Archive for Specific Words
Just looked at the list of ingredients for a skin lotion; the first ingredient listed was “aqua.” I figured it probably referred to water, but I’m not used to water being called anything other than water in ingredients lists, so I poked around a little further. Turns out it’s not at all unusual, according to […]
It occurred to me just now that something can be the damnedest thing, and something can be a damned thing, but I’ve never heard anyone refer to something as a damneder thing. But I figured before posting about it, I should do a bit of research to be sure damneder isn’t in wide use. And […]
I personally use the three-syllable version, as it sounds more pretentious.
In a New York Times piece from 2015, Jonah Berger wrote about the longevity of sensory metaphors. An interesting piece, and an interesting idea. Fits nicely with stuff I’ve been reading about metaphors in Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By. I find the piece a little incomplete in its discussion of the word cool, […]
An Ars Technica article from 2014 explains that the word “xenomorph” in Aliens is a generic term and not a specific name for that specific species. Commenters point out that the exhaustively argued conclusion that the article comes to is exactly what they had assumed to be true from watching the movie. Nonetheless, I admire […]
Not that people should go around laming ducks, in hopes that it will reduce the power of the presidency.
I’m disappointed to find that “Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn” doesn’t turn into anything interesting when rot-13ed. (It becomes “Cu'atyhv ztyj'ansu Pguhyuh E'ylru jtnu'anty sugnta.” (Perhaps I’ll try to turn Pguhyuh into a catchphrase, the way alt.folklore.urban turned furrfu into a catchphrase.)
Verboten Siesta would actually be a pretty good name for a band.
Two items from the Saturday Evening Post, Autumn 1936
Is the -y version overly pretentious? Because if it is, I should start using it.