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> Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo, is hard to parse because English is very expressive. And you kinda have to know words have different meaning in diffe
by Gordonjcp 4y ago
> Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo, is hard to parse because English is very expressive. And you kinda have to know words have different meaning in different context. If I explain buffalo is another word for bison, and also buffalo means coerce, I can rephrase this
> Bison from Buffalo coerce other Bison from Buffalo.
The words don't have different meanings, though, at least in idiomatic English. No-one uses the word "buffalo" to mean "coerce". I'd be surprised if you could find even a handful of examples of it being used that way.
File the "many buffalos" thing under the same heading as the "code golf / obfuscated C" type things where you've got a chain of half a dozen ternary operators wrapped in a loop to make a state machine, where a switch() statement would suffice.
- oneeyedpigeon 4y agoI've heard this example before, but you have a great point - I've never heard anyone use "buffalo" as a verb before. I wonder what possible better versions we could collectively come up with. "Badger" is much more commonly used as a verb, but I'm unaware of a well-known location called Badger.
- bloak 4y agoI support that proposal ... but I can't immediately think of anything. Vaguely related: www.marchmarchmarch.org.uk
- tpoacher 4y agoBadger badgers badger badger badgers (a badger being someone who makes badges, and thus badger badger being someone who makes badger badges) Also, if you can have a badge depicting a badger badger, then badger badger badgers badger badger badger badgers. PS. Mushroom! MUSHROOM! Panic, a snake!
- ImprobableTruth 4y agoThe "intimidate" meaning of buffalo is in a bunch of dictionaries, I just checked. Regional slang, I guess?
- Gordonjcp 4y agoBut is it in active use? I've never found anything. I feel like I'd find it in some 19th-century American literature, maybe some Ambrose Bierce or Mark Twain.