Phoney
Phoney (or phony)… where does the word come from?
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Posted on July 4, 2008 · Filed Under Lessons
Phoney (or phony)… where does the word come from?
Remember to vote for your teacher over at the Best Weekend Ever Website.
You can vote up to 5 times a day.
Posted on July 4, 2008 · Filed Under Lessons
Random lesson—i thought a person that talks to much on a telephone was a phoney?
A phoney thing happened on the way to the phorum…..
hi
Could you wear that outfit when you make me teacher’s pet?
You’re not phoney Marina, not even close…
Guess what, this con is still played in Paris. Woman walks by and pretends to find a gold ring in the street, except that she is Seventh Day Adventist & doesn’t really know if it’s gold & doesn’t want it but what luck & share the luck by giving her something for the ring…
Ruse; Scam.
Great joke, Marina. Being self-ironical is something only great personalities have. Congratulations.
I thought for sure the phoney example was not the bag - before the pan and zoom it’s not visible, but Marina’s breasts are front and center. At least you can’t fake intelligence.
Wow, thanks for explaining that. I’m sure no one would have gotten the joke if you hadn’t spelled it out for us. It’s good that there are people like you to help weed out subtlety.
poor attitude
testing my gravitar
man i’ve done everything and it still doesen’t work
TongueTwislers, the email address that you use for this HFW site and the gravatar site have to be exactly the same.
If you are using the same email, then make sure you activate the image that you wish to use. I think you click on the image in your image list, then you’ll get a confirmation dialog. Once confirmed, it can take a few minutes for the gravatar to show up.
Bait & Switch.
You mean like when women have phoney blond hair and phoney big breasts?
Или американский претендовать быть русским снайпер??
I can only speak on what I know, and US guys in the West still seem to be churning ‘em out as cute as buttons.
Don’t you mean as cute as Buttons?
If I went through ninety percent of every website I’ve ticked to, I sometimes wonder what I’d find.
I just don’t have time.
And Bob, between me and you, what I’ll need in the future is something like Marina to talk to the world about computer cognition with on http://www.HotForMergatroid.us. I’m taking over …, Her, and others, a team, we’re gonna Rock Tradition, and the very foundations of the world.
If I had the money of a bill gates, we’d've already been setting up scripts and production and have the show on the road.
Imagine Marina saying, “… no, sorry mergatroidal. I have other goals and plans in life.”
“Like what?”
“…, and what about real fame and fortune, Marina?”
Ha!
I can’t really imagine the conversation progressing too far and I don’t get what I want. 
(I’m sittin’ and waitin’ for this freakin’ gold mine to start rollin’ thunder …)
Oops! Rock Tradition was supposed to link to something. Tick Coming Soon …
I need a full time editor to go over my posts before submitting them.
Change the second to the last post, third paragraph to, … and Bob, between you and I,
and the fifth paragraph would read better if I wrote instead, … imagine Marina writing (not saying) in response to this post, “… no, sorry mergatroidal. I have other plans and goals in life.”
“Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.” - Voltaire 1694-1778
Thats just hilarious! I wonder why that is?
As you marina have been like a super hero ….opening my mind to Words you Just take for GRANTED ……..there is that word again….Granted …….good one as well……ooxooxoxox
I feel the same way as you do Mellon-g37.
Save the Teacher; Save the World.
Hey Marina what state do u live in cuz it says its 2 in the afternoon there but its 11 at night here
Hi, if you make me your teacher’s pet, can I appear in a video with you?
love ya honey!!! i was wondering the origin of the “xoxo” stuff, and what does it mean
Love ya!
I would like to known the origin of the word/phrase ‘down-pat’
Thanks a million.
hi hfw…..hope u be fine …i havnt had teacher like u….any wa thanks for sharing information….my question is ,,,newyear celebration( christmas) …who made it?..and where comes from?….
If you haven’t seen Orson Welles’ film “For for Fake.” It’s a very smart and funny movie, and it’s is not well-know at all. A forgotten gem.
On the issue of being phoney in general, a philosophical question: isn’t it part of being human to be fake, or at least a little fake.
