Language Geekery

[gnomi]

For this one, I blame farwing, at least for the first question.

[Poll #597113]

Comments

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

I usually "hop in the shower" although second choice is "take a shower"

[zachkessin.livejournal.com]

Acutaly the wind blew away our whole sukkah

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I went to the store and bought three pairs of shoes, remember? So I checked other.

I also checked other about the shoes worn before/after a shower, because I don't.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

I don't wear them before/ after a shower, but I wear those shoes occasionally, and call them flip-flops.

And I almost always buy two pairs of shoes. ;)

[angwantibo.livejournal.com]

Interesting analysis. I haven't bought more than 1 pair of shoes at a time in more than 10 years, but at least I understood the nature of the question.

[gingicat]

Once again, I didn't get to put up a sukkah, but that answer greatly amused me.

[arib.livejournal.com]

I often use shower as a verb itself, "I need to shower." Also, I'm with asciikitty on the "hop in the shower" thing.

No, I'm not hopping in the shower with her, I use the term with some frequency.

(If I didn't say that explicitly, someone would've called me on it. The hijinks that would've ensued.... At dinner, I am to be getting earful)

[angwantibo.livejournal.com]

The shower one was close. I usually take a shower, but also hop in the shower or run through the shower. It depends upon how much time I have for said shower.

The flip-flop question is one that has bothered me for quite a while. I always thought that thongs referred to a type of woman's underpants. However, I have also heard it used for different leather objects including tfilin!

[arib.livejournal.com]

I used thong to refer to flipflops long before I was aware of the underwear.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

I've never worn shoes to and from the shower, but like many, have only ever called those kinds of shoes flip-flops.


...

Narf?

I don't know this word...

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

"Narf!" is one of the exclamations uttered by Pinky in the cartoon "Pinky and the Brain" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112123/) (out of the late 90s). Others (which tend to pop up as alternate answers in polls of mine) are "Poit!", "Egad!", and "Zort!"

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

You buy more than one pair of shoes at a time (or a year? Wow)

I call them "zories", actually. My parents spent two years in Japan in the mid-fifties, and that's what they call them.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Both mabfan and I buy sneakers at the New Balance outlet, and it's often easier to buy 2 pairs at a time than to have to go back and forth (and at outlet prices, buying multiple pairs at once is still frequently less expensive than buying one pair at a full-price location).

I could've done the same question about socks (of which I frequently buy more than one pair at a time, seeing as mabfan's socks come in three-pair packs), but that wouldn't have dovetailed as nicely with the question about shower shoes/flip flops/etc.

And interesting on "zories." Is that a native Japanese word, do you know?

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

I went to the store and bought...
Two pair of shoes
Two pairs of shoes

I say two pairs of shoes. But I say two pair when referring to cards.

[kradical.livejournal.com]

You lost me on the whole idea of footwear before/after a shower. I just go barefoot. Hence, "Other." *grin*

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

*grin*

I don't wear 'em either before/after a shower. But I figure some people do, 'cause otherwise they wouldn't be "shower shoes" to some.

Me, I wear them at the swimming pool so that I don't slip.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

I am from too many places to explain-my parents are from (New England, Ohio via England), I have lived in (Ohio, San Francisco, Switzerland, the Netherlands, San Francisco, the Netherlands, New England, Hawaii, New England). See what you can do ith *that* :-)

Also, while I don't wear them in the shower, the name I give to that type of footwear is "Zoris" (as in one zori, two zoris). Which is what my parents called them.

shadesong adivses her answers are the same as mine, except she says "two pairs" of shoes. Also, her response to the start of Simchat Torah is "Moadim l'simcha!", and "Narf!" She is from Florida, and has also lived in Utah, North Carolina, Arizona, Florida, and Georgia.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Interesting -- you and mamadeb both say "zori," and I had never heard the term before today.

Thank shadesong for me.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I just popped back over to say that, like KRAD, I don't wear shoes pre-shower. I'm barefoot whenever I can be!

Further demographic info on me: I was raised by New York Jews.

And I'm familiar with the term "zori", though I've never called them that. I only know the term from the dress code back in school - it listen that sort of shoe, which was forbidden, as "flip-flops, thongs, or zoris".

You're welcome and hello. *wave*

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Listen = listed. Argh.

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

in general, thongs refer to the style of sandal (men's or women's) that have a piece that comes up between the big toe and the other four toes.

to me, flip-flops are a subset of thongs...they're the cheapie rubber/plastic ones (originally sold for wearing at the beach or pool) that make smack-smack noises on the bottoms of your feet when you walk. tho my arches are so high that almost all thongs will make those smack-smack noises on my feet, tho usually they're quieter.

in my own home i don't wear anything as "shower shoes," but when i was an undergrad and lived in the dorms i did because they were communal showers. (well, individual shower stalls but everyone on the floor shared the same four stalls) it was suggested to me as more hygienic, and once i got there i saw that almost everyone else wore them so apparently my family wasn't alone in this thinking.

i have seen shoes of the style that (generally) women know as "slides" (but made of the same gelly-plastic) being sold as "shower shoes" as well, so i'm aware of that term separately to describe the particular usage even though i don't use the term myself.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I checked "flip-flops" because if I were going to wear sandals into the shower (as I would in a public bathing area, or a really grubby dorm) that'd be what I'd wear. In my OWN house, the shoes I wear before and after a shower are "bedroom slippers."

[seborn.livejournal.com]

I should have checked flip-flops, but the whole shoes to be worn in conjunction with showering thing threw me, so I got confused and didn't.
A thong isn't a shoe unless in the phrase "thong sandal," which is obviously a shoe.