Posts tagged “language”

SacrospinnicusSep 19, 2006

Invented the word "sacrospinnicus" from something I saw online. First to guess the source wins £10, minus £1 per hint I give.

I must have missed the memoJan 28, 2006

"Valentine's Season" is apparently a thing now. Bad enough that corporations turned an obscure saint's day into a commercial juggernaut, but now they're expanding it into a whole season? We need to stop this before it spreads further.

Quite UncommonAug 11, 2005

After five years in the UK, I thought I'd blended in well enough. Then I asked a colleague to use a "common letter" instead of a capital, and discovered that apparently only Trinidad still uses that term for lowercase letters. Makes me wonder what other oddities I've been casually deploying for years.

You can't just make stuff upJan 3, 2005

"Dooced" is not a word. 6,000 Google results don't make it one. "Blog" has 99 million. Let's kill this neologism before it spreads. Also, I got the flu on my tropical vacation. Karma is a jerk.

What did they call it before then?Oct 21, 2004

Looked up the etymology of "racism" today. The concept of race didn't exist until around 1770, and the word "racism" wasn't coined until 1935, by the Nazis. Before that it was "racialism." Apparently discrimination was so normal it didn't need a name. Also, being a victim doesn't make you an expert.

Today's bit of computer triviaJul 7, 2004

The term "I18n" (internationalization) was coined by programmers who replaced the 18 middle letters with the number 18, inspired by a DEC employee whose long surname got abbreviated to "S12n" for his email account. This "numeronym" convention spread because, honestly, geeks find that sort of thing funny.

We should definitely bring the word quidnunc into popular usage: One who is curious to know...Jan 7, 2003

I want to bring "quidnunc" into common usage as slang for a busybody gossip. Also, Network Rail's excuse for their anti-freeze heaters failing was that they froze. Yes, really.

On compulsory English speaking as a requirement for British citizenship: My probabily ill-advised...Sep 18, 2002

I think speaking English is useful in England, but shouldn't be a citizenship requirement. Citizenship is about state protection and loyalty, not language. Culture and language shift over time; you can't legislate that. Encourage English learning, even fund it, but don't make it mandatory.

The next time you really need to insult someone, remember to say "You're nothing but a...Sep 7, 2001

Calling someone a "white-bellied bustard" is deeply satisfying. Try it next time you need a solid insult.