Why do we hate certain words?
‘Language is wine upon the lips,’ remarked Virginia Woolf, and for Woolf’s own elaborate, luminous prose, the phrase seems to hold true. Yet it is also true that some words hardly leave us feeling contented or luxuriated, as a glass of fine wine might. Moist, for example, consistently tops ‘most hated words’ lists. ‘Least favorite […]
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Weekly Word Watch: Snapchat dysmorphia, hothouse, and firenado
Brace yourselves. The theme for this week’s Word Watch is health and the environment, and things get a bit hot and heavy. You may want to have some cute animals photos to hand, but we can’t stop words from dishing up cold, hard facts. Snapchat dysmorphia As digital technology continues to change our lives, it […]
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‘The general quack of conversation’: a buoyant, bogus, underappreciated word
Some words get all the attention. Presidential coinages such as covfefe and misunderestimate become fodder for an endless succession of jokes. Words for annoying behaviors such as mansplaining and humblebragging become talking points in the eternal quest to annihilate our annoyances. Beautiful words get lots of love (hello, serendipity) and corporate buzzwords get heaps of […]
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Weekly Word Watch: Bigfoot erotica, cuckooing, and sharknapping
Word-wise, it was a real zoo this week. No, we mean it: the news uncaged some veritable verbal beasts, from manly-man monsters and cuckoo crimes to swaddled sharks and dog days. Let’s see if we can’t tame some of these wild words here. Bigfoot erotica Sometimes on the Weekly Word Watch, we’re struck by terms […]
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The Bechdel test and the woman behind it
Bechdel test was among the new additions in the most recent update to the Oxford English Dictionary, and one that brought me particular personal delight for three reasons. One, it was one of the earliest suggestions made to me at Geek Dictionary Corner, a dictionary suggestion stand which I run at Nine Worlds, an annual […]
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