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Discussion in 'Pottery, Glass, and Porcelain' started by BoudiccaJones, Mar 18, 2018.

  1. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    It's often used, at least in Western movies, in conjunction with 'cuss', which I suspect is short for cuss word, meaning curse word. "He's an ornery cuss." I'm your ornery cuz. :happy:

    Thinking about it, seems like you might hear 'ornery' without 'cuss', but almost never 'cuss' without 'ornery', or something synonymous, e.g., 'stubborn'.
     
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  2. evelyb30

    evelyb30 Well-Known Member

    Stubborn combined with somewhat aggressive is the usual application. I think the Brits use contrary for the same thing.
     
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  3. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Being too lazy to look it up, seems the one other typical application for the word ornery seems to be to describe a bull (OK, some horses), so wonder if the underlying word is 'horn', that the bull is lowering its head & getting hornery, ready to charge.
     
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  4. BoudiccaJones

    BoudiccaJones Well-Known Member

    Ohhh I get it now! Penny has dropped tee hee! I can be a bit slow :eek:
    Cuss! Cuz! hehe...sorry for being so dim
     
  5. BoudiccaJones

    BoudiccaJones Well-Known Member

    I CAN be totally contrary and yes I think it's similiar. I don't like this part of my personality and am constantly telling My Inside Self to SHURRUP and just stop talking/contradicting but my inner self takes just as much notice as my outer self does ie not at all
     
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  6. komokwa

    komokwa The Truth is out there...!

    Ornery...cantankerous

    upload_2018-3-21_3-21-45.png
     
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  7. BoudiccaJones

    BoudiccaJones Well-Known Member

    Oh! That's great... contrary then really isn't a good synonym for it is it?
    I always learn great stuff on this board!
     
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  8. BoudiccaJones

    BoudiccaJones Well-Known Member

    I am irritatingly upbeat most of the time, I annoy myself with it even...I am never grumpy! Often *awkward* though, so my fam tell me :D
     
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  9. komokwa

    komokwa The Truth is out there...!

    Contrary only works if you're downright pissed and nasty !!:jawdrop::jawdrop:
     
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  10. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    What is this code for? Since we're doing word play, here's a hoity-toity one to toss into a conversation: rebarbative. Next time someone starts a thread about a chair or a vase you don't like, you can tell them it's really rebarbative. :joyful:
     
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  11. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    And here I thought it was just Mary, Mary...
     
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  12. BoudiccaJones

    BoudiccaJones Well-Known Member

    I am not nasty ever! Unless my fam are threatened, i am even scared of myself sometimes and I'm scared of no one!

    If I am a bit miserable though, and someone ( ie hub) says something is white, I grumble that it's black.
     
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  13. BoudiccaJones

    BoudiccaJones Well-Known Member

    I think they mean stubborn ! I accept that!
     
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  14. BoudiccaJones

    BoudiccaJones Well-Known Member

    Rebarbative eh? I've seen that somewhere recently actually...in a book. WTH was it...I had no idea what it meant at the time . I read like a bitch, read too quickly and don't take any of it in. I need to know which book I saw that in,now
    It means unattractive doesn't it?
     
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  15. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Fighting with the cats for control of the keyboard & space to put it.
    The underlying root pretty much adds up to repulsive, repellent.
     
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  16. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    This is how I always understood it, although some people are this way whether they are miserable or not. When Alice meets him, I would describe Humpty-Dumpty as contrary. (Is it him, the Caterpillar or Tweedledee/dum who uses the word 'contrariwise'?) When I think of it, most of the characters she meets in Wonderland could be described as contrary. She remarks to herself something about how people there like to contradict one.
     
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  17. BoudiccaJones

    BoudiccaJones Well-Known Member

    I really can be contrary...I am self aware enough though to know I do it but unable to control myself. Worst of both worlds :S
    Only read the Alice's twice and that was years ago, so I can't remember who said contrariwise but I did enjoy them. There's something about childrens' books that if you enjoy ( well all books) it stays within you and I often think of ole Alice. I DO feel like her sometimes! But I identify more with Tom from Tom's Midnight Garden. I LOVE LOVE LOVE TMG. Magical. Utterly utterly magical...

    I need to know where I saw rebarbative,now. It was mentioned in this book at least twice...I think the book had a Scottish theme. WTH WAS it...? It was only within the last month or so too,hope I'm not...losing *it* :O
    Think the mention of rebarbitive had something to do with a Latin verb book...I read Prime of Miss Jean Brodie recently, don't think it was that ( or was it...)
     
  18. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    I do not know this book, will have to look into it. A series of books I like very much are the Moomintroll ones. Had a few chapters of the first one in an anthology as a kid, but couldn't get hold of the complete book & the others until I was a young adult. They are delightful & seem to be almost unknown in the US. I have introduced some people, child & adult, to them but have never met anyone who knew them already unless they were Finnish.

    Not too surprisingly, the characters are very popular in Japan. Surprisingly, Disney has not got hold of them, nor the plush toy makers.

    This character, known as Little My in English, is the very embodiment of contrariness:

    [​IMG]
     
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  19. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Looked at the Wiki synopsis of Tom's Midnight Garden & premise reminded me how much I like J.M. Barrie's The Little White Bird, which has a story within a story, sometimes published separately as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. If you only know Peter with Wendy, the Lost Boys, Tink, Hook, et al., it will come as a great surprise. Totally different story.
     
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  20. BoudiccaJones

    BoudiccaJones Well-Known Member

    My friend adores the Moomins...I have never ventured very far into them myself but my friend utterly adores them,the way I love Blyton I think
     
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