My sufficiency has been suffonsified is just one version of a playfully lofty way to say “I’ve had enough to eat.” Janet from San Antonio, Texas, emailed to say her Canadian mother’s version was My sufficiency has been suffonsified, and any more would be flippity flop. Her uncle’s rendition was even longer: I have had sufficiency of all the numerous delicacies offered. Any more would be a superfluity. Gastronomical science admonishes me that I have reached a point consistent with dietetical economy. In other words, any more would be flippity flop. This is part of a complete episode.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
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