Tuesday, January 03, 2006

What's in an Adjective?

This is just a brief look at the fevered ramblings of my brain - shouldn't I be putting it to some more useful purpose? I mean really...

While toiling away at my desk yesterday, the boss walked through the office and said "Hey, John Roberts is coming by in a few minutes - he used to work here? Some of you might remember him, hefty guy?"

Now, I've never met John, so I don't know if he'd care for being called "hefty" or not. Is it applicable? "Hefty" isn't neccessarily a snide or rude comment, but you probably wouldn't say it to someone's face.

How does the boss describe me to others? Am I... Pudgy? Voluptious? Ample? Robust? How about Corpulent? ("Have you met Mike? He's that corpulent guy - sits over here? No?")

So I wait to see, what I think of John. If he's smaller than me, and he qualifies as Hefty, well I don't know what to think. I might have to re-evaluate my impression of the boss as A Good Joe. He might only like beautiful people.

John shows up. Okay, it might be applicable, though I would have said 'Beefy', which implies strength along with bulk, whereas nowadays "Hefty" is most likely to conjure images of trash bags...Hmn.

2 comments:

  1. The Chief Justice of the United States came by your office? This whole secret level in Grand Theft Auto thing really has turned attention to the video game industry, hasn't it?

    I love the word corpulent.

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  2. Maybe your boss meant 'husky' in that he had a deep, breathy voice?

    For further information:

    Pudgy implies that you are a child.

    Voluptuous implies that you are a woman.

    Ample implies that you are Jean Teasdale.

    Robust implies that you can be safely dropped down the stairs without damage.

    Personally, when describing myself or others with a similar body shape, I go with 'fat'.

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