Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A sentence or verse constructed with a view to test the enunciation or dexterity of a speaker. The following is an example: Theophilus Thistle, thistle-sifter, sifted a sieveful of unsifted thistles, etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A phrase that is deliberately designed to be difficult to say correctly, usually because of varying combinations of similar
phonemes .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Could somebody throw me a link to, or just write, this little tongue-twister in Spanish?
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Try saying that three times fast, what a tongue-twister har har har …
SH*T THAT I WANT: Vol. 3 « Giant Killer Squid - Film, Comics, News, Reviews and more 2009
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Could somebody throw me a link to, or just write, this little tongue-twister in Spanish?
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Could somebody throw me a link to, or just write, this little tongue-twister in Spanish?
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Until its 1920 merger with Edinburgh, Leith was a separate municipal burgh of Scotland, with its own provost (mayor) and police force (thus the tongue-twister test asking the suspected drunk to say "the Leith police dismisseth us.")
From Ships to Michelin Stars Paul Levy 2010
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For this, we thank a long-ago line of Indian and Arabic forebears, whose tongue-twister names are familiar to mathematicians and few others.
Counting On Progress Alan Hirshfeld 2011
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Could somebody throw me a link to, or just write, this little tongue-twister in Spanish?
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Could somebody throw me a link to, or just write, this little tongue-twister in Spanish?
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Could somebody throw me a link to, or just write, this little tongue-twister in Spanish?
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Could somebody throw me a link to, or just write, this little tongue-twister in Spanish?
oroboros commented on the word tongue-twister
It’s said that police sergeants in Leith, Scotland, used this tongue-twister as a sobriety test:
The Leith police dismisseth us,
I’m thankful, sir, to say;
The Leith police dismisseth us,
They thought we sought to stay.
The Leith police dismisseth us,
We both sighed sighs apiece;
And the sigh that we sighed as we said goodbye
Was the size of the Leith police.
If you can’t say it, you’re drunk.
(via futilitycloset.com)
January 7, 2010