#343: anatomy of a word, part two
Come. Come hither. Come aboard, come across, come along. Come clean. Come on down. Come around. Come back. Come off. Come in handy. Come hell or high water. Come in from the cold. Come full circle. Come of age. Come out of one’s shell, come out of the woodwork. Come off it. Come short. Come to: come to grips, come to mind, come to terms, come to think of it. Come through. Come out in the wash. Come unstuck. Come what may.
Untranslatable words.
10. Saudade (Portuguese): An intense, constant longing for something that does not and probably cannot exist. A vague and constant desire for a lost love, or for an imaginary, impossible, never-to-be-experienced love.
That’s lovely…
Last weekend marked a significant date in the annals of the Oxford English Dictionary. 17 February 1872 was the date on which a Dr. William Chester Minor, American army surgeon, shot and killed George Merrett in the early hours of the morning on a gloomy Lambeth street. Not an auspicious date, granted, but Minor went on to become one of the most important volunteer contributors to the OED.
William Minor had worked as a surgeon during the American Civil War and his experiences on the battlefield led to paranoid delusions and an unstable mind. He had come to London to recuperate. Fate dealt its final blow to George Merrett during his daily walk to work at Lambeth’s Red Lion Brewery. Believing someone was trying to enter his rooms, Minor ran on to the street and shot Merrett, who happened to be walking away from him. Minor was found not guilty of the crime on reasons of insanity, but was given a life sentence at what was then called Broadmoor Asylum.
From his cell, Minor began to send in contributions to the OED. He was a well-educated man and an avid reader, with a collection of rare antiquarian books which Broadmoor allowed him to keep in a second cell. It’s possible he saw one of Murray’s appeals in a consignment of books sent to him by one of his booksellers, and the relationship began. Scouring this literature for useful quotations came naturally to him, and he worked in a very methodical manner. Upon reading a book, he would prepare a small pamphlet headed with the title of the book in question. He would then note interesting words or usages of words in an alphabetical list, followed by their relevant page number. He soon built up a collection of these word indexes, which allowed him to supply the dictionary editors with quotations that were very relevant to the words they were working on. One example of his word indexes can be seen here, in minute handwriting.
A Minor case: OED contributions from a prison cell | OxfordWords blog
Expletive Infixation
Expletive Infixation: inserting an expletive or profanity into a word for the purpose of intensification.
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language,
And next year’s words await another voice.
What we call the beginning is often the end.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
And next year’s words await another voice.
What we call the beginning is often the end.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
“
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T.S. Eliot (Inspired by shaktilover) |
I GOT AN AWESOME IDEA FOR A NEW SLANG WORD! :3
Okay so I got this awesome idea for a new slang word everyone could say and here it is……..CREEP-RIE.
Combines Creepy and Scary. It can be said as Creeprie or Creepry. :) Anything you find scary or creepy you can say that slang word. Totally cool huh?
Interesting….we shall see if it catches on!
A graph of words from other languages that describe certain emotions that don’t translate directly into English.
Protolinguist resources: Teaching yourself phonetics/phonology
Phonetics and phonology are areas of linguistics that study the sounds of language. Most people start by learning about how to describe these sounds (phonetics) and later move on to learning about sounds as a more abstract system (phonology). In this resource post, I provide a ton of links to learn more about phonetics/phonology and an overview of how to approach them.*
Animals may not be able to form words, but they can certainly communicate. Birds use songs and calls, and other animals use a combination of sounds and movements to communicate. Primates have an advanced system of communication that includes vocalization, hand gestures and body language. But even…
it should be illegal to put an s after the word “feel”
this linguist feel no linguistic innovation should be illegal.
what about a z because aɪ dʒəs kæ̃ hæ̃ndəl ɑl ðiz lɪŋˈɡwɪstɪk filz
love it!
