Archive for January, 2008
Over at Language Log last week, linguist Geoffrey Pullum posted an entry titled "Yale sluts and Princeton philosophers," about a threatened lawsuit over a Yale fraternity's writing a sign saying...
Entertaining mistake, from a statement by Barack Obama about Edwards dropping out of the race: John and Elizabeth Edwards have always believed deeply ... that two Americans can become one....
On the radio the other day, someone said "Uranus" in such a way that it sounded like an adjective, "urinous." According to Wikipedia, that's actually the earliest of the current...
Wikipedia says that "palilalia" is "the repetition or echoing of one's own spoken words." It can sometimes be a symptom of Tourette Syndrome. I already knew that coprolalia (involuntary swearing)...
According to Urban Dictionary and other sources, one's "wheelhouse" is an "area of expertise." I gather it's used similarly to "forte" or "strong point" or "metier."...
"Griesel" is apparently another term for biodiesel, more specifically for vegetable oil used as diesel fuel. I first encountered the term in a story submitted to SH; did a web...
So I was sitting around with O. and D. and Kam the other night, and someone mentioned Chicago, and D. said his brother Kevin lived in Chicago. And someone asked...
Hurling is Ireland's second-most-popular sport (after Gaelic football). It involves hitting a ball with a stick to score goals; I get the impression it's vaguely related to field hockey. According...
"Hypsography" is the measurement and mapping of topographical elevation. (I wrote this note in late 2006, but neglected to post it. So the word is no longer exactly new to...
To "schvitz" is to sweat; more commonly, a schvitz is a steam bath, as one might take in a sauna....