- This is in answer to:
- Give us your unreasonable demands. See all answers
-
- May 6, 2009 by dedalus
- A Plinky Grammar Lesson
-
Maintain consistent use of forms of "plinky"!
I liked grammar in school. Only by having rules can we break them. Therefore, it bothers me that people are throwing around forms of "plinky" willy-nilly!
The Noun
Yes, "plinky" is a noun. But a post is also called a "plink," following the same rule as that Twitter thing (tweets). And no, it is not a "pleenk." That's just stupid. One who uses plinky is a plinkyist, not a plinkist or plinkian.
The Verb
No more of this "plinkying" nonsense! It is obviously "plinking" or "to plink." I plinked every day for the past week. Not: I plinkyed every day for the last week.
The Adjective
The "y" does not drop in this case. I considered "plinkyish" and "plinkish,"* but "plinkyian" is my preferred form. For instance, if a friend were to ask me the following question in the course of normal conversation over a pint:
You are stranded in an elevator into which a deadly noxious gas is being injected. You have 10 minutes to live. You also have a macbook pro with working wifi connection and every other program you could imagine. What would you do with those ten minutes?
I might comment, what a very plinkyian question! To which my friend will, no doubt, stare at me blankly before saying, "I'd look at porn."
* Usage note: the adjective "plinkyian" means "having to do with or related to anything from the site www.plinky.com." "Plinkish," on the other hand, is still an acceptable adjective form, but with a slightly nuanced meaning: "having to do with or related to an answer, or post, on www.plinky.com." Since a response is a plink, the adjectival form of said response is plinkish. So while the query was plinkyian (it sounded like the kind of wacky prompt the fine folks at plinky would concoct), it was not plinkish. The answer, "I'd look at porn," however, was indeed plinkish, and could even be said to be plinkyian (with less exactitude).
The Adverb
Admittedly, there will not be many occasions to use the adverb form of plinky. However, imagine if some guy asked the above question. You might say that he asked the question very plinkishly. Unlike the adjective form, the adverb is always plinkishly.
Happy plinking, plinkyists!

(P.S. Final thought from e. e. cummings:
Since feeling is first
who pays attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you.
)