different between nonsense vs santorum

English

Alternative forms

• nonsence (archaic)
• non-sense

Etymology

From non- (“no, none, lack of”) +? sense, from c. 1610. Compare the semantically similar West Frisian ûnsin (“nonsense”), Dutch onzin (“nonsense”), German Unsinn (“nonsense”), English unsense (“nonsense”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?ns?ns/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?ns?ns/
• Hyphenation: non?sense
• Rhymes: -?ns?ns, -?ns?ns

Noun

nonsense (usually uncountable, plural nonsenses)

1. Letters or words, in writing or speech, that have no meaning or pattern or seem to have no meaning.

2. An untrue statement.

3. That which is silly, illogical and lacks any meaning, reason or value; that which does not make sense.
4. Something foolish.
5. (literature) A type of poetry that contains strange or surreal ideas, as, for example, that written by Edward Lear.
6. (biology) A damaged DNA sequence whose products are not biologically active, that is, that does nothing.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:nonsense
• Synonyms: falsehood, lie, untruth, absurdity, rubbish, tosh
• Synonyms: absurdity, silliness, contradiction, stupidity, unreasoning

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

nonsense (third-person singular simple present nonsenses, present participle nonsensing, simple past and past participle nonsensed)

1. To make nonsense of;
2. To attempt to dismiss as nonsense; to ignore or belittle the significance of something; to render unimportant or puny.

   Synonyms: belittle, dismiss, pooh-pooh, rubbish
3. (intransitive) To joke around, to waste time

Adjective

nonsense (comparative more nonsense, superlative most nonsense)

1. Nonsensical.
2. (biochemistry) Resulting from the substitution of a nucleotide in a sense codon, causing it to become a stop codon (not coding for an amino-acid).

Translations

Interjection

nonsense

1. An emphatic rejection of something one has just heard and does not believe or agree with.

Translations

See also

• missense
• non-sense

Finnish

Noun

nonsense

1. nonsense (type of poetry)

Declension

Mauritian Creole

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n?ns?ns/

Etymology

From English nonsense.

Noun

nonsense

1. nonsense

Alternative forms

• nonsens

English

Etymology

From the surname of former US Senator Rick Santorum (born 1958). After Santorum made statements comparing homosexuality to bestiality and opining that mutually consenting adults do not have a constitutional right to privacy with respect to sexual acts, US columnist Dan Savage gathered input from his readers and held a contest for definitions to "memorialize the scandal". Savage set up a website which defined the term, and helped to promote it. See Campaign for the neologism "santorum" for further information.

Rick Santorum's surname, in turn, comes from Italian; see Santorum for more.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /san?t????m/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sæn?t???m/
• Rhymes: -????m
• Hyphenation: san?to?rum

Noun

santorum (uncountable)

1. (neologism, sex, slang) A frothy mixture of lubricant and fecal matter as an occasional byproduct of anal sex. [from 21st c.]
2. (neologism, slang, derogatory) Shit: rubbish, worthless matter, nonsense, bull. [from 21st c.]

Quotations

For more quotations using this term, see Citations:santorum.

See also

• Appendix:American Dialect Society most outrageous words of the year

References

Further reading

• American Dialect Society's Word of the Year, Most Outrageous category (2004)
• Spreading Santorum, the website created by Dan Savage to document the spread of the phenomenon
• Santorum, background at Rotten.com
• Santorum, analysis of the phenomenon at Know Your Meme by Rocketboom

Anagrams

• Rotumans, romaunts