Dear Foxy,

Have you given any thought to the condition where two different words have exactly the same meaning?

On the global warming denialist dunce hat we could put DUNCE on one side and say for example INDIVIDUAL on the other side. It's interchangeable. If one turns the dunce hat around it still says the same thing.

We could have one for MHAZE, TTBN, HASBEEN, RUNNER, and LOUDMOUTH.

In this country we have our own popular expressions.
There's so many to choose from. Take words that end
in "ie" - words like - barbie, prezzie, sunnies,
budgie, greenie, mozzie, pollie, surfie, to name just
a few. Then there's words ending with "o" like -
ambo, reffo, rello, muso, preggo.

We have typical "Australianisms" like - "G'Day,"
"mate," and sayings like - "she'll be right."

We have expressions - "to hurl", "to rubbish,"
"to put the boot in." "to carry on like a pork chop"
"to chuck a sickie" "to spit the dummy," "no worries,"
And so on.

Australian comedian Barry Humphries has added a great deal
to spreading our idioms and vocabulary world wide -
with expressions like - to "syphon the python"
or "point Percy at the porcelain." Both meaning to urinate.

Paul Hogan's "put another shrimp on the barbie."

All these things, these wonderful terms travel around the
world and add to people's vocabularies in the English
language.

For which we should be - as "rapt as a dunny roll!"(smile).

Mr O watched you arrive with hope still hope but you have slipped in to the deep wheel marks of those you oppose
You can and have, done better
See yes some of your highlighted verbal combat targets get rude, blame it on age,we are mostly in[if we are Christians I am not]head of the que in Gods waiting room
I look forward to new arrivals bringing subjects of real interest and, hoping too far? an ability to debate without verbal warfare
That is just swapping insults, indy did indeed bring his bad day into this discussion

My mind's still trying to come up with the different
varieties of words and their contexts. Words like -
"smoking" for example. In the US it usually means -
something is smoking hot. We think of it in terms
of cigarettes, and even smoking jackets.

Pitcher in the US refers to sport. Here we think of
it as a container of drink.

Wheelie-bin - would they know what that was overseas?

Or a trolley? (tram or grocery carrier?).

Opinion,

Noun.

a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.

a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.

the formal expression of a professional judgment:

Law. the formal statement by a judge or court of the reasoning and the principles of law used in reaching a decision of a case.

a judgment or estimate of a person or thing with respect to character, merit, etc.:

to forfeit someone's good opinion.

a favorable estimate; esteem:

one who posts on OLO to read his own words.

Words have played an important part in the way authors
have chosen to use them. I remember the first poem
that my father read to me. It still resonates today.
"The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes:

"The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor
And the highwayman came riding-riding-riding-
The highwayman came riding up to the old inn-door."

Still sends shivers down my spine.

Who can forget William Blake's:

"Tiger tiger burning bright
In the forests of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame their fearful symmetry..."

And what about the Bard's:

" The quality of mercy is not strained
It dropeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath..."

Did you know that children's author Roald Dahl
invented 500 words and character names from the
Oompa-Loompas and whizzpopping to the less well
known - humplecrimp, lixivate, and zoonk?

His words take us on a phizz-whizzing tour of the most
scrumdiddly umptious words.

What's the plural of quodropus?

what rhymes with frobscottle? What's the difference
between a whangdoodle and a giant wangdoodle (hint:
only one is deadly).

Did you know that a snozzberry lives in the land of
tiny Minpins. Whereas a snozzcumber lives in giant
country. For a snozzwanger - you'd have to look up the
Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary