Category Archives: Words / Dictionaries

Annoying Internet words?

Posted on July 3, 2007 by Kevin

Do recent Internet terms bother you? They seem to bother some. The British polling organization Yougov (site) reportedly found that the most annoying Internet-related term is folksonomy. Yougov poll Other irritating terms from the Yougov poll were blogosphere, blog, netiquette, … Continue reading →

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MS Office to embrace regional Britishisms

Posted on May 1, 2007 by Kevin

Coming soon, from the people who brought you sickie (“sick day”; see my November post: MS Office embraces Australianisms): British regional dialect words for Microsoft Office 2007 products. You can offer your suggestions to judge Jonathan Robinson, curator of English … Continue reading →

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Win with Words Week, Vocabulary champs

Posted on April 11, 2007 by Kevin

America’s GSN: The Network for Games (site) will air its first-ever National Vocabulary Championship for high school students on Sunday, April 15, 2007, at 8 p.m./7 p.m. Central Time. Press Release Leading up to this, GSN is currently holding Win … Continue reading →

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‘The Pirate Primer’ book (Arrr!)

Posted on April 1, 2007 by Kevin

For all your high-seas skulduggery needs: The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues by George Choundas ISBN: 978-1-58297-489-7 $19.99, hardcover, 484p This book is not only a dictionary but a grammar as well with examples from historical … Continue reading →

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British Sign Language mobile dictionary

Posted on March 19, 2007 by Kevin

Now Brits who want to communicate with the signing Deaf can get British Sign Language (BSL) signs downloaded to their cellphones/mobile phones. The Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of Bristol (site) has developed a free BSL dictionary called … Continue reading →

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Happy Boar Year 2007!

Posted on February 19, 2007 by Kevin

Happy New Year! Today, February 18, 2007, is Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year: Traditional , simplified characters: 農曆新年 , 农历新年 Mandarin: Nong2li4 Xin1nian2 Cantonese: Nung4lik6 San1nin4 English: Chinese New Year (somewhat literally: “Lunar Calendar New Year,” literally: “Agricultural Calendar … Continue reading →

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Words into the dictionary

Posted on February 16, 2007 by Kevin

This Canadian article is another one of the many articles on teen textspeak/IM speak. However, this was interesting: [Katherine Barber, editor of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary] said the dictionary staff track all new words and if they find 15 different … Continue reading →

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U.S. and U.K. youth-slang quizzes

Posted on February 9, 2007 by Kevin

Here are two youth-slang quizzes you can try: a U.S. one and a U.K. one. On the U.S. one, I missed two out of twenty. On the U.K. one, I missed eight out of ten. I’m familiar with some of … Continue reading →

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Trade names: The Name Inspector site

Posted on February 4, 2007 by Kevin

Do you want to know what a linguist/name analyst thinks of brand names and company names? If so, head on over to The Name Inspector blog from linguist Christopher Johnson [via John Cook's Venture Blog]. Here’s part of the entry … Continue reading →

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2007 ‘banished’ words

Posted on January 29, 2007 by Kevin

Are there some English expressions you’re tired of hearing and reading? Do you wish you could do something about them? IS there something you can do about them? Probably not, unless you have a little control like an editor, a … Continue reading →

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