I mean, don’t we all have a certain idea of who we are (or would like to be) and we play that role–better or worse? Our image of ourselves is pretty much a fabrication whether we admit it or not. If you are teacher, you play a role. If you’re a business person, it’s a role, etc, etc.. If you’re “hot,” it’s a role. You could be beautiful and not be hot and vice-versa–up to a point of course.
In celebration of the new law in California where you can’t… Read the rest » wht does this mean can’t read the rst, these are videos how do you read them unless your talking about reading body language?
where dose the word “Sorry” come from?
I’m new to the site but I gotta say it’s great. I’ve got way too many words I’m curious about but for now how about … acquire or ludicrous? Thanks, Duane
PS I had no idea were Phoney came from. Pretty cool.
Marina Orlova ~Ingenue~
Hi, all the replies from hotforwords.com threads are in my spam folder.
vi
Yeah.. that totally sucks victor immature! I don’t know why all my emails go to people’s spam folders! Arrgghh!
Did you add a spam link in your eMails??
Not to mine, Marina. They all go right to my inbox where they are supposed to.
Hello Marina,
Over the years, ISPs have been caught in catch 22 in trying to deal with spam. What most ISPs have done is to make the default email spam settings very aggressive whereby the majority of emails go to spam.
For example, an innocent word such as “hot” could be flagged as spam. The ISPs have put the onus on the user to tweak their spam settings in their web based control that works for them.
Possible Recommendation:
Could you change your “HELP” menu at the top to “HELP / FAQ”.
Then, add a sentence or two about email settings.
Example:
In order to receive emails from HotForWords, make sure that you have checked your email spam and filter settings to allow emails from my domain HotForWords.com.
If you did not receive an expected email from HotForWords, check your spam folder and make the appropriate adjustments in your email settings. Contact your ISP if you need assistance with your email control panel settings.
Humbly Yours, K.
usually, adding an e-mail address to the contact list for an e-mail client obviates spam filtering on that address, so try adding blogreg-do-not-reply-11@hotforwords.com to your contacts and see if that helps…
also, my employer is notorious for not paying much attention when moving e-mails around and adds friends to his “blocked senders” list, so you might check there, too…
the word minigun who made it and where did it come from thank you andy gibson
Hello.
I’ve question about adding -ish at the end of some words (ex. short person saying ” I’m tall -ish”). I’ve heard it few times already and becouse english isn’t my first language I was wondering what does it mean and what is it origin.
And becouse I moved to England some time ago I was wondering about another thing: why American “center” is British “centre” (there was some other word with er->re swithed but I can’t remember it right now).
I’ll be glad if somebody could help me with that.
Cheers
well, everyone knows Brits colour their humour in the centre…
’cause they can’t spell…
as for “-ish,” people use it when they can’t think of the correct term but want to make some sort of comparison to a tern others would know…or perhaps to avoid a “politicaly-incorrect” term…
like comparing, as you say, a “shortish” person to a taller one…”shortish” deflects the supposed insult when a person is “height-challenged”…
oh, and btw, i’m not baldish…i’m just plain bald…
It.s a generous use of the suffix (word ending) -ish, extending its use to more words.
I still havn’t figured out the end of the video. Was it another blooper or were you still hung over from the other video. Tell us the secret of the closeup of the hand bag.
capman911, the end it an outtake from a video I shot probably 6 months ago.. the significance of the bag is that it is phoney.. a fake!
let’s be PC and call it a “knock-off”…
hanging on a knock-out, of course…
I notice no one commented on Marina golden bag. Oh thats right you were looking at something else. So is that real gold? Maybe is gold plated?Might be! Who knows? Im more interested in what in the bag! How does it go?… You can learn a lot about a woman just by the contents of her bag?
I wonder if she meant the gold belt was a phony. Or maybe the bag was not a Gucci. I don’t know. I know thats what they are there for but I hate to talke to a womans upper frontLes and not to her face.
Yea I have that same problem when talking to women. I know it rude to look below her face, but my Neanderthals instinct just overwhelms me
. I wish their was a switch to turn it off. Its like holding your breath. Ya I can do it for a minute or two but its killing me!!!!! 
