14 July 2010

My First Official New Word: Double-Wicking

Yes I know it sounds obscene, but here's its official meaning / definition:
Double-Wicking - verb (only used in Present Perfect Continuous tense)
To burn the candle at both ends, e.g. I've been double-wicking a lot recently

In a moment of creativity it came to me and I now submit it to the ages as my first official* word.  Believe it or not but I'm hot on your heels Colbert...

* = Well, my first public word.  Like most people there are dozens of words I've created or altered in a unique language known only to me and my (at the time) better half.  You know if anyone ever actually makes a physical, hand-stitched version of 'Your Language' to English dictionary then they should probably be crowned the Most Romantic Man Alive...  Excellent, I now have a title to my collection and another thing to chase Colbert with!

2 comments:

  1. Is that not past imperfect? Certainly feels like describing something in the past. Or have i been misinterpreting you? :-)

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  2. Good question - and I had to double check my rationale! As the event started in the past and is still happening, then it's present perfect continuous (have been *ing this for the last two weeks / lately). I guess you could use it fully in the past imperfect (let's say referring to last December only). And I suppose you can intend to do it in the future too... Oh well, my tense requirement is overkill but that would probably be the most common use of it!

    FWIW I found a nice site that has some very nice descriptions of tenses - not that you need it though!
    http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfectcontinuous.html

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