Category: Uncategorized
Gripple, out over one’s skis
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: Gripple n. a Wall Street term for Google, Research in Motion, and Apple together. out over one’s skis being ahead of oneself or behaving rashly.
Nar, monkid
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: nar n. a slang term for snow. The long form is “nar nar.” monkid n. a monkey that is dressed and cared for as if it were a child.
HOLY CRAP! THE WEB SITE HAS BEEN UPDATED!
New, exciting pictures of the boy! See him crawl! Alas, no pictures of his new teeth coming in on top.
Facetimer, moofer
Recent interesting catchwords from the Double-Tongued Dictionary are: facetimer n. Cornell University slang for a person who only attends an event or appears in public in order to be seen by others. moofer n. a person who works in a variety of places and not just in an office. Coined by Microsoft from Mobile Out…
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.