I’m too busy trying to keep up with the comments. I wrote two articles today but tried to read the comments in between and it was really hard. This board flies. I didn’t know guys (and some women but it seems to be mostly guys ) could be so chatty
I guess if the topic is the right topic, they can!
Mrs JCR we are just as gossipy as ladies are when we are in a group.
We have a few ladies who comment, but we could welcome more. It makes for intersting comments and conversation. 
Mike
Yea I cluck like a chicken here. I too have the same problem. I have many projects im working on and I take too many breaks to read the comments. Im getting the flow down now. I normally just respond to the emailed replies to my comments. When Im done for the day I’ll go back and reply to some comments. Even on ones that are a few days old.
Hey JCR, Go to gravatar.com and make yourself an avatar. It will help you find your comments faster visually. As you scroll down if you see any comment below yours then you can do a quick reply and move on. Its a speed trick I used to whip through the blog.
All of my responses are reasoned and restrained, not given to fancy or felonious dribble. Indeed, I am the epitome of forthrightiousness & verisimilitude.
Oh, and pigs do fly!!!…
You…you mean….you aren’t a Captain named Jack?!
Oops, that reply was to Captain Jack but then anuddermale replied before my reply showed up and…I’m officially confused.
lol…happens, jcr…
and i should’ve used “drivel”…but since i drool ’round Marina, “dribble” will do…
Well I see it easy to confuse you Jcr. All one has to do is turn sideways and that interferes with your radar and one becomes invisible…
- Something Robin Williams said in one of his stand up routines.
What do you mean I’m not a Captain named Jack? Im Jack Sparrow! Haven’t you seen me in the movies? I’ve been in 2 movies, 1 TV show, one rock video. Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time
The ship is the USS Missouri BB-63 in the now defunct Long Beach Naval station. You can’t see me because Im way in the back. heheh The Might Mo was my home for 4 years. She is still my true love after all these years. I’m getting teary eyed just watching the video. And all she is.. is a boat made out of metal. Hum. Weird…
If anyone wants to run a speed test on their computer here is the site I use.
http://tech.msn.com/speedtest.aspx
Mine comes back at 10 mega bits per second.
Thats just fake Capman. Not a true speed indicator. It showed me a hight speed than my service provider can put out for the type of service I have. I know I don’t get 3mbps down. Im lucky to get 1.2mbps. My service is rated at 1.5mbps.
Try this one, your results should be a bit more accurate.
http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?flash=1
Here is my test results.
http://www.dslreports.com/testhistory/429403/6fad7
Yours did show a different speed than mine. Thanks
i get 1579 Kb/s download, 206 Kb/s upload…slightly HIGHER than i got on another site…
oh, and the other site is offering 15.0 Mb/s dsl service…
that’s not a typo…the site says it’s adsl is 15 Mb/s…
only $150/month…
See that sucks. When you can get 60Mb/s for $40 a month in South Korea. Other countries it will cost you $60. The telcos will continue to rip us off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vohlSfFRZ_s…………………… .
Ok what am I suppose to be looking at
This is what i use: http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/
Thanks
which is the site i used first - gave me 1280 Kb/s…
All my test where done in Seattle/Kirkland, Wa to the servers in San Francisco, Ca. Tests where preformed on Sunday morning at 0223 hours and finished at 0234 hours.
Marina’s link to speakeasy website in (San Francisco CA):
Download Speed: 1648 kbps (206 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 225 kbps (28.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
DSL Reports/ Broadband Reports Site:
Megapath (San Francisco CA)
1365 Kbps 264 Kbps
DSL Reports/ Broadband Reports Site:
Speakeasy (Palo Alto CA)
1390 Kbps 259 Kbps
Speedtest. Net:
Speedtest.net (San Francisco CA)
1606 Kbps 244 Kbps
MSN/cNET.com site:
2574.1 kbps No upload speeds listed
My wireless provider is Clearwire. I get 1.5Mbps down and 256kbps upload. Now thats max alloted speeds. I should see lower speed for over head from the computers talking to each other.
