    A benevolent citizen of the streets who frequently spares the lives of total strangers in exchange for any cash and valuables in their possession.
  • Negotiating
    The art of persuading your opponent to take the nice shiny copper penny and give you the wrinkled old paper money.
  • Neighbors
    The strangers who live next door.
  • Neurotic
    Sane but unhappy about it.
  • Obituary
    A final summation of our lives that, for most of us, occupies about three inches of space in what will shortly become cage liner for your neighbor’s parakeet.
  • Parasite
    A base creature that extracts a living from the lives of others, like a tapeworm or a biographer.
  • Positive Thinking
    Self-improvement through self-deception.
  • Quagmire
    Any situation more easily entered into than exited from; e.g., a guerrilla war, a bad marriage or a conversation with an insurance salesman.
  • Quality of Life
    What an industrialized nation is said to offer when enough of its citizens are suffering from terminal stress.
  • Redneck
    Popular term for a rustic male, but rarely employed when addressing one in person.
  • Revolutionary
    An oppressed person waiting for the opportunity to become an oppressor.
  • Shallowness
    The root cause of chronic good health, high school popularity, appearance on the fiction bestseller lists, and gainful employment on local TV news broadcasts.
  • Smile
    To expose a portion of one’s skeleton as a gesture of goodwill toward a fellow human.
  • Star
    A performer who makes more than his or her agent.
  • State-of-the-Art
    Soon-to-be-obsolete.
  • Superstar
    A performer who makes more than Guatemala.
  • Taboo
    Any strict cultural prohibition that, when breached, causes everyone in the group to gasp; e.g., cannibalism, public nudity,
    serving fried pork rinds at a Hasidic wedding, or answering the question “How are you?” in the negative.
  • Trailer Parks
    Latter-day gypsy camps scattered throughout the vast American hinterland; humble places of abode where hope dies young and tornadoes gravitate like flies to road kill.
  • Unemployment
    The usual alternative to overwork.
  • Urinal
    The one place where all men are peers.
  • Virgin
    A young innocent who in former times was sacrificed to the gods but who now merely lives in disgrace.
  • Voting
    The right of our citizens to do as they please behind a curtain, as long as they do it alone.
  • Wake
    A convivial soiree with a preserved corpse in the room.
    What the mourners would be visibly startled to see the corpse do, especially those expecting a sizable inheritance.

  • White Supremacists
    The most convincing argument against the theory of white racial superiority.

  • X-Chromosome
    A genetic double-cross that empowers women with the ability to bear children and reserves for men the right to be color-blind hemophiliacs.
  • X-Ray
    A diagnostic tool used to detect existing cancerous growths and create new ones for future examinations to reveal.
  • Zombie
    A mirthless creature beloved by teenage horror movie fans and those in charge of the hiring at accounting firms.
  • Zoo
    A pleasant and instructive wildlife park, lately denounced for depriving animals of their right to starve or be eaten alive in their natural habitats.

Contemporary Latin Phrases

  • “Domino vobiscum.”
    The pizza guy is here.
  • “Auda similarum ad seattles.”
    They all sound just like Pearl Jam.
  • “Sharpei diem.”
    Seize the wrinkled dog.
  • “Nucleo predicus dispella conducticus.”
    Remove foil before microwaving.
  • “Il guyus nissanem iste ickye.”
    That Nissan guy gives me the creeps.
  • “Bodicus mutilatimus, unemploymi ad infinitum.”
    Better take the nose ring out before the job interview.
  • “Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.”
    A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.
  • “Motorolus interruptus.”
    Hold on, I’m going into a tunnel.
  • “Veni, vidi, Pesci.”
    I came, I saw, I moidered da bum.
  • “Revelare Pecunia!”
    Show Me The Money!
  • “Ignoramus microsoftis multa pecunia dat.”
    Yeah, where DO I want to go today?
  • “Sic semper tyrannus.”
    Your dinosaur is ill.
  • “No Quid Pro Quo.”
    I’m Sorry, We’re All Out of Quid.
  • “Cavaeat humanus sic tofu burritus e toga.”
    Beware of the man with a tofu burrito in his toga.
  • “Nunc Tutus Exitus Computarus.”
    It’s Now Safe To Turn Off Your Computer.
  • “Veni, Vidi, Velcro”
    I came; I saw; I stuck around.
  • “Et tu, pluribus unum?”
    The government just stabbed me in the back!

Computer Vocabuluary

  • Analog
    Hors d’oeurve, usually made from cheese and covered with crushed nuts
  • Backup
    Opposite of go forward
  • Batch Processing
    Making a lot of cookies at once
  • Binary
    Possessing the ability to have friends of both sexes
  • Bit
    12 1/2 cents
  • Branch
    If watered, it will grow into a computer club (see computer club)
  • Buffer
    Programmer who works in the nude
  • Bug
    Programmer’s term for a feature

    An elusive creature living in a program which makes it incorrect.

    Note: the activity of “debugging” or removing bugs from a program ends when a programmer gets tired of doing it, not when all the bugs are removed

  • Character Density
    The number of very weird people in the office, divided by the floor space
  • Computer
    A device designed to speed and automate errors
  • Computer Club
    Used to strike computer forcefully upon receiving error messages
  • Coding
    An addictive drug
  • Compile
    A heap of decomposing vegetable matter
  • Compiler
    Noah Webster (1758-1843)
  • Console
    What one does to a depressed computer
  • Cursor
    An expert in 4-letter words
  • Dump
    A system programmer’s work area
  • Feature
    Hardware limitation as described by a marketing representative
  • Hardware
    The parts of a computer which can be kicked
  • Keyboard
    An instrument used for entering errors into a system
  • Language
    A system of organizing and defining error messages
  • Loop
    See loop
  • Machine-independent Program
    A program which will not run on any machine
  • Microcomputer
    One millionth of a computer
  • Null String
    The result of a 4-hour database search
  • On-line
    The idea that a human should always be accessible
  • Password
    The nonsense word taped to your terminal
  • Performance
    A statement of the speed at which a computer system works. Or rather, might work under certain circumstances. Or was rumored to be working about a month ago
  • Printer
    Johann Gutenberg (1400-1468)
  • Quality Control
    Ensuring that the quality of a product does not get out of hand and add to the cost of its manufacture or design
  • Strategy
    A long-range plan whose merit cannot be evaluated until sometime after those creating it have left the organization
  • User
    Someone requiring drug rehabilitation
  • 8-bit machine
    A computer selling for $1.00 (see bit)
  • 16-bit machine
    A computer selling for $2.00 (see bit)