Garden humor thread..

digitS'

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Thought of @Dahlia with this one 🤭.
 

Pulsegleaner

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Hey, Pulsegleaner! I just learned sumthin!
Technically, so did I. Remembering the word led me to look up the origin of the term "gone to wrack and ruin", which I had always assumed was a maritime term (as in a old boat that was now just a pile of rotten wood with seaweed growing on it.) turns out that while "wrack" and "rack" have different origins ("rack" come from a Dutch word for stretch, while "wrack" is really and old spelling of "wreck") they have become so conflated in meaning in this case that there is MASSIVE disagreement on when it is appropriate to use which. The general consensus seems to be that, while you can use either, "rack" is preferred unless you ARE talking about something maritime , like in "storm wracked." (Merriam Webster is even more conservative, and says you should ONLY use "wrack" if you mean the seaweed.)
 

flowerbug

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Technically, so did I. Remembering the word led me to look up the origin of the term "gone to wrack and ruin", which I had always assumed was a maritime term (as in a old boat that was now just a pile of rotten wood with seaweed growing on it.) turns out that while "wrack" and "rack" have different origins ("rack" come from a Dutch word for stretch, while "wrack" is really and old spelling of "wreck") they have become so conflated in meaning in this case that there is MASSIVE disagreement on when it is appropriate to use which. The general consensus seems to be that, while you can use either, "rack" is preferred unless you ARE talking about something maritime , like in "storm wracked." (Merriam Webster is even more conservative, and says you should ONLY use "wrack" if you mean the seaweed.)

then there are words like reek and wreak (which rhyme with seek) but then the word wreck (which rhymes with neck).

flotsam and jetsam are good old fashioned nautical terms. naughtical terms might instead be more related to zero. naughtical terns may be misbehaving sea birds.

i used to write poetry. language play has always been a source of amusement. or sauce of amusement. :)
 

Pulsegleaner

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flotsam and jetsam are good old fashioned nautical terms.
Despite being always used together, flotsam and jetsam are actually different things. Flotsam (originally "floatsom" was and cargo that floated or washed ashore after a ship wrecked. Jetsam was cargo that was THOWN OVERBOARD (i.e. jettisoned) to KEEP the boat from sinking. It made a big difference in terms of who the stuff belonged to when and if it was found (Flotsam technically still belonged to whomever owned the boat, jetsam was Crown property.)
naughtical terns may be misbehaving sea birds.
I saw a bunch of sea birds misbehaving recently. They were all smoking marijuana. No tern was left unstoned. :lol:
 

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