MSN was the most inaccurate test out there. 2.5Mbps, wow I wish!
Whats interesting is the speakeasy servers on their own server differ from the DLS Reports test servers. 1.6mbps vs 1.3 mbps. download.
Many people use Speedtest.net. The also show me over 1.5
Of all the tools I have used DSL Reports/ Broadband Reports to be the most accurate of the bunch. I have been with them for 7 years.
Wow! Has it been that long? - “Joined: 2001-07-13 (7th year!)”
Thats like 5 computers ago..
Hi- ya capman, yeah I’m feeling chatty tonight. Under captainjacks’ test, my pc is at 5030 Kb/s for download, and 940 Kb/s for uploads. Back to words topic: I’ve been saving a bundle on gas when I did a double conversion on my car, first with Magneto Hydrodynamic Technology ,and then H20 burner
Water Car
I would like to suggest a word horticulture. Thanks
latin, Mike (i’m Tom or Annudder, btw), hortus = garden; colere=tend…but as Dorothy Parker once said:
“You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.“
Good one. I’ll have to remember that one
Do you know how to make a hormone. Use the hind lick manuver. 
and here i always heard the answer was, “don’t pay her.”…
Tom & Mike, you guys crack me up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vohlSfFRZ_s
well, that’s at least the third time i’ve seen that link posted to this thread…
do you have a point with it? or are we supposed to understand that your posts are well-rounded?…
ur hot……oh and for the word i would like to know “slut” thx
from Wikipedia:
oh, and…’er…you have a tendency to state the obvious…
Tnks Tom, I was wondering about that word also. I just never bothered to look it up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vohlSfFRZ_s...
Hello Marina,
I would like to know the origin of the word ‘alcohol’,
is it true that it has an arabic origin ?
Thank you.
Well, if you visit to Busch Garden in Tampa, Florida - on one of their exhibits for Tutankhamun claims that beer was thought to first be brewed by the Egyptians. It was one of the many things to enjoy in the Edge of Africa tour.
Another was the goddess Hathor. She guarded Tut’s tomb and was embodied to be as a cow, steer or bovine. Modern day culture does not recognize various Egyptian deities however, it it rumoured that
upon many modern holidays we prepare a bonfire to the cow-god
in her honor. Check out musical reference - GREEN JELLY, Obey the Cowgod!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vohlSfFRZ_s
Gummy bear?! …. @#$% - that’s not metal, dude.
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?fr=ybr_vzn&p=ht tp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm1Z-mjru_A&NR=1
can you give me the origin of the word nincompoop? thanks
Can you give me the origin of the word Encyclopedia? thanks!
Regarding the HFW increased speed and not to take away from BoArgMir’s comment below, here is some info most might not know.
I have never had a speed issue with the HFW website. I am in Calif on a 3 Mb/sec DSL connection and the server is in Fla.
If you are on dialup or a slow DSL, then you would see an improvement in the new HFW server.
Many of you are possibly on a deficient DSL connection. Yes, many of you are getting screwed and ISP’s are dunces and thieves.
Also, many of you who think you have DSL, are actually on 1/4 DSL or 1/2 DSL. Even if you have purchased a fast DSL connection, if you haven’t done the various tests, you may be getting cheated, on purpose or ISP incompetence.
Also, the US is in the slow lane of DSL throughput. Most of Europe and other locations have on average much faster DSL connections.
I am in Florida (who does the server? are these people I may already know? Sun Systems, maybe?)
I have a wireless 54 mb/sec connection to a hi-speed server.
actual draw is about 10%, or 6 mb/sec. I saw the lags creep in over a period of time, and a dramatic improvement after the transition to the new server. Part of the dilemna is the traffic during holidays makes for increased wait states, both site connecting and internal connectivity.
