Linguist, lexicographer, radio host, public speaker

Month: October 2007


  • My new column in the Malaysian Star

    This week marks the happy launch of my fortnightly slang language column in the Malaysian Star, an English-language daily paper that includes a “Mind Our English” section three times a week. The paper has a readership throughout Malaysia of about 1.2 million. I’m also pleased to say that my editor there is actor and playwright…

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  • Dry powder, lobbycon, familismo

    Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: dry powder n. a (venture capital) company’s unspent investment funds. lobbycon v. to attend the site of a professional conference, without enrolling or paying entrance fees, for the purpose of meeting with attendees in the site’s public spaces. From lobby + conference. familismo n. a sense of…

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  • Number one autonomous blog

    According to this Russian index (see the original Russian), my weblog is the number one autonomous blog on the Internet, according to the number of readers. That means a blog on its own domain not using a blog hosting service like Blogspot or Live Journal. But, as noted here, Yandex rating is generally one big…

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  • Fong kong, scaracter, bolt-on

    Recent interesting catchwords from Double-Tongued Dictionary are: fong kong n. in South Africa and Zimbabwe, a product from Asia, usually believed to be shoddy and cheap. The expression seems to be used both as a count and noncount noun. A similar term is zhing zhong. scaracter n. an actor at a Halloween-themed amusement park or…

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  • Recent Catchwords: prairie whale, full Ginsburg, halitophobia

    Recent interesting catchwords in the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: prairie whale: n. a hog. So-called because its fat can be used for things usually done with ambergris. full Ginsburg: n. being a guest on all five major American Sunday morning television shows in a single day. Named after William Ginsburg, Monica Lewinsky’s lawyer, who, on February…

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  • Recent catchwords: tulies, poli-fluential, generation Q, skittles room

    Recent interesting catchwords on the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: tulies: n. the boondocks or the middle of nowhere. Out in the tules/tules means “out in the boondocks” or “far away.” Another spelling is “tules,” plural form of “tule,” pronounced TOO-lee, which is a type of Californian bulrush and the origin of the term. The expression is…

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  • Recent catchwords: trade turkeys, camp leg, lasagna gardening

    Recent interesting catchwords on the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: trade turkeys: v. phr. to swap bad teachers between schools. “Turkey” is a long-standing slang word for something or someone that performs poorly. A synonym for “trading turkeys” is dance of the lemons. A related term, also mentioned in the article cited here, is rubber room, where…

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  • Early nominations for word of the year: wide stance, toe-tapper, and snus

    Two days ago I spoke with Becky Boone of the Associated Press in Idaho about two terms that have come out of the bathroom sex scandal surrounding Senator Larry Craig. She managed to get out of me that they will be among my nominations for “word of the year” when the American Dialect Society holds…

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  • What the F***? On Swearing

    The publication of Steven Pinker’s book The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature means he’s been showing up all over the place as the author of popular articles on language. The latest one to come across my inbox (and I see them all, every one, as long as they’re online) is…

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  • Recent Catchwords: hose-dragger, grunter-hunter, heritage callout

    Recent interesting catchwords in the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: hose-dragger n. a nickname for a firefighter. grunter-hunter n. a pig-hunter in Australia. heritage callout n. a design that references a particular ethnic, racial, or national group, such as traditional Native American patterns on products targeted at Native Americans.

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