Saturday, August 15, 2020

Autological and pareidolia


















Sometimes you can add words to your vocabulary just by reading a cartoon. On August 12, 2020 Zach Weinersmith published a Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal web cartoon with the following dialogue:

Woman: Autological words are my hobby.

Man: What’s that?

Woman: Words that describe themselves.

Polysyllabic is polysyllabic.

Man: This is stupid.

Woman: ‘Term” is a term for term.

Man: Stop.

Woman: And then there’s ‘pareidolia.’

Man: What’s that?

Woman: It refers to the perception of meaning in a random pattern. Like seeing faces in clouds

Man: So…

Woman: It looks just like a caterpillar.


Asking for an autological word probably would be too difficult for a Table Topics question at a Toastmasters club meeting. Pareidolia also is an impressive term!

No comments: