More Binomial Expressions
(a limerick mishmash)
Grandpa Greg’s Advanced Grammar continues …
Before reading this captivating group of examples, you might want to review our first post on this topic. (“Binomial Expressions, a Key but Under-Recognized Grammatical Feature”)
Authors’ Note: ‘Floaters’, in the eye, a common symptom may require expert medical attention when they first appear or become more numerous. Most often, they are insignificant and chronic. Jill might be surprised to learn that they are not caused by accumulation of discrete floating particles, e.g. jetsam, but are rather an effect attributed to fibrous strands traversing the vitreous (posterior) chamber of the eye.
Flotsam and jetsam is an intriguing binomial phrase. The original meaning of its two components is explained in a verse by OEDILFian contributor Kevin Lucas.
Authors’ Note: When the paired grammatical elements in the phrase happen to rhyme, the appeal of irreversible binomial expressions, such as surf and turf, is further increased. The above verse shows in italics several of these intriguing idioms.
The larger group of these idioms (such as fish and chips) is exemplified, explained, and possibly defined in verses here by the author, including binomial expression, fixed order, echoic binomials, and fossil words.
Get Giorgio Coniglio’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Although cookbook and shake in your shoes are musical expressions, they do not qualify as binomials.
Authors’ Note: The rhyming binomial phrase, stoop and scoop, sometimes given as ‘“poop and scoop” describes a group activity by pet-owners.
See also the author’s poem “dog park” in the collection “Urban Concerns”.
Authors’ Note: The above verse features a number of binomial expressions, most of which are in common use. In fact, the “classic” binomial hot to trot, and the authors’ proposed “Tease and Please” have the additional appeal of internal rhyme. Generally, because of their catchy appeal and common use, binomial phrases are often chosen as the names of restaurants, bars and small businesses, but the name proposed here for a strip-club is presumably an original use.
Authors’ Note: Birds and bees is an alliterative binomial phrase used here in a euphemistic sense. The counterintuitive fact that MENses are a female function could make this poem a companion-piece to the authors’ verse on gender-neutral language.
Authors’ Note: Although ‘flora’ (the collection of visible plants) and ‘fauna’ (the collection of visible animals) may be of equal importance, and are familiar to most readers, they seem to be listed preferentially in English dictionaries and encyclopedia in the order shown above.
The above verse highlights the importance of the microbiota, a group of creatures that have flown generally under the radar, the limits of human perception having previously shaped understanding of the range of life on our planet. This underappreciated group of organisms includes bacteria, fungi, viruses and others, that teem in and on our bodies and those of all other creatures, in the soil, and even in apparently difficult or hostile environments.
Authors’ Note: In deciding on their wedding vows, brides and grooms often pick binomial expressions owing to their aura of tradition and their musicality. Such phrases, bordering on clichés, include:
for better or for worse, to have and to hold, richer or poorer, and in sickness and in health. The ultimate cliché in this formulaic construct (that protagonist Cliff felt pressured to recite) is usually “til death do us part” (not a binomial).
Generally, following recitation of the vows, the co-opted man and wife get photographed, and then the whole wedding-party goes off to celebrate. In the case described above, the mandatory recitation was distorted, leaving the guests high and dry.
The Limerick medley/potpourri is a collection of short poems related to a specific topic. Initially, each entity was developed on the collaborative site OEDILF.com, then published individually (sometimes with added photos or illustrations) on our personal blog “Daily Illustrated Nonsense” , and grouped for topic-dependent display on “Edifying Nonsense”. The twenty-odd collections recently made available to readers of “Medium” are listed with links on the doggerel-posting “Bar-Fauna Verses”.
