Thermal

It’s the meaning of life. And of course Liff.

The Meaning Of Liff is a book by Douglas Adams (Of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy) and John Lloyd that seeks to find words for things that have never been named, such as:

SYMOND’S YAT (n.)
The little spoonful inside the lid of a recently opened boiled egg.

GLASSEL (n.)
A seaside pebble which was shiny and interesting when wet, and which is now a lump of rock, which children nevertheless insist on filing their suitcases with after the holiday.

THROCKING (participial vb.)
The action of continually pushing down the lever on a pop-up toaster in the hope that you will thereby get it to understand that you want it to toast something.

If you haven’t already guessed, these are all UK place names, which as an aside, I have actually visited. Including Liff which is a small village outside Dundee. The genius if the book is that as well as being so funny, so many of the things described do need naming, and the names they’ve chosen are so appropriate.

Global locations are not ignored either:

CHICAGO (n.)
The foul-smelling wind which precedes an underground railway train.

You should of course buy the book, but if you want a good laugh right now, you can read a transcript here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Humour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.