Forwarding Address
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from The Man Who Loved Children
Sam smiled, too, at their bent heads and was encouraged to say that “at the moment Looloo thought of nothing’ but eating of all the dickshunaries she could find and went around chock-full of big words aspewin’ em out and destroyin’ the peas of mind of the famerlee.”
Leaf through a dictionary or try to make one, and you will find that every word covers and masks a well so bottomless that the questions you toss into it arouse no more than an echo.
— Paul Valery, French poet and critic, Collected Works of Paul Valery: Vol. 14: Analects, 1970 [via Wordspy]
Neologizing for Fun and Profit
What happens when you ask people to use a madeupical word?
Just another day at the Wordnik office … I make a rash bet that I can find examples of the word “macrotraditionalist” in use.
Conveniently, I didn’t say “prior use,” freeing me up to solicit help from friendly folks via Twitter.
| “ | Dear Twitter, please help me win a bet. Please use the madeupical word “macrotraditionalist” in a sentence. You have 55 minutes. | |||
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@wiredferret was first … but misspelled “macrotraditionalist”. (Hey, it’s a new word …)
| “ | @emckean I think we should worry less about micronutrients and concentrate on the macrotradionalist properties of whole food. | |||
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But @CymruLlewes jumped in with a factual (if vague) example.
| “ | @emckean The macrotraditionalist viewpoint was introduced in the late summer of 2011. | |||
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Winning the bet for me. Thanks, @CymruLlewes!
| “ | @CymruLlewes @emckean damn you Cymru! Now I’m a dollar poorer. | |||
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But the fun didn’t stop. More sentences! Some went with the “large” sense of “macro”:
| “ | @emckean So-called “microchefs” eschew the portion sizes of macrotraditionalist cooking. | |||
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| “ | Lots of people writing about language fancy themselves to be macrotraditionalist purists, when in fact they’re merely macrostodges. | |||
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| “ | Just watching Inglourious Basterds, I love Quentin he’s such a macrotraditionalist rogue | |||
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| “ | @emckean The macrotraditionalist wasn’t going to make a fuss over getting a *white* picket fence for her house. | |||
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| “ | @emckean I’m a macrotraditionalist photographer; Give me a Nikkor Micro lens, not a button on a p&s. | |||
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Extra points for using the word “nuance”:
| “ | @emckean the complicated rituals of exchange executed by the World Bank represent a macrotraditionalist observance of global economic nuance | |||
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I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that there really is a “macrotraditionalist” school of modern art:
| “ | @emckean I only collect from the macrotraditionalist school of modern art curation. | |||
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Some clear blends of “macro” (in the computer sense) and “traditionalist”:
| “ | @emckean Some use very complex function-key combinations to run their automated server routines, but Fred is a macrotraditionalist. | |||
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| “ | I write my excel macros in eXcel Macro Language and not in VBA because I am a macrotraditionalist | |||
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These seem to be using “macro” in the sense of “long”:
| “ | @emckean integral to a church is its macrotraditionalist views. | |||
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| “ | @emckean In the macrotraditionalist sense, eBooks are already passe. | |||
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| “ | @emckean Professor Gawdawful took the macrotraditionalist view that the grand sweep of history, once learned, was all that was worth knowing | |||
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Current events seemed ripe for the application of “macrotraditionalist”:
| “ | @emckean The debt ceiling is a macrotraditionalist fantasy. This isn’t hockey surgery. | |||
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| “ | @emckean When it comed to the debt ceiling debate my perspective tends to be more macrotraditionalist than centrist. | |||
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A nicely meta non-definition:
| “ | @emckean The macrotraditionalist is neither a macro nor a traditionalist! There ya go, that was easy :) | |||
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Some folks just don’t check Twitter enough, sadly:
| “ | Tragedy. MT @emckean …Please use the madeupical word “macrotraditionalist” in a sentence. You have 55 minutes. 56 minutes ago | |||
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And there we have it … a new word!
| “ | Big thanks to all you macrotraditionalist neologists out there — it’s a great word! (and even better I am now $1 up on @zeke) | |||
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watch out for the zedonk
Steven Wright: I finally got around to reading the dictionary. Turns out the zebra did it.
[the entire audience, except Homer, laughs]
Homer Simpson: I don’t get it.
Lisa Simpson: Dad, the zebra didn’t do it, it’s just a word at the end of the dictionary.
Homer Simpson: I still don’t get it.
Lisa Simpson: It’s just a joke.
Homer Simpson: Oh, I get it! I get jokes!
[laughs]
Give the people a new word, and they think they have a new fact.
— Willa Cather
(Source: books.google.com)
Women: Bad; Victuals: Worse
To The Editor Of The Nation: Sir: An obiter dictum in a paper which I read before the Modern Language Association last week has since appeared in a number of newspapers in a curiously distorted version. The following is a sample: “A professor of the University of Michigan, being desirous of ascertaining the most hated word in connection with spelling-reform investigation, wrote to a thousand persons for their opinion, and was surprised when the majority replied that the most hated word was ‘woman.’ “ What I actually said was as follows: “A considerable number of persons hate the plural form women, as being weak and whimpering, though the singular, woman, connotes for the same persons ideals of strength and nobility. It is for this reason, perhaps, that woman’s building, woman’s college, and the like have supplanted In popular speech the forms women’s building, women’s college, etc. It is noteworthy, also, that, in the titles of women’s magazines and the names of women’s clubs, the singular in most instances has been chosen instead of the more logical plural.” It will be noticed that women was not the best-hated word on my list. That bad eminence was reserved for victuals. I take the opportunity to say that any one who has violent antipathies to particular words or phrases, not traceable to the meaning, will do me a favor by corresponding with me. All that I wish is (1) a list of such verba non grata with (2) reasons for the dislikes, where reasons can be given. Fred Newton Scott. Univbrsity Of Michigan, December 30, 1901.
Hold! You crafty ones, strangers to work, and pilferers of other men’s brains. Think not rashly to lay your thievish hands upon my works. Beware! Know you not that I have a grant from the most glorious Emperor Maximilian, that not one throughout the imperial dominion shall be allowed to print or sell fictitious imitations of these engravings? Listen! And bear in mind that if you do so, through spite or through covetousness, not only will your goods be confiscated, but your bodies also placed in mortal danger.
— [This] caution to the literary pirates of his day is appended by Albert Diirer to his edition of Epitome in diva; parthenices Maria, folio. Nuremberg, 1511
First they came for the verbs, and I said nothing because verbing weirds language. Then they arrival for the nouns, and I speech nothing because I no verbs.
