Ah, language. Slate weighed in on the Britishism invasion, charting the slow creep of British English into the American idiom. This is new? 🙂 To quote Sherlock Holmes, “My font of English has been permanently defiled.” I’ve been reading Doctor Who novels for years. I watch BBC America on a regular basis. I have shortcutsContinue reading “On American Briticisms”
Tag Archives: language
On a Facebook Comment Worth Preserving
One of the problems with political discourse today is that those on the right and the left not only see the world differently but they talk about the world differently. Words have different meanings on the left and the right. A friend, one that has, in my view, gone unfortunately off the deep end intoContinue reading “On a Facebook Comment Worth Preserving”
On Stephen Fry’s New Television Series
Stephen Fry — writer, actor, all-around personality — has revealed that he will be making a series for BBC2 on language — Planet Word. I haven’t seen a good documentary about language, where it comes from, how we speak it, the variations of it, whether languages are dying, whether we are better at speaking thanContinue reading “On Stephen Fry’s New Television Series”
On Non-Standard Punctuation
In my quest for new and ever-more-interesting ways to communicate, I have discovered non-standard punctuation. We all know periods and commas. I am particularly fond of the semi-colon, and I make fair use of dashes. (Dashes are the “house style” at work. I am not, actually, a fan of the dash. I find it… sloppy.)Continue reading “On Non-Standard Punctuation”
On Illinguistic E-mails
There are times I’m glad I no longer work for EB Games/GameStop. Opening up my e-mail inbox today was one of those times. Here’s the subject line: Hugenormous Savings at GameStop! “Hugenormous”? Whiskey tango foxtrot? It doesn’t roll off the tongue, not the way “ginormous” does. How do you pronounce that? “Hug… enormous”? “Hew… gee..Continue reading “On Illinguistic E-mails”
On Word-Coinage
At work today it was decided — I had coined a new word. A good word. A perfect word. Clusterfuckery. I don’t claim the word. I see, from a quick Google search, that “clusterfuckery” has been in circulation for a few years now. It’s not my neologism. 🙂 Yet, I’m still going to use it.Continue reading “On Word-Coinage”
On Today’s Word for the Day
Chronotaraxis. Use it in everyday conversation! 🙂 Blogged with the Flock Browser
On Terminology
After watching the Cubs :cubs: dispatch the Blue Jays 7-4 this afternoon, I flipped the television over to MASN to catch the end of the Orioles/Pirates game. The Orioles had coughed up a couple of runs earlier in the game, had clawed back to 4-2, and then, moments after I switched the channel, I watchedContinue reading “On Terminology”
On Words I’ve Used Today
“Inhumanization.” Hum. I think I’m going to change that to “dehumanization.” No, I like “inhumanization.” It’s less well known.
On Runic Writing
On occasion, I’ve deployed my skills in utilizing J.R.R. Tolkien’s Tengwar writing system. And while I have a large collection of different types of Tengwar fonts and know how to use them, the Runic fonts I’ve never used. I have them. I just don’t use them. But then, I am a self-described “font whore.” YouContinue reading “On Runic Writing”