You can get T1 or T3 connections here in the states, just like Europe, but you will pay a premium price for it, again, just like Europe!
having dial up or slow internet speed doesn’t help, as the slow
downs can lead to “time outs”, and you can’t get on at all during some holidays. the traffic to HotForWords has been building linearly and an upgrade was probably past due! Add the quantum traffic increase from the holidays and it’s a disaster. Not good to lose your site during the boom periods, especially when the number of hits are the criteria for getting rated. The ISP issue you mention is more about bandwidth being robbed by tracking programs. These are silently downloaded during a program installation, so, run the scans, dump the offending cookies, update your cookies exception list to block future attempts to replant them, clean your tracks - and you should be good.
One culprit is Divx always claiming to update their program., only to replant cookies. Identify and skip these upgrades where possible.
Thanks for your input - you brought some attention to issues that get overlooked.
I traced it to http://www.hostdime.com/ in Orlando, Fl.
Is this only a PC problem? I’m hoping so. I mean, compared to a Mac. We have both types of computers so I figure if it happens only on one, I can always use the other when visiting this site. But so far, no problems.
jcr, I use a Mac.
testing for a reply
Marina called it!
50 emails all went to spam!
including cocomment stuff
go figger!
hmmm… test went to spam, too!
ok - cleared out spam, retest!
pesky little bug!
try again!
(still posted to spam)
and another one…
(turned off Yahoo
suspected spam filter)
mel, add blogreg-do-not-reply-11@hotforwords.com as a Contact in your Yahoo - that should fix it…
ok- put in that fix
crossin’ my fingers
“and the monkey flips the switch”
- Lost in Space
no joy - hey is my leg getting longer?
Also don’t forget that the page is not full loaded until all external links are downloaded. So for services like digg.com, addthis.com, gravitar.com, cocoment.com, feedburner.com,( did I miss any?) have to load before you can really do anything. Gravitar works fine if you only have like 30 or so comments but it really gets bogged down at 300 comments. CoComments is a big issue. I ping coco at over 199 ms. to about 375 and 516 ms. I ping HFW I get 99 ms. So coco is slow. Gravtar is about 70ms to 500ms. digg is at 47ms, and addthis is at 100ms.
So you have to add up all the other sites that are apart of the equation of the true speeds we are getting from HFW.
So true Jack the more a page has to load the slower it will make it. We sit here all day commenting and wonder why the page is so slow to reload. We are the ones adding to the problem. But isn’t it fun
“The Ivory Tower” at my work when we talk about the bosses that make all the stupid decisions like they are the rulers and we workers are just the lowly peasants, we say that they work in the ivory tower. Hmmm, ivory tower. We know the meaning when we use the term but what did it originally mean? Is there an actual ivory tower that kings and queens used to live in? Where did the term come from?
thanks Hot For Words,
your student - Darren “the dogfarmer”
I’ve worked for P&G (makers of Ivory soap)
in the past and I always thought that was where
the phrase originated! The building their
administration and executive departments,
located in Cincinnati, were in the Ivory Tower
building downtown.for years. This could all
be secondary to the actual coining of the
phrase, though - the origin could involve
elephants and India and God only knows.
Marina could investigate and make a game
of this one, for sure!
Good request!
not faux? rats!
By the way,
This webpage is going much faster now. Thanks Marina for doing that for us. It was getting frustrating there for a while, but is now much better.
BoArgMir
Miss M. have you heard from Jay the seven millon dollar man lately to see how he is doing?
capman911, im sure he’s been rubbing all over that little fertile turtle.
i checked the contest website yesterday & the results still weren’t posted, so i joined & e-mailed support to find out what-the-flip was taking so dang long…
Thanks pals for the reply. He seems like a very nice man. It’s a shame for somehting like that to happen to him or anyone.
I am Not your pal.
Ok, then forget it then.
you are a hard nut to crack, stokes…
no one was busting your chops, but you seem to enjoy busting others’…
oh, and there is no “still photo” in the aquarium vid…
nevermind “junior”
he’s still trying to figure out
what all the funny keys with
letters on ‘em mean.
sigh - another dry well?
Yassir
I asked that same question weeks ago. Still no news..
I always thought the word was spelled without the e. As in Phony.
Thanks for the spelling lesson, too.
