Wednesday 17 November 2010

Farkle

Use it or lose it, they say!

Usually the slogan refers to memory or frequent flyer points but the same applies to vocabulary, too.

Maybe you learnt a word last week - let's call it "farkle" - and unless you use farkle in a sentence pretty soon then the same word is likely to melt into oblivion.

Let's pretend farkle means to pick up an object with your toes. Anglers at low tide can be nifty farklers of buried pipi shells, just as anyone who's gathered a sock off the floor has been known to indulge in farkling.

That's the problem with acquiring strange words. Unless we use them, then the farkles of this world will only grow stranger to us.

According to different sources on the web this is what I learnt about farkle:

"Motorcycle enthusiasts may install accessories, called farkles (also spelled farkel), to customize their machine. The term Farkle apparently originated among the ST1100 riders. It is an acronym:"

F ancy
A ccessory
R eally
K ool &
L ikely
E xpensive


"Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use."
~~ Wendell Johnson


Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi, 2010 - The artist Angus Adameitis called this sculpture "Beside the point". I feel this sculpture represents the word "Farkle" explicatively.

9 comments:

McMGrad89 said...

Well, MusicJan and I play a game of facebook called Farkle. I thought it was what you say when you roll a bad roll. LOL

Christine said...

so Farkle's really a word? Lol. I guess that sculpture proves it!

Anonymous said...

What an interesting piece of writing!I really enjoyed your explanations and discussion.The topic of 'Meanings' goes so well with your sculpture pictures which have different interpretations for different people.CJ

Roban said...

I have a word of the day pop up on my phone.... I haven't seen farkle yet, but when I do, I'll be prepared to use it.

So, do you own any farkles?

miruspeg said...

Annemarie - I had no idea it was a dice game too. Trust you to know my silly word!! :D)

Christine - That sculpture was definitely made with farkle in mind...LOL

Cazjane - Lovely to "see" you over here again and thanks for leaving such a lovely comment.

Roban - I don't own a motorcycle anymore but in my youth I did have a cool red motorbike.....I least I thought it was cool!
Are you learning lots of new words each day?

Susan Lynne said...

Farkle is a dice game I played with my children on family vacations. I always had room in my purse for 5 dice and a small piece of paper to keep score. It was a life saver in airports or any place we had down time.

miruspeg said...

Hello Susan
I will have to check out this dice game, sounds like a great way to pass time if you are with a group of people. Just recently I've learnt to solve Sudoku puzzles which is very engrossing.

Silver said...

That's true.. sometimes i come across a really super interesting word and hope to use it again when i have the opportunity.. and when the opportunity did come, i just can't remember the word!

love,
Silver

miruspeg said...

That's called Murphy's Law Fel!
.....I wonder who Murphy was!
Hugs
Peggy xxxx