January 2012
1 post
December 2011
1 post
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.”
August 2011
1 post
July 2011
3 posts
“Leaf through a dictionary or try to make one, and you will find that every word...”
– 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...
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...
May 2011
1 post
January 2011
1 post
1 tag
“Give the people a new word, and they think they have a new fact.”
– Willa Cather
September 2010
1 post
Women: Bad; Victuals: Worse
VERBAL PREJUDICES.
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...
August 2010
1 post
“Hold! You crafty ones, strangers to work, and pilferers of other men’s brains. ...”
– [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
July 2010
1 post
“First they came for the verbs, and I said nothing because verbing weirds...”
– Peter Ellis, as posted in alt.fan.pratchett
June 2010
1 post
May 2010
1 post
“And it’s pretty safe to bet that if a fellow needs a six or...”
– Letters From A Self-Made Merchant To His Son
April 2010
2 posts
2 tags
January 2010
1 post
“I was awed by his intonation of the word “Selah.” “He shall...”
– My Antoniá
August 2009
1 post
“I know only two words of American slang, ‘swell’ and...”
– J.B. Priestley
July 2009
1 post
“One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones...”
– -Hart Crane, poet (1899-1932)
May 2009
1 post
April 2009
1 post
December 2008
1 post
November 2008
2 posts
October 2008
1 post
December 2007
1 post
September 2007
1 post
Chicago = know-how
“Every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. If you could read people’s thoughts as they were passing you on the streets, you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought.” from Eat Pray Love via bobulate
August 2007
1 post
“Formal grammatical rules may help a weak or stupid mind, but a vigorous...”
– G. Curme, Has English A Future Tense?, The Journal of English and German Philolog, 12(5):528-529
June 2007
2 posts
winner: most unlikely song to reference...
Friends is a word we use everyday Most the time we use it in the wrong way Now you can look the word up, again and again But the dictionary doesn’t know the meaning of friends From here.
March 2007
4 posts
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide...”
February 2007
1 post
“ “The English language is owned by every speaker who uses it.” (Ilan Stavans) ”
– http://fp.uni.edu/northia/article2.asp?ID=5836&SECTION=1