lorrie getty: The week in words

From the grammatic evolution of LOL to how U.S. mountains are named, the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture

Welcome to this week's Language Blog Roundup, in which we bring you the highlights from our favorite language blogs and the latest in word news and culture.

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Earlier this week we celebrated what would have been?Douglas Adams's 61st birthday. Google had an interactive?Doodle?honoring the author of?The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?while Neil Gaiman?spoke to?The Washington Post?about Adams's genius.

National Grammar Day?is over but discussion about grammar never ends (in a good way of course).?Stan Carey?asked which was worse, a double comma or unclosed bracket, and got?lots of answers.?Ben Yagoda?told us?seven grammar rules?we should really pay attention to,?The New York Times?rounded up some?dangling grammar gaffes, and Open Culture shared David Foster Wallace's write-up of?five common usage mistakes.

SEE MORE: 10 things you need to know today: March 16, 2013

Ben Zimmer?discussed one young man's journey to find?the origin of?scalawag?and was also busy?anointing the champions?of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and the?Symmys Awards, for the year's best palindromes.

In more wordplay news, Simon Akam at Slate asserted that words like chillax and bridezilla signify the death of the American pun. However, the love of puns seems to be going strong at the?O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships.

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At?Language Log, Mark Liberman explored?nerditude.?Johnson?took a laughing look at the?overzealous Quebec language police?and explored?metaphors in the digital age. At?Lingua Franca, Ben Yagoda told us about the slang expression,?a hell of a note;?Lucy Ferriss weighed in on?hypercorrection; and Geoffrey Pullum gave his opinion about?quite.?Anne Curzan discussed?commas?and the?language of texting, which is apparently?a linguistic miracle.

Stan Carey told us about the dramatic?grammatic evolution of?LOL?and the origin of the word?kempt. At?Macmillan Dictionary Blog, Michael Rundell gave us?the story behind?dapper?and the difference between?who?and?whom.

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Some people freaked out about the?wrong definition of?literally?literally going in the dictionary. John McIntyre suggested that they?chill out, and also considered the words?omnibibulous?and?git.

In the week in words,?Erin McKean?noticed?pogonophobia,?"fear of facial fuzz";?sede vacante,?Latin for "the seat being vacant" (regarding the Pope);?tuts,?video tutorials on YouTube; and polocrosse, "a mashup of lacrosse and polo." Fritinancy weekly selections included?wudu,?"in Islam, the ritual washing of the face, hands, and other body parts in preparation for prayers"; and?grist,?"grain for grinding; ground grain."

SEE MORE: The week's best of the internet

Word Spy spotted?safe shake,?"the touching of elbows used as a handshake replacement to avoid spreading germs";?instamentary,?"a documentary produced in a very short time, particularly one about a recent news event";?openture,?"the tendency to not seek a resolution or ending for an emotionally difficult experience"; and, just in time for?Pi Day,?pi-ku,?"a haiku on the theme of the mathematical constant pi."

The?Dialect Blog?dialogued on?drawer-draw?conflation?and the hateful history of?wog, "an offensive term in British English which refers to various immigrant groups." Lynneguist dispelled the myth of?-ogue-less Americans.?Fully (sic)?took a look at?Canberra bashing, "the act of criticising the Australian federal government and its bureaucracy," a term that "will be included in the next edition of the Australian National Dictionary."

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In other dictionary news, Grantland offered some tidbits from?The Devil's Dictionary of Sportswriting, and the first edition of the?Dictionary of Canadianisms?is now online, from which?Akira Orent?gleaned?24 particularly interesting ones?(we may have mal de raquette from our visit to Boston last week).

At the Visual Thesaurus, Georgia Scurletis?stared,?glanced, and?glared?at?the words of?Twilight. Largehearted Boy alerted us of?brackets for "swooniest male" in Young Adult literature (Team Peeta ? no, Gale! no, Peeta!), and Quora blogs gave us some?Harry Potter etymology.

SEE MORE: Why some ancient birds had four wings

Mental Floss gave us 11?nicknames?and the people who hated them, and?The Atlantic?explained why?hot gym girl?is a grosser nickname?than?hot gym guy. We learned how?mountains?in the U.S. are named, about the experiences of a?lip reader, and why it's important to?invent new words (you don't need to tell us twice!).

We love that?these dead authors?have lively social media profiles. We want these tiny books made by 17-year old Charlotte Bronte and?these miniature libraries. We'd also like to visit?these bookstores in barns.

SEE MORE: The daily gossip: Emma Watson will allegedly star in the?Fifty Shades of Grey movie, and more

We were disturbed and amused by these?suggested renamings of horse meat, and we're unreasonably excited now that?line breaks?are allowed in Twitter.

lorrie getty

Sunday, March 17, 2013

The week in words

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