Believe it or not, this sentence is grammatically correct and has meaning: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. First devised by professor William J. Rapaport in 1972, the sentence uses various meanings and parts of speech for the term buffalo (and its related proper noun Buffalo) to make an extremely hard-to-parse sentence.
Although most people know buffalo as both a singular and plural term for bison, and Buffalo as a city in New York, buffalo is also a verb meaning to bully, confuse, deceive, or intimidate. Using these definitions, Wikipedia suggests the sentence can be read:
[Those] (Buffalo buffalo) [whom] (Buffalo buffalo buffalo) buffalo (Buffalo buffalo).
Still too hard to follow for those of us who dont know buffalo as a verb. Refine once more:
[Those] buffalo(es) from Buffalo [that are intimidated by] buffalo(es) from Buffalo intimidate buffalo(es) from Buffalo.
July 16, 2010