What'd this Brit just say?

March 31, 2009 3:13 AM

Having trouble making out a word in this narration: "An odious (?) collection of moves?" MP3 link (@ 0:10)

And for those interested, the voice is John Redhead's from the recent climbing movie On-Sight.

Thanks MeFi.

posted by hobbes to grab bag (13 comments total)

I think he's saying "otiose".
posted by taz at 3:24 AM on March 31

I was about to say the same as taz. So consider it seconded.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 3:26 AM on March 31

Thirded. Definitely otiose, and I like the way he says it just fine, thanks. Very crisp and proper.

(I hate that word with the 'sh' pronunciation. Worse, I had a professor who insisted on further grating my teeth by shunting it down to two syllables, pronouncing it 'OWE-shuss'.)
posted by rokusan at 3:43 AM on March 31

No, I think 'odius' means 'hateful' or 'hated'. An odious collection of movies would be a bunch of really shitty movies, considered as such by most all that viewed them, i.e. hated movies.
posted by ender6574 at 4:34 AM on March 31

Ok, I just listened to the MP3 (took me a min) and while I know that what I said is true as far as English language goes, I have no idea whether or not it helped with your question, I apologize if what I said means nothing in the overall scheme of what you're asking.
posted by ender6574 at 4:37 AM on March 31

Definitely 'otiose' and his pronunciation is correct. Bit pretentious nonetheless...
posted by Dan Brilliant at 4:43 AM on March 31

Fourthing or whatever 'otiose', pronounced as one would expect. I had no idea what it meant until today.
posted by altolinguistic at 5:21 AM on March 31

I hate that word with the 'sh' pronunciation.

You can hate it if you like, but it's the traditional pronunciation; saying it "oh-tee-ohss" is a spelling pronunciation. Do you also hate nation and cautious with the 'sh' pronunciation?
posted by languagehat at 2:37 PM on March 31

Thanks VocabularyFilter! Never heard of "otiose" 'til this clip. Did try searching for "otious" last night without much luck.

btw, is there a reason for the single quotes (') versus regular ones (")?
posted by hobbes at 2:43 PM on March 31

In my comment? The reason is that I was copy-and-pasting from rokusan's comment; if I had written "the 'sh' pronunciation" out myself, I would have used double quotes. The rules are opposite in the US and UK; in the US, quotes are in double quotes and quotes-within-quotes in single quotes, in the UK it's the reverse.
posted by languagehat at 4:45 PM on March 31

Single quotes are what I use when I'm not thinking about what kind of quotes I ought to be using on a US-centric website :)

(the "rules" in UK English allow use of double quotes in the context in which I used single quotes, but I wasn't particularly thinking about or adhering to any rules when I wrote my comment).
posted by altolinguistic at 3:03 AM on April 1

btw, is there a reason for the single quotes (') versus regular ones (")?

Style choice for me, leftover from old newspaper typesetting days when it was a day to day design decision. I use singles when doubles look too noisy, usually for one word, and doubles for an actual quotation. And sometimes I get all geeky and change when nesting.

You know, so it balances. :/
posted by rokusan at 5:37 AM on April 1

Do you also hate nation and cautious with the 'sh' pronunciation?

No, because they sound less drunkenly pompous to my sensitive ear than owe-shee-os which really should only be used by inebriated ship captains.

Note I didn't claim any logical basis for my disdain, and I'm aware of the crazy contradictions that make me human. Hating something is not calling it an error. ;)

I really hate hearing the T in often, for example, another spelling pronunciation.
posted by rokusan at 5:42 AM on April 1