Tuesday, December 29, 2009

ABC Wednesday

X is for Xanthocomic

And with the discovery of the meaning of this word I have finally come across the origin of Blonde Jokes.

Xanthocomic means yellow hair, and there is a whole cluster of words with the prefix "Xanth"

Xanthic means yellowish

Xanthippe refers to an ill-tempered woman (with yellow hair????)

Xanthochroic means yellow skinned, and if your teeth, alas, have a yellowish cast, they are said to be xanthodont.

It is Xanthophyll which causes the yellow colour of autumn leaves, and if a plant has yellow seeds it is then Xanthospermous.

Just recently I was told about an Xanthocomic woman who went into the Post Office, asking to buy fifty Christmas stamps.

"What denominations would you like?" asked the clerk in the PO

"Good gracious" exclaimed the Xanthocomic woman, "has it come to that!!!!" And tossing her Xanthic hair she airily said -

"Then I'll have 22 Roman Catholic

3 Baptist, 10 Presbyterian, 8 Anglican

and 7 Pentecostal."

My apologies to all blondes, - I used to be one myself!

X is a difficult letter, - skip along to ABC Wednesday and see what others have discovered about X.

14 comments:

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Very funny post Hildreth -- and I learned a new word (a whole slew of them in fact). Happy New Year

From another former Xanthoponic (did I get that right?)

photowannabe said...

This post made me laugh and it did give me some new info. I didn't know before.
I think we all have "blond" moments whether we actually are or not.

Reader Wil said...

Thank you so much for this new prefix! It's something new to me and I found your explanation very interesting and useful. Now I am going to look up the pronunciation in my "English Pronouncing Dictionary", which is very useful for non native speakers.
Happy New Year.

Mara said...

I love blonde jokes! And as long as you're only blonde on the outside it doesn't matter too much. It's when you're blonde on the inside (no matter what your real hair-colour is), that you have to start to worry...

Wanda..... said...

Enjoyed the post of new words for me as well as the blonde joke. :)

Rose said...

I learned something today--these are all new words to me! Thanks for the laugh--my daughter and I are both Xanthoponic (of course, I have some gray mixed in) and we do have our blond moments:)

Joy said...

You have certainly put the comic in Xantho. Amusing and interesting post.

Barb said...

Oh, Hildred - who knew? I think I may remember that X word just because of your post. Happy New Year to you and Charles. Can you believe - 2010?

Roger Owen Green said...

Blonde jokes and linguistics in ONE, count it, ONE post. Xtraordinary!

Bradley Hsi said...

Yes, X is a difficult word but you have done so well with your post, very enjoyable.

Tumblewords: said...

Very funny! Love your post! Happy 2010!

Jay said...

Hahahaha! I love the 'xanthocomic' joke! Very witty post. LOL!

lv2scpbk said...

You thought of alot more "X" words than I did.

Dimple said...

Thanks for the laugh! Blessings!