Month: November 2007
Cold smoke, gigaliner
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: cold smoke n. very fine, very dry snow. gigaliner n. in Germany, a multi-segmented tractor-trailer truck.
Purple water, zipper
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: purple water n. waste water that has been sufficiently treated so that it can be used safely used for tasks such as irrigation but not for drinking. zipper n. a long, narrow scar on the body, especially where stitches have been sewn.
Search for the impossible
My latest column for the Malaysian Star appeared today. This one is about words associated with hazing, especially the kind of hazing that sends newbies to go look for things that don’t exist: type lice, italic spaces, a left-handed monkey wrench, a left-handed hammer, buckets of steam, bags of electricity, wheelbarrow seed, and fifty feet…
Dehorse, Pittsburghed
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: dehorse v. of a car dealer, to deprive a car-buyer of both a trade-in car and a new car. Pittsburghed adj. of a steak, burnt black on the outside, left pink on the inside.
Sugging, stakehorse
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: sugging n. marketing or promoting a product or service to someone during what is purported to be a survey. From Soliciting Under the Guise of interviewing. stakehorse n. in billiards played for money, a financial backer.
If you quote Johnson about lexicographers being harmless drudges
…in your first paragraph then you disqualify your dictionary review from being taken seriously. The review is not overly critical of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, but the review is unremarkable, forgettable, and largely valueless.
Laughably naive report on the slang term “420”
This is making the rounds: did you know that “420” means “marijuana”?!!!!???? It’s an over-excited and facile television report filled with unsubstantiated claims about weed, and somehow, the great mystery of slang is at the bottom of it all. A code-word kept secret by millions of people! It’s like the best local news parody you’ll…
Sewer service, menoporsche
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: menoporche n. a play on “menopause,” referring to the supposed tendency of men going through a mid-life crisis to buy impractical sports cars. sewer service n. (of a process server) discarding subpoenas or other legal papers instead of serving them to their recipient.
Michigan 11-pointer, kinnear
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: Michigan 11-pointer n. an immature male deer with small antlers. kinnear v. to surreptitiously take a candid photograph, especially by holding the camera low and out of the line of sight. This new word was coined in August 2007 by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee after the actor Greg Kinnear,…
Name of the Year Nominations Sought
The American Name Society requests nominations for the “Name of the Year for 2007.” The name selected will be the one that best illustrates, through its creation and/or use during the past 18 months, important trends in North American culture. All categories of names and naming, including given names, surnames, brand names, place names, street…