A funny little anecdote:
Recently, my office-mate realized that a good way to get on my nerves was to use, or rather misuse, language ("He ain't..." or "So I says to him" for example). Now, don't get me wrong, I'm far from perfect, and i have been known to mix metaphors now and again, but there are a few "words" that just get under my skin. "Funner" is one of them.
Following perhaps one too many corrections ("Dude, 'funner' is not a word!"), we got into a long discussion about the dynamic nature of the english language and vernacular usage. This lead to him telling me that "bubbler" was
not a word, and is only used in
WI (note: He is from MN). He even went so far as to propose a wager: If "bubbler" is a word, and "funner" is not, he will stop harassing me with his constant use of "funner."
So, we turned to
www.dictionary.com and found:
funner - not a word
bubbler - a public fountain to provide a jet of drinking water
Still not satisfied with the answer, we turned to the OED. After setting up a free trial subscription::
funner - Still not a word
bubbler - a public fountain to provide a jet of drinking water
So, no more "funner" for him!
... Ok, maybe it's not that funny, but at least you have a response when people next bug you about the
word "bubbler."
-Mutt
