Thursday, July 15, 2010

Words I Heard From World Cup Commentators You Will Not Hear Chris Berman Say

I'm going to put these in order, and rate them on a scale of 1-10, on how hard Chris Berman would find them to pronounce/likelihood he'd know what they mean (1=easy/maybe, 10=impossible/no idea what they mean).

pacey - moving "with pace", or speedy, quick.  Ranking: 1

miserly:  stingy (as in, "the defense has been downright miserly of late")  Ranking: 2

howler:  laughably bad.  Can be a mistake by a player, but more often than not, a missed call by an offical.  Ranking:  2

niggly:  an adjective to suggest an overly officiated game--"niggly calls" would refer to a foul called over a very minor contact.  Ranking:  3, but fear of mispronunciation gives it a bonus of +4

fractious--unruly, or a game about to get about of control.  Berman wants to know if he can work in a pun involving denominators.  Ranking:  6

remonstrate--to plead against a call in obvious fashion.  See:  Maradona.  Ranking:  7

paucity:  a lack; a small number.  Ranking:  8, or "Whuh?"

obdurate:  stubborn; resistant--like a tough defense, say.  Ranking:  10.

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