Category Archives: Words / Dictionaries

New words from Twitterers (including mine: ‘thelcome’)

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Kevin

People neologize (coin words) all the time, but you’ll never read or hear most of these mintings. (The official concrete noun of product for the verb mint is mintage(s); I prefer the sound of my novelly used mintings. And if … Continue reading →

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2010 Australian word of the year: googleganger

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Kevin

Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary announced their word of the year (WOTY) for 2010 yesterday: googleganger 'goohguhlganguh [American dialects end in "-ur" for many] noun a person with the same name as oneself, whose online references are mixed with one’s own among … Continue reading →

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Video: ‘Spot the Ambiguity’

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Kevin

[my video] Steven and Brandon have a misunderstanding. Can you spot the ambiguity? Link to video Closed-captioning (CC) and transcript available.

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Video: ‘The Time That’s Spruced With Pine’

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Kevin

[my video] After a short, original light-verse poem, hear about Christmas and Japanese New Year’s and learn some Japanese words related to New Year’s. Link to video Closed-captioning (CC) and transcript available.

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‘Dictionary of American Regional English’ nearly complete and tweets

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Kevin

If you’re interested in American dialect words, look no further than the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE). The nearly completed multi-volume dictionary (with Volume I, A–C released in 1985 and Volume V, Slab–Z due in 2011 [Fall 2010 newsletter]) … Continue reading →

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Resources for constructing alien languages

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Kevin

If you want to create a realistic science fiction/fantasy world, language helps a lot. Here are some conlang (constructed language) resources for creators and those interested. How to write the next great alien language (io9.com on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Elvish and … Continue reading →

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Adding some style to your Internet words

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Kevin

I just got the new The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World (about half of which is online for free). The first thing I wanted to check was the word … Continue reading →

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Wordnik Smartwords: E-books just got schooled

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Kevin

If you’re reading books as E-books on E-readers or iPads, chances are you’d like to exploit the new platform by making reading more interactive. E-readers already have built-in dictionaries, but now the Smartwords open standard from the Wordnik online dictionary … Continue reading →

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Buffy (and SNL) ‘much’ much?: Slang research with Hulu.com, Part 2

Posted on June 8, 2008 by Kevin

[EDIT (6/7/10): I broke this long post up into two posts.] This is Part 2 (Part 1) on finding early uses of American slang and colloquialisms from the television clips and episodes on Hulu‘s (language corpus of) shows from NBC … Continue reading →

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SNL NOT!: Slang research with Hulu.com, Part 1

Posted on June 8, 2008 by Kevin

Having trouble finding early uses of slang and colloquialisms? If you’re looking for instances of American (and possibly Canadian) ones, the television clips and episodes on Hulu from NBC Universal (NBC, USA Network, Bravo, Sci Fi, Sundance Channel, Oxygen) and … Continue reading →

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