ASSOCIATES (vol. 10, no. 1, July 2003) - associates.ucr.edu
*Library Life:
A Column Of Eclectic Rantings*
by
Katie Buller Kintner
Communications Library
University of Illinois-Urbana
kintner@uiuc.edu
The following column will probably be filtered to death on the Associates website, so read it now while you can. Of course, the term "Associates" itself could also fall victim to filtering. Oh well.
With all the fuss over the recent Supreme Court ruling concerning the filtering of pornography on public library computers, it’s not difficult to see where the problems might be. Theoretically, filtering software screens out offensive terminology/pictures that may come bouncing through from some wild web site to surprise and contaminate young library users.
Some protest that this would also interfere with legitimate searches such as "breast cancer". However, there are many more terms that may also trip up the filters, so in interest of fairness, I would like to present some of them here as "filter bait". The following is a fun list of words, terms and names that sound like they might be off-color or obscene, but really aren’t.
Ass (a small horse-like animal)
Assonance (refers to similarities in sounds)
Badinage (playful repartee)
Bonification (paying of bonus)
Boning (estimating straightness by comparing to a row of poles)
Booboisie (a group of stupid people)
Bottomry (using a ship as collateral to finance a voyage)
Carnallite (mineral)
Copulative (grammatical term)
Cunctation (delay, procrastination)
Cupulate (cup-shaped)
Dick Trickle (NASCAR driver)
Drape (curtain)
Embarras River (river in Indiana)
Embarrass, Wisconsin (city)
Faces (turns toward/those things in front of our heads)
Fecund and/or fecundity (fertility)
Formication (sensation on skin)
Fucate (to color or paint)
Fuchou (a city in China, aka Fuzhou)
Fuch’s Dystrophy (medical condition)
Fuchsia (color/flower)
Fucus (brown algae)
Futtock (rib of a ship)
Googled (searched in an online search engine)
Homoiousia (having similar substance)
Hyperdic (online dictionary)
Intercourse, Pennsylvania (city)
Mastabah (a type of Egyptian tomb)
Masterate (a degree or honor)
Nippitatum (a strong ale)
Nippleworts (a type of plant)
Orgas, West Virginia (city)
Orgulus (proud or haughty)
Parus major, aka Great Tit (small bird)
Pediculous (full of lice)
Pensile (overhanging)
Peonies (flowers)
Rectalgia (pain in the rear)
Recto (front side of a bookleaf)
Red-footed Boobies (large bird)
Saxatile (rock dwelling)
Scrotiform (shaped like a pouch)
Sexenary (six-fold)
Sext (prayer service)
Shirty (British term for angry, miffed, etc.)
Succulent (a type of plant)
Tithies (12 dates in each month in the Jain religion)
Titmouse (small bird)
Titubate (to walk or stumble)
Uberty (fruitfulness)
Upas (poisonous influence)
Upher (pole used in scaffolding)
Urinator (diver)
Urticate (to flog with nettles)
Vagile (the ability to move around)
Vagitus (baby’s cry)
Whipcat (a tailor)
Source for obscure words:
Forthright’s Phrontistery website. http://phrontistery.50megs.com
Accessed 7/20/03. (what a great site!)