Introduction to Akimbos

Ever noticed how you never hear the word "akimbo" preceded by anything other than "legs"?

Yes, admittedly, you can have "arms akimbo", but you never hear of it, do you?

Ever since this startling revelation dawned on me, I have referred to any word which is only ever heard in conjunction with one particular other word as an Akimbo (note the capital 'A').

Akimbos are close relatives of clichés.

Unfortunately, by referring to such a word as an Akimbo (as in Hey, isn't 'Lurgy' an Akimbo?), I have inadvertantly stopped the word "akimbo" from being an Akimbo, as it is no longer associated exclusively with the word "legs".

It's all rather complicated.

Anyway, enough of my yapping. Here, for what it's worth, is the list of Akimbos I've managed to garner, with a little help from friends and correspondents, over the last year or so.

Unfortunately, I have had to ban certain types of words from being Akimbos, as finding them turned out to be far too easy.

In actual fact, there seem to be very few genuine Akimbos. Almost inevitably, when you think you've stumbled across a really good one, you can think of at least one other word with which it is associated. I refer to such words as Almost-Akimbos.

Numerous correspondents have pointed out that many of my Akimbos are, in fact, no such thing. Some of them are even right. While I am grateful for all such interest, and have amended my list in some cases, I feel it only right to point out that it is only supposed to be a bit of harmless fun.