BoArgMir
Hi BoArgMir, it can be spelled either way as per Merrium Webster’s Dictionary.
Main Entry: 1pho·ny
Variant(s): also pho·ney
Dear Marina,
Do you know the origin of this word : Bug ? There so much bugs in this strange world !
what about word emvrio ?
I’m on an Apple computer riding Tiger, and I opened up my web browser, the default open window being my bookmarks folder, and I found I’ve been hacked.
Oh, … so funny I almost forgot to laugh …!!
Mergatroidal I have never seen a screen of a Mac what do I need to look for on your site to know the difference?
I have a Mac and I didn’t see what he was talking about either.
I open my bookmarks in a separate window and there is Marina’s hotforwords.com icon posted in the address bar AND at the top of the browser window. The hotforwords.com address is not selected inside the window, it shouldn’t appear, … nothing appeared until recently, and now her icon appears every time I start up the browser.
Only on startup of the browser. With a window already open and a non-hotforwords.com address, if I click the bookmarks tab it’s the same as always.
The hotforwords.com window is also immovable and fixed in position; I cannot move it though I can close it. Something happened. Actually, I cannot move any browser window that has a hotforword.com address, I cannot move it anywhere on the screen. It’s glued to the screen. I can close it. Hmmm …?
I know myself I had nothing to do with this. With today’s video entitled, Phoney, I imagine this post raises suspicion and credibility whether I’m simply making all this up. I’m not. What a coincidence.
If the source of this bloop with my browser is not of human origin, and I can only verify to myself and know for sure that I’m not responsible for this happening, maybe something supernatural, some hocus-pocus, perhaps? The gods are beginning to fiddle with the natural laws, … between Marina and I?
How cool is that?
Wow I see what you mean
Browser windows unglued now, and they stay that way. Every time I start up the browser though, there it is … there she is with those glasses on. Two of ‘em, too!
whats the orgin of the word broad
MARINO4KA ,bonjour à toi!
now i ‘m going to try to give you an example of a dangerous( for your wallets) fake game:the ill famed three boxes game: three (not too honest) people take place in a crowded place,ONE of them pretends to be the organizer of the game and once he kneels down places on the ground a piece of tissue, generally a table napkin with a marble and three boxes. At this point the other two accomplices pretend to be occasional players and begin to catch the crowds’ attention 
the organizer sets the marble under one of he boxes and startes to make it pass through one boxe to the other very quickly shouting aloud whether someone wants to challenge him: the purpose of the game turns out to be being able to find the location of the marble,the two accomplices challenge the organizer who everytimes he realizes to be the looser pays a sum of money to the two challengers:at this point the real cheat occurs: after that a huge crowd is formed around the players ,some unaware people,mainly tourists convinced to have the chance to win go to challenge the ”leader”,therefore it is only in this particular moment that the fraud begins. The marble is never found even if the organizer shows it many times to the astonished spectators 
most of the time the cheater manages to catch and hide the little marble in the palm of his hand so that no marble can be found under the boxes..so if you could lift all the three boxes you would realize that there is no marble under all of them 
so be aware and do not be tempted 
hey girlie! hope you had a nice holiday. i have a word request for you…how about “jigger”….lets see what you come up with for that one!!!
thanks!
I’ll have a jigger of Navy Rum in anticipation of Captain Jack chiming in on this.
will you do a jig after tossin’ back aj igger or three?
and
???…i got slapped by my teacher when i said that to ‘er…
and she was dang hot, too…
Jiggers! the cops!
put away the rum quick!
Do I dare answer this, and hear the wrath of Marina? hummm. Oh what the heck!
Jigger. The word’s etymology is uncertain, although as in its non-nautical senses it seems connected with smallness, neatness, and often jerky motion. This suggest and association with the noun and verb indicating dancing. But the origin of ‘jig’ in this sense is equally obscure, since OF ‘gigue’, meaning a crude violin, was obsolete before ‘jig’ appeared. The modern French ‘gigue’, meaning the dance, seems to have been formed from the English ‘gig’.
In the Nautical sense of the word ‘jigger’ is a lig