Moiety

by Marinka on May 16, 2012

You know how some days you’re just sitting around, plotting revenge on your enemies when suddenly a word pops into your head? That happened to me and it wasn’t vendetta or alibi, but rather moiety.

Moiety, if you must know is less word and more weapon because all those people who hate the word moist will absolutely hate moiety, but they probably won’t know what moiety means, so they’ll be in a heightened state of anxiety because OMG, what if moiety means the right of people of color to marry others of the same sex?

Wouldn’t that be awkward if you’d been walking around proclaiming to hate moiety?

But good news, because it turns out that moiety is just a fancy shmancy way of saying even-Steven:

But bad news, what the hell is going on with that example? First of all, is there some kind of pigeon rights group that insists that all food shared with them be on a 50-50 basis? And also, is there a person alive (or dead) who has uttered the words, “I am having one moiety of the sandwich and this here pigeon is enjoying the other moiety of it. He had a ruler, so that’s how I know it’s all very moiety.”

So I don’t know. On one hand, I think only people named Moishe and Moira should ever use the word moiety. On the other, I’m super curious how you’d use it in a sentence.

One year ago ...

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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

alonewithcats
Twitter:
May 16, 2012 at 11:02 pm

This reminds me of those old PSAs that ended with a shooting star on NBC, which I’m pretty sure were called “The Moiety You Know.”

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Marta
Twitter:
May 17, 2012 at 9:40 am

Moishe and Moira were walking through the park when Moira start to feel quite moist. Moishe had a napkin so he gave a moiety of it to Moira and a moiety to a nearby pigeon as offerring.

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Wendi
Twitter:
May 17, 2012 at 9:45 am

What are you doing during the day? Sitting in a closet reading the dictionary? #worried

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Suniverse
Twitter:
May 17, 2012 at 11:30 am

I think it’s moeity fine that you’re concerned with language. So few people are.

No I need to go dry off.

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Kelly May 17, 2012 at 11:42 am

It comes from the French world for half, “moitié”. You would use it in a sentence if you are the type of person to pronounce “croissant” with a French accent ordering at a diner even though everyone will roll their eyes at you.

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Awesome Dude May 17, 2012 at 12:20 pm

I feel that MOEL will also have some understanding of it.

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Lady Jennie May 17, 2012 at 12:50 pm

It’s pronounced moi-tyay, just so you know when you offer to share your cwah-soh(n).

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Kelly May 17, 2012 at 1:08 pm

LOL!

A downside of speaking French in the U.S…sometimes it sounds like one is trying to be fancy when it’s really just…well that’s how the word is pronounced! 🙂 I’m too sensitive to odd looks, so I gave up and say cruhssant!

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Marinka May 17, 2012 at 1:10 pm

Excuse me, don’t you mean Croysant?

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Marinka May 17, 2012 at 1:11 pm

as in “moi! yay!”?

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Ann
Twitter:
May 17, 2012 at 1:13 pm

I cringed just from the title, and now I’m feeling downright hostile.

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dusty earth mother May 17, 2012 at 1:32 pm

I’m moiety impressed with yer word nowledge.

It hurt my fingers to type that.

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NDK May 17, 2012 at 2:52 pm

Is hating the word ‘moist’ a common thing? Because I really do dislike it. Somehow ‘moiety’ isn’t quite as bad. Unless I repeat it a thousand times and deem it unlikeable. I’ll have to get back to you.

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Jen Anderson
Twitter:
May 17, 2012 at 6:14 pm

I bet Cormac McCarthy has probably used it in several published sentences. I was so glad that Kindle has a dictionary when I was reading The Road. And that the dictionary Kindle uses points out that several words in the book fell out of usage in the 14th century.

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Tarable May 18, 2012 at 12:59 pm

Thank you for this. I love learning new words.

Now I’m off to listen to two of my favorite bands…They Moiety be Giants and The Moiety Moiety Bosstones.

(I’m so sorry.)

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